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.