Welcome again to the Able Table!
This past month has been busy as usual! We have BIG adoption news…. Read all the way down to find out!!! During our busy month Ben had a training camp and is getting ready for a new semester of CGA (The Discipleship school) and Libby has been busy with her 23 first graders. Not to mention the two squads that Ben is leading and that are in Jordan Greece Romania and Spain.
Before we get into the details of life, I wanted to let everyone know of an urgent need for Libby and I. We are still $3000 dollars (update $1243 away as of 9/26/17) away from our yearly fundraising deadline on Sept 30th. While that is the current need, we also in need monthly supporters and partners for the coming year. $1200 a month is our support goal. We currently have $400 in monthly support. There is no amount too small for a monthly gift and all gifts are Tax deductible. You can go to bit.ly/SupporttheAbles. You can also subscribe to our blog to hear stories from the field and things we are learning here is Gainesville through work and adoption. Benandlibbyable.myadventures.org
Ben’s work
Ben’s work is still awesome and challenging. The Leadership and Discipleship school that he teaches at has been on break for the past month. Its been a good time to catch our breath after a long summer with 3 training camps, 3 launches and three Project Searchlights. Project Searchlight is a 5 day event after the World Race where we invite our missionaries back to Gainesville GA to reconnect, regroup, get some great teachings and small group time to help with reentry from the Field. Ben is actually headed to Spain on the 23rd of September to meet with both of the Squads that he mentors. Z squad that launched in August is heading to Spain from Paris where they have been working with refugees from all over the Middle east and Africa. T squad that launched in January is heading to Spain from Jordan, Greece and Romania.
Check out this pic from the top of a freighter in the middle of the Caspian Sea by Soloman Childers, a leader on T squad. After crossing the Caspian, they worked with Refugees in Jordan,Greece and Central Europe.
Z Squad was in Paris working with Refugees as well. Some estimates are that 50-100 refugees are entering Paris daily. This is Catherine and Tamara prepping for a new refugee center opening. They were also able to spend the night in the center and welcome the people inside after being on the street for weeks or months.
Libby’s Work
Libby is loving her little classroom family of 1st graders. Libby is making huge strides with this group. This past week when hurricane Irma hit power outages caused school to be canceled for the whole week. Libby was so excited to spend time at home organizing but missed her little ones terribly. Though spending the week eating out of coolers and living by candle light was fun, she was excited to see her little “Able’s Apples” on Monday morning!
Libby also ended a season with one of the girls she has been mentoring/discipling. Kendell just finished the Discipleship school Ben teaches at and is headed to college. Libby disciples 3 women in our community and loves to pour into these young women before they hit their mission field whether it is overseas or on a college campus!
Lastly, one of Libby’s favorite nights of the week is Thursday nights when she gets to go to a local trailer park and teach. She is partnering with one of the girls she disciples to bring lift to parents wanting to learn english. So while these kiddos parents are learning to speak english and learning about Jesus, she is teaching their children all about the word of God and how much He loves them!
Adoption
Drum Roll Please………………………..
Libby and I have great news on the Adoption front. We are matched with a birth mother and she is due Oct 3!!!!! It is so soon!! Ben will get back from Spain on Sept 30th. The nursery is ready and we are very hopeful. We met with the birth mother face to face yesterday. It was a great meeting and she is very kind and sweet. We are very excited to partner with her in this journey. From the start, Libby and I have desired to have an open adoption. As much as we desire to have children, our first goal is to give a child a loving and Christ centered home. Part of what we will believe will help us do that is to maintain a relationship with his birth mother.
Life
We have been very busy with weddings and births here in Gainesville as well. Ten, count em 10 of our friend have had babies in the past 3 months. Adventures is changing big time. When I started nearly three years ago, there were only 2 children at the office. Now there are close to 15 under the age of three. When our baby arrives, he will have a ton of friends to hang out with.
There have also been at least 5 weddings this summer as well. One of our former roommates got married this weekend in Chattanooga. Maybe you saw the video on Facebook. We also celebrated our 10th anniversary on Sept 15th
Coming up we have a Training camp Sept 18-28th and Launch the first week of October. Please pray for the hundreds of missionaries that will be getting trained and sent out this month
Thanks for reading and please continue to pray about supporting us monthly. Any amount is a blessing. bit.ly/SupporttheAbles See ya next time at the Able Table.
