Gracie Reading to Allie

Gracie loves to read and her goal has been to read to Allie. She always asks Allie if she wants a book read to her. So proud of our girl!!

While You Were Sleeping

Why We Are Going To Ethiopia

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you know that we are in the process of adopting two boys from Ethiopia. Some of you have also heard of the Lord's leading in our next step of faith: the Meyer family is moving to Ethiopia for next semester (January through June). We will be working under the leadership of SIM (Serving in Mission). SIM is an interdenominational mission organization whose main focus is to glorify God by evangelizing, ministering, discipling, and establishing national churches that fulfill the Great Commission. My main ministry opportunity in Ethiopia will be teaching the Gospels at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. We would love to explain how the Lord has worked in our hearts to lead us to this exciting decision.

We began to be confronted with the idea of moving to Ethiopia as we meditated on the meaning of the gospel. It all started when one of our agency workers recommended that we seek a referral for a new child because of certain difficulties in the adoption process with our two boys. Those words were unthinkable and unsettling, but the situation brought the gospel into clear focus. We owe our salvation to the relentless, loving, patient pursuit of God. God in Christ took a "whatever it takes" approach to redeem and rescue us when we were helpless sinners. Therefore, we long for our relentless, loving, patient advocacy for these boys to serve as a model of the gospel.

Having resolved that we were not going to give up on them because God never gave up on us, we considered how we could expend every effort and use up every option at our disposal. The gospel surprised us again with its challenging, yet compelling beauty. The glory of the incarnation is that Jesus left heaven to come to earth and dwell among us in order to bring us into God's family. Suddenly, the distance did not seem so great between Louisiana and Ethiopia. The "sacrifice" seemed surprisingly small to leave the comforts of America for Ethiopia when we compared them to Christ's loving act of leaving the glories of heaven for the hardships he faced on earth. We are gladly bringing our family to the boys rather than waiting to bring the boys to our family.

Our time in Ethiopia is now about so much more than the adoption of our two boys. We have a chance to proclaim the true gospel. One of the problems in Ethiopia is a false teaching that Jesus is part God and part man, not fully God and fully man as the Bible teaches. It is no coincidence, but providence that they assigned me to teach a class on the Gospels! We long to see the Ethiopians worship Christ in His full glory because He alone is worthy of their praise. "Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you" (Ps 67:3). Our prayer is not to be seen or to be admired as we take this step. Our prayer is for Christ to be seen and admired in all the stunning beauty of His majesty. O how we long to see Him more clearly and proclaim His glory more faithfully and passionately in and through this mission. It has the potential to be the biggest catalyst for spiritual growth that we have ever experienced together as a family.

My main purpose for writing this letter is to enlist an army of prayer warriors for prayer support for our ministry in Ethiopia. We are also beginning the process of fund raising. We will need to raise $19,504 to cover flight costs, medical insurance, and living expenses while in Ethiopia. The financial support for this trip must be raised before we can leave the U.S. on January 11. If the Lord leads you to partner with us financially, you may return your gift with our STA#33929 on the enclosed response card to the SIM office. SIM will send you a tax-deductible receipt for your gift. Please know that this is not a "we will mention prayer in passing, but we really hope you give money" kind of letter. We pray that the Lord will lead you as He sees fit. We pray that He will raise up many to give cheerfully to this cause, but our greatest need is for many more to intercede for us faithfully before the throne of grace because His grace is our greatest need. We know that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).

Yours in the greatest cause,

The Meyer family

202 Iris Park Drive
Pineville, LA 71360
318-542-2823

SIM information

P. O. Box 7900

Charlotte, NC 28241

704-587-1518

Running A Half-Marathon

Yesterday I did something I thought I'd never do. I ran a half-marathon, 13.1 miles. I couldn't have done it without the accountability and encouragement of my running partners, who are 10x better than me. I aspire to run like them someday!! I ran my personal best, which shocked even myself. I finished in 2 hours 11 min. The funny part was that I actually placed second in my age catagory. My response was complete shock. It was a smaller race and there must not have been a lot in my class. I told Jason that the Lord had a sense of humor, making my first race one that I place. I am sure that will be the last time!! Here a few pictures from yesterday. It rained that day, so I was wet. The rain actually made it more refreshing when we ran.
From left to right. Anna Magee(she was the one that I ran with until mile 10..I couldn't have done as well as I did without her). Carine Mattix(she was my 5 am running partner...she is an awesome running and encourager) Brenda Pierson(LC biology professor that ran sometime with us on the weekends). Jon(LC student that is a cross country runner that on a whim decided to run the half-marathon and had never run that far in his life. His time: 1 hour 45 min!! Puke!! ;)

Photography Mania

cheek to cheek with my princesses!!

Enjoying the pumpkin patch and collecting mini pumpkins!!

Beautiful fall weather and doing a little hiking. We had to find walking sticks!!

Behind Jason and the girls is huge cane plants. The girls had fun exploring the woods!

posing in front of a cool mushroom. Have yet to find out what it was. Lots of flowers and berries too. The girls thought each find was a treasure and gushed with excitement. Trying to take picture shots in my mind of all these memories.

The following pictures were taken when the girls dressed up for a little tea time with mommy. I thought they looked too cute to pass up. K...just a proud mama!! :)

Allie thinking that vacuuming is a blast!! What a goof-ball.

A Shimmer of Hope?????

Some good friends of ours, the Stutzman's are adopting three siblings from Ethiopia. Jake the father has gone over there due to problems with the progress of their case. While he was over there, he was able to ask about our case. They told him that the situation with the boy's father had been resolved and that as soon as someone can travel to the region, that they can come back to the transition home. We were estactic to receive this news, but also very cautious. We have gotten wrong information in the past and don't want to set our hopes in this too much. So we continue to pray with fervor that the Lord will continue to put His hand upon our case. We see this as another sign that it will be very good for our case if we were over there. It seems that if they can put a face and family with the case that it may help things possible move more quickly.
We never give up hope that the Lord will work in mighty ways!!

BTW....tomorrow is Orphan Sunday.

A challenge: Satan does not want to see orphans or broken children united with families. Please pray, support, or encourage someone who is or has adopted and be prayerful if the Lord is leading you in this direction. It is a mandate in the Bible to care for widows and orphans!!

Life's Inconveniences

this from an out-of-print book, The Life and Letters
of Janet Erskine Stuart. (Says one who was her assistant for some years),

"She delighted in seeing her plan upset by unexpected events, saying that
it gave her great comfort, and that she looked on such things as an
assurance that God was watching over her stewardship, was securing the
accomplishment of His will, and working out His own designs. Whether she
traced the secondary causes to the prayer of a child, to the imperfection
of an individual, to obstacles arising from misunderstandings, or to
interference of outside agencies, she was joyfully and graciously ready to
recognize the indication of God's ruling hand, and to allow herself to be
guided by it."