Ministering to our boys by way of how we live our lives and through Home Schooling!

As parents often we feel unworthy to be given these precious 4 boys that we have been blessed with by God. God created each of them with personality differences, talents, skills, and ideas. They amaze us often! I am so pleased to be able to home school them each day. It can be very difficult with the different attitudes and actions that they have. I often feel overwhelmed and push to the limit with their behavior issues. Then when I am pressed hard I see the uglyness of my own heart. I always wish I can just say in a firm normal voice " you need to stop this right now" or "son you have to take control of your attitude and obey what I have told you" but often I began to raise my voice and loose my temper with all the commotion going on in the room. I find many times that I have to go back to one of my boys who I had a problem with and apologize for my attitude and then remind them of how they need to correct their behavior and obey Jesus by obeying their parents. Home schooling is a great privalege though it is not easy being home with 4 little boys all day, 2 of which are 18 months old. I thank God for my ministry as a mother, wife and missionary. God always provides what I need. I have to remind myself that I am showing them Jesus by my attitude also and that I need to always set myself straight in hopes that when they are wrong they too will do the same to me or others. God is the center of our reason for home schooling our boys. We hope they will grow to be well prepared for their future adult lives and love the Lord with all their heart and lean to Him for their understanding.

Jsut some thoughts I felt lead to share on Facebook today!

The best guidance you receive is always from the Lord Jesus alone! Pray to him for answers! He will never lead you wrong! If you run in to hard times in your life He may have place them there to strengthen you ...so don't blame Him if things don't go the way you wanted. He only wants the best for you and that is to make you more like Him...even in the toughest of times! Remember He is God and FOREKNOWS EVERYTHING!

Our January 2010 Newsletter

Immanuel Family Newsletter

Alii from our family to yours! Alii is Palauan for Hello! We are glad to be bring you up to date with our ministry and family. It has been a quiet some time since you have received any news from us in a prayer letter or newsletter form. We had been posting updates via our blog/website on the internet. Unfortunately we have just been informed that it will no long be available for free to us. So we do have a new blog website that we had began to add information too before our current one was discontinued.
We want to tell you about the many things God has been doing here at the Palauan Evangelical Church on the Island of Guam. We would like to start with our Thanksgiving. We had a very special guest speaker Pastor Philip Bradley and his wife Angie to come out and visit with us from South Carolina. Both Philip and Angie attend Bible college with us at C.I.U. Philip grew up on Guam while his parents Pastor Steve and Mrs. Pat Bradley served here as missionaries. His father Steve, Pastored our church in the 1980's. Philip preached three messages that were very encouraging to so many here. As a result many people were challenged in their walk with Christ. We were so blessed to have the Bradley's here in our church and home through out the week and to celebrate Thanksgiving with them some of our friends. During this time Andy also held a baptism service. If I recall correctly 14 people were baptized. God is challenging the hearts of these people here. Our Christmas services a couple of people came to know Christ as their Savior and Lord. The Christmas songs and skits were performed in such away that people realized the real purpose of Christmas.
New Year's and new comers! Andrew has began a series of sermons on the book of Jeremiah. During the Sunday morning services our church is being challenged by God's word. They are learning more about how God is expecting of them to live. One Thing we see in our church is people can come and hear the Word of the Lord and yet continue to live their life dishonoring to God. The book of Jeremiah has been a very good way to expose this kind of behavior and make people realize that this is the kind of life God is hates and will judge severely. This past Sunday two young ladies came forward after an invitation was given and gave their hearts to Jesus. We are so blessed to be a part of these peoples lives. They are very important to us and most importantly to our Lord Jesus!
Just to update you on our family. Andrew is doing well. His job as pastor here has him, of course mostly preparing sermons that the Lord has laid upon his heart to share with these people here weekly. Also he does counseling and other types of advising through out each week. We have a couple of young men who are in training at the Pacific Island University here on Guam that are preparing to be pastors and missionaries. Andrew also tries to help spend time with them as they are growing and God is guiding them into possible future ministries. He plays basketball on Tuesdays and Sundays. Tuesdays he is playing with a group of Islanders from all different Islands and backgrounds. Sundays he plays with mostly the guys from our church and the Bible college. Several times this week he has been ask to visit people mostly to share the gospel with them. We praise God for this.
Julie is also doing well. She is very busy with caring for our one and half year old twins boys, Uriah and Malachi. She also home schools Samuel and Nathanael, who are 9 and 7 years old. She does take some time to walk a couple days a week. This has given her time to spend with some other missionaries or young women from our church who need some one to help advice them or just listen and be a friend. She also does some counseling whenever one of the women in our church may need help in certain areas of life.
Samuel is growing so fast and is learning many new things. He is currently doing unit studies on bats. His history class is teaching mommy and him both many amazing facts about our heritage. He joined a jump rope team called the Guam Skip Jacks well over a month ago and really enjoys this. We think he has found a sport that he is very good at and is very challenging to him. Nathanael is in 2nd grade and seems to love his schooling. He continues to surprise us with his love for reading and knowledge. He is a very big helper to anyone who comes to work at the church and clean or set up for events. Uriah and Malachi are learning through playing. They have an advantage with mommy always being with them all day and teaching home school to their older brothers. Uriah is out going, very easy to care for and sweet and loving. Malachi loves to be read to. He also likes to be close to mommy and is still a little shy. We are always happy to see how the two of them love to hug and kiss one another. We really enjoy being close at home with our four boys as they grow up.

We want to Thank those of you who are able to read this via internet or regular mail for your prayers and support to our family and ministry here. As we always want you to know that you are an important part of our ministry to these Palauan people living here on the Island of Guam. God Bless you all!

Lord willing.....

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

—James 4:13-16

I love this verse! It is a great reminder from the Lord to us! We as His children often make plans without praying about them! It reminds me of growing up my dad always said "Lord Willing"... we will do this or that. What a great way to remind your children that the plans are not ours but the Lords! He is in Control!

October 22nd, 2009

Friends are such a blessing especially if God chooses them for you!

I remember when I first came to Guam in August of 2000. I first had to focus on getting our car from the ocean container that had already arrived at the port before we got here. We had Samuel, our new born baby, who was only 5 weeks old to care for. So many responsibilities in our life and a new home 9,800 miles away from where I grew up and 845 miles from Palau, Andy's home country. The good news was I had a Palauan family that kind of added me to their family years before we made this move. They lived on Guam and were here wait for our arrival. Of course I very much missed my family and S.C. Andy had some friends here on Guam from his college days at Univeristy of Guam. He was even in the youth/college age group here at the very same church that he was now called to be a Pastor in. I remember how hard it was for me being so out going and having such a love for people. At first the people in our church were friendly but reluctant to become close friends. Friendships do not grow over night most of the time...it takes years of committment I kept telling myself. Well in my first three years I really had a very hard time. I was in the house most of the time taking care of our llittle boy Sammy and by 2002 we had another son, Nathanael. So I was taking care of our home and our children. I did get to teach a class or two after about my 3rd year here. That year was by far the hardest year of our now 9 years in ministry here for me. I got so depressed that year. I cried often because the pain in my heart knowing I had another 2 years before I could be with my family and friend in my homeland. That had just became so overwhelming to me. God was so faithful to me during those hard times in my life here. By the time May 2005 got here and we were packing to go to S.C. for our first furlough since we had left , I had just began to make solid friendships here. I spend my 3 months in S.C. with family and friends. It was great, being with all the people I knew and loved so dearly. But I also missed my new friends in Guam! I had always loved all the Palauan people here that we minister to and I had made strong friendship too. It took me going on this trip for me to see how strong my friendships were in Guam and it helped my friends to see that we had built a bond. Time away does sometimes make the heart sronger. When I arrived back to Guam I was so happy to see my friends here but very sad to be again without my family. After about two weeks, God showed me clearly that he had called me here for a purpose and that these were the people He had chosen for me to live among and serve. I have been so blessed with a large family here in Guam ... a family of great friends and relatives that love me. I cherish all my friends and thank God that He choose

(Added on August 20, 2009 to http://www.frappr.com/scarolinapalau4)

Today my family, my mom and my brother Paul and his family took most of the day and went to Charlotte to visit the Billy Graham Library and his home place. I was so inspired and just in awe of how God has used tis man. I have only been to hear him speak in person 2 times in my life. Both of those times I was overwhelmed how the Holy Spirit was working in peoples lives. Today I found myself feeling this feeling while viewing many interesting things that Billy Graham did in his life. We hae been so blessed to have been able to take many trips to see what God is doing in this country. Our Trip to Kentucky with Spears Creek Baptist Church group was just amazing. We went to the Creation Museum to learn more on how God works through His creation. Then we went down to Flordia to Sea World. I was totally amazed. In fact I cried when those enormous whales came out into the viewing area. Then later that afternoon our son Nathanael and I were able to touch and feed the solphines....how cool is that! God there is NO ONE who can create anything like you have! I am just in awe of HIM!!! We have been so blessed to have been able to take these trips to many place. It only makes our FAITH stronger in our CREATOR GOD!

Catching up on this blog and our trip to SC for 3 months of furlough.

click this link or even save it to your web browser..... http://www.frappr.com/scarolinapalau4
March 18th, 2009 Amazing changes and our trip to SC!Amazing Changes: God has never cease to Amaze us! His work in these peoples lives are evident. There are many indiviuals that come to know Him as personal Savior of their lives and we see growth and then there are those that we see Amazing changes in the life. I just want to thank you for praying with us for these people the Islanders of Palau that live her in Guam. I have talked with a few both men and women that have made complete turn arounds in their lives. It is very refresing to see a the peace that surpasses all understanding in the eyes even it seems like a bright light has come on inside of them! God Alone can ONLY do that to our lives! We are also getting GREAT feedback about the new village bible studies. Many are attending that would most likely never have some into our church. Our church has went out to meet them. They have open their homes for them to come and join and outside biblestudy once a week. PRAISE GOD for those who are learning of HIS love and faithfulness! Our trip to SC: We are so thankful tohave found a place to stay for our furlough time. Thank you for those of you who were looking for a place for us! We really appreciate your help. We have planned 2 trips while we are in SC possibly 3. We really wanted to go to the Creation Museum in Ohio and we wondering how we would be able to rent a car and drive as a family of 6 with the twins and car seat and such for this around 9 hour drive. I am so excited to find out that Spears Creek Baptist Church where my brother, Paul Stephens, Pastors, will be taking a large group from their church. So we are now going to be joining them. That will be loads of fun for us since we don't get to do things like that on this small Island! We still have a few things that have to come together. We have only purchased from Guam to Hawaii , round trip, whiwh is the most expensive part of our trip. We were blesses to be able to use miles and then pay about 800.00 for this portion. We have not however been able to buy the 4 tickets from HAwaii all the way to SC. It seems the tickets will cost us between 600.00 to 800.00 per person. That is about another 2400.00 - 3200.00 more. Pray for us as we have been searching different internet site looking for the lowest fare for about 3 months and they are going up and down. Thanks for your prayers...hope to see you all in a couple of months!12:29 AM - edit it - delete it
February 28th, 2009 Our kids and Our parents!Nathanael has been very sick with either a virus or Food Poisoning. No one else has had either of these symptoms.....hopefully it will stay that well for the sake of the twins. My mom had been taken an anitbiotic for broncitus and had a very bad reaction . It destroyed her good bacteria. She became very sick on her stomach in a major way. The doctor knew she was having a hard time and placed her on a different antibiotic to help the growth of the good bacteria. She is now doing much better! Thanks to all of you who were praying for her. My Dad has been having some sores removed from his face over the years due to the sun exposure from years of being outside working. He was told just a month or so ago that these sores were pre-cancerious. He was being watch by his doctor carefully for a while. He was told just over a week or so ago that it has now turned into skin cancer. He will have this removed this week. Please keep all three of them in your prayers.1:53 AM - edit it - delete it
February 7th, 2009 Family and Ministry UpdateAlii and Hafa Adai from the warm and sunny island of Guam! We are so happy to get to write to you and catch you up on what has been happening in our ministry and lives over the past year. Last year in December, about a month and half after Julie and our boys arrived back on Guam from visiting many of you in S.C., we found out that we were expecting a baby. We had been praying, for quiet some time on whether or not to try to have one more child....in hopes for a girl. We had been talking one evening about adopting a baby girl from a church member but did not feel it was the right situation at the time. So we began to ask God, after nearly 5 years of thinking we were done having children, if He wanted us to have another child. Shortly after Julie arrived back from the S.C. visited she became pregnant. On January 2 Nd, Julie went in to have an ultrasound and was shocked to find out that we were having fraternal twins. The pregnancy was a rough 37 weeks. Our twins were born on July 27 Th! Our little boys do not look much a like at all. Uriah Kekuii was born weighing 6lbs 7 oz. and Malachi Kldemek weighed 6lbs 9 oz. both 18 inches long. Life to say the lest has really changed for us. Our Ministry: We Thank the Lord for the people who have accepted Christ during the Christmas service and the Sunday that followed. God has done amazing things here. On Christmas 6 people accepted Jesus as their personal savior. Then the Sunday after Christmas 4 people accept Christ and about 50 rededicated their lives to Him. We were so excited to see GOD working in these peoples lives. Andrew has been working on a small group bible study for quiet some time. What used to be our Wednesday night Bible study and prayer time is now 6 small group Bible studies through out the Northern and Central villages on Guam. It is our prayer that those who attend these groups, members from the former Wednesday night meeting and the new believers will grow to know the Lord and become a witness to their family and neighbors in the community around them. This effort is especially to reach out to those who wouldn't normally come to a Sunday morning church service but would be more comfortable in this setting. Our Family: Andy is enjoying our house full of boys. He is a very helpful father and husband. He also enjoys his Tuesday basketball with Islanders from different countries that reside on Guam and get together to play ball. Then on Sunday afternoon he plays basketball with our church members and the Pacific Island Bible College Students. During the week he studies for his Sunday morning service and Sunday night Bible studies. He also meets with other church members and counsels those who need advise. Occasionally he will have a funeral to speak at and also attend nightly prayer with the family that loss their love one, about 3 nights in that week leading up to the funeral. This is a wonderful ministry because not only does it help the family cope with losing their love one but it the same way it is a way to share the gospel. Many times some of them will began to attend church or come to know Christ through this ministry. Julie is still homeschooling Samuel (8 1/2 years old) and Nathanael (6 1/2 years old). It has been difficult to say the least but we are committed to giving our boys a great education in a safe learning environment. Julie also takes care of the twins during the day until Andy is able to come in to help out, after putting several hours in at work. She also helps keep people informed as much as she can on our church and family websites. So she is very busy these days. Samuel is growing so much. He helps us out with taking care of the twins. His favorite classes are English and Science. He also does very well in Math. He is now in the third grade. We are still using the Bob Jones Homesat DVD curriculum. Sammy loves to garden. He has been planting many kinds of beautiful plants and really has a green thumb. He loves for us to go out and visit his garden which he, Nathanael, and their friends enjoy hanging out and working there. Sammy is also very good with designing and computer graphics. Nathanael has gotten much tall and is very outgoing. He is in the first grade now and his favorite class is Bible. He is also good in spelling and handwriting. Nathanael is very creative when he draws and builds things. He loves the twins very much and helps us take care of them. He watches them to make sure they are safe from getting hurt. Nathanael loves to pray for people. Uriah and Malachi, our soon to be 7 month old twin boys are growing too fast. This time around we are older and appreciate our infant babies and their various stage of life. It seems like they grow so much over night at times. Uriah is a very happy and a patient baby. He smiles so much. Malachi however is very observant. He seems to pay attention to everything. Uriah looks so much like Andy. Malachi has the lightest skin of all our children and the longest eyelashes we have ever seen on a little boy. He also smiles a good bit too. Our Prayer Request and Praises: Thank you so much for your prayers and support to us and our ministry here to the Palauan people residing on Guam. We are very blessed to have people who love the Lord and seek Him in prayer for our family. As our family has grown this year our needs have also. We ask you to continue to pray for us. God always provides for us and meets all of our needs. Please be praying for us as we will be on Furlough for 3 months this summer in the states. A large portion of our time will be in S.C. however we will also be spending sometime on a little family vacation with our children. Our plans also included attending a conference or classes for our spiritual renewal. Please pray for us as some of this will require us to travel to other states. Our air travel alone to S.C. is over $6,000.00 for four of us. We will have to hold the twins, since then they can fly free and that will save us a couple thousand dollars more. It will not be easy since they will be about 10 months old and ready to explore a lot on their own. Our flight time is about 21 hours not including some the layover time in connection airports. Please pray that God will provide the finances we need for the travel expenses and a place to stay in each place we travel too. We would like to be close to Camden or the Lugoff area while staying in S.C. since that will be closer to our home church in Lugoff. May God bless you and your love ones. We hope to see you all soon Lord willing! In Jesus care, Andrew, Julie, Samuel, Nathanael, Uriah, and Malachi Immanuel