STEAM III - September 21, 2009

Greetings from the Trumbles!

We are rapidly approaching the time when we hope to depart for Malawi, Africa! The 2^nd term of the school year begins 18 January 2010 and we want to be there by then. Our fundraising continues to progress and we know God will meet our needs but we are still short of a level that makes this huge commitment seem comfortable. Perhaps God does not wish for us to feel comfortable!

We are currently aware of specific commitments that put us at about 31% of our total support level. We are prepared to go to Malawi at a level less than 100% but it sure would be nice for the number to be higher than where it currently stands! So, let me be bold: If God is leading you to support us financially but you have been waiting because you feel like there is no rush since there is lots of time before we depart, please let me urge you to tarry no more. Please let us know your intentions and please prayerfully consider going to Africa with us by supporting us in prayer, or by supporting us in prayer and financial support.

We will have some up-front costs for moving and will have ongoing expenses but it is true that I continue to work at Compassion and thus our immediate need for support funds is not great. However, the time for purchasing airline tickets and making some other commitments approaches rapidly. It is fine if you don’t wish to start sending support until December or January but we’d like to know what to expect for planning purposes.

If you are interested in setting up a regular withdrawal from your checking account or a recurring credit card payment, let me know and I can send you the necessary form.

If you do choose to support us financially, please drop us a quick note by email or give us a call at 719-635-5109 to let us know your plans. It can take quite a while for us to get the information from the ABC home office so it would be helpful to us if you could keep us informed of your plans. Let me also take a moment to say Thank You! to those who are already praying for us and for those who have already provided financial support or agreed to support us financially in the future.

Beth and I really desire to depart in January and the need in Malawi is real. As a reminder, a key finance guy, Eckton, who had been working with the ministry of ABC, has moved to the United States to go to school and thus there is currently a key vacancy. Let me share a few comments from some people who are already in Malawi serving at African Bible College:

In a message to Grace Presbyterian Church (our local church which supports the Steve & Marion Spencer family), Steve Spencer said this:

Dear Grace,

Warm Malawian greetings to you from the Spencer Hut. We appreciate you making time for the Trumbles. They are a wonderful family answering the call to missions in Africa. And they couldn't be coming to Malawi at a better time. Our CFO just left and we are desperately in need of a new finance guy. Dan will fill that void perfectly. And as you know, we are always in need of teachers at the Academy and are looking forward to having Beth there. Thank you again for supporting the Spencer and Dehnert families. Thank you for prayerfully considering the Trumbles. Please note: any family willing to dress the entire family in red for their prayer card is surely worthy of support! God bless you and we're still waiting for you to visit us iin Malawi. Blessings from our hut to yours, Steve and Marion.

Connie Dehnert wrote the following (I'm pretty sure she's joking):

We desperately need you here!! did I tell you the new accounting system since Ekton has gone? When the students pay their tuition, we put a big barrel in your office and throw in the money. When we need some we dig it out! Not too easy to go into debt that way, right??

On another occasion Connie wrote this:

…we are in DESPERATE need of you and this is no joke…the more days that go by without you here, the more days it’s going to take you to FIX all the messes we are making in the absence of anyone who knows what they are doing in finance.

Finally, attached you will find a neat story from one of the young men who had recently moved to Malawi to serve at ABC. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read about his experience. Thank you for your prayers for our family as we prepare for this adventure that God has for us.

Prayer Items:

Praise

1. For the ministry of ABC and the way that God is using the ministry to shape lives to be used in His Kingdom.


2. For the faithful missionaries who have responded to God’s call on their lives and for those who are joining them in ministry through prayer and financial support.

Requests

1. Please pray for our whole family that we would be passionate to do exactly what God calls us to do. Jim, our 7^th grader, still is not thrilled with the prospect of moving to Africa. Please pray that God would work in his heart to make him excited for this adventure.


2. That additional people would choose to go to Africa with us by supporting us financially


3. Details – there are a bunch of details to be worked out before we leave. Pray that we would be diligent in tackling those details and that God would smooth the way for things to come together well.

Thank you for your support!

Dan, for the Trumble family

Hello, friends.

We haven't done a very good job at updating this blog. Dan always seems to be much better at writing and posting than I am, but I will give you all a little info about what is going on.

We continue to get closer and closer to the time for big decisions. We are hoping to be able to ship our container of household items by the beginning of November. Dan has been emailing with 'Missionary Expeditors' (or some similar name) to get all of that worked out. I have been trying to pack a few boxes here and there, like our books and other things that are not needed everyday. Not sure what we will be sleeping on once our beds are gone. Maybe we should just set up our tent in the house. :)

Another big issue for us is where our two dogs will end up. We are not taking them to Africa, so we need to find the family that God has planned for them. I was thinking early on that having them in Iowa with some of my family would be ideal, but now I think anywhere they can be loved and cared for is good enough for me. If you know anyone looking for a couple dogs let us know. They are both between a large and medium size for dogs. One is more relaxed and the other is more hyper.

Dan has also been working with someone to get our airline tickets. We don't have a definite date for departure yet.

On December 5 we have a niece getting married in Washington D.C., and we would like to be out there for that. I think we will be going to Iowa to see my family over Thanksgiving and then continue to drive east for the wedding. Hopefully we can visit with friends and family along the way.

Thank you, everyone, for praying for us. God is always good, and His plan is always perfect.

Beth

STEAM II - Aug 31 Update

[note: there is a figure of 22% cited below. That figure has increased some by the time this infomation was posted to the blog]

August 31, 2009

Greetings folks!

We continue to move through the process of preparing to move to Africa in January to join the ministry of ABC (African Bible College). It is quite an interesting process. The school year for the kids begins on 18 January so we hope to arrive in Malawi shortly before that. We will remain in the States through the holidays and then will depart sometime in the first half of January.

How is the fundraising going? Well, I’m glad you asked. Short answer? Confirmed regular commitments? About 22%. We received reporting from the Mississippi office of ABC regarding July donor activity and that provided some good information that we hadn’t already known. We believe that there are others who plan to contribute to our support but who have not yet communicated a number to us so they are not counted in this 22% figure. We now eagerly await the report on August activity as we have sent out well over 150 additional letters during August.
We have a lot to accomplish between now and when we leave but we are excited. The school year for both the College and the Academy (the K-12 school) began on Monday, 24 August. We have made contact with some of the teachers at the Academy, including two who are new just this year. One of those will be Stephen’s 2nd grade teacher after we arrive. Another is living with some roommates in the house that we will eventually move into.

Prayer Items

Praise
1. For the sovereignty of God. We know that He will provide the resources for us to go if it is indeed His will. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to trust in God.
2. Our email list has grown to over 275 names!
3. Good health for the family during the summer and good progress on some diet and exercise changes for Dan as he deals with his new type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Requests
1. For the approximately 80 new African freshman who have recently begun their 4-year journey at ABC.
2. The new staff at the College, the Academy, and the Clinic who are adjusting to their lives in Malawi.
3. Preparation for the move. Scheduling the shipping of some of our goods and getting rid of some other stuff. We have a lot of junk to work through.
4. School. All four kids have begun the school year. The three boys are at Evangelical Christian Academy and Beth is homeschooling Elizabeth.
5. Fundraising – as mentioned previously, we have a ways to go. Pray that God would work in the hearts of the people who He is calling to go to Africa with us.
6. Patience and trust in God as we wait to see how He provides

Thank you for your prayer support!
Dan
for the Trumble family

Dan & Beth Trumble Family
email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com blog: http://www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/ww.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/ phone: (719) 635-5109

Here is a picture of the house we are scheduled to move into.





On the 8th of August we attended a Colorado Rockies baseball game with some of the boys (and families) from Jim’s baseball team. We also took a tour of the stadium. Very fun. The Rockies lost (not so fun).





Wess Stafford, the President of Compassion International, spoke at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit in early August. He shared the moving story of childhood abuse he experienced and how God has allowed him to forgive those who wronged him and how God has redeemed his life and prepared him for his current role as the leader of a ministry focused on the needs of children. To enhance the talk they wanted to have some images of Wess as a child. Our son Will was the one they ended up using to portray a young Wess Stafford. You can see Will on the screen behind Dr. Stafford in the pictures below. Thousands of people watched the presentation live at the Willow Creek campus near Chicago and tens of thousands of additional people watched it as it was simulcast to more than 100 locations around North America. Pretty cool.

A note from Beth

God is so good.

I have been thinking about writing something on here to share some of my thoughts since Dan usually does the talking...or writing, in this case. So here I am. Writing. Trying to figure out what to say first.

We received our second group of commitment cards that the ABC office sends to us. These are the response cards that folks fill out and send in to the office in Mississippi to let us know how they would like to be involved in our missionary endeavor. I will say it again...God is so good. It is encouraging to see friends and family and coworkers wanting to be a part of our team. Lots of folks share with us financially, but some also share their prayers. We are currently at 30% of our total goal for regular support commitments.

The time for us to leave seems to be coming so quickly. My emotions fluctuate with whatever I decide to dwell on. For instance, thinking about all that needs to be accomplished (getting rid of junk, boxing things up, figuring out what and when to send things on a container, keeping track of important information, getting passports for two kids, etc.) can bring a heaviness to the heart. But thinking about the kids in Malawi that could use encouragement or the experiences that our kids will have with a new culture bring an excitement to be over there doing what God wants us to do.

I am so glad that God takes care of us and whatever happens, happens under His control. He never leaves me. He is always here to help me and to teach me the lessons He wants me to learn. Thank you to all of you who are praying for our family. God hears and answers!

STEAM Newsletter - July 2009

Greetings from the Trumbles!

This is the first edition of the STEAM Newsletter thing providing an update on our family as we pursue a missionary calling to African Bible College in Malawi, Africa.

We received word that we were accepted to join the staff of the ministry of the African Bible College on May 24th. The two months since then have been eventful for our family. Some of the things we’ve been involved in are these:

1. Jim (age 12) and Will (age 9) have both been playing baseball. Both seasons end this week.
2. Jim went to a Boy Scout camp for most of a week
3. The family drove to Iowa for vacation and spent July 4th there
4. Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church. Beth taught and all 4 kids attended.
5. Dan’s high school class had a 20-year-reunion. Dan was the Reunion Czar and thus that ended up being quite a bit of work.
6. Dan was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes

Along with these things, we have been working on communications related to our upcoming missionary adventure in Malawi.

We have established a new email account for use in our missionary communications (which is the account this update is being sent from). I, Dan, designed a logo that could be used (which you can see at the header of this message) and we developed some communications that could be sent out electronically and/or by hard copy. As many of you know, I take a lot of pictures. However, when it came time to find a picture to use for our Prayer card, we didn’t have a good recent one of the whole family that we liked so one Sunday after our church service, we spent some time getting pictures of the family and we ended up with something that works. We developed something on our own that worked okay but we also worked with an organization to get a professional card designed. As part of this process we decided that we wanted to list some kind of web address on that card but we didn’t have a website or blog set up so I quickly set up the basics of a blog that we could use. Since that time, we have added a bit of content but work remains to be done. We have sent or handed letters to over 150 people with many more yet to come. It’s quite a process to identify who you want to contact, figure out their contact information, produce a letter and related pieces, address and stamp the envelopes, and send the letters.

There are just a lot of details to work through with this stuff and we are new to the game. Please pray for us as we work through this process of raising up prayer and financial support!

There have also been some pretty exciting and fun things to the process. We have been blessed and encouraged by people stepping forward with a desire to partner with us. We have been blessed with many encouraging words from people as well as some encouraging financial support. African Bible College is a pretty low overhead operation (which is great from a cost perspective as ABC only takes a 4% fee from the normal donation) but it also means that they are not real robust in providing support. Because of their processes, it can take quite a while for us to receive word of contributions or commitments of financial support. As a finance guy and one who is keenly interested in the progress of the fundraising process, this need for patience is not my favorite part of the process! So, how are we doing on our fundraising? Good, I guess. We are aware of some very generous commitments of support but we still have a significant gap to close.

We have received word regarding what house we will likely occupy when we move to Malawi. The family who lived in the house for most of the last several years has been generous in sharing information about the house and it has been fun to be able to start having some of the details take shape.

Our plan, as God allows, is to move to Malawi in January. The ABC Christian Academy, where our children will attend, begins the 2nd semester on January 18 and it will be our goal to arrive before the start of the semester.

Prayer Items

Praise
1. for God’s confirmation of our call to the mission field in Malawi and our desire to answer that call
2. for the generous partnership and support of many people

Requests
1. Joy & Enthusiasm - That the whole family, including all of the children, would be excited about the adventure ahead. Jim (our 12 ½ year old who is going into 7th grade), does not really want to go. There are some real sacrifices for all of us (moving away from friends and family) but please pray that we will keep our eye on what God has called us to and that we would have great joy in being in the center of His will.
2. Fundraising – while we have received some very generous financial support, we still have a ways to go. Pray that God would work in the hearts of the people who He is calling to go to Africa with us through a financial commitment.
3. Houses – Dan met with a realtor about our old house (the one we’ve been renting out for most of the past year). Given the amount of debt on the house, it doesn’t look like it will be realistic to sell the house in the short term (we’d likely have to bring a substantial amount of cash to the table at closing) so we will plan to continue renting it. It is currently vacant and it would be great to get a renter in it soon. We will also seek to rent out the house we currently live in but we plan to continue occupying it for several more months so while we will need a renter for this house, that need is a ways off.
4. Health – as mentioned above, I have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. To combat this, I need to be serious about food and exercise (less of one, more of the other). I have begun taking a couple of new medications and still have another to add soon.
5. School – The kids will be starting school soon. We plan for all three boys to attend ECA (Evangelical Christian Academy) for the first semester of the school year before we move. Beth will homeschool Elizabeth.
6. Moving - Of course we have a lot of packing to do and decisions to make about what to ship and what to dump/sell/give away, etc.

Thank you for your prayer support!

Missionarily, (I made that word up)

Dan

for the Trumble family

Dan & Beth Trumble Family
email: Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com
blog: http://www.trumble-steam.blogspot.com/
phone: (719) 635-5109


Kids dressed up in camping gear for one of the “theme days” at Vacation Bible School

Jim & Will in a boat on Uncle Steve’s & Aunt Jan’s pond in Iowa

Visiting the tallest working windmill in the United States in Pella, Iowa (where they are proud of their Dutch heritage)

Some of the kids (actually middle-aged people) from Dan’s class photo by Dave Ulman (husband to one of Dan’s classmates)

Top Picture: Jim batting. Bottom Picture: Will batting

Financial Support

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If you wish to give by credit card, use this link Donate by Credit Card

If you are interested in setting up an automated monthly withdrawal from your checking account, the below form can be printed, filled out, and mailed to ABC...or, email us at Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com so that we can email a form to you.

Malawi! Where is it?

Introduction to the Trumble Family

Greetings. The Trumble Family is made up of parents Dan & Beth Trumble and 4 children. Jim, Elizabeth, Will, and Stephen. Jim was born in October 1996 and the other 3 followed in less than 5 years.

Dan grew up in Colorado Springs, CO USA. Beth grew up on a farm in Southeast Iowa. Dan & Beth married in August 1994.

Before kids being born Beth was an elementary school teacher. Dan has worked since August 1993 at Compassion International, most of this time in the Accounting/Finance area. He has had the opportunity to travel to 20 of Compassion's foreign countries. 3 times over the years Dan & Beth have pursued job opportunities with Compassion in Africa but it was never God's time. In 2009 He opened the door for the family to serve at the ministry of African Bible College in Malawi, Africa.

The hope is to move to Malawi in Janaury 2010. this is a situation where we have to raise our own support so the move is dependant on God providing the resources.

Please contact us at Trumble.STEAM@gmail.com if you are interested in being on our email update list or if you are interested in supporting us financially.