Congratulations to Allan Day and Tricia Weaver...

Congratulations to Allan Day and Tricia Weaver who were married

June 2, 2007!

Congratulations to Laura Forester and Chris Gruner!

Congratulations to Laura Forester and Chris Gruner, married on July 2, 2005

His Blessings Through Trials (con't)

"In loving memory of Tyler James Gruner
January 5- January 26, 2007

Pslam 139:16
"All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be"

We felt like that was Tyler's life verse... short and simple.

Laura (Forester) Gruner

The Newest Happenings in the DeChristopher Household...

Hi everyone,

I've been intending to send an email letting you all know how we are doing since we left for Mississippi in July (of 2006), but it took some pretty cool news to share before I got around to it...so we are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby boy who was born Sunday, July 29. He and I are doing wonderfully, and somehow the three of us aren't even too sleep deprived yet;) He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19 inches long at birth, and his name is Alex Peter DeChristopher. So far one of the neatest things I've seen in the last week is Mike's unwillingness to put the baby down unless it's absolutely necessary – at least during the daytime hours...though I admit to being pretty attached to him myself.

We are currently working out of Kiln, Mississippi building homes with Samaritan's Purse (SP), and have made the transition from rebuilding damaged homes to building new ones from the foundation up as of the beginning of June (2007). Needless to say, it has been a blessing to be involved with building new homes, and a lot more rewarding than fixing damaged ones. Currently, we have two homes under construction, and at least four more that we will be getting started on as soon as possible. So if any of you have some free time coming up, or know someone who does in the next seven months or so we could use the volunteer help...

Mike has been working hard (not too unusual I know), and it worked out that four SP staff members (usually Mike had one other staff member per day), the homeowners college age son (Jacob), a couple of volunteers, an electrician and I had the privilege of bringing the first house Samaritan's Purse has ever built domestically to being dried-in (shingled, windows and doors installed, house wrap around the house, and the plumbing and electric roughed in and past all of it's initial inspections) in our first four weeks working on the site. Since then we have moved onto more challenging types of construction – our second house is essentially in a swamp (the water table is maybe two feet below grade at best) and have learned all sorts of neat lessons as we've overcome the challenges of building in this area.

It has been awesome to see the way the Lord has moved through the work as Jacob committed his life to the Lord in our second week of working on his mom's home and we have had the opportunity to witness to and present bibles to some of his family and neighbors as a team from SP. The SP teams have also been blessed to minister to the woman (and her extended family) who will be receiving the second home, and I have been challenged to slow down from the material work to pour time into three pre-teen and teenage gals at this site - so far I have had the opportunity to share the gospel with one of them... please pray for DD to continue to develop an interest in the Lord and for her sister and cousin to become interested. We have also both been blessed to combine a bunch of field work with some desk and truck time which has enabled us to work around Alex's schedule this last week quite nicely. Mike has been working on materials take offs for the upcoming houses among other things, and I have been updating drawing sets for the houses we are building and we have been searching for vendors and creating selection palette's for things like shingles, siding, paint, flooring ect. It has been a blessing to see how the Lord is allowing me to continue to be involved (and feeling use full) even though I am now a mom. The SP staff even set an office up for me with room for my drafting supplies, a computer and most importantly a pack-and-play for Alex to sleep in:)

We hope you are all doing well, and ask that you would continue to keep us in your prayers, specifically:
*our families as they adjust to having a grandchild/nephew/cousin a long way from home
*for continued safety as Mike and team work out in the heat
*for patience (for me) as it will be a while until I am cleared to work in the field again
*for right attitudes as we continue to serve the Lord here
*and especially for softened hearts and opportunities to share the gospel with the people

we encounter

With His Love,
Mike and Katie

Justin and Kim King Welcome Another Little Girl into the Family!

Kim had our baby on Aug 9th. We had a little girl, Audrey Mary, 8 lbs 4 oz. Here are some pics.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayehmking/AudreySBirth

Until the nets are full,

Justin

Stan and Vicky Dobbs Celebrate 20th Wedding Anniversary

Stan and Vicky (Monville) Dobbs celebrated their 20 year wedding anniversary on an Alaskan Cruise. Vicky graduated Penn State in 1985 with a B.S. in Marketing. She was a resident in the former "A-House" on Atherton with several other ACF'ers. They have four children (Mia age 15, Aaron age 14, Elliott age 12 and Graham age 10). Stan is in ministry (see caresteam.org).


Vicky Dobbs
Euless, TX