02.03.09
NEW BLOG!!!
This will be my last post…going forward Katie and I will be joining forces and amalgamating our blogs into one source of Black awesomeness! I hope you will continue to follow our exploits with even more vigour now that you will have twice as much to read.
Our new enterprise will encompass not only a blog but also a resource to find information on our upcoming ministry. Please check out The NEW Black Board!
01.18.09
We Are Back!
A post from Katie’s blog:
We are back…
in several different ways…
1. We are back from the busyness of Christmas, New Years’, and the Wedding. David and I kinda disappeared during the busy, yet fun, time with friends and family over the holidays and then our wedding. We were married on January 3, 2009 and are happily enjoying married life now! We have settled back into our life together in Whittier and are loving it. We have recently had some great conversations about SIM and our journey back into support raising in order to reach Niger!
2. Which leads me to…we are back from our period of silence in support raising. If you remember, about a year ago we asked our current supporters (you) to put their financial support on hold while we explore the great relationship that the Lord had given us. David and I met at the SIM orientation in the fall of 2007 and starting dating soon after that with the intentions of being married and serving overseas as missionaries together. So, at that time we were dating and then engaged and not actively raising support. Well, we are back!
We are so excited to begin support raising again and so excited with the prospect of being in French language school in September of 2009! We will be getting in contact with you all again as we begin to support raise to serve overseas. We highly encourage you, if you are led, to begin supporting us monthly again, starting now. We’ll be getting more information to you as well.
On a personal note: David has returned to his job, as a business analyst, after a break for Christmas and the wedding. I return to work this weekend, working in pediatrics at the hospital. We are praying for direction about the timing in which to cut back on our jobs and invest more time in preparation for the field (ie. studying French, visiting people to discuss supporting us, investing time in learning more about Islam). Yea!!
We are back!
09.11.08
Photo Sampler
Here are some random snaps from trips to Santa Barbara and Big Bear Lake.
Santa Barbara pier
Mission Santa Barbara
Cool plant at the mission. If you know what it is, let me know!
Santa Barbara pier
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake
Big Bear Lake
09.08.08
August in a Nutshell
It’s been a while since I posted and a ton has gone on so I thought I would bring you all up to speed on life in California! August has been a good month and busy. I seem to have blinked somewhere and all of a sudden it was September. Some highlights from August were:
1) Carrie and Molly’s visit. We had a great visit with them. There was wedding dress/bride’s maid dress shopping. An amazingly stellar trip to Raging Waters. Yeah! (My luck at this waterpark has apparently turned in that I finished the day in the same swimsuit I started in. Unlike Water County USA last summer where my suit was ravaged by a waterslide into a loincloth-esque cover and the park gave me a new swimsuit.)
2) Black family visit. My folks and Adam came out for a visit. Lots of eating, random trips and good times. A sweet day trip to Santa Barbara. Adam’s pirate-style pants were also a highlight for me!
3) Perspectives. I started the course Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. It is so far, totally awesome! The course is about Christian missions and everything related to that topic. I will try and post more about it. I love the class and I would recommend it very strongly.
4) Wedding planning. Lots of big things are done! I give props to my amazing fiancée Katie for her organization and motivation. You continue to delight me babe, I love you 
5) Pre-marital counseling. We began the counseling which is being done by another couple from church who were themselves missionaries. We have had some good discussions with them and Katie and I have eally enjoyed our own conversatons on things.
6) Getting sick. There was some kind of bug going around. Lots of folks were out of work sick. Katie and I both got it. Feeling good now though.
Hmmm…a lot has gone on and yet the month seemed to fly by. Those are the big ones though that popped into my mind just now.
08.02.08
Back from MTI
We have returned to sunny/smoggy SoCal from MTI and I am writing from my own room where I slept in my own bed last night…mmmm. Katie and I had a great two weeks of training in the Program in Language Acquisition Techniques. (Read relatedposts here and here) Having taken the course, I feel much better equipped to tackle language learning as a missionary when we go. The course puts many diverse tools in the hands of the student and empowers them to take charge of learning their new language.
It was amazing to see so many missionaries going to so many places. My prayer is that they can learn their new languages and cultures well and the Lord would us them effectively as His servants to those people. I wish all of you could see the number and character of people headed to the mission field and also hear their stories of how the Lord had brought them to where they are at, it is so encourageing and you can’t help but praise the Lord for what He is doing in peoples’ lives and around the world. We are blessed to be able to be a part of that!
So now we are back in California. Lots to do and much busyness getting ready for the wedding as well as preparing to begin our preparations to go to the mission field together (and working, church, etc!). We are in discussions with SIM USA folks now about placements for us and I would ask you to be in prayer for Katie and I and for SIM as we pray about and look together at the amazing and exciting possibilities that are open to us.
We are hoping and praying about going to Niger, West Africa. Niger is the poorest, least developed country on earth. Over 90% of the population is unreached by the Gospel and there are many spiritual and physical needs and few workers. Katie and I looked at many different countries and prayed about where the Lord could use us best and talked about our shared ministry goals and desires and felt the Lord putting Niger on our hearts as the place where the Lord would like us to be. So thats where we will head for now unless He tells us otherwise!
Thanks for your prayers and encouragement! These are exciting times in so many ways for Katie and I and we are excited and blessed to have you all be a part of it!
07.23.08
Engaged!!!
It has been a while since I posted and there have been some big changes in the meantime! The big news is that Katie and I are now engaged!! Many of you are aware of the unusual and exciting way our relationship began and has grown and I am amazed to have found such a fun, loving and Godly woman to spend my life with! I am truly blessed. We are both very excited and are planning on being married in January!
The gist of how it went down: Well, every month we would have a special monthiversary date where we would do something extra fun or special. We had missed it in July while Katie was in Oregon so we planned to do it when we got back from Oregon. So I came and picked her up and we went and had some h’orderves in Fullerton and we strolled around town for a while. We still had a bunch of time before the dinner reservations so we drove around for a while and I tried to confuse her about where we were going (I don’t think it worked) then went to this really nice restaurant up on a hill in the Brea/Fullerton area and had a great dinner there. After dinner, I thought you could see the Disneyland fireworks from up there so we waited for them…and waited…and they never started so I said we should walk over to this park across the road. We knew the park well, we have gone there to hang out and talk a bunch of times and it is great. It looks over Brea, very cool. So we walked almost all the way there when all of a sudden we heard the fireworks which were starting way late! So we hustled back up the hill and watched them. Then we went back to the park and that is where I proposed. (She said yes!) We hung out there for a while longer until the sprinklers turned on unexpectedly and we had to make a hasty exit.
So that’s the story (it saves me from writing it over and over again for different people!). We are pretty excited!
06.05.08
Back from England
Katie and I got back last week from England where we were visitng my family. Her sister came up from France to be with us and Aaron and Jo came from Scotland so it was a big crazy time! We visited some fun places and had a lot of great family time. By a stroke of crazy awesome luck, we happened to be there during the annual Eurovision Song Contest and got to soak up all the delectable Euro music. Oh how I miss it! Another cool highlight was the visit to the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. Also found out that my folks will be moving to Virginia to where I living up to a few months ago! Crazy! I am excited to have them on my side of the ocean for a change. Below are some choice photos. For more photos, check out Katie’s blog.
Stuffs Happening in SoCal
Wow, a lot has been going on and I haven’t posted in a beats long time! Things are great and Katie and I are enjoying the time here in California while the Lord has us here. Some highlights over the past couple months:
Baptism – I was baptized on 4 May in a sweet outdoor service at church. I was baptised as an infant but had been thinking and praying about being baptized now as an adult and a believer. It was a struggle with my own pride and in the end I just submitted in obedience to Christ and I am so happy to have been able to demonstrate my love and obedience to Jesus in that way!
Great growth in the Lord and enjoyment of my new church family – church missionary group and SIM prayer meetings are a big encouragement to both Katie and myself as we continue to pursue the Lord in this direction; fun and craziness helping out with the Junior High group at church; online theological courses; new service opportunities with a ministry to international students; new friends
Sweet trips and local adventures – Oregon to visit Katie’s family; Ensenada, Mexico; hiking all around SoCal; visiting old Spanish missions; England to visit my family (see other post); the beach; kayaking and lots of other fun times
I have posted a few photos below as a visual summary of the sweet action! My blog is way outdated and I realize if I just wrote more frequently my posts could be shorter and easier to write…lets see if I can do it!
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. – Exodus 15:2
01.26.08
Farewell Party
My friends in Virginia threw me a going away party to send me on my way to California. It was amazing and so encouraging. I am so thankful for the friendships the Lord has blessed me with in Virginia. He always seems to bring wonderful friends alongside me to share each stage of life’s journey with. I have made the best friends of my life here and I love all of you dearly and I will miss you tons. It encourages me to no end to know the support and prayers that accompany me to California and from there to the mission field. I don’t know what else to say but that I love you guys! Big ‘n’ Rich of course snapped some quality photos which you can view here!
01.07.08
Life Update
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and fun New Year and are getting back into the post-holiday swing of things! I have lots of changes coming up for me and wanted to give you an update on my path to the mission field and about an exciting thing the Lord is doing in my life! The Lord has blessed me with the desire and opportunity to serve Him as a missionary with SIM. During that process, God has also blessed me by bringing an amazing young woman into my life who is also an SIM missionary candidate like myself, we actually met at one of SIM’s orientation events. We have been pursuing a relationship together which has been such an amazing blessing for both of us but which required some thought about our immediate plans as I was headed to Peru and she was headed to Africa.
After a lot of talking and praying together and talking with many others as well as SIM, we both have decided to put on hold our individual plans and pursue our relationship to see where the Lord may take it. This does not affect my goal and desire to serve the Lord overseas, just the timing. Although I don’t know the Lord’s purpose or timing at this point for bringing us together, I am confident that He has done so at this time for a reason and it is well worth my time and effort to invest in this relationship and see where it might lead. Katie is a fun and wonderful woman and I am excited to have found a woman with the same passion for missions and desire to serve as me! As such, my immediate plans for going to Peru are put on hold and I will be going to Los Angeles in order for Katie and I to experience the full breadth of a relationship and ministry together with the hope that we can go to the field together down the road.
Administratively, this plan has the full blessing of SIM and all of the financial support raised thus far will remain in my account until the time when I leave. For those of you who have been supporting me monthly, let me say how very much you have blessed and encouraged me! During this time, I would ask that you hold off on your monthly contributions until I have a more definite timetable for going to the field at which time you can pray about if the Lord is leading you to continue that support.
I know this is probably a surprise to some of you but I hope you will feel confident as I am that the Lord who straightens my paths and is leading me in service both here and overseas is the same Lord who has blessed me with the love of an amazing woman. I would love to answer any of your questions or tell you more about Katie, she is great! Of course, I need and appreciate your prayers as always!
Thank you for your constant encouragement and support, you are all a blessing to me!
