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Trip to South Dakota

At the beginning of the month we traveled to South Dakota to do some fundraising and visiting with family. Our first stop was Milbank, SD. This is the town I grew up in. Many towns in South Dakota have slogans. Milbank's slogan is "You'll Like Milbank". After growing up there and having lived in other places, I have come to realize how true the slogan is.

We spoke with many friends and John also had the chance to preach at the church I grew up in on Sunday. It was so fun to be back in this church, after over 3 years! This church is so special to me. I was baptized there, started in the preschool sunday school, was confirmed, went through both Jr. high and Sr. High youth group, served as interim youth pastor during a few summers while I was in college. It was through this church that I had my very first missions experience when my youth group went to Mexico. The church supported me when I was in Africa and several of the members came to Africa while I was there! There are so many wonderful people in that church who impacted me as their families shared their lives and supported our family while I was growing up. It is just amazing to me to look back on my life and see the impact this church has had on me and who I am today.  
After spending the weekend in Milbank, we headed down to Yankton, SD, where my parents live. We had a wonderful time there and had a chance to visit with other family as well. Ella and the Grandparents had a great week!

Fundraising Progress

We have had many people asking us about how our fundraising is going. We do send out a monthly newsletter that shares our fundraising progress, but a lot has been happening between newsletters! Praise God! So I decided to put a space on our blog to the right that we will update weekly so you can keep track with us how our fundraising is going.

There are two parts to our fundraising. The first is outbound cost, which are all the costs we will incur prior to and immediately once we get to Bolivia. These types of things include all our pre-field training, plane tickets, language school, a car, and any one time costs it may take to start our lives in Bolivia. Things like that. Then our monthly cost are just our living expenses. So as of today our we are at 19% of our outbound costs and 35% of our monthly cost! Yeah!

Ella in the Fall

We just started realizing that we are entering a time of "our last".  For example, early October we headed out to Iron's Fruit farm with some friends (an annual tradition), and realized that this would be our last fall for a while.  It was Ella's last Halloween for a while.  So we are trying hard to savor the moments and capture as much as we can in pictures.  

Fall Frenzy

It has been a busy fall for us, as you can probably tell my the lack of blogging.  In attempts to catch up I'm going to give a quick summary to bring everyone up to speed.  

Since the benefit concert we have been busy with small group meetings in people's homes, sharing about our ministry to Bolivia and raising a support team.  In October we did one every week!  In some ways I've found fundraising exactly what I expected it to be; lots of  hard work, time consuming, humbling.  But in other ways I've found a real joy in it.  We've come to learn that each time we share about Bolivia and our ministry there, we come away with a new excitement and uplifted spirits.   When people ask us questions and show a genuine interest in what we are doing, it is so encouraging to us.  As we build a team of prayer and financial supporters, we truly feel like a team.  We are the ones that will physically be in Bolivia, but we really feel like we are all in this together.  I somewhat expected to feel like we were alone in this crazy adventure, but am so glad that that's not the case!  God is truly surrounding us with wonderful people!   

Fundraising is also giving us a chance to see God in a real way as our provider.  Sometimes we feel like we are on a roller-coaster of emotions.  There are days when we feel like we will never reach our financial goals and never get to Bolivia.  But those feelings rarely last more than a day and the Lord will completely bless us through someone by a financial gift or a word of encouragement.  We are continually reminded that God is in control and we can trust Him!

Benefit Concert

I'm finally updating you all on our benefit concert from 2 weeks ago!  (My how time flies!)  We had a great time that Sunday evening.  The whole night was a wonderful blessing and huge boost of encouragement for us.  There were many people who helped to make this happen, from Jenn Weber-Sinclair and Brian Mease (our artists), to Chris Chilton and Dan Webel (our tech crew), to Pastor Gary Angstadt  (our MC that evening).  We are so thankful for their willingness to share their gifts and talents to help us with this endeavor. 

We are guessing there were 150-200 people at the concert.  For those of you who could make it we just want to say thank-you!  You have no idea how encouraging your very presence was to us.  I had been praying for us to make $600 from the concert.  Before I tell you how much money we did raise, I have to tell you about the sermon our pastor preached that very Sunday morning.  One of the key scriptures used was Ephesians 3: 20-21 

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

God did do immeasurably more than what I was asking.  We raised $2,950!!!!  We were so shocked as we sat at our dinning room table counting the money.  You walk away from something like this so humbled.  

I think of all the people who were apart of this night and think "who are we that these people would come together and do something like this for us?"  But then I think about the last part of the verse in Ephesians and remember that the Lord does immeasurably more for each of us for HIS Glory!  It just had nothing to do with us.  While many of those people were drawn to that concert because of us, ultimately they are giving to the Lord and his ministry.  It's just a cherry on top that God allows us to be apart of his work and blesses us in the process.  

How Rich ARE you??

Some new friends of ours that will be serving in Bolivia with Food for the Hungry posted this link on their blog.  You all have to check out this website.  Type in your annual income and it will tell you how rich you are compared to the rest of the world.  It amazingly puts things into perspective and reminds us how thankful we should be for what we have!!

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

A meeting set by God!

I have been eagerly waiting to blog about this until it was official.  Now it is!  So here is the story...

In July we announced to the congregation of Hope church, our home church, our plans to serve with Food for the Hungry in Bolivia.  After the church service we met with many people who were interested in what we would be doing and just wanted to share their excitement with us.  Then, out of the corner of my eye I see this beautiful young woman anxiously waiting to speak with us.  With a huge smile on her face she excitedly begins to share her story with us.  Her name is Jenn Weber (now Jenn Weber Sinclair) and she is a Christian recording artist in Nashville, TN.  She was in Cincinnati visiting her family.  Her family does not normally attend Hope Church, but just happened to be visiting that Sunday.  Food for the Hungry has a program (The Artist Program) in which they partner with Christian artist to promote the plight of the poor around the world and connect them with ways they can help through Food for the Hungry.  So obviously Jenn is a huge advocate for Food for the Hungry and was so excited to hear that we would be working with FH as well.  After talking with Jenn for 5 minutes she immediately offered her musical talent to help us with our fundraising.  We have been working out the details and are thrilled to announce that Jenn will be doing a benefit concert for us on Sunday Oct 5th!  Our youth pastor, Brian Mease will be opening for her that evening.  

It has been a huge blessing to get to know Jenn and her music over the past two months.  We know that our meeting was not just a crazy coincidence, but an amazing blessing from the Lord!

Here are the links to her web-sites: http://www.jennweber.com/  and  http://www.myspace.com/jennweber

We highly recommend her new CD!!!

 

Last bit of Summer

We were blessed to be able to go on an end of the summer vacation with John's family to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.  It was a great week to spend time with family and relax on the beach.  Getting Ella and her cousin's all set up in the backseat of the van with the three carseats was quite a challange, but we came out victorious as you can see.  The girls enjoyed their "sleep-over" as we left town around 10pm and drove through the night.  

This was Ella's first time at the ocean and first experience with sand! 

 She didn't mind it as long as she had shoes on her feet!  Otherwise she refused to be put down!!  I think the feeling of sand between our toes is somewhat of an acquired luxury.  

We can't believe how quickly the summer flew by!  We are looking forward to the fall and preparing for the journey that lies ahead.  Hope you all had

 wonderful summers!  

Coming up for air!

It has been a busy few weeks for the Warden family, yet productive and encouraging none-the-less.  We've been working hard to get our home ready to be placed on the market, and last week it officially went up.  We wanted to get everything ready just before we left for a week visit to South Dakota to see family and do a little fundraising on the side.  Packing for vacation and preparing your home for the market at the same time was a chore but we were able to get it done.  Now we feel our hard work has paid off as we have had two showings the first week!  Please pray that our home sells quickly, as I'm finding that keeping it clean is definitely going to be quite a task with a 14 month old living in the house!  

We had a wonderful time visiting with my family in South Dakota.  It's always refreshing to get away from the fast-pace of city life and enjoy the small town atmosphere.  (Not to mention having extra hands to love on Ella!) 

 While there we also had the chance to visit with the missions board of my parent's church.  It was a wonderful and valuable experience for us to share our vision and passion for our ministry with Food for the Hungry with them.  It was also encouraging for us to see others get excited about our ministry as well.  

Here are a few pictures from our trip! 

Four Generations!

Ella at the Yankton City Pool.

  

Ella in her frog pool at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Weekend of Hunger

It was a busy weekend for the Warden family. On Saturday we had the opportunity to be apart of the grand opening of Kids Against Hunger here in Cincinnati. We packaged food all morning that will go to feed hungry children around the world. There was a feeling of excitement and joy in the warehouse that morning as we all worked together. It was a great event!

Sunday we were able to share with the congregation of Hope Church, our home church and where John works, our plans for serving in Bolivia. It was a wonderful morning! We can't express how much it means when someone approaches us to say how excited they are for us and that they will be praying. It was a very encouraging morning.

Back to hunger.....

So last night I could not get to sleep. It was such a busy weekend my mind would just not stop racing. As I glanced at the clock that read 1:38 am I realized that my stomach was hurting. I felt like I was starving! Then it dawned on me that with the business of the day, getting Ella fed and put to bed, and then starting back in on getting the house ready to sell, I had forgotten to eat supper! As I lay there I began to wonder if I would be able to fall asleep without going downstairs and getting something to eat. I was really hungry! It then hit me like a ton of bricks....there are millions of people that go to bed hungry every night. Their stomachs are aching more than mine was yet they don't have the option of running to the fridge to get something to eat. They will probably wake up in the morning with the same dull pain. I tried to remember the last time I even felt hungry and I could not think of one. We are so blessed that eating is more of an event for our own pleasure than a necessity.

While these are hard thoughts to entertain, I'm glad that the Lord laid these thoughts on my mind last night. So often we don't want to even think of such things and we often use the excuse that I am just one person, what can I really do to help the millions of starving people and children around the world? Deep down I know that thought is a lie and I have been convicted that I need to do more! There are so many opportunities out there for all of us. Donate food to a shelter or local food pantry! Donate money to organizations that help in this cause! Do Something! Be Encouraged!

Cocha....what?

It is a strange name, Cochabamba.  Strange as it is, that is the city we will be living in.  Here is a good description from Wikipedia:

Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the third largest city in Bolivia with a metropolitan population of more than 900,000 people. The name derives from a compound of the Quechua words qhocha, or lake, and pampa, or open plain. Residents of the city and surrounding areas are commonly referred to as Cochabambinos. Cochabamba is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" and "The Garden City" due to its spring-like temperatures year round.

We will be getting an apartment in Cochabamba, which is at about 8000 feet in elevations.  Our ministry will take place mostly in the rural areas outside of Cochabamba up in the Andes which we will be traveling to each week.  Some of these villages are over 14,000 feet in elevation!  Most people in the city speak Spanish.  In the rural villiages, Spanish is also used but Quechua is the more common language spoken.  We will be in language school our first three months.  We are praying that we pick up Spanish quickly.  Once we get Spanish down we may try to tackle some Quechua as well.    

Here are some pictures John took of Cochabamba, and some of the rural villiages when he visited last May. View of the Andes from the airport

A few apartment buildings in Cochabamba

Traveling to the rural villages

 

Pictures of a village

Bolivians are much shorter than Americans.  While this is great news for me, you can see that John is going to stick out like a sore thumb!! (John is actually bending his knees in this pic!)

Sweet village girl.  

Condo for Sale in Mason!

One of the big hurdles we will need to jump over will be selling our home.  We met with a relator last week and found out that while it will be a big task to get our home ready and to "stand out" in this housing market, there is hope!  The area we live in has stabilized in this housing slump.  Our location is good in that we are very close to the interstate and several popular shopping areas.  We also found out that condo's have been selling in our neighborhood and people are making a profit!  

So we now have a brand new list of tasks to get the house ready to put on the market.  Our goal is to have the sign in the yard by July 15th.  We have a few weeks ahead of us to de-clutter, paint, de-clutter, add a picture here or there, de-clutter, hang curtains, and did I mention de-clutter?  Save your empty boxes for us!  We will need them!

It's finally official!

It seems like it's been a long journey of waiting, searching, and praying but it is finally official!  We have signed on to be missionaries with Food for the Hungry and will be serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  We have created this blog as means of keeping our friends and family involved and informed of the adventure that lies ahead for us.  Our goal is to update weekly...we will see if that really happens!  

We have committed to be in Bolivia three years for now.  John's official title is Church Facilitator for the Community Development Program (CDP).  He will predominately be serving and training Bolivian church pastors in rural villages up in the Andes Mountains that surround the city of Cochabamba.  The goal will be to develop a training structure that will allow for pastors to receive specific theological training as well as on going fellowship and discipleship.  I (Jennie) will not have an official title (besides wife and mother), but will be as involved as much as I can in what John will be doing, and hope to use my nursing skills as well.  

For those of you that are still reading this...thanks for your interest!  We look forward to sharing this journey with you and are so thankful to have you all in our lives!