Merry Christmas! 2007

It’s been another year of God displaying his goodness to us. The year is almost past, so it is time once again to put it on record!

Tim

Cambodia, Brazil (2X), the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Nigeria have found their way onto Tim’s calendar as he consulted with national leaders in opening missionary training schools around the world. Many of you know that Tim works with a 10 year project called GO¹⁰⁰, which aims to start 100 new missionary training schools around the globe by the year 2012. GO¹⁰⁰, at 5 years old, has already surpassed the original goal set for it! The Bethany leadership and our national partners will meet in Nairobi, Kenya in June to review and celebrate the goal, and then to get a fresh sense of God’s direction for the next several years.

On the home front at Bethany International, Tim continues as the Vice-President of Ministry Development. Bethany College of Missions continues to be a focal point, with recruitment goals that are gripping but doable. The Bethany campus concept is to strengthen our own college while opening our campus to training partners from other ministries. We hope to see hundreds of young people studying in various discipleship and missions training programs in the years ahead. Already our partnership with Teen Mania is showing much promise as they run a north campus to complement their main training program in Texas. Tim also enjoys working with Bethany missionaries around the globe. It was a joy for him to personally visit with more than 35 of them on the field during his travels in 2007.

Carol continues to love her work that keeps her busy as the Dean of Women at Bethany College of Missions (BCOM), heading up the Mentoring Department and teaching in the college. She has an awesome crew of volunteer mentors who pour their lives into discipling each incoming batch of students.

She made a trip to the northwest corner of Spain for niece Laura Towner’s wedding last January and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the opportunity to help with the wedding. She also traveled to England in October for her annual SEAN Board meeting. SEAN’s pastoral training materials are used in more than 120 countries around the globe (see www.seaninternational.com for more information). Carol counts it a great privilege to be able to assist this ministry as a board member.

Jenny is now in her second year in a wonderful midwifery ministry to the urban poor in the city of Davao in the Philippines. She has now delivered 55 babies and counting and loves serving as a missionary there. Her Dad had a chance to visit her in October on site and Mom hopes to do the same this next year before she graduates in July. Check out her blog for great stories and pics. http://www.midwifejenny.blogspot.com

David, who is 21, lives at home while studying to be a Personal Trainer (think gyms) through the Minnesota School of Business. To make ends meet he works as a server at Olive Garden. Pictured here with Nitro, the family schnoodle (seriously!).

Rebecca, 15, has entered high school and is working hard at the honors program she chose. She won the Book Worm award last year at her school and I believe Verizon will soon bestow on her the Texting award! She is part of a private orchestra where she plays violin, and has enjoyed playing on her school’s volleyball team last year. Be alert, she is now on-the-road with her driver’s permit!

Michelle and Megan are 8, did a fantastic ballet performance in June and immensely enjoyed spending a week again at Camp Cherith in northern MN this past summer. Now they love being in 3rd grade, and are excited/scared about getting braces next week. Yes, it’s early at 8 years of age, but if they get braces now they may keep all of their adult teeth instead of having several of them pulled due to overcrowding. We will attempt to learn how to budget for this expensive “twin event.”

Family Outings

We traveled to South Dakota to see the 4 Presidents carved in stone at Mt. Rushmore (a first for most of us) and to Florida to visit Tim’s family. We spent a relaxing week with Carol’s brother John and family at a cabin in northern Minnesota. Some of us tagged along with John & Michelle Billman to Walnut Grove in western Minnesota to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood home On the Banks of Plum Creek. That was a trip well worth taking, with so many interesting things to see about life in Minnesota as it was a century or so ago. The twins pictured here with a washing machine from that era in ‘Laura’ dresses. Carol sewed the first dress and Aunt Marge rescued her by sewing the second!

Friends

We have enjoyed wonderful visits from many loved ones, including many of Jenny’s awesome college classmates when she returned for a visit in September. Josiah Weihman, younger brother of Kimberly who has been with us for 3 years now, arrived from the Philippines lived with us this summer. He is in college now, living with Carol’s brother John and family in Burnsville. Kimberly and Josiah’s mother Remy has come from the Philippines for a visit to see her kids and travel to share about her ministry with YWAM in the Philippines. We are so enjoying catching up with all the happenings in her life and ministry. We’ve known Remy for more than 25 years and what a dear friend she is! She’s both crazy fun and deeply inspiring! I’m glad we’ve been able to give her a hearty Minnesnowta welcome with our record snowfall this year! It’s been great that Josiah and Kimberly’s dad Christopher has also been able to come up from Missouri for a couple visits with his kids.

We are deeply grateful to God for all his blessings this year. May you sense His closeness to you in a stronger way than ever before.

Blessings,

Tim & Carol and family

Megan & Michelle Freeman

9-1-05

The minds and bodies of the 6 young ones living in our home were not yet adjusted to school hours. The 3 youngest all missed the bus. Oh well, I thought, we’ll do better tomorrow. Little did I know the bus drama of the day had only just begun.

2:30 I’m waiting for Rebecca to arrive from middle school. No Rebecca. Where could she be? She’s a half hour late! I call the bus company. They suggest I call her friends. That’s silly. She wouldn’t have gone elsewhere without at least calling my cell phone! Uh, wrong. Remember? C’mon, Carol, you’ve done 12 year olds before. Nothing new here. She had taken her friend Melissa’s bus to her house and hadn’t thought to connect with me on where she was! Well, at least she was safe and sound.

3:15 I await the twins’ bus. I wanted to be there to meet them, so they’d be sure to find their way home. We just moved to this neighborhood 3 months ago.

3:18 The twins’ teacher gives me a courtesy call to let me know the twins had enjoyed their first day of school. So nice to hear. Did they get on the bus okay? Yes, I put them on myself, she assured me.

3:20 The bus stops, kids get off, and the bus starts to pull away. Wait!!! I hop onto the bus. Where are my twins???!!! Blank stares all around. Has anyone seen identical blonde girls wearing matching Cutie Pie shirts? At last, one young boy ventured that he thinks he might have seen blonde kids get off on Stop #2. Great. This is Stop # 9. That’s a long time ago! I sit down on the bus and we head off to Stop #2. Lord, where are my little girls??? Please, please help me find them!

On Virginia Street, I look way down to my right. Nothing. I get off the bus, walk around the front, and look way down to the left. Squinting my eyes, I think I can barely make out a little pink and white speck way down at the curve in the road. They are too far away to hear my voice. Am I ever glad I know how to whistle like a referee! Yes, the dots are moving! It’s them!! (See photo – the road & its bend at the end – they were way down there, just specks!)

We are 7 blocks from home. They had been heading in exactly the opposite direction of our house. They were just about to turn the bend in the road and disappear out of sight! … They had tears in their eyes. They said they had cried. Poor dears! What a sweet walk home that was, my hands intertwined with each of their little hands.

I’m so grateful to that little boy who ever so faintly had taken note where two little blonde girls may have disembarked. I’m so grateful to Mrs. Ringer, their teacher, who had called me just minutes earlier to let me know how the twins’ first day of school had gone. I’m so grateful I thought to ask her if they had gotten on the bus. If we hadn’t talked, I would have simply thought they missed the bus when they didn’t disembark. I wouldn’t have searched for them in our neighborhood, but would have headed off to their school, 12 minutes away, only to realize eventually that they weren’t there either. How long would they have been alone wandering before I realized I needed to return to our neighborhood to look for them? I had mistakenly thought the bus driver would have had a list of students and their corresponding bus stops provided for them to check, especially as little ones got off. I had thought the girls would have naturally looked out the window for me first before getting off the bus. I thought they would have recognized our corner. I thought wrong.

Thank you Lord for watching over my beloved little ones, especially when I’m not tracking right.