April Update

I can hardly believe that April is over.  We have been so busy, the year is just flying by.  The Lord has blessed us with a full schedule, and wonderful meetings and conferences.  We have made many new friends this month and connected with several old ones.

Enjoying family:We had the opportunity this year to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.  It had been years since our family had made the trip downtown to see it.  The beauty of the trees coupled with the water and majestic monuments made for a spectacular day.  I was so blessed to be able to share this experience wih my parents, who had never been to the Cherry Blossom Festival before.  I praise the Lord for these precious moments with our family.

Extreme Makeover:At the beginning of the month we had a few free days, and I was finally able to redecorate our room. I love it.  It feels so much more open and comfortable.  I'm so thankful for my good friend Melissa who helped with the pillows (aren't they great?)

 

 

A month of Serving: I have earnestly prayed and sought opportunities to help and serve the churches that we visit.  This month the Lord has given me many oportunities to help churches with tracts, booklets, missions conference materials, decorating, cleaning, organizing,  etc....It has been so refreshing to be able to help and serve others. 

 

Conference Marathon:We are currently in a marathon of back to back conferences.  We'll have 14 nights straight of conferences, two days to travel and then another grouping of conferences.  Luckily, our family loves missions conferences.   They gives us lots of opportunities to meet new friends and talk to veteran missionaries. Please pray that the Lord will use us to impact others for misions as we share our passion and calling for the people of the Dominican Republic.

 

Junior Rangers: The kids have been able to earn two more Junior Ranger badges this month!  The Junior Ranger program has been soooo exciting for them, and something that they can take advantage of on the road.  They have learned so much and really enjoy earning their badges.  The J. R. program is free and something that you can fid in every state you visit.  The program is perfect for traveling MK's!http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm

  For more information visit:

Praises:

*We have all stayed healthy

*Safety in travel

*We've raised 10% of our set-up fund

*Chad was able to lead his uncle to the Lord this month

 

Prayer Requests:

*RV is struggling

*Van transmission is growing worse

*Safety as we travel

*Set-up/Visas fund

*Promised support to continue coming in

*We are still hopeful that we will be able to fly down to the DR in June, but it will depend on our support next month

*Cynthia's laptop died

*We are collecting items for our move

 

 

Thank you for carrying our family to the Lord in your prayers.  Without prayer we cannot advance.

 

 

 



 

 

 

Mango Salsa

Nothing marks the end of winter at the Pape house like bringing home the first mango, which at our house means MANGO SALSA!!  We love it with chips, and as a chutney over chicken.  My husband loves it so much he'll just grab a spoon and dig in  :-)  Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

 

MANGO SALSA

 

Dice as finely as possible:

1 Jalepeno      1 Lg. ripe mango     1/2 red onion     1 cucumber     handful of cilantro  

 

squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lime.  Blend 1/2 of the mixture with  a hand blender and refrigerate for 1 hour - if you can wait.

 

Enjoy  

 

 

 

 

 

March Update

March has been a crazy-fun month, filled with many surprises and blessings!  This is a map of our travels for the month of March.  We did quite a bit of driving and even flew to Colorado!  I'm sure you will see how God specifically blessed each member of our family this month by surprising us with things unique to each one of us!  God is so good, and blesses us so richly.

 

Kicking off the month with a conference in Ohio: We began the month with a missions conference in Canton, OH.  We made many friends there and enjoyed our time at the church.  We had the opportunity to speak to the bus kids on Sunday, and enjoyed our time with them!

 

Creation Museum: From Ohio we headed south to Nashville, TN.  We noticed we were going to be driving right through Cinncinati, so we stopped at the Creation Museum.  It was a great experience for our family.  We really enjoyed our time there and were very impressed with the museum.  It would be well worth your time to visit!  Every pass is good for 2 days, and with so much to see and do you'll want to go back!

Making friends in Nashville: Our time in Nashville was very special.  The church was such a blessing and we enjoyed the other missionaries there as well.  During the conference there we had the opportunity to tour the Grand Opry Hotel, see the Bill Rice Ranch, go horseback riding, and I even got to cook enchiladas for everyone!  The highlight of our time there was going bus visiting and seeing the heart of the workers for those kids.  We were able to visit in Nepali and Spanish neighborhoods while there!

 

Colorado: Chad and Jonathan flew to Colorado for a missions conference in Cortez.  They enjoyed seeing the Rockies and were impressed by the vibrant ministry there.  The other kids and I enjoyed just sitting still for a few days, catching up on laundry, cleaning, and correspondence!

 

Experiencing Revival: Our visit to Mesquite, TX was incredible.  The church was in a state of Revival and the Holy Spirit moved freely through all of the services.  Everyone was sharing testimonies of people they'd led to the Lord or were trying to reach for the Lord.  It was exciting to be around such a group.  These girls were a special blessing.  They shared their calling and burden to missions.  I enjoyed talking with them and answering their questions.  I'm looking forward to seeing what God does through the lives of these faithful teens.

God even blesses Cowboys' fans: As most of you know, we have a Cowboys fan in our family.  This Cowboys fan has ALWAYS wanted to see Cowboy Stadium...We had planned to drive by it so he could see it, but a kind family gave us tickets to tour the Stadium.  It was very impressive, but what we enjoyed the most was seeing how God blessed our son.  He was able to see how God blesses us when we serve Him faithfully and that God cares about the little things we want.

 

Our dream come true:

Since we started deputation we've dreamed of the day when the Lord would allow us to visit St. Louis and Cardinals Stadium.  The Lord provided, through other die-hard Cardinal fans, for us to tour the stadium!  It was such an encouragement to see how the Lord answered our kids prayers to someday see it  :-)  We praise and thank the Lord for the opportunity, not only to serve Him as a family, but also to play together and enjoy life together!

 

We toured the Bearing Precious Seed Warehouse and saw how they print and ship Bibles all over the world!  This was particularly exciting for me, as I've always had a passion for printing  :-)

 

 Rebecca met her favorite author Marsha Hubler (Keystone Stables Series), who gave an autographed copy of her newest book!  Becca never dreamed she would have an opportunity to ever meet one of her favorite authors!

 

 

This month we tried out deputation in the van.  It was quite an experience for us.  We got to stay in an adorable Bed & Breakfast, a nice hotel, and with some friends.  We will be trying to travel more out of our van, this will help us to start saving money for our move later this year.

 

We were blessed to be able to spend Easter helping at City Baptist in Hoboken!  It's a new church plant and this ws their first Easter!  Our family had the opportunity to go out canvassing Friday and Saturday.  It was a blessing to get out on the streets and meet the people of Hoboken.  There was a new visitor and a young man recieved Christ!  Serving the Lord with friends is such a blessing!

 

PRAISES

*God's goodness to our family in all He has allowed us to do this month

*3 new supporting churches this month

*God kept us safe through all the driving we did this month

*Thankful for the oportunites to be a help in the churches we've visited

*God has kept us healthy on the road

 

PRAYER REQUESTS

*Van transmission is struggling and needs replaced

*Safety as we travel

*Set-up/Visas fund

*That our promised support would continue to come in

*We would like to go to the DR in June to set up our housing

*Cynthia's laptop died and she is need of another

*That we're able to get together all the items we need to take with us to the DR

*Pray for the Garcia Family, missionaries to Equatorial Guinea (lost their son)

 

 

 

 

PAPE FUNNY:                       As we drove into Hoboken, Jonathan notices the "art" on the buildings and asks, 'Is that Calligraphy?'