The Whitemans in France

My Old Kentucky Home

Hello from the rolling hills of Kentucky! We spent the last week hanging out with family, running countless errands, and catching up on the sleep we haven’t had since November.

My last project in Colorado Springs was to edit a healing testimony from Alliance pastor John Stumbo. His story is powerful—I couldn’t have asked to finish with a better project. At the end of his story, he is perplexed and saddened when others don’t recognize that it was God’s hand that reached down and brought him healing. His heart aches—“God needs to get some praise out of this!” he says.

Although our circumstances are completely different, my heart aches to see God praised for how we have seen His hand in our own lives. We have been so blessed by many caring friends that watched Maddie and helped us pack. We were blessed by our friends and family that came around us with prayer and encouraging words. Stepping out like this, one could feel very alone—and we have felt anything but alone. So while I genuinely thank each of you, I recognize that this is God’s hand, His plan and provision for us. We are so thankful to God and thankful to him for each one of you. God needs to get some praise out of this!

As of today, we are at almost 50 percent of what we hope to raise before we finish language school and launch into full-time ministry next summer. That means that in a little over two months, we received $10,000 to our launch fund. We are in awe, and we praise God for this!

Yesterday we were able to visit First Alliance Church in Lexington, Kentucky. This is where Jenn and I attended for most of our years in college and were first introduced to the C&MA. After the service, Pastor Steve Elliot introduced us to a French woman who attends the church while staying with a friend in Lexington. Not only does she live in the western suburbs of Paris (where we will live and work), she is a retired professor of film at the Sorbonne University. As she said, “You aren’t here today for just no reason.” What an amazing connection to make. Some might see this as coincidence, but we see this as God’s hand yet again, and we give Him praise!

This is going to be a very special Christmas for us not so much because it is our last Christmas in the United States for a while, but because of the unique perspective we have this year. Since we can take so little, we won’t be focused much on presents. Our focus will be on spending time with family—and being thankful for the gift of Jesus. We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas. And we want to give God praise!

JJ&m