Back from Vietnam!

Dear friends,

Hello to everyone! I have returned from an excellent trip to Vietnam only to be replaced in Asia by my traveling husband! As I write this from the comfort of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Steve is teaching and sweating in India. His time at the School of Frontier Media in Thailand went well and I know he was blessed to see our teammates who continue to hold down the fort in Chiang Mai. He has moved onto Jaipur, India to teach in a Media Discipleship Training School for a week and to test the rough-cut (sort of the first draft) of the evangelistic film in Marwari that was shot in April. He has even had the unexpected blessing of being reunited with his suitcase that was taking its own trip in India for the last 12 days! I'm sure he will have many details to share when he returns on August 20th.

My trip to Vietnam was a blessing and a treat! I was able to accompany my oldest friend Jenifer (friends since 7th grade!) as she led a short-term team to Da Nang, Vietnam. Jenifer runs an orphan ministry in Western Mass and this trip was to support the work of Orphan Voice, an agency caring for orphans in two locations in Da Nang (check 'em out: www.orphanvoice.org). I had the privilege of coming along to help and to shoot video. I will be producing and editing a promotional video for her ministry as well as a travelogue of sorts to document the trip. While we were there, we spent as much time as possible just holding and getting to know the kids. We also took all 50 of them to the dentist and spent time beautifying one of the orphanages with paint and a new wall. The three guys on our team completed an entire playscape—no easy feat since there are no Home Depots around and the lumber was delivered by bicycle! It was a wonderful opportunity to be part of this trip. I loved every minute of it.

Now that I am home I am quite busy with two research projects for Create and running my kids around to appointments and things. In addition to my work with Create, I have also signed on with Todd Johnson (fellow YWAMer and director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell) to assist as an editor in his next publication The World Christian Chronology. Todd has recently co-edited The Atlas of Global Christianity, a beautiful book that references the status of global Christianity for the past 100 years. These volumes are important to understanding the status of world missions and for planning the continuing work in the unreached world. I am very excited to be part of it! This does not change my status as associate staff with Create International but complements the work we are doing in the field nicely.

Once Steve is back we are taking a short support-raising trip down the east coast with stops to see Steve's dad in Maryland, and other members of our support team in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia. We are cramming this trip in while getting the kids prepared for school and Samuel off to college! It continues to be our busiest summer ever and no vacation yet! :) Please pray for safety in travel, great appointments with family and friends, and the finances necessary to pull this speedy trip off successfully.

As we are learning, it seems to be these busiest times that the enemy comes against us. I'd like to ask you to join us in prayer for a few things. First, Samuel has been battling headaches and persistent, severe eczema for a while now. Despite many doctors' advice, medicines and creams he just can't seem to get ahead of it. It has been an increasing problem all summer and seems to be in a bit of a crisis now. Would you please pray for relief for Samuel? He is worn down and depressed and we want to see him healed of this—especially before he heads off to school. We want him to start off his college career in great health—and we will need a miracle now for this to happen. Gratefully, we believe in a God of miracles.

The second prayer request is in the area of our finances. Through many of you God has provided so beautifully and generously for our ministry travel expenses—it has been a miracle to watch and we are always in awe as the Lord gives us the green light for a project and then provides for it. While our travel has been covered, our living expenses have become steadily more and more difficult to manage. Our regular support has recently diminished because of changes in people's employment and income level. It also seems like our car is requiring regular trips to the garage to keep it going and that repeated expense has been beyond our budget. We know what it is to enjoy an abundance and to be in want. We have had many natural ups and downs over the past years but this time it feels like an attack designed to discourage us and throw us off course. Our desire is to raise the necessary funds to return to the field with the rest of our team. Would you please join us in prayer as we resist the enemy in the area of financial discouragement? We know that God means to keep us dependent on him—and we welcome that—but we also know it is not his way to beat us down. And we are feeling a little beaten these days.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to follow along with us. We are grateful for you. We are also grateful for the extraordinary privilege it is to do this work for the Lord. We would not trade it for any amount of money or the promise of health or even for a brand new car. We intentionally stepped out of the world of working for profit in order to follow this call and we do not regret it—no matter how hard some days may be. Thanks for standing in prayer with us. We pray for you, too!

Bless you all,
Allyson & Steve