Blessed Again in 2006

Well, 2006 is off to a great start! We began our year with the
discovery that we will be welcoming another member into our family!!! Yep, Jenny is pregnant with baby #4.

We are all thrilled and so thankful that God would choose to bless us with another child. We aren’t exactly sure at this point how far along Jenny is, but we’ll update you about that after she gets an ultrasound. We think the baby will be due around Sept. or Oct. Which will make this baby and Ben a little over 1 year apart (Ben was born last Aug). Speaking of Ben, he is growing so fast. He is now 6 months old and already rocking on his hands and knees like he’s going to crawl. He loves his older brothers and just lights up when they come talk to him and play with him. And Jake and Zack just love Ben to pieces and are very protective and responsible older brothers. They always watch him carefully while he’s playing on the floor, making sure he doesn’t find anything “unsafe.” What a special bunch of boys.

Katrina Relief Project

We thank those of you who prayed for Steven as he had the opportunity to help with a Katrina Relief Project in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for eight days in January. The trip went very well and the team was able to minister to three different families. It was overwhelming to see so much devastation, but such a blessing to be able to really help those families. Pray that God would work in their hearts as they each heard and saw the gospel through our words and deeds.

Thank You New Ministry Partners

We are very thankful for those who have joined us as prayer and financial partners. It has been encouraging as we have sensed a great interest from many of you about our ministry in Ethiopia. We look forward to sharing more in detail with those who have expressed interest in partnering with us. We are also connecting with various churches in the area to share our vision with them as well. It is a great blessing to see God’s hand at work in raising up those whom he has chosen to be a part of this vital work in Ethiopia. We can’t wait to see all that God is going to do!

Questions & Answers

We have received a variety of questions about our ministry and our support raising. So, we thought we’d answer a few of them for any others who have also been wondering:

Q: What will your life and ministry be like in Ethiopia?
A: We would love to share more in detail with you! If you are interested in knowing more, please contact us by email (menafam@hotmail.com) or by phone (909)988-2914. We’d enjoy having you over to our house or coming over to yours if it’s more convienent. In a nutshell, we will be living in the capitol city of Addis Ababa. We will rent a house somewhere in the city and have many of the basic things we are blessed with here (email, phone, refrigerator, bathroom, kitchen, electricity, running water, etc). As far as our ministry is concerned, our main focus will be on training pastors and missionaries to serve in the local churches and reach the unreached peoples of Ethiopia and beyond. This will take place primarily through teaching at the Berhane Wongel ("Light of the Gospel") Theological College. We will also seek to minister to people in the local church in various ways. One specific area that God has given us a great burden for is godly marriages and families. We will minister in this area and others as God gives opportunity.

Q: When should I start my monthly financial support? Now or when you leave for Ethiopia?
A: In order to get to Ethiopia we need to raise funds for ongoing monthly expenses while we're living there (e.g. living and ministry expenses) as well as for initial start-up costs (e.g. airfare, moving, housing set-up, language training, vehicle, etc.). When monthly support is started now it begins to build up into a general fund that may be used for start-up costs. This means that our start-up costs can potentially be taken care of by the time we have 100% of our monthly support required. In a nutshell, beginning your support now helps us to get to Ethiopia sooner rather than later.

Q: Now that you are having another baby, will you have to leave later than you had planned?
A: At this point, our plans have not changed. We are still hoping to leave in the beginning of 2007, which will make the baby around 5 or 6 months old. We will pray that everything goes well and we will be able to leave as planned.

Q: We are interested in supporting your ministry. How do we begin?
A; At the top left side of our webpage you will see a link that says “Click Here to Partner With Us.” When you click on this, you will be able to print out a response card, which you can fill out and send in to the Baptist General Conference, indicating your desire to partner with us in prayer/financial support. You can also contact us to receive a card in the mail or in person. See our contact information above.