Ava's 3rd Birthday Bash!

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since arriving in Washington, but we are certainly enjoying it. We spent the first week getting things set up in our new apartment. The second week, I (Tony) did a lot of studying for an Algebra final exam. (got an A in the class though. yee-haw.) And then this past week, I have been getting ready for summer semester and putting together a photography website, in hopes of doing more of that while going through college.

But on June 4th, Ava turned 3! It was a great day with friends and family.

She got to start the morning with Birthday Breakfast! Always a fun tradition. We made her two favorite breakfast foods at the moment - blueberry pancakes and bacon! Madelyn and Ava even wore their spectacular birthday hats.

Teressa is putting the final touches on Ava's birthday cake. And as good as it looks, it tasted even better. Let me know if you want a piece and I'll see if I can mail you some.

Madelyn's posture. Like a teenager. Whats a parent to do...

Birthday Birthday Birthday!
3 seems to be the first year that she REALLY knows exactly what is going on.
The next day she wanted to know where everyone was and what happened to the party?

Madelyn with her Aunt Megan

Granddad sent Ava a baseball mitt and ball. She was SO excited and we have been playing with it this week. She can't seem to grasp the fact that you throw with your hand and catch with the glove. She wants to do everything with the glove... catch, throw, wipe her nose, swat the bug, etc...

Can't believe my little girl is 3. Wow.

Cheese.

Papa Jim with Baby Isabelle

Everyone went about a mile or two down the road to what has become one of our favorite locations in Washington. It's called the Cider Mill and Ava and Madelyn love it. They serve hot apple cider, fresh warm apple fritters and have lots of animals that you can feed.

The kids enjoyed feeding the goats. They have an area where you can put feed in the bucket and then pull the string which takes it to the top of the platform. The goats hear it and run up the bridge to eat out of the bucket. But if you happen to be standing directly underneath of them as they ravenously devour the feed... let's just say that you might get a free bath. I won't mention who may or may not have gotten one, out of love for my spouse.

Those baseball skills are coming in handy already with feeding chickens.

Madelyn had a good seat for each animal.

This is Teressa's sister Megan and her husband John. They are rocking one of those apple fritters that I was telling you about. Seriously. I can't stress this enough. They are quite amazing.

Grandma (a.k.a. Manga) showing Madelyn the goats. It was funny to watch her. She was quite alarmed.

Ava's cousin Daniel. He was feeding the goats grass and laughing at them.
Notice the shirt. Stompasaurus. I like it.

Ava had the "ready" stance for this goat. He was a little zaney and she was ready to dart at any moment.

It was so cute to watch Ava as we sang Happy Birthday to her.
The cake, by the way, was made to order. Teressa asked Ava a little while back what color cake she wanted, what kind of frosting, what flavors, etc... and then she made it. Ava also has a wooden cake that she plays with in her toy kitchen everyday and Teressa wanted to make it look like that. Fun times.

I always forget that kids will follow the patterns of their parents.
I guess I should eat neater from now on.

Our Last Week at Gospel for Asia

It has been quite an emotional couple of weeks as we finish up this season of life and prepare for the next one. Tonight was our last Tuesday night prayer meeting as a staff family and Friday is my last day on staff. We have served here in Texas as home team missionaries with Gospel for Asia for the past 8 years, but the Lord has made it clear that we are to enter a different adventure in life. Some of you may not have read our newsletter that we sent out, so I thought I would share some excerpts with you.



For nearly 8 years we have been serving at Gospel for Asia and now the Lord has made it clear that He is moving us into a different season. The decision to conclude our time here was a difficult one and one that we took many months to fast, pray and wrestle over. We love GFA and are so excited at what the Lord is doing through this ministry. And not only is the ministry such a part of who we are, it has been part of the foundation of our family - we met here, got married and had our two girls here. And for the past 8 years, we have grown very close with our “family” here at GFA whom we love and respect very much.

However, the Lord began to speak to both of our hearts and we knew that our time here was coming to a close. We didn’t know where we would be going or what we would be doing, but as the months passed the Lord began to share some of those details with us.

Over the last few months, we felt more and more strongly that the Lord was calling us to leave soon. But the actual decision to follow the Lord’s leading and take this first step was a difficult one. One night, as Tony was sitting in our weekly prayer meeting, he began to tell the Lord, “I just can’t leave here. I love being here at the ministry. Why would we move on?” The Lord spoke softly and clearly to his heart, “If you won’t go to the next season, that’s okay, you can stay. But you will be working in your own strength and it will all be as wood, hay and stubble. Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

But even after we felt confident of the Lord's leading and His future plans for us we found ourselves hesitating to actually take that first step of faith. Then one morning while praying and reading his Bible Tony came across the verse in Matthew 4, where Jesus calls two future disciples to stop what they are doing and follow Him. After He calls them, they “immediately dropped their nets and followed Him.” That was confirmation that we needed to stop delaying and that the time for us to leave was now.

The Lord has led Tony to start attending college and pursue an education in the medical field. Tony realized that he has spent many years ministering to people’s spiritual needs, but he will now also be learning how to serve their physical needs. He is excited to be around broken and hurting people and to see how the Lord may want to use medical skills for His glory in the future. And after more prayer, we decided to move to Olympia, Washington, to attend school and are excited to see our family and friends there.

Knowing that selling our house would be the largest determiner for when our moving date would be, we met with the Realtors (a Christian couple) who had helped us buy our house, and they surprised us by offering to buy our house themselves because they were looking for a rental property! In the current economy, we had no idea how long it might take us to sell our house and to see the Lord work out the sale of our home like that was nothing short of a miracle in our minds. As soon as we decided to go ahead and sell the house, everything else started falling into place very rapidly and we are now planning to move at the end of May.

Tony talked with the leaders at GFA and they lovingly agreed that we should go and continue to follow the Lord’s plan for our family. It is such an extraordinary time in our lives. On one hand we are so saddened to leave our friends that we’ve known all these years and the ministry that is so dear to our hearts. On the other hand, we can’t stop smiling, because we are so excited to live by faith and follow Jesus on this new adventure as a family. We are literally crying one minute and giddy the next.

On May 23rd, Teressa, Ava and Madelyn will be flying up to Washington (along with the assistance of Teressa’s lifelong friend Jaime, who just “happened” to be able to take time off that week to help with the final packing and the flight). Three days later, Teressa’s dad Jim will arrive in Texas (he also just “happened” to have time off that same week. The Lord has been so evident in even the tiniest details) and help Tony drive the moving truck and our van to Washington.

8 YEARS OF MAKING DISCIPLES!

We can’t possibly thank you enough for standing with us, praying, and supporting us through these years. You have made it possible for us to be missionaries here with Gospel for Asia and you will be partakers in the eternal rewards when you arrive home, in Heaven. Isn’t it exciting to know that the treasures we have stored up in Heaven can never be damaged, lost or lose their value. They are so different from the investment philosophies here on earth. Christ takes the time, prayers, passion, finances and love that we invest and he brings forth tremendous fruit that will last for eternity.

We are so happy to reflect on our years here and on what Jesus has done throughout Asia. Teressa was blessed to be one of Brother KP’s assistants for nearly 5 years before Ava was born. Tony helped in GFA’s website department for his first year, while working to help start our 1-year-College-Internship here. He also worked on a project called Max Missions, where he helped hundreds of families in America raise funds to fully support a national missionary family in Asia. He then worked as the East Coast Volunteer Manager for a few years and trained dozens of GFA Volunteers to share the ministry with the Churches and Christians in their community. For the past few years, he has been serving in the Church Relations Department and sharing the ministry with Pastors around the nation.

Thousands of new fellowships have been established each year! We, as a family, have personally handed out nearly 20,000 books to share the vision of GFA. We have had the privilege of speaking in many churches around the nation about what God is doing in Asia. And through many of these activities, there have been thousands of families who have supported missionaries, dalit children, Jesus wells, church buildings and many other ministries in India.

Thank you for walking on this journey with our family! We want to celebrate, along with you, the hundreds of thousands of Asian people who have found hope in Jesus!

Sunny Morning with the Smith Family!

Had a great time this morning taking some photos with the Smith Family! We went down to SMU in Dallas and enjoyed walking around the campus. Their son, Rhome, has lots of energy and enjoyed getting to explore a new place. More photos to come. Just wanted to give them a sneak peek.

Outreach Day in Dallas

I had a great time in Dallas today as I photographed a day of outreach. Park Cities Baptist Church and Cornerstone Baptist Church joined together to do a clothing drive, give free showers, give out food, and do construction on a building that will soon help men after they first get out of prison.

Everyone who helped really had a servant's heart and I could see the gratefulness on the faces of those who were welcomed in.

You'll notice the "1:8" logo on some of the shirts. That is the theme of the missions program at Park Cities and it comes from Acts 1:8, where Jesus tells us to be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the Earth. Here are a few images from today.