Saturday, October 30th, 2010
Gimpo City, South Korea

Dear Family and Friends,

June 30th, 2010, is a date that will long live in my memory. It started just like any other day as I got up at 5, drove my Dad and Derrick to the train station to catch the 5:55 train, and headed into the office to have my personal quiet time before the beginning of the work day. By the afternoon, work projects were in full swing as I worked through another busy day of technical support issues, meetings and phone calls.

Picking up Dad at Hinsdale Train Station

“Adam, your Dad called,” one of my coworkers told me as I returned to my desk. “He said that you won’t need to pick him up from the train today, and asked if you could give him a call.” I was already on my way to another meeting, and the work day was over before I had the chance to return his call, little expecting the news awaiting me at home.

In 2007 our family had returned to the States after two years of serving together in Mongolia, and the Lord again showed His faithfulness in providing my Dad with an excellent job in downtown Chicago. The blessing of the Lord was supremely evident in the favor that my Dad was given as he returned to electrical engineering work at ESD, a company that he had worked at for nine years when our family lived in the Chicago area.

Even though the ecconomy was struggling, and many others were seeking jobs at the time, it was like the Lord was giving us a living demonstration of His promise that as we seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, all these things would be added unto us. -God Himself would undertake to provide for our needs.

But as I came in the door that June evening, Derrick met me with a sober expression on his face, and explained that he and Dad had just been let go from their jobs at ESD. Feeling a little numb with shock, I went upstairs and found Dad and Mom sitting at the dining room table. Dinner was strangely quiet that evening as we all sat processing the unexpected news.

But looking at my Dad’s face, I saw something different. There was a joy and confidence, almost an excitement about what God was going to do next. In the days and weeks that followed, the deeper purposes behind the timing of this unexpected change began to come to light.

When God brought Elijah into the wilderness during a great drought, Elijah was sustained by the ravens and brook. But when the time came for Elijah to move on, God didn’t send an angel with a message, He simply dried up the brook.

God was doing something, and we continued to pray for direction. Was God wanting my Dad to take another job, or was the Lord opening the way for us to return to the mission field? During the three years of working in Chicago, my Dad was enabled to replenish the funds needed to go back out, but we were just seeking the Lord’s confirmation on the timing of our return.

Several months of job applications, resume’s and interviews with engineering firms seemed to indicate that the Lord has closed this door, and my Dad took several days in special prayer for direction. On the final day, he received an unexpected e-mail from Tim and Angie, the couple we had served with in Mongolia, asking if we had any thoughts or plans on returning to overseas work.

After this and other confirmations, the details seemed to fall into place rather rapidly, and a few weeks later we had booked tickets for eight of us to fly to South Korea, where Tim and Angie have based their work in South Korea and Mongolia. Working with IBLP, their vision is to strengthen and Christians and families with sound Biblical teaching, such as IBLP’s Basic Seminar.

IBLP Headquarters

My own responsibilities at IBLP as IT Director were transitioned over to Robert Staddon, a good friend and coworker, and I chose September 17 as my last day. It was hard to leave so many good friends, but I know that God has called me to overseas work, so I feel a special joy in returning to the place God has called me.

Arriving in Korea on October 20th, I have been learning all I can from Tim and Angie before they fly back to the United States on November 6th, where they will take several months to visit family and friends with their new baby Josiah. Because my family will arrive after they leave, I felt that these two weeks of overlap with Tim and Angie would be very helpful as our family makes the adjustment to life in Korea.

We would be grateful for your prayers as we enter into this new season of ministry as a family!

In Christ,

– Adam

View from our Apartment in Korea

Monday, March 9, 2009
Oak Brook, Illinois

Dear Family and Friends,

Over a year has past since my last update, but for our family, much has remained the same. We are still living in Oak Brook, Illinois, near the IBLP Headquarters where David, Rachelle, and I work full time. My Dad and Derrick continue to work in downtown Chicago for ESD, a consulting engineering firm.

While much has remained the same for our family, we have seen some major changes happening all around us. National elections last November brought in a new president, and a cascade of new directions and decisions for our nation. Our economy, once strong and flourishing, is crumbling before our eyes as our nation turns away from the very principles that made this nation great.

Around us we see people who focused their whole lives on material possessions and financial security, only to find their investments evaporating in the wake of plunging markets. Businesses struggle to stay afloat, while families all over this nation face the fears of an uncertain future.

And yet amid the rising tide of fears come some of the greatest opportunities we could ever have in demonstrating the faithfulness of God’s promises before a watching world.

Several weeks ago I and several other home school graduates had the opportunity to sit on a discussion panel at a local home school group meeting and share from our experience in home education, and how it prepared us for work and ministry opportunities in later years.

One of the questions raised was, “Were you prepared to defend your faith as you stepped out into the real ‘world’?” In addressing this question, I shared that I personally believe that the very best preparation for defending your faith is not in memorizing answers for the questions of critics, but in seeing God’s work first-hand in your own life and family.

I clearly remember sitting with my family around our dining room table in our Wisconsin farmhouse eight years ago as my Dad commented on our family’s financial state. Some eight months previously, our family had moved to the farm after a couple years in Maryland. We felt that this was the Lord’s direction for us, and my Dad planned to start his own business doing consulting engineering work.

But somehow things just didn’t seem to work out as we had anticipated. We lived off of our savings, month after month, while my Dad looked for engineering work. The money my Dad had saved was slowly dwindling, and that evening he told us, “It wouldn’t surprise me if God takes us to the very end of what we have, before He shows us His provision.”

Those words may have been quickly forgotten by the younger ones, but for me, they went deep into my heart as I saw my Dad turn in faith to the unfailing promise of our Provider. In Matthew 6 Jesus talked about the daily need for food and clothing, and told His disciples, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

My Dad’s confidence was in the Lord, and he would not be disappointed. God did in fact take us to the end of what we had, but in January of 2002 my Dad was hired by LHB Engineers and Architects, where he worked until our family went to Mongolia several years later.

Why did God take my Dad through nine months with very little income? Was it not for his own children to see a living testimony of faith in the midst of trial?

I don’t know how you are affected by our economy or other pressures right now, but may we use these pressures as opportunities to live out our faith before our family as we build our security on the unfailing promises of God’s Word.

Jesus said, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock” – Matthew 7:24-25