We walk by faith, and not by sight...

Right now Mike (Sr.) & Kelly are wrapping up their last few days of a 2 1/2 week trip to Rwanda.  They left on December 27th and met up with a team from All God's Children International.  The first week was spent putting on several Christmas parties.  Now that the team has left Mike & Kelly are taking care of other things.  Mike has several things to accomplish for Ten Talents Rwanda, please be praying for God to help him, give him wisdom and grace, and to guide everything.

There have been a lot of changes for Mike in the last 2 months.  In November he wrote this letter to our supporters:

Dear Friends,

As I prepared for another trip to Rwanda, I said good bye to my ill father and reassured him that it was ok to stop fighting death for his family’s sake.  We knew he was in extreme pain because his heart and lungs were failing, and it just felt selfish to ask him to hold on any longer.  So after saying good bye for what I knew was the last time, I boarded a plane and headed to Rwanda to visit someone else whose heart was failing. Only, unlike my father who had lived a long full life, this was just a child.  As I stood before him in the hospital room, his mom next to him with tears in her eyes, I couldn’t help feeling like I was ready for a fight of my own.  Not a fight with flesh and blood but with the kingdom of darkness that was trying to take this child’s life.  So, while it was painful to hear that my father had passed away the day I arrived in Kigali, it made me all the more determined to see this boy, Benjamin, healthy again.   Through a series of miracles, Benjamin received a heart valve transplant in the Sudan and made full recovery.  He is able to celebrate in vigorous dance and play soccer with others his age. Now a little over two years after surgery, you would never believe he was the same person I saw in the hospital room.

I am so grateful to God and to our supporters for the opportunity todevote all of my time over the last four years to the ministry of Ten Talents International.  So much was accomplished: new programs were started, new staff were hired and trained, children were rescued, the lives of families were changed, the hungry fed, and supporters added to the team.  All the while, God provided in miraculous ways. 

There is no doubt in my mind that He is not done yet.  He has more great things planned for TTI and Rwanda.  So, while I am not ready to say, “It is finished” - I do believe “Mission accomplished” is in order.  Nearly five years ago, I heard God say to me, “Now is the time.”  I knew he meant, “Now is the time for Rwanda, and now is the time for me to devote myself full time to the work he had called us to.”  With my wife’s full support, I stepped away from a great career as a union carpenter working for a reputable company, to take a leap of faith.  I was believing that God would provide, and as I have said, he did provide in miraculous ways. 

Because of the things that God helped us accomplish, the staff we were able to put in place, and the training we were able to provide to that staff in Rwanda: I believe it would be in the best interest of the ministry if I now step back from a full time position and find employment elsewhere.  This will free up resources that could be put to use in other areas that need them. 

The last few weeks I have been working as a union carpenter, and I am not sure how long the work will continue, but I am confident that God, who has always been our provider, will open the right doors.  I am still very involved with the continuing ministry of Ten Talents in Rwanda, and I will still lead short term mission teams to Rwanda at least twice a year, but I will be asking Lisa to take on more of the day to day responsibilities around the TTI office.  This ministry is not slowing down, in fact we believe that God is going to enable it to expand and deepen, as it is His desire that more hearts and lives be changed for His kingdom.  The nation of Rwanda is still a ready and ripe harvest field.  As we show them the compassion of Christ we believe their hearts will be opened to the truth of his salvation.

If you have any questions about this transition, please feel free to send me an email or give me a call.  Of course we would greatly appreciate your prayers for our family and for the ministry.

God Bless You,

Michael McColm

We praise God because Mike was able to work all the way until just the week before Christmas, which gave him some needed time to get ready for the trip to Rwanda.  Now we are praying that God will provide work for him to step back into when he returns, and that it will continue.  We thank God for his favor & provision.  

We appreciate your continued prayers for our whole family as we walk by faith, and not by sight, pressing onward towards the goal that God has set before us!

God Bless You,

Lisa

Where am I?

I mean, really, what has been going on, right?  Well, I am still here.  I survived (and my family survived) me working full time (sometimes more) for half of August & all of September.  I spent a week or so after that just catching up & now I am trying to get some things done in my house.  I have asked God to help me create more of a "home" here.  You see, although we have been in the house we share with my dad for the last several years, most of the time we were here for a few months (a year was the longest) and then in Rwanda for some time, back and forth.  I have not felt like I was "home" for a long time.  Bit by bit I am trying to make this place feel more comfortable & welcoming.  It is not my natural talent, but by God's grace I believe it will get better.

The kids have been busy with school and activities.  Kelly is in the busy-ness of college.  Michael Jr. is enjoying football & has a few more weeks left.  KaLia is in school band and drama club.  Nate gets to just enjoy being Nate!  We just celebrated his 9th birthday- amazing!  We celebrated KaLia's 14th birthday is September.  They are all getting used to their schools and starting to make friends there (keep them in your prayers for all of that).

On our way back from camping this summer.

We have all gotten to the point where we miss Rwanda now.  Even Nate asks when we can go back so he can visit his friends.  I miss the people there & just being there.  I am not ready to live there again, but I would really like to be back there for a visit.  Kelly has been hoping that she would be able to go with her dad and the team when they go in December of this year.  She has been trying to raise funds & hopes to find a way to get there.  I would love it if all of us could go visit sometime soon, but the money to do that is a pretty big mountain...  although I know that's what our God does is move mountains!

I am planning to start another part time job (if all works out) November 1st.  We would appreciate your prayers for our family finances as well.  We are praying and asking for God's direction as well as his provision in the area.

God has been so good to us & we are thankful for all he has blessed us with.  We have a great family (extended included), fantastic church, good schools, amazing friends, meaningful ministry and more.  It is not easy to manage the ministry in Rwanda while being half way around the world, but we trust & know that God knows what He is doing.  It's all His work anyways, we are just the caretakers.  Thank you for traveling with us in this amazing journey of life here on Earth (with our hearts fixed on heaven).

God Bless You,
Lisa

P.S.  I finally updated the page that used to "Family Wish List" and now it is "Family Prayer Requests".  I mentioned most of them here in this post, but if you want to visit the page you will find the link on the upper left hand side of the blog.  Thank you!


P.P.S. for those of you who receive these blog posts via email I just realized that the blog title on those emails had my old (like 2+ years old) title- back when it said Mike, Lisa, KaLia & Nate... and our family has changed since then!  I have corrected that error so now the email title matches the blog title- we are the McColm family- all 6 of us!

You Must Be Busy...

Yes, I am!  We have been back in the USA since June 2nd, and although I have been very glad to be back home and with our friends, family, and chuch; life has been very busy!  Managing a household of 7, catching up on medical/dental appointments, getting school details taken care of (including college), and just the busy-ness of life have really kept me going non-stop!

It's amazing that we are already part way into August.  Mike has been in Africa for the last 3 weeks & thank God he comes back home on Monday (finally)!  In a few weeks our daughter Kelly will start her new college life- lots of excitement and nerves for her!  The rest of the kids start school a few weeks after that.  Congratulations to Kelly on passing her driving test & getting her driver's license today!  Big step!

Our son Michael has finished his 6 week summer school course at Portland Christian High School.  Lucky for him his class included lots of field trips to places like the Portland waterfront, Multnomah Falls, and downtown.  He will start school at King's Way Christian High School on September 5th.

KaLia and Kelly had a lot of fun visiting their Grandma Julia in California.  They wanted to go on their own & have some "girl time", which they did!  Now I need to schedule some "boy time" with grandma too!

Nate has been SOOO happy to be back in "America".  He has been eating all his favorite foods (non-stop it seems) and watching lots of movies!

I have been looking for a job for a few weeks to help supplement our family income.  Just yesterday I started a temporary job working for a company that translates documents for elections.  We proof read the formatting and make sure it matches the original.  Thank God for the job & I hope we are able to balance this new commitment with all of our other family needs as well.

God has been good to us & although life is busy He is leading us to good places!
Thank you for your prayers for our family's adjustments to school and new surroundings.

God Bless You,
Lisa

Our family arrived safely in the USA late at night on June 1^st.  It has been an amazing journey to bring us to this point in time, and we are thankful to God for bringing us every step of the way.  Shortly after arriving here we took a tour of what will be Michael Jr’s high school, and the school graciously allowed Michael to join in their summer basketball league.  It has been fun for him to get involved in the basketball team, meet some of his classmates, and become more familiar with his new school.  He also started his summer school today.  He will be attending summer school over at a Christian school in Portland, working on English and social studies.  We still have some home school classes for him to finish up before he starts 10^th grade in the fall, so please be praying for us to get that all done. 

Our daughter Kelly got some exciting news recently as well.  Concordia University in Portland accepted her application.  This is a private Christian university in North Portland.  We still have to figure out the logistics and finances for it all, but we feel like this is something great that God is doing in Kelly’s life and we trust that He has a plan for all of it.

We have enrolled KaLia and Nate in the public schools near our house.  I know there is still a part of KaLia that wants to be at school with her best friend, but it is comforting to hear her talk about *her* new school (calling it hers) and I trust that God has good things ahead for her there, as well as for Nate at his new school.

Please continue to pray for our transition.  We are all adjusting to a new culture, new surroundings, new way of living.  Pray for us to be comfortable in our new roles, and for our kids especially to make connections and good friends here.  We are also dealing with the limitations and constraints of 7 people (we live with my dad) sharing a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house.  It’s a bit tight!  I (Lisa) have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with trying to get everybody & everything situated in our new place, and all the details of life for 6 different people.  Please pray for me to feel like I’ve got my feet under me & my head on straight!  J

I am so grateful for all the God has done in our lives.  Amazing to think that just two years ago we were a family of 4 wondering how we would get ourselves to Rwanda, and look now where God has brought us!  What he has done is amazing & we trust him to take care of all of our needs for the future.  For his glory!

Blessings,

Lisa

P.S.  I wrote this on Monday, then on Tuesday we got a letter in the mail letting us know that 75% of Kelly's college tuition is eligible to be covered by grants- praise God!!!  Earlier that day God had told me that he wanted me to just accept his love, and this is just another blessing from God showing us how he loves us & wants to give us good things!

Time is Flying...

Wow, only a little over 2 weeks left here in Rwanda!  Please be praying for us as we try to sell off our personal belongings and also finish preparing to leave our staff here in charge of the ministry.  We have good staff people that we trust will handle well the work helping the children and families in our program.  This is all new to them so please pray that God would help them to work well together, that they would get into the rhythm of their positions, and to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Please also pray for us as in the next 2 weeks we need to sell a lot of stuff.  We have both big ticket items (like our car, the quad, extra tires & wheels) as well as medium (refrigerator, washing machine) and lots of small stuff.  Pray for God to bring the people who are ready to buy all of these items and thus help us be on our way.

We leave Rwanda May 31st, in the evening.  We arrive in the USA very late on June 1st.  Please also pray for us personally as their is a lot of stress, for everyone in the family, facing these kind of changes.  Nate is perpetually excited, he just can't wait for America & it's practically all he can talk about.  KaLia is happy to be going back to her family & friends there, but she has also made good friends here and leaving them is painful.  Kelly and Michael Jr. are excited but also have to face the reality of leaving some people behind when they go.

Pray for all of us to transition well into life in the USA.  It will be lots of changes, lots of work, but we know God has good things in store for us as well as for Ten Talents International.

Thank you for believing with us.
God Bless You,
Lisa

P.S. I hope you all had a good Mother's Day.  My Mother's Day this year was good, can't you tell?

That's me getting my foot massage & hair brushed.  Ahhh!  

He got it!

Thank you everyone for your prayers for our son Michael to get his student visa.  He got it!  We are so happy to know that our family is going to be able to stay together!  Michael will be attending a private Christian school in our hometown.  We've purchased our plane tickets now & we will all be arriving in the USA on June 1st (although me, Kelly & Michael Jr. will be on a different airline for the last half of the journey, at least we're all going at the same time).

We appreciate your continued prayers for our family and the ministry as we prepare for our departure May 31st.  We have people in place here in Rwanda who will make sure the ministry continues in our absence, and we will be completing their training in the month of May.  Mike will be back in Rwanda in August, with a team from AGCI coming at that time too.

A lot of changes coming up, but we know that our God is faithful and he will lead us through them.

God Bless You,
Lisa

We Keep Praying

We are still asking for God's help on the requests I mentioned in my last post.  Most pressing right now is getting Michael Jr's student visa.  He went in for an interview at the US Embassy a few weeks ago.  We were trying to get him a visitor visa so he could travel earlier than 30 days before his school starts (visa regulations).  They did not give him the visitor visa & told him to just reapply for his student visa.

I now have the paperwork needed in order to get him an interview for a student visa; however, when I went on their website last night to make his appointment they were showing no appointments available.  I am not sure what is going on, and I have sent an email to the consular at the embassy (although they are notoriously hard to get a hold of).

Please pray with us for an appointment to open up soon!  We still need to purchase plane tickets for myself, Kelly Christinah, and Michael Jr.  (Kelly & I were on separate tickets from the rest of the family because of our being delayed with the adoption process last year, we had to purchase round trip tickets from Africa to the US and back again.  So, now we need new tickets to get to the US.)  Please also pray for us to have the finances needed to purchase these tickets, for us to find low priced tickets, and to get home at the same time as the rest of the family.

As I pray about the visa Michael Jr. needs I am reminded a lot of my prayers at this same time last year.  Last year we were praying and believing for God to help us finalize Kelly's adoption; similar to how we are praying, hoping, believing for Michael to get his visa.  Posts like this one from last year when we were praying for God to make a way.  I remember praying so many times, "God, can't we just have an answer now?  Can't it just be finished so we can be settled in our hearts & know that it's done?"  And now, again, I have those same prayers in my heart.  I just want Michael's visa to be done & settled.  But, at least for now, we are still in a journey to get there.  God is leading, and we trust him, but I can't help calling from the backseat, "Are we there yet?"

Thank you for praying with us.  For whatever journey God may be leading you through right now I pray for you to have the faith and the trust to know that He loves you more than you can imagine and He will lead you to the promised land.  He is leading you to a place of blessing and abundance, but we can't take any shortcuts.  We have to follow his leading.

Thank you God for loving us and leading us as a gentle shepherd.  Help us to listen to your voice and follow you.

God Bless You,
Lisa