Less than 3 months to go…….Yes when I hear that I want to jump up and down with excitement but am also a little nervous for the new journey that lies ahead. However, as we have been preparing and getting things ready to go, we have seen that God has been there and will continue to be there to provide for us along the way. We are very thankful for everyone that He has placed in our lives over the past six months to help us prepare for Malawi. We are grateful to have such a loving, supportive group of family and friends.
Last week, I took my pediatric boards, which is a big relief. Actually, my wife is probably just as happy, if not happier, that they are over because now we can move on with life and continue to prepare to make the move. Thank you for all of your prayers over the past several weeks.
Over the past several weeks, one of our goals was to share our story and preparation to serve in Malawi with the children and teens at our church. The first week, we visited the teens, and we were able to share our faith stories and how God had called us to Malawi. They are really supportive and encouraging, and we look forward to involving the teens more while we are in Malawi. As a youth group, they have commit to give $150 a month to our financial needs. It is awesome to see such selflessness from this passionate generation.
Over the weeks that followed, we visited the other kids, ages 3 through elementary school. This was a lot of fun. We actually “dressed up” as doctors in our white coats and scrubs and brought all of our doctor equipment for them to see and play with. They were all so excited, energetic, and eager to learn about us going to serve in Malawi. We were amazed at their hearts and how concerned they all were for all the “sick kids in Malawi”. Many of them wanted to know what they could do to help.
We did a craft activity of making collection containers, thanks to our awesome friends The Millers. Many in the group began to collect change to help support us, and one kid even went home from church and immediately dumped his whole piggybank of change into his collection container. We also hear stories of other children including us in their nightly prayers before bed, which is amazing and very encouraging.
Another special event was a birthday party that we went to for The Miller Family Men. The Dad, Nate, and two sons, Lowell and Thad had a joint birthday party at our church. They invited their friends to come to a BBQ and to play wiffle ball. They chose Malawi as their B-day party theme. They even asked for people to donate to our support fund instead of bringing presents for them. This was so humbling for us, being such a selfless thing for anyone to do but even more for children. However they took this to the next level. Lowell and Thad 
each had a team for the game and made special t-shirts. They even had team names that were animals from Malawi, the Leopards vs Tiger Fish. They also had a cake with the Malawi flag. It was an amazing day and truly a lot of fun for everyone, including the adults. I was even a little sore the day after the game. We are grateful for everyone who came out to the party and are thankful for the entire Miller Family and their continued support.
We are amazed at how God continues to provide financial support. About a week and a half ago, we met our monthly recurring goal of $3,000, including current gifts and commitments. We are so thankful to all of our family, friends, and Clear Lake Church Family for helping to support us. This is a huge encouragement to us and meeting this monthly goal provides a lot of relief and lets us focus on preparing for the physical move to Malawi and all that entails. We are also continuing to increase our initial support to help with a vehicle purchase and travel expenses/airfare. We are hoping to meet this goal soon to purchase a vehicle and book our airfare to Malawi. We are planning on leaving for Malawi on January 7th.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Miller Family Birthday
