Our Teammates Arrive in 'Vila-town'

'Vila-town'... bislama for 'Port Vila'.

The Richards in Vanuatu - Gretchen & Addy, Houghton, Jesiah, and Gwenny

Houghton, Gretchen and Laura arrived in Vanuatu a little over a week ago. They are doing great! We just got a phone call (can you believe it, a phone call!) from Houghton today. Completely unexpected, but an awesome blessing to hear from them. They got a good rate, but not good enough that they are going to be calling home everyday!

We are so excited for them! God is providing... a place to stay, language helpers and friends, the kids are doing well, and they are adjusting to the time change. They are in temporary housing for now, looking for permanent housing for themselves, the Jones', and us.

Houghton looking off his front porch with his machete.

Friends, it wont be long until we are sending home to you our own pictures!



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A Special Thank You...

...to our gracious hosts who provided 'homes away from home' while we traveled around the country to share the ministry. Thank you for letting us be a part of your family for a little while and for introducing us to the people in your lives. Your generosity and hospitality were an indescribable blessing to our family and we mean that from the bottom of our hearts.
May the LORD bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you, and give you peace.

With love,
Jim, Tania, Gracie, and Joshua





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"The End of the Road"

We have come to the end of our road trip. Late on Wednesday night we arrived back at Jim's mom's in Shelton, Washington where we will stay for the next several weeks until it is time to go. It was a great trip. We got to see a lot new places and meet many new people. The Lord provided every bit of the way. The fact that we still have our sanity after two months on the road is a testimony to that!

Now it is time for a different kind of work. Right now Jim is out in the garage working on the Jeep, outfitting it for getting us around in Vanuatu. (We are going to be storing it at my brother's until it is time to ship it.) We have a list of things we need to order to get our family ready as well. Among other things, we ordered this thing called a 'Steripen'. It uses UV light to purify drinking water. It kills the stuff like viruses and bacteria that you don't get out just with filtering. Jim is going to need that for the time the guys will spend in the Bush. We've started on the mountain of VISA and VA paperwork. Well, that is just a taste of what we are up to right now. We will keep you posted over the next several weeks!


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We have Tickets! (August Update)

That’s right! Non-refundable, one-way tickets! September 21st , a little less than 2 months from now, the four of us will be boarding an airplane to fly from LAX to Vanuatu. This is it, the home stretch! We are on our way. We hope as you read this we are conveying the overflowing excitement and praise to our Provider that we feel in our hearts.
However, the work is far from done. Read on…

Last preparations
Honestly, we are very excited but at the same time we feel a little overwhelmed.
Please pray with us for the Lord to provide the last of our monthly support budget (see graph to the right) that is needed before we go. We trust our heavenly Father, and know He will provide precisely what He knows we need. Pray that we will continue to rest in that promise.
Among the other work left to do - Loads of information to gather so we can apply for our Australia and Vanuatu VISAs; apply for permission to continue to home school while we are in Australia for 2009 (public school would cost $6000 each for Grace and Josh since we are not Australia citizens); finalize paperwork for Jim’s G.I. Bill which we are relying on to help with the expense of the Equip linguistics training; and of course… we have to pack!
Your prayers are needed for these last preparations, and for wisdom and discernment as we finalize our packing list and make final purchases of things we will need during this initial 3 months in Vanuatu.
The LORD has been answering our prayers! And we trust that He will continue to do so.

Units of prayer, combined like drops of water,
make an ocean that defies resistance.
–E.M. Bounds

Field Preparation Seminar
The time we spent at Biblical Ministries Worldwide’s international office was wonderfully refreshing and absolutely exhausting at the same time! Class time was spent learning about and discussing such things as practical evangelism and discipleship, training national leaders, language and culture acquisition, family in ministry, teamwork on the field, emergency management, and much more. BMW is definitely committed to doing all they can to ensure the success of the ministry, not to mention our family.
The kids had a great time too! Gracie seemed to think she was at summer camp. And Joshua had two other boys his age to pal around with, ‘The Three Musketeers’! They were nearly inseparable!
This time was a great chance for all of us to get to know others in the BMW family a little better. We came away from Pre-Field knowing that we are cared for, and grateful for the further equipping we received. We are excited for the opportunity soon coming to put into practice the things that we learned.


What Now?
We are in Montana for a couple of days before we continue on our way back to Washington. This will be our last visit to our home church before leaving for the field, therefore, they are officially sending us out (commissioning us). This is just the beginning of a long list of “See-ya-later’s”, (we don’t do good-bye’s).
Once back in Washington we will continue with pre-field ministry and final preparations up until the day we board the plane to Vanuatu.

Thank you for your prayers as we traveled these last two months. God is so good! The car didn’t break down once, not even a flat tire, praise God! A reliable car truly is a blessing. The Lord answered the prayers on our behalf for safe travel, strength, and good health… giving us just what we needed, right when we needed it.

Thanks for holding the ropes! It is a comfort to know that you are praying with us.

In His hand,
The Kenners


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Back on the Road

Well, we left Georgia yesterday morning, and made it to Wisconsin last night. We didn’t get in until very late. The plan was to drive a long way yesterday so we could have an easy day today. About 10pm we pulled into the town we decided to stop at and evidently there was major flooding in the area. We hadn’t heard anything about it in the news. The hotel clerk told us we weren’t going to be able to get a room within a 3 hour radius! It must have been some pretty bad flooding. We saw people being directed into emergency shelters. We still haven’t heard anything more about it. The clerk was right though… we drove for about 3 hours and found another place to stay. Ahh, the adventure of a road trip!

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We're Here - BMW International Headquarters

We arrived yesterday evening with plenty of time to get settled in before turning in for the night. Travel was uneventful. To those of you who have been praying for us... Thank you. We will get pictures posted - hopefully soon - so you can get a visual of where we are and who we are with!

Classes start bright and early tomorrow morning, and we are ready! Grace is about ready to climb out of her skin she is so excited. She commented today, "This is better than summer camp!"

We will keep you posted!

Here are the pictures we promised...




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4th of July...

We hope everyone had a safe and fun Independence Day! We celebrated with family in Houston. See some pictures in the 'Kenner Family Album' (link to the right).

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