Merry Christmas and December Update

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope that you all are well and enjoying the traditions and preparations for Christmas. It’s hard to imagine that we’re just one week away! We are looking forward to being with family during this holiday time.

A huge thanks to the nearly 90 of you who came out to our Chili Lunch at Surrey Alliance earlier this month. We hope that you learned a lot about what EMI does and how Jay and I will be serving with them.

We also wanted to let all of you know that we have had a HUGE answer to prayer. After Jay told his current employer that he’ll be leaving in the New Year to join with EMI, he also felt that he should ask them if they would be interested in sponsoring us. We weren’t expecting much, if anything, as they are not a Christian company and it really doesn’t make sense for them to be helping us out. But as we’ve been learning in church, God holds the hearts of kings in His hands. About a week ago, Jay went in to speak with his boss about transitioning with someone else to oversee his project, and his boss let him know that the company will be giving us a substantial donation for our trip. They also asked if Jay would be willing to stay on with the company until the end of February to complete the project, which Jay is happy to do. Such an AMAZING answer to our prayer. Thank you again, to all those of you who have been so faithful to pray for us!

What does this mean for our trip to Uganda? First off, this means that we are much closer to meeting our financial goal. Currently, we have raised 85% of the funds that we need to go! Woo hoo! We still need to raise approximately $700 per month, and we are so grateful to all those of you who have been able to partner with us financially. Secondly, this means that we won’t be leaving in early January like we thought, but at the end of February, or early March, which is nice because it means that we have more time to complete our preparations and we get to have a MUCH more relaxed Christmas vacation.

A few notes for prayer:

- that God would continue to provide the rest of our funding

- that our training in Colorado in January would be a great time of equipping for Jay and I and that Nathaniel and Bethany would have some great bonding moments with Jay’s parents in Texas…and that Becky won’t cry too much being away from the kids for so long

We hope that you have a fabulous Christmas!

Love,

Jay, Becky, Nathaniel and Bethany Whisnand

October 23rd:

It is a little early for a complete post, and this week is SO very busy for us with many things happening at church, but for those of you who are interested and who have not received a copy of our support letter, here is a digital copy for the blog. If you would like us to send you a copy, please contact us at jaywhisnand@gmail.com or becky.whisnand@gmail.com.

October Update

Hello again,

Our big summer project was selling our house and moving into a temporary home while we wait to make our big move to Uganda in the New Year. We've done pretty well: pictures are hung and we don't have too many boxes in our basement that need immediate attention;) Soon we'll be packing up again to put things into storage and many many bags to take with us.

Some new things are starting in our lives this fall: Becky has joined a running club and is braving the elements (think rain, rain, and more rain) keeping up with her homework. Jay is having gum surgery this month, which he is NOT looking forward to. We do have something lovely to look forward to this month: Jay's Mom will be visiting us for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend! We are all excited to see her!

We want to say a huge thank you to all of you who joined with us as our support team: we are so grateful to you. We are so blessed to have so many of you praying for us and encouraging us as we navigate this unknown road.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to leave: that we would be strong in our marriage and as a family and that we would be strong in our faith. Also pray for more monthly financial supporters.

If you would like to join our team financially, the best way to give is with electronic funds transfer (EFT) or an E-Check (US) as PayPal charges a service fee on each transaction. All gifts are tax deductible.

To give in Canada: http://emicanada.org/donate.shtml
To give in the US: http://www.emiusa.org/donate.php#

EFT form in the Canada: http://emicanada.org/documents/EFT-EMIC.pdf

So here we are: all ready for the start of God's incredible leading! We'll be joining the staff at Engineering Ministries International (EMI) in their East Africa Office and joining them on projects that they'll be doing. We've signed on for a commitment of 2 years and we'll be initially stationed in the capital city of Kampala, Uganda.