Post Physical Therapy

Many of you know that I have undergone lots of knee problems in the past year and a half and have been in and out of doctor appointments, MRI's and therapies. I wanted to give the good news that I have just been successfully discharged from Physical Therapy. This is the second time I have been referred to therapy and I must admit I was very skeptical about the possibility that it would work and that I could come out of it capable of being active again. Well, the physical therapist that I was referred to was exceptional and worked one-on-one with me to accomplish my goals. I had extremely weak leg muscles going into it and failed all of my strength tests. I took another test at the end of my 8 weeks (16 1 1/2 hour sessions) and passed everyone of them. I feel great and stronger than I have felt in a long time. Now I get to embark upon my journey of running again. I will be taking it slow, but nontheless will get to run again soon. The only possible thing that could keep me from running now is the cyst in my knee. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the cyst at this time. Only time will tell if it will go away on its own. If it doesn't go away and bothers me, I unfortunately will not be able to run, but if it doesn't bother me than I have the go-ahead from my doctor to begin running again. I want to thank everyone who has prayed for me and inquired about my knee. I appreciate it greatly and am encouraged to see how God has worked all things out.

A Much Needed Update

Much has happened in the past month since we last posted a blog. I will do my best to update everyone without writing a complete book.

At the end of September, I (Christina) graduated from my training course for my job. It was a great feeling to graduate and move forward into my career as a social worker. Ben was able to attend the graduation and it was great to have him there. He was a continual support for me through the entire training course. Since graduation my job has taken off and life at work is very busy. Despite the craziness of the job, I love what I do and working with the children and families that I work with. I am learning the job quickly and how to stay organized amongst the chaos.

Ben's job continues to go well. He is quickly approaching the holiday season, which is busy, but he is managing all of his tasks efficiently. On the 16th of November there will be a Children's Ministry Sunday where Ben will be the main speaker. The children will also be apart of the service in the way of singing and skits. This will be Ben's first time preaching during a service along with doing it via translation. He looks forward to sharing about the children's ministry and getting others excited about it as well. Ben has also been working with the co-workers to establish a Mission and Vision for the department that will guide the Ministry. He is very close to having an official statement that the ministry can be driven by.

In the middle of October Ben and I took a mini trip to Virginia for the Columbus Day weekend. We went to see the historical triangle there, which consists of Jamestown, Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg. We had a wonderful time on our getaway trip. One of our highlights was that the hotel we were booked to stay at was full so they put us up at a resort and we got our own 2 bedroom condo to stay in instead of a hotel room. The resort was remarkable and helped make the trip extra relaxing. The other highlights were visiting the 3 different historical sites. They were full of great information and had it set up in a way where the people were dressed up to represent the time period and the people were demonstrating the different things that were happening during that time period. It was a fun way to learn history and we would recommend it for anyone. It was a well-needed break for both of us and we were grateful to get away together and to experience history in the way that we did.

At the end of October Ben and I recieved sad news that a friend of ours from our previous church in Oak Park had passed away due to heart problems. We received the news the night before her funeral service and therefore up and left Indiana on the spot to drive to Chicago to be able to say our goodbyes and be apart of the service for her. It was a precious service and one of hope as she had a personal relationship with Christ. We got a chance to spend the day with some of our friends in Chicago, which lifted our spirits and was a nice time for us. We had wanted to go back to visit, but didn't expect to go on those conditions. Nevertheless it was a neat time being among our Chicago friends again.

It's hard to believe, but the Holidays are approaching rapidly and we are doing our best to prepare for them.

Unfortunately we were not able to post any pictures from our most recent endeavors due to a problem with our main computer that houses all of our pictures. We hope to post some pictures in the near future.

Friends Going The Distance

Friendships can be what we choose to put into them. I (Christina) have learned over the past 5 years that quality versus quantity of friendships is what is important for me. Back in high school it used to be about the quantity of friends because that showed popularity. The problem became that once I graduated from high school and moved away to go to college I no longer kept up with any of those friends because we didn't have the quality of friendship that we would make it over the distance. From my high school days I only keep in contact with a few and those were the people that I spent quality time getting to know and our friendship was on a deeper level. When I moved away or they moved away we had the strong desire to keep in contact with eachother in order to stay connected with eachothers lives. So, in college I changed my focus for friendships and started focusing more on quality than quantity and it has made a huge difference in the longevity of them. Granted I met a lot of people in college and don't keep up with them all, but the ones that I did put more energy into to get to know on a deeper level are the ones that I am still in contact with today. I am also grateful for new internet connecting sites like facebook that help me to stay in contact with many friends from both high school and college.



The reason I started thinking about this a lot was that Ben and I recently moved and in the 2 months since we left from Chicago we have already had 3 sets of our friends come to visit and we were invited to a beach house as well to meet up with former church friends. It is extremely touching to have people specifically plan and come to see us just to keep up the friendship. It is touching when people will not allow distance to stop them from being apart of your life. Moving from place to place is a natural part of life and God has called us to be faithful to follow wherever he is leading us. Moving can also be a scary and lonely journey in life, but when you have friends all around the world who are praying for you, calling you, writing you and making special trips to see you, you know that God is in those friendships and that those friendships are life-long friendships.



Since moving to Indiana Ben and I have met some new people who we know that overtime will develop into new friendships and we are excited for that. Only the Lord knows if we will be moving again, but I am more confident than ever that in that time we will not be losing any friends, but just expanding our network of friendships around the world.

New School Year Has Begun!!

The new school year has begun, which means a lot of new beginnings for the Church Ministry. Ben has been working extremely hard to get the Children's department in good standing for the beginning of the year. Back in the middle of August he held a kick-off meeting for all of the volunteers in the children's ministry. The volunteers are involved in either sunday school, AWANA, or the Chinese school. Many of them are involved in multiple ministries, which is great. The kick-off training meeting was extremely successful. We had about 50-60 people in total and they were all excited and motivated for the new year. This years theme is being a piece in God's puzzle. We were challenged to consider the gifts that God has given each of us and how they will play out as we minister to kids. Ben has been encouraged since the meeting seeing the volunteers applying what they learned.

Last Sunday, August 31st, was promotion sunday. The Chinese Church has never had anyone to organize an event for it, so all they would do was have the kids go to their new classrooms. Ben wanted to change that tradition by having an actual ceremony for the kids prior to them moving up to their new classroom. It ended up being a great time and the parents loved it. Ben had each class come up in front of everyone and he talked about their specific class, then he had a picture taken of the entire class with the teachers and the parents of each of the kids. It was a special and momentous time. That is another project that Ben had been working on in order to start the year off with a bang.

AWANA also started this past Friday night. I (Christina) am working with the cubbies, which is the 3-4 year olds. We had a smaller group than normal, but they were a great group nontheless. I will be working with the same kids each week working on their verses and crafts. I also will be doing the puppet show each week that will correspond with the lesson. I had an interesting first week doing the puppets since I had never done them before. I practiced the script before hand, but when I got there that night I was told that I had to hide outside the door and the kids would yell for me to come in. That part went great, but what I wasn't told was that I would be hiding behind a chair. I came waltzing in with the puppet and was quickly told to duck behind a chair. I quickly dropped to the ground behind the chair trying to act as though that is how it was supposed to go. Good thing they are only 3-4 year olds. This next week should go much smoother.

As for the rest of our life outside of Church (which is not much these days) we are doing well. I currently have 3 days left of in-class training before I move on to the mentorship part of my training. I have spent one complete week with my mentor so far and it was great! I will spend my remaining 2 1/2 weeks with her, shadowing all that she does and will graduate on September 29th. Soo... the training portion is winding down and I must say that I am excited about that. Ben and I have also gotten to meet our neighbors in the past couple of weeks. We have some wonderful people living in our neighborhood. We are all in the same boat in the fact that we are new to the neighborhood and dont know anybody. We are all trying to be helpful and generous to eachother in our different needs. For example... we asked a neighbor to borrow their lawn mower and not only did they agree, but the very next morning the husband showed up at our house with it. We are thrilled with our neighborhood and look forward to building upon these new found friendships.

The Lord is doing great things in our lives each day, confirming that He had for us to come to Indiana. We are feeling more and more at home here in our neighborhood, job and church and are grateful to all those who have kept us in their prayers. We will try and post things more often as to not have each of our blogs be so long.

Our 1st Sets Of Visitors

Alot has been happening in our lives since we last wrote. Life has had us so busy that we have not had time to update you all on what has been happening in our lives. I will try to keep it all brief and include some fun pictures.

We have finally gotten all settled into our house and are out of boxes which is a huge relief. Now we are in the fun stage of making it feel like our home by decorating and adding things to it. We have put up some curtains and pictures, which help to give the big white walls some personality. As I mentioned in the title we have already had visitors come and stay with us. The first visitor we had was my (Christina) close friend Jeannine from back in Washington. She came to stay with us 2 days after we moved in. She was an immense help in unpacking boxes, picking out curtains etc. We also managed to have some fun seeing the downtown Indianapolis area. We walked around a park and rented kayaks to boat along the canal. It was a beautiful day and we had an absolute blast. The very next weekend Ben was a groomsmen in his friend Travis's wedding so he drove to Akron Ohio for a long weekend of fun. He had fun catching up with friends and overall being a support. He had to hurry home for church on Sunday because on that particular Sunday they installed him as the "Childrens Ministry Director". He went up before the church and took some vows that the pastor recited and then the pastor had all the deacons come up front and they prayed for both Ben and I as well as for another pastor and his wife who was installed at the same time. After the service they had a cake reception in honor of them. It was a really neat and momentous occassion.

On Friday August 1st Ben and I drove to South Haven Michigan to meet some friends from Judson Baptist Church (our previous church in Chicago). The Marriage class that Ben and I had participated in the past year had an end of the year retreat at a condo sponsored by our leaders. We had such a neat time with 3 other couples who have come to be good friends of ours. We had an incredible view of the lake from the balcony. We walked along the beach and checked out the quaint town full of cute shops and restaurants. We cut our weekend short in Michigan to come back to Indiana and meet my (Christina) parents who came out to visit us. We spent 2 1/2 days with them showing them our new house, church and downtown area. We went to a minor league baseball game, walked the canal, BBQ'd etc. We had a Blast!! They also were kind and spent one of their visiting days to help us around our house with lots of projects. It was fun to see Ben and my dad work together as a team. My mom and I offered moral support and food.

The very next weekend on Friday Ben and I had the privelege to drive to Cincinatti Ohio to meet up with Ben's family at a Red's game. We managed to watch some of the game amongst catching up with the whole family. We also got to see an incredible (and I mean incredible) firework show after the game. On Saturday we drove into Kentucky to visit the new Creation museum that they put up. For the most part it was a great time. I (Christina) am having severe knee pain these days, so spending the day walking and standing was hard for me. I am working towards getting some help for my knee so I can have some relief and regain normal functioning. Please pray for me if you think of it. The rest of the time with his family was laid back as we just showed them the area as well, but mainly just hanging out as a family.

Soo... as you can imagine we are a bit tired right now, but would not trade the fun we have had for anything.

We Are Finally In!!!

Tuesday July 8th was finally the day that we got to sign the papers to close on our house, YEAH!!! Actually... due to my work situation I (Christina) was not able to sign the papers for the house. Ben and I had to get a notarized Power of Attorney paper signed in order that Ben could sign for me on all the papers. Ben did a great job working through the mound of papers that they gave to him. I was able to make it for part of the signing when I got off of work. It was so cool to have them hand us the keys to our home and to immediately be able to move in. On Wednesday of last week Ben had the youth leader and 6 of the youth group members come to help us move our stuff from storage to our house. So we now have all of our stuff moved in, which is such a great feeling. We are loving our house and loving the settling in/decorating process. We have so much space to work with that it is not too difficult to have boxes everywhere. Slowly yet surely we are making it our home. We also have had a major need of buying a second car, and it was great because the Lord led us to just the right car. The second car is making our lives easier as our jobs are far apart from eachother.

Speaking of our jobs... we are settling in quite nicely. I started work last Monday the 7th for the Department of Child Services. I am in training for a total of 12 weeks, but have the first week under my belt. I am enjoying my training immensely and learning a lot that will be beneficial when I get put out on the field. I am in a class (they call us a cohort) of 22 people and we will be with eachother in this same training class until our graduation on September 29th. They are great people and we are learning how to work together as a team, which is essential for the type of job that I will be doing. Ben's job is also going well. It has been a bit of a slow start though for him since much of his focus has had to be on our move. The church was very flexible this past week with our closing and move to allow Ben the time to help us get settled and situated. Sunday, Ben took the opportunity to introduce himself to many of the volunteers and to observe the Sunday morning ministry in order to get a good idea of how he could best serve this ministry. It was very beneficial for him and he looks forward to putting all of his ideas into practice.

Praise the Lord for all of this coming into place for us. We can clearly see His hand in all that we are doing!

When Things Go Not As Expected

On Monday night after work Ben and I rode into the sunset to our new destination of Indianapolis. For the past couple of months our expectation had been that we would spend the first couple of nights in a hotel waiting for our house to close on July 2nd. We had the impression that all of our paperwork was done and that they were just waiting until it got closer to finalize all of it. Well about 10 days ago our plans started to change when our lenders made us aware that they were missing paperwork from us and they needed it urgently to settle on our house. Since that day, each day we have been scrambling to get all of the necessary documents that they need in order to finish this process. Needless to say it has been a frustrating 10 days working with these people and we are not yet done yet. We are now hoping for a Monday or Tuesday closing. In the meantime... our church has been wonderful to work with and they are putting us up in a hotel for as long as we need. Ben and I have been trying to keep busy getting other necessary errands done in order that when our house closes we can focus on getting settled.

The other challenge we were up against was that our moving company needed to drop off our stuff on Wednesday, but we didn't have the keys to our new house in order to move the stuff in. The cost to have them deliver at a later date would have been $500 so we quickly thought of a plan B to put our stuff in storage. The Lord blessed us with a company that is fabulous to work with. They are kind, flexible and extremely generous. After explaining our situation to them they told us that they had a moving truck that we could use for free when we needed to move our stuff out of storage. That was a huge relief for us and an opportunity for us to see the Lord at work on our behalf. We ended up saving about 3-$400 by putting our stuff in storage, Praise the Lord!! We do truly believe that God has a plan for us during this time. We are trying to keep our heads up and focused on Him instead of all the other chaos.

Also during this time Ben has started his position as the Children's Ministry Director. He attended his first staff meeting on Tuesday and really enjoyed getting to know the staff. They have been helping him to get situated in his office, supplying him with the needed resources that he needs to begin. He is absolutely loving it so far and is excited for this upcoming Tuesday where he will start his first full week of work. This Saturday we will be driving to Cedarville University where most of our church members are at for a weekend retreat of spiritual enrichment. They have invited us to come down for the day. Ben is looking forward to connecting with people from other churches to build his network. Sunday we will be filling the gaps for the children's church teachers and jumping in and leading during the main service. So despite our house not closing, we already have plenty to keep us busy. I (Christina) will be starting work on Monday and am excited to start my training as a Family Case Manager. I will write more about that later, when I know more about what my job will be like. We will also post some pictures of the church and our surroundings as soon as we can. Until then... thanks for bearing with this long blog!!

Saying Good-Bye to Chicago

Saying good-bye to Chicago and all or our friends and co-workers was a bitter-sweet time. We had a lot going on that weekend. On Friday the 27th our moving company came to take all of our stuff from our apartment in order to get a headstart to getting it to Indiana. We were so glad to have all of our stuff moved on Friday because it allowed us the rest of the weekend to relax and to hang out with all of our friends one last time. We stayed with our close friends the Pilditch's. This family over the past couple of years has become very dear to Ben and I. It was great to spend some extended time with them. On Saturday Ben and I cleaned out the apartment, turned in our keys and said goodbye to that chapter in our lives of renting. We were able to spend the rest of Saturday relaxing and re-cooperating after a very busy week of packing etc.


On Sunday we went to our church (Judson Baptist Church) for the very last time. Before Sunday the whole moving process seemed kind of sureal, but when we were in church it hit me that this was it. The Pastor and Elders did a commissioning time

for us where we told the church about where we were going and what we will be doing and they took time to pray for us. They had our Explorers group join us on stage so that they could be apart of the special prayer time. It was really neat!! After the service they held a

reception for us where we were able to say goodbye individually to people. We felt very special and honored by our church family. Sunday afternoon was a time that we spent with the Pilditch family bonding and playing a good old family game of "Life".


Sunday evening the College and Career group through Ben and I a BBQ where we were also able to invite other close friends of ours to. We had about 30 people there and we had a lot of fun despite the rain. It was a meaningful time with the people and a great ending to our time in Chicago.

Monday was Ben and I's last day of work. It was wierd to have our last day be on a Monday... but I wanted to finish out my fiscal year with Moody Publishers. Our co-workers took the time to recognize us and make us feel special. Overall... we had a spectacular ending to our Chicago chapter. Chicago, and all of these friends hold a special place in Ben and I's heart. We will have fun visiting in the future. Enjoy the fun photos from our last weekend!!!

House Progression!!

This past Monday Ben and I found out that our house that has been being built is almost finished. It is due to be completely done on June 30th in order that we can have our orientation on July 1st and sign the papers and get our keys on July 2nd. Since our house was nearing completion they asked us if we would be willing to come down and do a pre-walk of our house. At first we didn't think that was feasible because it is a 31/2 hour drive for a 30-45 minute walk-thru. On Tuesday though, I (Christina) was called for an interview with the Department of Child and Family Services for Thursday afternoon. I had applied for the position of a Family Case Manager. The interview itself was tough, but I stuck it out and now we will see if this job is the one that the Lord has for me. I am confident if he closes this door that he will open up another place that is just the right fit and where he wants to use me. In the meantime I am just waiting to hear back from them. So in light of traveling down for my interview we decided to go ahead and make an appointment to walk through our house with the builder before all the final touches are made. It was great to pull-up in front of the house and to see it basically finished (minus the yard). The builders have done an amazing job and we had such a great time walking through the house seeing all the personal touches they had made. All they have left is minor touch-ups and cleaning, installing the appliances and putting together the yard. They are right on track to finish by our completion date. It was a great, but long day trip! While we were visiting the house we took some pictures of it to post so everyone could see.

Explorers End of Year Party

Last Saturday Ben and I threw an end of year party for our Explorers group that we have been talking about. We went to a local park that had a large field area, a playground area and a water pad (water sprinklers that kids can run through and get wet and stay cool). We had a great time with them playing frisbee, having a long drawn-out water fight, playing freeze tag with water guns, lunch etc. The kids deserved a good time after all the hardwork that they put in over the year. They attended the meetings and cooperatively participated in all of the activities that we had planned. During our party we also took the time to have them evaluate their experience in the group, letting us know what they liked about it and what they would want to improve on the group. They gave great insight to us, which will help as we pass on this group to the next leader. A couple of the things they mentioned that were encouraging to us were that they would want to have the meetings more often than twice a month and that they grew in their friendship with eachother through meeting and interacting in all the group activities. Overall we had a wonderful time as a group and Ben and I are extremely sad to be leaving them. The other encouraging factor that came about was we found out from the Childrens Director that they have officially found someone to take over the leadership of the group so it can continue into the future. We look forward to coming back to visit to see the progression of the group as well as how it may continue to develop over time. Well... enjoy the pictures that we took!!

The Countdown Is On...

The last time we wrote we were catching you all up on our crazy life of work, church and moving. Our month of May was very busy, but we had 2 very fun weekends in a row at the very end. For Memorial Day weekend we went camping with 3 other families totaling 16 of us. We went to Peninsula State Park in Door County Wisconsin. We had a blast and for the most part the weather was beautiful. On Sunday morning we had a bit of a drizzle, but was grateful for the gazebo covering that we had, but on Sunday night we experienced a huge thunder and lightning storm, which again made us extremely greatful for our covered gazebo. The Lord was so good in the fact that during the daytimes it was extremely warm and sunny and so we got to go biking and sightseeing and kayaking with no problems. Also when it came time to pack-up in the morning it was sunny so we didn't have to pack-up in the rain. Granted most of our stuff was extremely wet and muddy from the night before. It was just a neat time bonding with some good friends in nature, telling stories, laughing and sharing some great food. We all hope to make this a regular event even though Ben and I will be a bit farther away. I've included some pictures for your enjoyment.

The very next weekend we went on a retreat with our College and Career class from church. We went to a Christian retreat center called Cedar Creek Retreat Center. We had a great time as a group playing games (catch phrase was a hit), eating great food, being ministered to by our speakers and sitting around a campfire roasting smores. Each one of us was challenged in a different way through our theme of "Discerning the Will of God for our Lives". It is not an easy thing to do, but the group was up for the challenge of their faith in God to direct their lives. So we had a great time with the group, but must admit were excited when it was over because it takes a lot of time and energy to plan a retreat. I (Christina) feel like I have a life again. This retreat was a great ending to a 3 year commitment that Ben and I have had in leadership to this group. We will miss this group of students, but know God has great things in store for them with the new leaders. Here are some pictures from our retreat.

Shortly after this retreat on June 6th Ben finished up his school year as a teacher at the Cambridge School of Chicago. The end of year ceremony was a wonderful time as Ben was recognized and applauded for his 2 years of service. The kids he has been working with had a really hard time with him leaving so many tears were shed at the ceremony. For the remaining 3 weeks before we leave Ben was asked to be the curriculum specialist for the camp that the school puts on. So far he is loving the work. He is also very excited though about his new position beginning on July 7th. I am just continuing to work at Moody Publishers up until the day that we leave for Indiana. Now that our responsibilities are winding down our main focus is packing up our apartment and saying goodbye to friends and co-workers. We will be leaving Chicago on June 30th, which is the same day that our house is supposed to be completed. We will be moving into our new home on July 2nd. YEAH!!! So that is what is happening in our lives right now. Lots of changes and transitions, but much excitement ahead as we see what God has in store for us.

May Update

May has been a very busy month for Ben and I. We have been very involved with activities at our church. Two groups we are most involved with at our church are the college and career group and the 1st-5th grade student (primarily the 4th and 5th graders). Ben started a group called the Explorers and we have been meeting for the past year and a half twice a month on Saturday afternoons. In our next blog entry we will be sure to include some recent pictures that we have taken with them. The point of that group is to invest in them and to teach them teamwork and leadership skills. On Saturdays we hang out with them and play games that teach one of those skills and we work on a project for the Sunday morning children's church time. There are 5 kids currently in our group and we love hanging out with them. We are going to miss them when we leave for Indianapolis. We also are involved with the College and Career group at our church and right now Ben and I are planning to lead the group on a retreat May 30th-June 1st. Planning retreats are very big projects, but it is going to be a blast. We also will post pictures of that event when it is finished.

I (Christina) have not found a job yet, but have some leads on jobs. Ben and I went to Indianapolis a couple of weekends ago to turn in Resumes and to get an idea of what kinds of jobs are over there. For the most part it was a productive time, but searching for a job long distance is a challenge. While we were there though we got to see our new house that is being built and it is making great progress. It seems as though they will have it completed in time for our move at the end of June. For right now we have completed our paperwork and it is definitely a relief. We are having fun planning for our new home!

As for this upcoming Memorial weekend we are very excited to being going away with 3 other families to Door County Wisconsin to a beautiful camping park called Penisula State park. We plan to relax and enjoy the great outdoors with hiking, bike riding, campfires and more. We will tell more about that upon our return. We are just glad to be getting away to have fun together and to spend some time with 3 families that we have grown close to over our time at our church. It will be great to make these memories before leaving.

Well... we will write more later. That about summarizes what the month of May has been like for us. Busy... but GREAT!!

The Explorers Group

For the last couple of years I (Ben) have been the coordinator of the Childrens Church program for 1st through 5th graders at church. Together, Christina and I have started a ministry called the Explorers, which is a student leadership group within the Childrens Church group. This group has been meeting about twice a month for over a year, and it's better than ever!

The purpose of the Explorers is to train new students for future ministry by instilling teamwork and leadership skills. All of our meetings include a game, such as Ultimate Frisbee, that lends itself to discussion of teamwork or leadership during snack time. During the meetings we also work on a supplement to the Childrens Church lesson for the following day: perhaps a skit, a poster, a puppet play, or leading a small group activity. In addition to this, each Explorer has a personal responsibility to help the Childrens Church program run smoothly, such as taking attendance, distributing Bibles, cleaning up the supplies, running the CD player, or anything else that the teachers need to be done.

It has been very encouraging to see the growth in these students during the past year. They have grown closer as a group and seem to have a healthy level of respect for us and for each other. They take their weekly responsibilities seriously and do them without having to be asked. Finally, they have come to really take ownership in the activities that we do. For example, in our most recent meeting, we were going to do a puppet play. Even though Christina had thought of a great premise for the play, three of the Explorers immediately had suggestions for the premise of the play, as well as several ideas to make it funny throughout the play.

Although we borrowed the idea for the Explorers from another church, we have developed it significantly. We have recorded the steps that we took in order to get the ministry started and kept records of the activities from each meeting. If you would be interested in starting a similar ministry at your church, you can contact us for advice on starting up a group. Please e-mail us at bcmalan@yahoo.com.

We found a house!

This past weekend we went to visit the church near Indianapolis where I'll be working, and then we looked at several houses. Toward the end of the day we found one that has exactly what we've been looking for! It has plenty of space and is in a great location. It was also at a much lower price than we could have possibly found in Chicago (about a third of the price it would have cost for a similar home in a similar area). With all these things in mind, we signed the papers to say that we are committed to buying it and we will be able to close in the summer and then move in.

Even before we got married, we knew that one of our goals for marriage would be to own our own home, and it's great to realize that it's going to happen sooner than we had expected. Having our house picked out and our mortgage finalized will give us a lot less to think about. Now we just need to start figuring out our priority list for what to buy when we move in.

"Close Friends and Family"

Today we got to be part of a surprise party for Matt Pilditch, whose family we have become very close to in the three years that we've been at the church. The party itself was great (with good people and good food), but it was even more special knowing that only "close friends and family" were invited to attend.

As we look toward moving, we're also looking back at the relationships that we've built. We're excited to see the friendships we have made and we already look forward to coming back to visit our friends from church.

House Hunting

We're about to take a step that we've been looking forward to since getting married: buying a house! We've been looking at homes via pictures, and next weekend (April 20th) we'll go and visit them in person. We are excited and nervous at the same time, since this is our first time at doing all of this. The decisions and paperwork at times can seem overwhelming, but we have gotten great advice from friends and family that has really helped to make all of these decisions seem not has complicated. Also for those who don't know we will be buying a home in Indiana, since Ben just recently accepted a position as a Children's Ministry Director. The church we will be attending is called the Chinese Community Church of Indianapolis. We are both excited about this new journey we are about to embark upon and trust that God will direct our steps the entire way. He has already been working in remarkable ways preparing us for this move, so we look forward to what He has in store for us in this new community. Soo... right now we are excited and sad. Excited to move forward towards what God has planned for our lives, but sad to leave our friends and church family in the Chicagoland area. Everyone here will be greatly missed. We will post more after the Big Search to keep you posted.