Our hope is found in Christ alone!! Do you have hope?

Here in this first month of 2012, we look to what this new year will hold, and we are above all else so thankful for the hope we have through our Savior!  I’m sure you know that we are all in the same boat this year….not one of knows what is in store or what the Lord has for us to walk through.   As with every year, we do know that there will be mountains and valleys and that no matter what, we belong to Jesus and can trust that He will walk through every day with us and even carries us when we can no longer walk.

Our prayer is that you aren’t trying to walk through life on your own.  We are broken people in a broken world and if you don’t know Christ as your personal Savior we hope that in this new year you will come to realize the need for Him.

Romans 3:23-25

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

We have hope for eternity!  Nothing is better to focus on in times when the year before you is filled with many unknowns.  Unknowns have become a normality in our lives as we walk this journey to cross-cultural missions.  Realistically, we all live lives of unknowns, yet many people answer simple questions with set answers, assuming that most of them will not change in the near future.

In our case, for the last 21 months, our answers have been very open ended…..filled with waiting upon the Lord and His revealing His perfect plan for our lives.

While 2010 had us at 3 different addresses and on the beginning of this journey, we look to 2012 and what it may hold for us.  two constants right now are, we are living at the same address and raising support.

While our eternal hope is secure in Jesus…we would like to share with you some of our hopes for 2012!!

Would you pray with us that the Lord would bless these hopes in this new year?

2012 Hopes

(subject to change, based on the Lord’s will)

April 2012~ ~ Hope our monthly support will be at least 80%!  Praying for monthly partners  (individuals and churches)  to join what the Lord is doing in Mali and “go” to Africa through us and our ministry.

May 2012~ ~ Hope to purchase tickets!!  Hope to start the student visa process ( this is time sensitive and takes aprox. 3 months)

June-July 2012~ ~ Head to MTI (Mission Training International) for cross-cultural training (to prepare us and the kiddos for what’s ahead) and language acquisition courses (that will help us in learning new languages.)

August 2012~ ~ Pack, prepare, and leave for the field!!

September 2012~ ~ Begin our  language study in the upcoming 2012 class!

All of these “hopes” are dependant on our financial support reaching 100%.

We do have to reach full support to get the okay to leave for the field and 80% is obviously a huge step as we can start the process of setting a few details necessary to allow us to leave when we hope.

We have 2 questions for you…

1. Have you heard about how we got to this point??

2. Are you curious?

We would love to share about our ministry with you!!

Please email either of us:

matthew.whisler@sim.org

amy.whisler@sim.org

We would love to come share one on one with you or with a group! It is such an amazing blessing to see God’s hand at work around the world.

Would you pray about being apart of this journey and helping the many Malians who God is reaching through the hospital in Koutiala?

We are beyond thankful to know that God’s will is the best place to be!!

We are keeping on as we seek this safe place and are blessed to be walking this journey with our Savior, Jesus Christ!

May the Lord bless you and your hopes in 2012!!

The Whislers

Christ’s birth brought hope!  Sweet, sweet hope!!

Here are the lyrics to ” Mary Did You Know”, such a  beautiful song filled with so many truths from God’s Word.  It all started with a baby boy and yet was so much more than that….almost too wonderful and magnificent for us to completely understand.

As we near Christmas Day and all that entails, making memories and sharing our love with family and others, we pray that we focus on what Christ did while he walked here in this broken world.  His birth was a miraculous start to the chance for salvation only through Him.  As we look to eternity, we are filled with excitement to be in the presence of our King worshipping Him in the perfection of Heaven!  So thankful for Him…Lord of all creation….the perfect Lamb!!

“Mary Did You Know”

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Thanksgiving!  Oh how we have so much to be thankful for!  So much so, that as the Christmas season is upon us, our hearts are heavy that we are need of nothing and yet so many among the nations are quite simply in need.  Needing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Thanks to God and His allowing us to be a part of His plan, gifts can be given throughout the year to make a change in the lives of those who need hope!

As we see God’s hand providing growth in our support team, our hearts are filled to the brim with thanks for those who have answered His call on their lives to “go and serve” through us and our ministry.

To our faithful supporters…there are no words to truly express our deep thanks and gratitude for your helping us answer the call to share the love of Christ in Mali!  You will be helping children and many others like this little one….

A sweet baby girl whose life was in desperate need...

After her care at the hospital, her life is full of hope!

Through treatment at the hospital in Koutiala, her life was spared and we pray that this blessing is something the Lord will use in her and her family’s lives to bring them to Himself.

As Thanksgiving Day comes in the States, so does the start of the “Christmas Season”…the time of year when we intentionally think of others and the gift that will bring a bright smile to their face and will show them our love.  A love that was exemplified perfectly by our Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father who sent us this amazing gift.

We can break the word into two parts…. thanks and giving….contemplating what we are thankful for, how blessed we are, and what we can give to make others know how much we love them.  As Christ’s birth is soon to be honored, our prayer is that we each would be focused on sharing the love of Christ and the smile we can bring to someone as they recieve true hope through a relationship with Christ.

We praise God for our growing team and that our monthly supporters have brought us to 40% and our one-time need is at 35%!!

Reaching 100% will allow us to bring the love and hope of Christ to the people of Mali.  Would you join us in praying our support team would continue to grow and that we could fulfill Christ’s commission:

Matthew 28: 18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

May the real reason for the season fill your heart with much peace and joy!!

What an exciting thing to have our home church’s Women’s Ministry hosting a Night of Missions this Thursday!! I (Amy) am honored that they have asked me to share about our ministry.  If you are interested in hearing about the ministry the Lord is working through in West Africa please come for a fun and enlightening evening!  The Lord is at work everywhere and we praise Him for it!!  This will be an exciting time to hear about His work in not only Mali, but also in South America, the Phillippines, and right hear in Springfield!

Please let us know if you would like more information!! Ladies, we would love to have you come to this event!!

While we feel beyond blessed to be experiencing the love parents feel for their children, our hearts ache for those who have not been able to care for their babies.  Whether it’s just the lack of funds as they live among a third culture community or even death that has left their child without a mother, we see these children just as God does.  They are precious in His sight and precious in our sight as well.

We praise God for the many lives He has saved physically and spiritually in Koutiala through the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.  We are excited to meet and share the love of Christ with the children and their families that the Lord will bring into our lives in Koutiala and out in the villages and we are ready to answer His call on our lives!

The Lord is asking us to go and be a part of the team on the ground in Mali and He is giving you the chance to be a part of His miracles happening there too!!  You may wander how you can have a part in seeing Christ change the life of kids, just like these, and their families?

You can say  “yes” to be a part of this change!!

We are in need of team members who want to join what the Lord is doing in Mali through our minstry!!

If these children, God’s sweet children, are precious in your sight, would you please take the time to pray about joining us through a monthly gift?

God so graciously allows each of us to be a part of His plan and we find such peace in knowing that He will continue to provide for us as we continue following Him on this journey.

We are excited to see our support coming in! With those who have joined with a monthly pledge, we are at 39% and our one-time need is now at 30%. We are praising God for His work among our support team and His leadings for its growth!  We are so very thankful for all those who have answered His call to join our team and what He is doing in Mali!

Please be praying for us as we move forward on this journey. Prayers for us to be fully supported and able to leave for the field would bless us greatly!!

October 1,2011….It was offical! The much anticipated wedding took place.  Our last sibling was married and both of our parents now each have 3 sons and 3 daughters!! Kinda exciting! We were honored that our 3 kiddos were included in the day as well as how they incooperated the time of blessing as Matthew and Ryan, on behalf of us 4 older siblings, prayed a prayer of blessing for their baby brother and his new wife!!

Our babies seemed so grown up as they took their duties of ring bearers and the flower girl in their Uncle Mike’s wedding very seriously.  They also enjoyed being all dressed up too!

And we are blessed to have a new sister and aunt in Megan!! We are so thankful for the wonderful spiritual heritage we have had in so many people in our family. What a precious addition Meg is and we are excited about the future with her in our family!

It was such a beautiful day as Mike and Meg joined in the covenant of marriage and we were beyond blessed to witness the Spirit filled ceremony that was truly honoring to our Lord!! What wonderful memories! <3

With our fall schedule in full swing, many new things have begun to happen and of course the kiddos are forever growing up before our eyes. This weekend they were ring bearers and the flower girl in Matthew’s brother’s wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding that honored God in so many ways.  We were so excited to see them join into that covenant  and we were beyond pleased with how well all 3 of the kids did. (More on that in the next post.)

At times we stop and say..”How are they so big…and  how is our 3rd child already a “cubbie”..” and yet, the excitement of it all brings a smile not only to her face, but to ours as well!

Here is Bella on night #2 of Awana cubbies so excited to finally be joining her brothers in wearing a vest and memorizing Bible verses to fill the spots on it with patches.

This too is before night #2 and Addikin ready to complete his Flight 3:16 to receive his book and vest. He, being in Kindergarten now, is a Sparky! He amazed us at how high Awana sparks was on his list of things he loves and has done so awesome with his new book!

A little fake smile at the end of the night, but he recited his favorite verse John 3:16 and came home wearing his new red vest!!

This was an afternoon where I found our sweet girl playing with baby Lucy…feeding her to be exact and again it made my heart smile to see her play out the role of Mommy so tenderly.  It is amazing to see at just 3 years old the servants heart that God has given her.  She has such a beautiful spirit and we are so thankful for the sweetness she brings to our family.

And to start this exciting week we have celebrated Brecks birthday with both sides of our family a little early…the big day isn’t until this Saturday. And it is unreal to say that he is already going to be 8..seriously, 8 years?? Where did the time go?  It has been so neat to think back of all the years before and how he has grown and matured. While I know he has been in the “boy” stage and not the “little guy” stage for a while, it hits me when he reads his own birthday cards and gets gifts that any young man would be pleased to have.  Not to say that there isn’t the desire to be a boy and play in his life, but our firsborn still is a boy going on twenty something.  While he can give Mommy a run for her money as he is constantly  thinking of what he can build next, I am thankful that he is very mechanically inclined and driven.  Some days I just look at them and wander what the Lord has planned for them.  It is so neat to see their unique qualities and know that He made them that way for His use in His plan.

So here’s to an exciting week as we celebrate another year the Lord has given us with one of His sweet kiddos!

Well, the last couple weeks have been yet another transition phase for our family….or the continuation of one big one, I guess.

Like most of the schools in our area, we started our school year on Wednesday, September 24th for the 2011-2012 school year.

Our newest adventure that has come with answering the Lord’s call on our lives…..homeschooling!

We love that we can blend their academics with our spiritual believes and for the biblical influence in their lives.

It is such a neat thing to see all the info their little sponge like minds have been absorbing in their previous school years.  Really amazing to also  see how their different learning styles and personalities shine through as they move along to new things!

Yesterday was such a fun day filled with new things as well!  We took our first trip to the library this school year!!  Miss Bella was so proud to get her very own library card……When did our baby get big enough to be doing everything her brothers do???   It is bittersweet to see her growing up, but  wonderful to experience at the same time.   She has such a sweet spirit!

As you can see, books chosen were very fitting!!  Super heros, Star Wars, and an Arthur book about his little sister D.W.  They were so excited to check out their own pile of books.  Reading the stories either by themselves or with Mommy’s help will be so great as well!

As some already know, our kiddos “dress the part” of whatever they are “into” that day……well, here is proof!   After watching a kid movie about a boy who pretended to be a Private Investigator, both boys searched for outfits they could play in as they pretended themselves.  So here is what they came up with and I had to capture it ;)

And here is a glimpse into “day in the life of” Bella.  She is one of those little girls who, with her whole being, loves playing “Mommy”.  It is one of the most precious memories that I pray I will never forget.  This is her baby, Rosie.  She has her bed and little bag with all her neccessities. Definitely one of the most loved baby dolls I have ever seen….she goes with us everywhere and what a blessing it is to see into the heart and mind of our sweet girl as she uses her lovely imagination!

Lord, please help us to catch all these sweet memories and hold them in our hearts forever as we enjoy these 3 precious children you have blessed us with!

Woohoo!!!   Well, here we are on the last Monday of our summer as school starts Wednesday!    We are excited and anticipating what this year will be like for a second grader, Kindergartner, and preschooler as we begin to homeschool.    It has been so fun getting everything ready and we all are so excited to get started!   There have been so many peices to this puzzle of answering the Lord’s call on our lives that He has put into place.   School for the 2011-2012 year being one of them.  We are so thankful for His guidance and the peace we have about this change.  So stay tuned!!

We were beyond blessed to worship with fellow believers at Bethel Baptist in Springfield this morning!   Hearts filled to the brim as the Spirit was at work!!  Seeing and hearing Bella sing “Jesus loves Me” {one of the praise songs this morning} will forever be in our hearts and minds.   Oh, and how wonderful to hear the best version of  “This Little Light of Mine”  as the special music; sung by 4 singers along with 3 on guitar and one of the best banjo pickin’ players we’ve ever heard {clearly blessed with a God-given talent}.   What a great reminder that we are, as believers, to shine the light we have in us.  We are so thankful for the ministries at Bethel and those who have even been a part of our kids lives through Kids Club and VBS.   Thank You Bethel for letting us share about our ministry today and for the way you ministered to us today and throughout the year as well!!

God’s Blessings,

The Whislers

While we are parents of 3 young children, missionaries raising support, and running a construction business {until the Lord’s timing calls for that to end}, we rarely go and do things spur of the moment, just the two of us.   Well, how exciting it was to be spontaneous and spend a Monday night together with hundreds of others worshipping our Lord at a David Crowder Band concert!!   While their song “How He Loves” is one of our all time favorite it also pulls at our heartsrings as it was a song we listened to during the March 2010 trip to Mali.   It is amazing how full your heart can feel and how tears can come as you connect with our Lord through even music.   We had a great few hours together and enjoyed singing along with their great songs and to many {older} favorites as well…”Amazing Grace”…”I Saw the Light”…&..”I’ll fly away”{with some awesome banjo pickin’}….such a fun time of worship!    We love how the David Crowder Band glorifies God through the songs they have written and the truth they speak!   Such fun memories we will never forget =)

Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is your name in all the earth,

Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of

Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You

have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!

You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

all sheep and oxen, and also the beast of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the seas,

Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Love, love, love this!   This always brings the song to mind first heard during childhood.   What a powerful Psalm!  How it fills me up to be reminded that despite it all, {all that may overwhelm us in our days here on earth} Our Lord, the One who created us, is majestic and Lord over all!

As we have experienced so much of the Lord’s mercy and grace here on earth we stand in awe that His hand is upon all we see and experience.   From the infant nursing babes, to the moon, stars, animals, people, and most of all the gift of salvation offered through Christ. We see and are constantly reminded of His majesty!

Just beautiful!

Just seeing a waterfall is a reminder of how awesome His work is!  Water droplets flowing together creating such beauty.  I want to always stop and appreciate all that His hand is upon.

We were very blessed to get to spend a week in the beauty of the Lord’s creation among the mountains on Norris Lake.   Reflecting on the pictures I saw the Lord’s majesty in it all.   From the mountains, to the lake, to the birds of the air and the fish in the water, to our 3 sweet babies who He has blessed us with.   All miraculous things showing us His majesty!!

Love how this shows so much of His creation! Beautiful mountains, blue cloud filled skies, water and the kiddos! We are blessed!! {Thank you Papaw and Mamaw for including us in your trip!}

While on our trip we also got to celebrate the blessing of each other and the past 9 years of marriage!   We are both so thankful for our chance to be best friends for so many years now and that the Lord is using each of us in the other ones life to make us more like Christ.

Best friends excited for what the Lord has in store!

Our creator and Lord is majestic in all the earth and we are so thankful He reigns!  As the song says, we want to magnify and praise His name for He is the God Almighty!!

As we come to the end of June we want to share with you our 2 main prayer request.

There are 2 things we need before we can make the transition to cross cultural service.

* We are in need of 400 prayer partners!

We are excited to be able to pray for you as well as have a huge prayer force praying with us as we seek to answer the Lord’s call on our lives!

If you would like to join us as a prayer partner please email us @ matthew.whisler@sim.org

Thanks so much to all those who have already joined us in this way!

* We are in need of financial partners to join what the Lord is doing in Mali through our ministry!

As SIM missionaries we need to raise 100% of our support to serve cross culturally.

Would you prayerfully consider joining us?

There are two ways to join us as financial partners to meet the need:

~ through becoming a monthly supporter

(enables us to continue in active ministry on the field)

~ through a one time gift

(includes passage, language, moving/settling, etc. )

We are very excited to share that we are at 25% for our monthly needs!!

We are so thankful for those who have answered the Lord’s call on their lives to partner with us!

Those who feel led to join us monthly have 2 options.

*  Those who join us with monthly giving now are also helping to meet our one time need! The gifts given each month before we head to the field are building up in our  SIM account and will begin meeting our one time need as well!!

*Those who feel led to join us as monthly giving partners can also pledge to give a set amount once we leave the States.

If you would like to join us in this way just email us @ matthew.whisler@sim.org with how much you feel led to pledge and when you would like to start giving.

Click box for easy online giving  (choice for one time or monthly at checkout)

To mail a check, include a note with our names and missionary #036075  and mail it to:

SIMUSA – P.O. Box 7900  – Charlotte, N.C. 28241 – (800)-521-6449

All gifts are tax-deductible.

Our one time need is at almost 3%.  While it seems like there is so far to go, we know that as the Spirit moves those to join us this too will be met.

Would you join us in praying that the Spirit would move and those the Lord wants to partner with us would be led to do so?

We so greatly want you to know that we are excited what the Lord is doing in Mali to further His kingdom!   How awesome it is He is using His servants to meet the human need as way to connect to the Malians relationally.   This allows the door to be opened to share about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who meets the greatest need…the need for salvation!

We are so thankful for the love, encoragement, and prayers we have already recieved from so many!  Thank you!!   And we are so thankful that the Lord is with us always and that He is mighty to save!

Zephaniah 3:17  The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.

In His Grip,

Matthew, Amy, and the kiddos

Wanted to share lots of pics from a very fun thing the kiddos got to do!  It’s one of those “good memories from childhood” that Matthew has.

They got to help plant their Papaw and Mamaw’s garden and each loved the experience!!

What can be learned from this??  There are two lessons that struck us as we saw their tasks at hand.

This is such a wonderful way for them to see God’s creation and His hand at work!!

Even the pic of wildflowers shows the beauty of what He does.  As they watch these little seeds they asked God to be with grow, they will see the beauty of His land and the miracle of growth.

While we see it everyday around us in the landscape and in our children, we often times don’t slow down enough to see how truly amazing His work is.   Our Lord who is so gracious to us is the master of all growth we see.

This is also a wonderful way for them to see our part in the growth of Christ’s Kingdom!

We plant seeds in the lives of those we tell about Jesus, just as we plant seeds in the dirt.   We plant the seeds and pray for growth, but see that spiritual growth comes through the work of the Spirit.

We are so thankful for all those who serve in the children’s ministries that our own kids have been a part of as they seek to plant spiritual seeds in their lives!

It is again time for them to attend their Papaw and Mamaw’s VBS and this year all 3 of them are getting to go!!

They ar 3 “Panda Bears” (notice the ears) as the theme is “Pandamania”! We are excited for them to get to be a part of this fun week and of course…we love the smiles it brings!!

Happy Wednesday!

the 5w’s

James 4:14-15   Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears a little while then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, ” If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that”.

One of the most often asked questions these days are…. 1.) “What is your plan? ”   2.) “When will you leave??”

To which we reply…“Lord willing we hope to start language study in France January 2012 and can leave when we are fully supported.”

You see, we know that the Lord’s will for our life is the best place for us.  We have lived for over a year now with more unanswered questions than answered ones, yet we have had such a peace.  Following His will is filled with a peace that surpasses all understanding and we are so thankful for this blesing of reassurance!  As time has moved so have answers come.  Slowly we have seen His will for our live come into focus as we have taken each step and seen each door open before us.  Again, we are honored to be called to stand at each door and honored to try our best to glorify Him through all He has for us.

Isaiah 48 :17 I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

We know and believe that our God is mighty to save!  He is mighty in all ways…and we know that every detail that it takes to get to the field is in His mighty hands.

One of these details we took before the Lord many months ago.   We were seeking what He had planned for our children while we will be in a year of required language study. We felt it best to search out a Christian nanny who would homeschool/care for the kiddos while we were in class.   So, we took our tentative plan before the Lord and let Him lead us. We sat back and waited to see if this was what He had planned for our family.

Of course, looking back you see the little ways the Lord worked out details/ emails or conversations and began to lay this need on other people’s hearts.  In the meantime we would pray together that the Lord would make it clear who He had to meet this need if it was indeed in His will for this to happen.  What a wonderful thing.  Just to take a prayer request before the Lord with no demanding I need to know this by tomorrow type of pressure and leave it in His hands.  For months we have waited not knowing when or who He would bring into our lives to fill this ministry position, but knowing His sovereignty would be shown.

Last Monday we got to talk and pray with an answer to our prayers!  “Miss Gwen” came to hear what our specific needs will be and got a chance to meet the kids.  We are excited to see that the Lord has brought us a very sweet Christian girl who feels the Lord is leading her into this year of ministry as our nanny! We are so thankful for this answered prayer!

*** We would love for you to praise God with us as He has even gone above and beyond what we ever expected!! ***

Praises:

~Our nanny comes from a large family…a blessing that she is used to kiddos!

~She was homeschooled herself

~She has traveled abroad and is adventuresome

~She reads and speaks French fluently!   We never expected this…Isn’t God just Awesome!

1Chronicles  5:20 He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him.

Just as we entrusted this specific request to our Lord,  we are trusting in Him to provide the prayer and financial partners we need to enable us to answer His call on our lives!  We have faith that His will is righteous and that He will do this!!

If you would like to join us as a prayer partner and would lift these two needs before the Lord please email us at matthew.whisler@sim.org

Proverbs 1:5  “Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance.”

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..”

With the gifts the Lord has given us in our children we also see that He has given us another way that He speaks to us…through the lives of our 3 little buglets.

As we have come to the end of the school year we look back and realize how much each of our kiddos have grown and developed. To see life through the eyes and mind of a child, from an adult perspective, is amazing! Many times amazed at what they, as little sponges, have absorbed. As children of God, we hope to have these wonderful qualities we see in our children…uncontrollable curiosity and the drive to learn. As theses Proverbs speak of learning and knowledge we also see two key things. Listening and discerning. The Lord will guide and teach us when we humbly and intentionally seek to hear what He is trying to teach us. We thank the Lord that through a relationship with Jesus we have received the chance to hear the Holy Spirit and that we can learn throughout our lives from our Creator!

So this weeks pics are a variety of learning moments….

Here is B learning to knit after begging Grandma to teach him. I think he actually saw Arthur (from the cartoon) learn it from his Grandma. As an extremely driven child, when he gets an idea in his head he will not set it aside until he has at least tried it. To our surprise he had a great amount of patience and is hoping to finish his first knitting project, a scarf, before this next winter.

Here he is again after mastering another life skill which will come in handy even more as he grows into a young man. The need to wear a tie once a week for school grew into his desire to be able to tie the windsor knot by himself. At the age of 7 he has mastered it. While Daddy is a great teacher, Mommy spent many a Thursday morning tying his tie while simultaneously watching a “how to” video on you-tube. This may have added to B’s drive to tie it himself ;)

Here is our sweet girl getting to paint when we visited Addikin at preschool on his Birthday! She is very excited to get to do anything her brothers do! She is showing us, after 2 boys, how calm a 3 year old girl is. Painting is definitely less stressful when it is done calmly :)

Thought this pic showed a glimpse into the mind of a 3 year old. They all get to the stage of playing with some order or precision and seeing her line things up at this stage is quite entertaining!

Again, we see the difference of boys to girls as we saw her coloring outside on this sunny spring day.  To our surprise, she calmly laid and colored “in the lines”…this lead to mixed feelings of being proud of her progress and realizing our baby girl is growing up!

Finally we have pics from last night’s graduation at Christian Promise Preschool! This exciting event solidified that our “Punkmeister” is moving right along in his life long learning process.

From letters, their sounds, and blending them for words to many fun art projects. From Bible stories and being apart of missions locally and abroad our little man’s mind and heart have been filled with a wealth of knowledge. We thank God for the four amazing teachers who have been a part of our lives the last 3 school years and have been a part of our children’s learning experience.

Having others who seek to teach children academically and most importantly about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are a huge blessing to us and those in our community! Thank you Christian Promise Preschool for the love and support you have given us since Fall of 2008..we love you guys!!

We again go back to the Proverbs and are so thankful that the Lord wants us to receive knowledge and we are daily reminded that learning is an amazingly natural part of life!

Here’s to our continued learning!

In His Grip,

the  5W’s

So we are at the end of a very busy week!! As another step in this process we headed to Wheaton, IL for a required Prefield Education Seminar. Only after literally having to write out the 4 day schedule for our kids as they were graciously cared for by 10 different people which included the drop off and pick up school schedule for a preschooler and a 1st grader! It was quite an adventure for all involved and we are sure there were memories made that are unforgettable!

Meanwhile, we learned of all the education options that could at some point become a reality for our own MK’s. We also got to reconnect with some fellow SIMers as well as meet other missionaries headed down this path. It was great to get info on learning styles and many things that will help us as we decide all the details that will become our education plan. We are excited to keep learning how each of our kids tick and being able to embrace their individuality ♥

To pass the time on our drive home we tried to capture a memory for ourselves as we saw all the windmills among the fields. A shot from the passengers seat while driving down the highway turned out better than expected =)

And we arrived home just in time to grab the video camera and head to the Tumbling Program. At the preschool we met our kiddos, finally on their last leg of switches in their schedule. Oh how wonderful it was to see their sweet faces and get some much needed love in as we hugged them tight and were thankful for another day the Lord had given us with these precious gifts! See some shots from the program…it was so cute! Our normally non-performer son had tons of energy as a result of an unplanned nap which made for an exciting show from a 5 year old!

I think this little guy is finally coming out of his shell…he did awesome!!

So here’s to an unplanned weekend and time together as a family after an unusually “crazy” week! =)

Psalm 105:4 “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

We have all heard the person with the camera’s request….”Everyone, look at me”.  And yet, this does not usually happen when a young family is trying to capture a special moment in time. This of course is seen here in our latest attempt to get a snapshot of our family on Mother’s Day.

Mother's Day 2011

As we pondered this ongoing “dilemma” we began to think of it from God’s perspective. How often is He saying, “Everyone, look at me” and yet, like children, we do not look or want to stop moving for even a second to hear the calling voice? We are living in a busy world and yet as believers in Jesus we have something special, something amazing! We have the gift of the Holy Spirit and have the privilege of being able to hear what the Lord’s will is for us. We are called to take up our cross daily, and also love others…if we can be still enough to listen we will hear what He is asking us to do {in this moment}.

As we have begun to raise support to answer the Lord’s call on our lives to serve Him in Africa, we are thankful for His faithfulness and love. By the Lord’s grace, we hope to be supported at 100% to start the cross cultural part of this calling through language study in France this upcoming January. We are excited to see who the Lord will call to join alongside of us and so thankful He is walking with us through this and holding us in His righteous right hand. We seek to honor the Lord in all we do as we serve Him and others {in this moment} no matter where we live. Seeking to honor him we pray that we will be still enough to never lose focus of Him. We know until we are in glory with Him, He will at times have to remind us to focus, but our hope is that as we live this life He has blessed us with, He will see that little by little we are “getting it”. That we are facing Him and focusing only on Him as the circumstances of life are just blurred in our peripheral vision. So on we go {in this moment}.

Building for Christ!

So, you know who we are building for, but what are we building??  In a literal sense, Matthew will be using his talents as a builder to fill the need for a construction and maintenance manager in Koutiala, Mali at the Hospital for Women and Children. As we answer God’s call on our lives to serve Him cross culturally, we will most importantly be building relationships! We plan to build relationships with the Malian people as we extend Christ’s love to them. We pray that Christ would be seen in all our relationships as we walk through this journey!

God has given us the gift of relationships and people. Every person He allows to enter our lives, or even cross our paths, are a part of His sovereign plan for each one of us.We are called as followers of Jesus Christ to be ambassadors for Him. To share about who He is, what He has done, and how His death has paid the price for our sins. We can share this with whom we build these relationships.

Relationships are such an important part of our spiritual walk and our growth as we strive for Christ-likeness. Our hope is that we can walk through this life slow enough, and so deeply connected to Him, that we don’t miss out on these blessings!  As we seek to answer His call on our lives, we are dependent on relationships and the support of those around us. We are so thankful for the amazing relationships we have already been blessed with and are very excited at the chance to build new ones as the Lord moves the hearts of those He has for our support team. We cannot answer this call on our own! The Lord calls all of us to serve Him in some way. Some He calls to go and some He calls to help send. We ask that you would prayerfully consider being one of those who helps to send by joining our prayer and financial support team. May God bless you and keep you as you serve Him and build relationships with those He brings into your life! We are the Whisler’s and we are building for Christ!

Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”