Answered Prayers

As most of you know, we have been praying for and traveling to IT Carlow to meet with Portia and the Alpha course she leads there. God has had his hand on her life as well as the group - so many great things have been happening over the past semester. Portia has gathered around her a group of her fellow students to help share the leadership burden for the group. For the past few weeks, they have all been meeting on Wednesday evenings to pray for the campus and the Alpha meeting the next day. 

Since then, so much has been going on! Two weeks ago, they dedicated the Alpha meeting to discussing the Holy Spirit: who He is and what He means for our lives. One of the student leaders received the baptism in the Holy Spirit that night and a couple of Muslim students came and were curious about following Jesus. This answer to prayer is a long time in the making - one of those Muslim students had expressed anger towards Jesus while in conversation with me last year. 

Portia has been meeting faithfully with her other co-leaders outside of the Alpha group meetings. One of her desires is that they would, in turn, begin following up with their friends who attend Alpha to help them walk closer to the Lord. One of her co-leaders has begun meeting with a Hindu student who has expressed interest in following Jesus too. 

Please continue to be in prayer for this group! The college is currently on break in preparation for the big exams in May. I will continue to meet with Portia a few times until the summer. Thank you for standing with her and this group as they continue to follow the Lord. 

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Huge Prayer Request

Last week, we received a letter in the mail from the Department of Justice - they had rejected our request to apply for another year-long visa. It seems that we gave them insufficient evidence that we are actually needed here in the work with student ministry. Here is the good news:

1. We received this letter with ample time to make an appeal. Our current visa does not expire until the end of May. 
2. The missing information may be fairly simple to obtain. With the assistance of a couple of AGI leaders writing letters stating why we should be here, there should be enough evidence in our favour. 
3. God called us to Ireland and will keep us here until the work he has for us to do is done...and it isn't done yet, as far as we can see. 

Here is our stress: 

1. We feel in limbo with this pending thing hanging over our heads. Please be in prayer that we can focus and not allow anxiety to rule our thoughts. 
2. The people who evaluate immigration cases can reject them based on their mood that day. Please pray that we have favour with the Department of Justice as we appeal. 
3. This is all occurring during the last trimester of Katy's pregnancy - we are under enough stress with the upcoming arrival of our next child! Please pray that Katy and baby stay healthy and that I (Blake) can keep my head above water with all the stress. 

We are so grateful for the incredibly supportive friends and co-workers here in Ireland who have our backs during this time. Thank you to everyone reading this for being our prayer team as we go forward. 

Good News

Blake and I go together like peas and carrots. Or like Pringles and brownies, because that combo sounds so good to me right now. Anyway, we really do complement each other nicely...except for our blood types. Let me explain: I am a negative blood type and Blake is positive.

Women with negative blood types can develop antibodies against babies they carry who are positive. That happens if the mother's and baby's blood mixes, like with a miscarriage or at birth. To prevent this, moms like me are given a shot with antibodies. Our bodies think their job is done in fighting off the unfamiliar blood type. If I would develop antibodies, however, my current baby could be at risk for anemia and I would be at risk for miscarriages later on down the road with future babies. 

Enough with the medical babble...

As most of you know, we had a miscarriage last August. I was given that shot of antibodies just in case our little Zoe had Blake's blood type. With this pregnancy they tested me again and, to my dismay, they found antibodies in my blood. We prayed that God would do a miracle and remove them (it had been so long since my last antibody shot that it was unlikely that there were traces of it still in my system). However, we got a call on Friday that my most recent blood test came back negative for antibodies!

We are so thankful that God heard our prayers and that He does care about our anxieties. Even if the test had come back positive again, we know that He is a healing and protecting God. He holds our hands and walks with us through any challenge we come across.