First week of school…

The first week of school has come and gone.  I know God was right there because it went so much better than I thought it would.  Thank you to all who prayed.  Emma is trying to remember where all of her classes are in the High school building while Wyatt is adjusting to the changes of life as a High schooler.  Sophie loves a challenge, but  a new grade is bringing frustrations as she doesn't know what is expected of her yet. Cale said his most difficult part of the day is lunch.  He is a slow eater, and doesn't like rushing through.  Here are some pictures from the first day:

 

Steps

God has each of us walking down a different path.  One might be easy to tread, while others have a path of much more difficulty.  If we keep God at the end of the path, there will be times that we can’t see His light.  I feel like the true way to journey is with God right with us, walking each step.  As Christians, we have the assurance that “He will never leave us…”.  My relationship with God is exactly that-a relationship.  He is my Guider.  My provider.  My sustainer.  My strength.  When I realize that my every breath is from Him, my steps are sure.  Now, I didn’t say easy, I said sure.

Our family has been walking down a path this year that we have never been on before.  All this is new.  And we are about to take some steps this next week that I don’t want to take.  We are sending a child off to high school, and another to Junior high…one to middle school, and another to elementary (no more half day Kindergarten-he is full days now.)

I know that each one of them has a relationship, their own relationship, with God.  And I know that they will not be alone.  God will be with each of their steps.  These are amazing opportunities to hold a little tighter to His hand, to speak His Name in times of nervousness, and to boldly shine His light in a school that desperately needs His love.

Please pray for them.  Pray for me as I let them go.

Rachel

MKs

I wanted to give you a glimpse into the hearts of the MK’s we were able to be with for our two weeks in Ohio.  One of the kids said that the best part of being an MK is that it made her “color” blind.  I LOVE that idea.  When you look at people you don’t see the skin color, you see the person.  When asked about the hardest part of being an MK, here are a few of the answers:  “…Pieces of my heart are scattered all over the world.”  “…the expectations put on you.”  “I will never belong to one place.”  “Being misunderstood.”

Many of them talked about feeling so naïve and out of place in America all alone.  When we told them that we were here for them, and that we were here to help them out and be their “home” away from home, you could see their fear subside a bit. 

Something as simple as going to Subway for lunch was quite overwhelming to them.  We took them there one day and helped them through the craziness of what to chose and how it works.  One kid was talking about getting a little milk in a carton and not knowing how to open it.  Another kid was scared about driving and unsure where to find a driver’s ed program and how to afford all that.  We had some great discussions about dating, and how American guys and girls are different from what they are used to.

It was so therapeutic for our whole family to be around all these kids.  I saw our own four kids just open up in such a freeing way-being around kids that understand you has a way of doing that.  It was so hard for us to say good-bye, but exciting because we know that through this ministry we will get to see them again.

Thank you for praying for us.  Keep it up.  We need wisdom in how we should navigate through these uncharted waters.

Love you

Rachel

I want you to hear what we have been up to these last few weeks.  Garth, and I and all the kids have been at Cedarville University helping put on a re-entry program for 31 MK's (missionary kids).  There were five kids there that we had with us in Papua!  It was fantastic to connect with them again.  There were so many helpful topics covered-dating, setting boundaries, the differences between their home culture and America, how to develop a worldview, grief and loss, bank accounts, how to write a check...and then we threw in some times of fun, like mini-golf, the beach, a scavenger hunt, baseball game etc. Many kids had never done mini-golf, or been to a baseball game.  The whole time was SO much fun!  It was quite beneficial for our kids as well.  They really enjoyed being around kids that understood what they are going through.

Thanks for praying.

Rachel=

Our road trip was so wonderful!  It was a total of about 1,700 miles through 7 states.  We were able to see lots of friends and a whole group of our kids from Indonesia!  How fun is that?

We attended the wedding of a girl we knew in Indo and then after we were able to hang out with all the kids that were in the area.  There is a huge group of MK's attending Toccoa Falls College in Georgia, and about 19 from where we were in Papua, Indonesia!  It was such a treat for us to see all those familiar faces.

Right now we are on our way back to Wisconsin where we will be until Friday when we will leave for Ohio.  We will be a part of a 2 week re-entry seminar.  Garth and I are leading the session on Dating.  There will be 31 MK's at this seminar, 5 of which were with us in Indo.  There are also seminars just like this taking place in LA and Portland at the same time.  Please pray for the speakers and all of the kids traveling to be a part of these. It is a fantastic time of bonding and finding helpful information for making a smooth transition.

Thanks for your prayers for this trip!  It was so worth it!

Love you

This boy was in our Hostel in Indo:

All these people were at one time living in Papua

TRIP

Hi.  Hope you had a great Fourth of July.  We had a wonderful time with family.  Today we are getting ready to drive to Kentucky, and then Georgia.  We will be staying with some friends along the way.  One of our kids from Indo is getting married!  It will be such a time of excitement and celebration to see people we haven't seen for a year or so.  We are all really looking forward to it.

Please pray for safe travels, and that we would be a blessing and encouragement to everyone around us.

Parker

Such happy days for the Erickson family lately!!  The moment we have all been waiting for for about 13 years has finally arrived…we got a dog!!  Can you believe it?  She is so beautiful.  The family before us named her Parker.  She is a five year old black lab, and is much adored by all.  We all know that she was a blessing straight from God.  The whole process was quite quick, but we could not be more thrilled.

Also, Wyatt turned fourteen this past week.  That is a crazy thought for me to wrap my brain around.  We had his birthday party on Sunday and after he blew out his candles he said, “This is the first birthday I haven’t had to wish for a dog.”  The kids are finally done with school (yahoo!) and Wyatt graduated from 8^th grade on Friday.  He is enjoying being on the Williams Bay baseball team and had a soccer tournament in Oshkosh this weekend where they took second place.  A great family friend decided to give Wyatt his pickup truck for his birthday (also known as “Ole Blue).  Wyatt could not be more excited.  A dog, and a truck…talk about a fantastic birthday!!!!

Gath and I have had meetings last week and this week for Barnabas.  It is good for us to learn more about the ministry, and put faces to people’s names.  Last year we were still out of the country when Barnabas had their orientation and yearly meetings so now we are finally able to attend.

Side note:

I have been trying to send this email out with pictures since June 5^th.  But our computer has had other ideas!  We have had more problems with losing our internet…finally had a technician fix that and the computer is freaking out and not running right.  I am hoping Garth can fix it one more time.  I have all these ideas swirling around my head just waiting for me to write them down, and it is frustrating not being able to do so.

Anyways, we have much to be thankful for.  Especially our newest addition-Parker.  I will send pics as soon as I can.

Love you

Rachel