Earland Welch 1926 - 2007

Earland Welch went home to be with the Lord yesterday at approximately 5:15 pm. He passed peacefully surrounded by family. He was positive...laughing, singing and showing concern for everyone but himself, right up until the end. He will be deeply missed by our family.

I will post information about arrangements after the family meets today to discuss them.

Earland Welch

It's been a tough week for our family. Mary's step-father, Earland was diagnosed with cancer last week and was suffering from pneumonia. He was transported on Tuesday night to Maine Medical Center ICU in Portland and is in very rough shape. His cancer has spread quickly and he is having a very difficult time breathing... They are working on his pneumonia first and then will decide what, if anything, can be done with his other issues. Please pray for my mother-in-law, Loni Welch, Earland's daughter Holly and all that know and love Earland.

Earland has been one of my closest friends for nearly 20 years now and it is difficult to imagine what life would be like without him in it. He loves the Lord and knows where he is going, so we can cling to the reality of his future. Earland was called to the ministry in his 50's and pastored two different churches in the Gardiner area. He lost his wife of over 40 years, Irene, to cancer and ended up falling in love with Loni and marrying 17 years ago. They have enjoyed a beautiful marriage and were such a perfect match. Mary does not remember a time without Earland. He and Irene were her parent's close friends, he was her godfather, her pastor (Earland baptized Mary many years ago!) and then through a twist-of-fate, her step-father.
Even now in his suffering, Earland is full of humor and concern for eveyone around him. We love him so much and are praying for God's will to be accomplished.

Back from Guatemala!

Abbie and I returned home after a week in Guatemala last night and were very glad to be back with the rest of the family. We arrived last wednesday and had a really blessed time with the Hastings. I really got exposed to the ministry and spent time in the office with Bob going over plans, budgets and future opportunities. I am so excited about our future in Guatemala and cannot wait to be a part of expanding God's work there. I love the country, the people and can't get there quick enough. I know that only God could give me such emotions for such a different culture.

Quite honestly, I was concerned about just how I would feel once arriving. This was my first visit that I could truly grasp that we would be living there and I wondered what that would feel like. Would I suddenly be asking "what the heck are we doing??? We can't live there!!!" Bob picked us up at the airport and I had a raging headache, it was kindof gloomy weather and the sites of the city started to scare me. We had a nice visit and turned in on the early side. In the morning the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and I was ready to go! I felt very much at home and any fear that might have been there left. My time at the office just reconfirmed for me how I would fit in to the ministry and how much we could accomplish with God's help. There is so much need here and Bob and his team are working diligently to help wherever they can. I am excited to be on the team. Bob has worked so hard over the last several years forming his team and fine-tuning the mission...He is truly gifted in this area. I am praying that we can spend our time together expanding the ministry and serving even more children.

I got to meet several other missionary families and look forward to the sense of community that seems to revolve around all the families serving Christ there. We went to our first Spanish worship service Sunday morning at El Camino Church in San Cristobal. I used a bilingual bible and found that I could follow along with the scripture and get the gist of the sermon. It was really neat singing worship songs I knew and some new ones all in Spanish! I can't wait to be through language training and understand more of the language.

Debra emailed us that she is looking at a home for us to rent just 1 block from our school in San Jose,Costa Rica. She will see it at noon tomorrow. Please pray that this works out for us. With 5 children in tow, being 1 block away would be such a blessing. We should know more tomorrow.

A Few Things I Observed on the Trip:

  • A burning mattress on the sidewalk enroute to the office... Bob said "it looks like someone had a bad night's sleep!"
  • A funeral procession through the street in front of our office with around 100 or more people, a dozen or so who were carrying a casket high above them. They marched into the cemetary.
  • El Dia de Los Muertos - Day of the Dead. The entire weekend Guatemalans celebrate in the cemetary with their deceased relatives by eating, playing, flying kites and making merry around the headstones. The cemetaries are filled with beautiful flowers, thousand of them!
  • The Guatemalan Presidential election was Sunday and the voting stations were surrounded by military with automatic weapons to keep the peace. Guatemala has a new president, Alvaro Colom. He claims to want to combat violence by helping the poor. We'll see. Many have said the same thing with little result.
  • A street carnival that consisted of a broken rickety ferris wheel, turned by the hands of the workers...safe?

Dr. Spiros Zodhiates

I recently found an entry in Wikipedia on Dr. Zodhiates and thought you might be interested in reading about him and his work with AMG. It's a nice recap of his life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiros_Zodhiates

Today's Devotional

In my morning devotion time I read from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. Today's reading was excellent. I encourage you to read it: http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php?month=10&day=27&year=07

2 Months to Go!

We have had a busy week working out details for our upcoming move to Central America... getting quotes on international health insurance, acquiring information for our student visas, ordering school supplies/books and trying to figure out what else we need for our year in Costa Rica. We are beginning to plan out our next two months and time to spend with our family and friends to say goodbye. The holidays are going to be so important for this! We know this will be a hard time for us and our loved ones.

We have been following the blogs of several families already studying at the Language School and are both encouraged and a bit scared as a result! We know this is going to be a huge cultural change for our family and will result in quite a bit of discomfort...something most of us do not purposely pursue in life! While this is a bit frightening to contemplate we know that it will be so good for our family. God has so much to teach us this coming year and we are anxious to learn from Him!

God has really been working on my heart during this entire process. Our work with the children of Guatemala is going to reflect the Heart of Christ. James 1:27 puts it so beautifully, "Pure and undefiled religion is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" All through scripture we see the heart of God reaching out to those who are oppressed, the poor and the downtrodden. What a privelege to carry out that which is so pleasing to our Lord! Interestingly, the thing that keeps most of us from fulfilling James 1:27 is exactly what the last words caution us: keeping oneself unspotted from the world! I know that I have been plenty "spotted" during my life thus far. I pray that our family can walk through the rest of our lives without falling victim to the world's temptations! What a challenge. Isaiah 58 has been very thought-provoking this week. I encourage you to read it. Israel is found "going through the motions" and acting out more pretense than the Heart of God. How many of us spend most days simply going through the motions?

I pray that God speaks to you today and that you will decide to abandon absolutely to Him. It is in our abandon to Him that He is most able to speak to us. If we are shutting out the spirit by living to please ourselves, then how can the spirit work on our behalf?

Moving Ahead!

  • We took the plunge this afternoon and booked our 7 tickets on Spirit Airlines for San Jose, Costa Rica! This will truly be a New Years trip, as we are travelling on January 1! This will be a very interesting way to ring in the New Year! We have already begun working out details with the language school "Instituto de Lengua Espagnol" for housing and covet your prayers for a good home for our year there.

  • I have been busy wrapping things up at work and Mary has been focused on homeschooling Abbie, Jordan and Aaron. She is using the ABEKA curriculum, which is what Sojourn Academy in Costa Rica uses, so they should be able to slide right in to their new school. We will all be in school together and probably doing homework around the diningroom table in the afternoons! I wonder if we'll have recess together?!!

  • First Baptist Church in Portland http://www.firstbaptistportland.org/ starts their Missions Conference next Friday and we are looking forward to our part in all of the different events. One we are really looking forward to is called "Passports Around the World". We will be with different missionaries from around the world, explaining our work to all attendees in round-robin type sessions.

Old Orchard Beach

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with our good friends, the Paulls and their 9 kids at our temporary home in Old Orchard Beach. Here are some photos from the weekend:



Fall Fun




The kids had a great visit to Butternut Farm Orchards on Tuesday with the Paull family... our great friends at Alton, NH. Here are some photos...

Temporary Residence Found

We went to look at a very reasonable rental for 10/1 to 12/31 in Old Orchard Beach today and liked it so much that we signed up on the spot... so, we'll be moving in the end of the month and have a place to stay until we leave for Costa Rica on the 29th of December. We needed something furnished, as we no longer own furniture, and it was indeed a challenge to find something for just 3 months. Thank you for all your prayers and we look forward to seeing you at OOB. The owners were extremely nice people and even invited the kids in with us to have cookies.

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