Exciting News.. As Promised

Due to the loss of my phone-to-computer cable, I have no recent photos for this post :(

Blessings Friends,

Many of you know this by now, but our belated and joyful announcement is that God has blessed us with a new life - we are expecting a baby!! What a feeling - the moment we first heard our baby's heartbeat over 4 weeks ago now. <3
This is by far our most wonderful news. What is more fascinating and awe-inspiring than watching God spark life, physically and spiritually? We are aware that this child will be a huge responsibility but also a great blessing, and are already praying that he/she would have a healthy growth and delivery and a healthy relationship with "its" Heavenly Father as "it" grows. Thank you for joining us in these prayers.
Our visit to New York last week was also amazing! Our travels were smooth and we were blessed by the time spent with family, as well as friends from Camp Shoshanah.

First Dinner at our Apartment 

As far as the prayer requests we last posted: We have seen God close many of the doors that we were previously praying about and open up new ones! It may be disappointing when God closes a door, but we consider it just as great a blessing and sign of His leading as opening a door would be.
1 - Megan's work at the Food Pantry has been halted for about a month as she begins training and work as a teller with Katahdin Trust Company. She plans to return and continue serving at the food pantry in the future, and is thankful that she is able to engage in full-time training to be a bank-teller despite some morning sickness. Overall, we rejoice that God has given her a fairly easy pregnancy so far.

Weekly Laundromat Run

2 - Benjamin had a job offer with a well-respected Construction company that he applied to; however, he felt the Holy Spirit leading him to reject the offer. Although we tried the knob of several new jobs, we feel God saying to us that He is providing well and sufficiently for our needs right now and we can just sit tight and be thankful :) Benjamin has also developed some good inroads in his current work relationships. We are praying specifically for his conversations with coworker Thomas who can quote the Bible forwards and backwards but also claims to practice occasionally as a Wiccan. Thomas is open to talking with Benjamin because of his compassion and friendly concern.

"We are praying specifically for his conversations with coworker Thomas."

3 - We looked at the house we were interested in buying and almost fell through the floor! The house is condemnable and would cost at least $70,000 to fix. That is not the open door we were looking for.
4 - We said "no" to the college ministry opportunity but are excited about talking with our Pastor this month, as people are being sent out of the church as missionaries and leaving a lot of holes for ministry.

You can continue to pray for us as we readjust our budget to start investing and be better stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Other specific PRAYER REQUESTS are:

1) Benjamin starts school in two weeks, while continuing to work at Big Cheese, but Megan will still have a week of full-week training to do. This makes getting to and from work an interesting challenge. Though walking is a good option now, it won't be when snow starts to fall. Please pray that our schedules will line up to protect our transportation needs.
2) Pray with us as we seriously consider applying to Moody Bible Institute for the next school year. That would be a big commitment and move, but we are excited to go if that's where God wants us!
3) On behalf of Africa Connect, a Kenyan ministry that we love and support, I am embedding this link which is an update to a crisis notice they published in June. The original crisis was the Kenyan governments plan to bulldoze the mission school (before the end of the Kenyan school year) with no compensation to the church, in order to build a highway through that location. Needless to say, this created many urgent challenges for the ministry and staff. An update on this situation can be found here: June Crisis Update, and they can certainly use our prayers. Africa Connect certainly finds this situation to be difficult and challenging but all are excited to see the new growth and strengthened vision and purpose that God brings from this trial and change. For more information on the ministry itself, feel free to visit their website: Africa Connect.
4) Also on behalf of another Christian brother I must add one more link. This one gives you the opportunity to sign a petition for a North Carolina pastor who was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment by the Chinese government. White House Petition for Chinese Pastor

Thank you so much for your interest and prayers on our behalf! God bless you as we enter the new school season!

~ McEndarfer Family