May Prayer Update

Psalm 68:19 "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah"

Dear Praying Friends,

We are glad to finally be reaching out to you with an update.  Our first and most wonderful announcement (though it is pretty old news that we hope you all have heard already) is that our daughter Evangella Annette was born on March 25th!  Though we are finding these beginning weeks of infancy and adjustment challenging, we are completely in love with our daughter and thank God for His faithfulness concerning her birth, continuing health and in providing us with support and wisdom through Himself and members of His body.  We have shared sweet visits with relatives from both sides of the family and are so thankful for the sacrifices made by these loved ones in traveling all the way to see us and in serving us so generously and kindly while staying with us.  Our local church and relatives have been an amazing blessing also in providing meals, babysitting Nathaniel and providing continual, sweet encouragement and advice.  Thank you all for your prayers and support.  Evangella is growing well and is healthy.  Votes are that she looks like her Daddy with all that dark hair.  We will attach her birth story to the end of this update for anyone interested in hearing the full story and the amazing intricacies of God in going above and beyond answering our prayers. 

Nathaniel celebrated his second birthday since our last update!  We are so grateful for all of the mothers and children who came out to celebrate with us through a play-date at the park.  We thank God for the loving community that He has blessed us with here in Paxton though we have not been here very long.  Nathaniel loves his sister and is very good at telling me when the, "Baby crying 'gain."  We are very impressed with how Nathaniel has been handling all of the adjustments and craziness of the past few weeks.  He has blessed us with his relaxed and flexible and loving attitude.  We are working on helping him to share nicely with his friends and obey quickly, and we are enjoying his pleasure at being outside and handling all the bugs coming out this spring! 

Megan's physical recovery from Evangella's birth was very quick.  She is still readjusting to cooking and caring for her home and making new adjustments in order to be a mom of two now.  This has been involving a lot of theorizing and seeking God and others in learning how to be the person God created her to be: including being a mom.  She is thankful for the experienced women in her life who are willing to give advice and support.  Megan is also continuing to earn a little income by proofreading for clients on UpWork and will begin babysitting again soon and assisting with children's Sunday school once a month. 

Benjamin tearing off our living room wall and insulation in order to re-wire, re-insulate and install new drywall prior to installing a heat pump!  Below is the de-constructable bunk bed he built.

Benjamin is continuing to enjoy his job.  He loves learning new carpentry skills and being able to use those skills to help people by meeting their practical needs.  The mens' Bible study at church has ended, but we are thankful for the men that it put Benjamin in touch with.  He has been asked to teach a 12 week, adult Sunday school class at church starting this Sunday.  His topic will be the Jewish roots of Jesus in the New Testament.  He has really been enjoying studying and preparing for this class and he continues to make improvements on our house as well.  Currently, he is working on installing a heat pump with the help of generous friends from church.  We are thankful that we have the supplies already in hand to keep us busy on a few projects at home, since the price of building materials is so inflated right now. 

Celebration of Passover before Resurrection Sunday. 

Last time we asked for prayers that we would have wisdom in stewarding our house, reaching out to neighbors and a willingness to serve God wherever He would have us to at this time.  We are so thankful for the service opportunities that have been given and for being able to connect with a new neighbor since last time.  We are also thankful that God is teaching us more about how He directly answers our prayers for wisdom.  We feel that He has been reminding us to place relationships and hospitality above checking off our to-do list of personal projects and that He is also reminding us to steward His resources well, including our time, money, energy, possessions, and home and even our minds, talents, and children.  These will be ongoing lessons, we are sure, as we pursue God for greater precision in understanding and following His will. 

Please continue to pray for us:

1) That we would be used of God to bring Christ to those around us. 

2) That we would have wisdom in continuing to parent our children and steward our resources for God. 

3) That God would speak through us in the classes we teach at church to disciple others.  

4) That we would continue to form relationships through hospitality.  

A robin's nest on our front porch. 

Thank you for reading and for praying for us!  May God continue to bless you as you grow in knowledge of and relationship with Him. 

The McEndarfers ~ Benjamin, Megan, Nathaniel & Evangella

Evangella Annette's Birth Story:

This whole story takes place in less than 3 hours on Thursday, March 25th.  That is our first praise.  Megan had been feeling some intense Braxton Hicks contractions for two days prior to the 25th.  She suspected this may be the body getting Baby in better position for birth, though Evangella was not due until April 6th.  Benjamin called Megan on his lunch break on Thursday to ask how she was doing. She felt great!  She had just finished her last commitment before her baby was due to arrive, for a total of two days babysitting that week and one day cleaning.  She was really looking forward to taking it easy in the time remaining before baby's arrival, which she expected to be at least a week.  In fact, we had hoped the baby would wait a week until Jennifer got back from a family vacation.  She was our first choice in watching Nathaniel while Megan was in the hospital.  Our neighbors had also volunteered to watch Nathaniel.  They would be our back up in case the baby came while Jennifer was gone.  As we were eating dinner at 6 pm that night, Megan felt her first real contraction.  Eight minutes later, another one.  By 6:30, we realized (tearfully) that indeed, labor had started (remember I said Megan was looking forward to some down time before the baby came??)  It was decided that Megan had better pack her hospital bag and Benjamin had better unload his tools from the car and install the infant carseat and we had better text our neighbor to let her know that we may be headed to the hospital that night.  By 7 pm, as we were doing those things, Megan was already needing to pause her activities during strong contractions coming, now, every 3-5 minutes apart.  She was pretty determined to put Nathaniel to bed at his normal time of 8 pm, then call our neighbor to come watch him and head to the hospital.  Just as she sat down on the couch with Nathaniel to read a book at 7:30, her water broke.  We realized we needed to start the 20 minute drive to the hospital NOW.  Benjamin picked Nathaniel up off the couch and ran him next door while Megan called ahead to the hospital's OB department.  Contractions were less than 3 minutes apart in the car ride, with Megan feeling ready to push and questioning wether or not we would make it in time (while Benjamin informed her that we WOULD make it).  Once at the hospital, admittance papers were quickly signed, a birthing room and nurses were ready, and the doctor arrived shortly after Megan was gowned with the nurse saying, "You aren't pushing, are you?"  Yes, she was.  After about 3 pushes, our Baby was born, at 8:40 pm, weighing 7 lbs.,4.5 oz and 21 inches long.  We were overjoyed to learn that she was a girl, and so amazed at God's blessing.  What a quick and easy delivery!  What providence that Benjamin was home, since he certainly would not have had time to drive home from work nor would Megan have had the foresight to call him in time.  How wonderful that our neighbors were willing to watch Nathaniel on such short notice that night.  They had intended to leave the next day for a weeklong vacation!  For the second time, we were left marveling at God's perfect timing and His immense grace in blessing us over and above our prayers for a healthy and smooth delivery.  We have been marveling ever since at the blessing of our beautiful and healthy baby girl.  What a good, good Father He truly is! 

Evangella Annette means Good News of Grace.  This is how we feel at learning that God has given us a daughter.  It also describes the perfect gift of Salvation given freely to us through Jesus' death on the cross to pay for our sins.  Annette is also the name of the strong, wise, godly and generous woman that is Benjamin's mother.  We pray that God grants us wisdom and grace as we parent our precious gift, that she will accept His free gift of salvation early and honor Him all her life, and that she will grow to emulate her grandmother's godly service.