cason & colleen: We're Leaving in 5 Weeks!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

We're Leaving in 5 Weeks! - Update 7.26.09

Here is the 140 character Highlight of this update for the text/Twitter generation:

God is faithful – 90% support raised! Flying 2 Kenya Aug. 30th! (5 wks!) Open House @ Cason’s parents’ on Aug 23rd. Pray 4 us. God is good!

Read on if you want a slightly more detailed version…

Friends and Family,

Sorry for not communicating for so long… I had been waiting for our plans to get nailed down a bit more, but it ended up taking longer than we anticipated.

Departure/Funding Update
Through your generous support, we have raised 90% of our support and have purchased our plane tickets to leave for Kenya on August 30th! We are so excited and feel so blessed by how God has provided for us. It was amazing how quickly funding came in after we picked a departure day – proof yet again that God likes to provide for us on His terms once we’ve stepped out in faith. We are confident that we will raise the rest in time to stay for the planned 12 months and can’t believe we only have 5 weeks left in the US – we’ve got lots to do in that time!

Open House
My (Cason’s) parents are hosting a farewell open house for us at their home (see address below) on Sunday August 23rd from 2 – 6pm. You are all more than welcome to come; we’d obviously love to see people before we leave.

Jon and Marti Wittig’s address is: 325 Beechview Drive, Greenwood, IN 46142

Please email or call if you have questions.

Prayer
Please be praying that we would have a good last few weeks spending time with friends/family, and especially preparing our hearts to go. It seems this summer has gotten progressively busier and unfortunately sometimes the first things to go are quality time with the Lord and as a couple – so pray we would be able to prioritize and manage our time wisely.

Also, pray that God would provide the rest of our funding before we leave so we don’t need to be burdened with that from Kenya.

Opportunities in Kenya
We are still unclear of many of the details of what we will be doing (other than Cason’s treasurer role), but we are very excited about some potential opportunities. The Baby Center orphanage in the town we will live is for 0-4 year old children. The kids are extremely well cared for; however, there isn’t a formal education program or focus on early childhood development. There is an American girl there now who is leaving soon who has tried to start some learning programs with the older (2-4 year old) children. Colleen is communicating with her and is eager to continue and expand upon what she has been doing.

Also, we are hopful that we will be able to help out as youth pastors at a local African Gospel Church, which we are very excited about.

Wrap-up
Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We’d love to hear from you before August 30th (or after!) so please shoot us an email or call.

God Bless,
Cason & Colleen

PS – Please keep checking the blog and Facebook group. We’ll be putting out more consistent updates as our departure date approaches.

1 comment:

mmncgrandAugust 26, 2009 at 10:50 AM
We saw your blog address on Deb Wittleder's blog and checked it out. We are Matt and Mark's grandparents and don't remember you Jason, but certainly have heard your name often. We will be praying for you. God Bless.
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About us

We’re Cason & Colleen. We met at Taylor University in Indiana, and started dating while studying abroad in Ireland in 2004. We got married a few years ago and since then we’ve been enjoying journeying with the Lord together.

For photos and videos mostly of our kids, you can find us on Facebook (Colleen & Cason), Instagram (Colleen & Cason), or Youtube.

We started this blog in 2009 before we left to work in Kenya, but now that we’re back, we’re going to try to keep it updated with what is going on in our lives. We were in Kenya for almost a year and a half, and while we were there, Cason worked as the treasurer for a mission organization, and Colleen worked at an orphanage for 0-4 year old children. Cason also helped organize a local soccer team, and we both led a local church youth group.

We returned to the US in December 2010 and spent a few months based at Colleen’s parent’s home in Wooster, Ohio, while we figured out what was next for us. We were trying to seek the Lord during that time, but it was/is difficult to know what to do, especially with all that has happened in our lives the last few months in Kenya (see our blog archive).

The first few months in Wooster, Cason continued to work remotely as the treasurer for the mission, while Colleen helped care for the family puppies. (Cason ran the puppy blog, DoodlesbyRosie).

After taking some time to travel and visit friends and family, we ended up moving to Danville, Kentucky, south of Lexington, to be closer to Colleen's extended family and some good friends. Cason works in the finance department at the local hospital, and Colleen has been substitute teaching and volunteering at the humane society. We've gotten involved at a local church, and are loving the community there. We're also in the process of adopting domestically, and have revived the blog, in part, to document those proceedings.