The Countdown begins...

Bark to be barked: 7 yards (about 63 wheelbarrowfuls)
Rooms left to sort through for Garage sale: 10
Funds Needed for Mission Support Fund: $0
Funds Needed for Personal Mission Support: about $5000
Prayer Team Members:282
Days until we leave: 85
Things Not in God's control: 0
Comfort in knowing that: Priceless

Prayer Update-April 30

Greetings on the eve of our National Day of Prayer. God bless and thanks for your prayers. Know you are being prayed for.

Thanksgivings:
He (God) protectively cares for his faithful friends, step by step, but leaves the wicked to stumble in the dark. No one makes it in this life by sheer muscle! 1 Samuel 2:9 (The Message)
1. For strength & energy to get house & yard cleaned up for spring!
2. For Lily & her (mostly) successful potty training. Thanks God for the things you teach us through her daily. (Next week Caden.)
3. For the month of May, & field trips, recitals, programs & generally wrapping up many things we've spent the long winter on...What a busy but joyful time of celebration and wonder.
4. For Amy's brother, Chad, and his gift with computers (the only reason you are receiving this update this morning). Thanks God for our families. What a blessing each member is to us.

Requests: ...The only thing I've been pouring out is my heart, pouring it out to GOD. 1 Samuel 1:15
1. For Lily & her continued growth in independence. Keep her safe, God, and help her become more your child each day.
2. For Aaron, as he begins to wrap up everything at school. Pray for energy, wisdom, and enjoyment for the many decisions and tasks ahead.
3. Continue praying for our home to be used as God wants. We are not currently seeking renters but may if there are no other situations that work out by the beginning of June. God has a plan and it is all in his timing.
4. For patience and determination as our house is in a state of upheaval for the next week as we prepare for a garage sale for May 9 & 10. Pray for good weather and an opportunity to add to our personal mission fund.
5. Laying member of our prayer team at His feet this week. We are not sure specifically what you are going through, but God does, and he continues to care for his children in amazing ways. Lord, help each of us in our struggles and give us courage to testify to your working in us and through us.

At His feet,

Aaron, Amy, Caden, Maya & Lily Klanderman

Greetings All,

This is Aaron finally getting his act together and sending a quick hello just to see if this works. I can't believe we will be in Guatemala in only three short months! Thanks for all your prayers and I promise to add some amazing words in the next day or so. After I get done barking the yard.

God bless you,

Aaron

Our prayer team!

As of today our prayer team is 280 members strong. Amen & go God! The power of God through prayer is an amazing thing to witness. Thanks for your encouragement each step along our way. We will begin posting our weekly prayer requests here on our blog next week Wednesday. Those of you who have been praying for us already, have also been praying for our prayer team members, Robb & Katie Lubbers. I have included the link in the side bar here to Katie's blog and pray that you would continue to keep them lifted before God daily. God bless each of you and we pray that in this day God would bless you as only he can.

Where to begin

I guess this whole process of becoming a missionary started years ago when God gave us the interest in becoming teachers. Aaron & I have always talked about how awesome it would be to teach overseas and what an experience it would be for our family. But it wasn't until God began moving in our lives about 2 years ago as the yearning for a new church start grew into a call to seek out what God's will was in this area that the process came to a head. During those days Aaron & I and a few others got together and prayed for God's will to be done...for God to lead us and we would follow...no matter where it lead. I guess I'm still not sure why our path went that direction (I can only guess that that may be for the future) but the new church start was voted down by our congregation, twice, and that left us right where we began...at God's feet, a little confused and sad, but still seeking...knowing God is faithful to complete the work he had started. It was then God laid it on our hearts to truly follow wherever He leads. Our area churches when through 10 days of Revival in May of 2007 and that literally changed our lives. It wasn't about us at all anymore but only about God...one thing led to the next and God gave us the peace and strength for our decision to see if God needed us somewhere else in this world. What seemed like weeks of paperwork and endless details, much seeking & praying, we were meeting at the home of our mission coordinator last October when he said he had just received an e-mail from Guatemala and they had said we would be "an answer to prayers". We were not looking to hear those words but that stuck with Aaron & I and touched our hearts. After we prayed about this for a week, we accepted God's call to the Christian Academy of Guatemala for the 2008-2009 school year. It has literally been a whirlwind since then but God is so good and reassures us daily that in His hands and at His feet is a very wonderful place to be. We began our seeking by checking out www.missionfinder.com and one year later here we are preparing to spend a year in Guatemala. We will add more details about how our finances are covered and other details as time goes by. Pray that God continues to use each of us as only He can. At His feet, The Klandermans

Welcome to the Klanderman Family Blog!

Wow! Here we are. We are so excited to share with you our preparations and trip to Guatemala. Hopefully through this blog we can share a little picture of the lives of short term missionaries and maybe even inspire a few to join the ranks. God bless and check here often for updates.

At His feet, The Klandermans