Thursday, November 15, 2012

Fall 2012 Deputation update

Fall in Heber City/Park City is BEAUTIFUL this time of year. We are constantly reminded of God’s goodness and grace, both in what we see outside and in the work He continues in our lives. We want to thank you again for your ongoing love and support!

Ministry Update
Since our last update, we have shared the vision for Thailand in California, Missouri, Arkansas and Utah…we have been busy! The churches we have shared with have been so gracious to us. At this time, there are 3 churches that have verbally committed, and 3 more that are considering support. God is so good!

Kroger Reloadable Grocery Cards
Monthly support is still our greatest need. There is a new way that friends can partner with us financially at no extra cost…through buying gas and grocery shopping at Kroger stores!
(aka Smith’s Food & Drug, Ralph’s, Food4Less, Dillons, Fred Meyer, QFC, Kroger, Turkey Hill, etc.).

How it works:
1. Receive a reloadable Kroger card from us (0.00 balance)
2. Pre-load your Kroger card
(w/credit card, debit, cash @ customer service)
3. Shop!
4. Pay for your groceries/gas with your Kroger card.
5. 5% goes to our mission support!


For example, if someone commits to spending $400.00 a month on groceries/gas, $20.00 would then go toward our monthly support!

We are really excited about the opportunity. Please email Jenn (
mrs.jenn.byers@gmail.com) or just "reply" to this email if you are interested or have questions. Click here to find a Kroger store near your zip code.

Monthly Support Report
We are currently around 33% of our pledged monthly support. This has postponed our departure to Thailand to sometime in 2013. One of our biggest challenges with deputation has been our lack of time. We both have jobs (Jenn part time) and take turns caring for Moriah. We have been praying that God would open the door for us to live in cheaper housing and for Jenn to work less.

He heard our prayer…moving!
We are moving to Ephraim, Utah, the city that we met in back in 2004. Jason was hired at a boys’ home in a town nearby, and the staff at the “The Rock” is graciously allowing us to rent the upstairs for a very low amount. Praise God for this amazing answer to prayer. This will free us up to focus on Thailand and sharing our vision.

Moriah update
As some of you already know, at about 2 months old, Moriah started developing a hemangioma (benign, vascular tumor) that grew in her nasal cavity. We have some GREAT news! At her last appointment, the doctor decided that she does not need to wear her glasses at this time as her eye is doing very well! Thank you for all your prayers!

Moriah is now 20 months and a blond, curly top. She calls every prince she sees on t.v. “Daddy”, loves bananas, her baby dolls, dresses, “talking” on the "foo" (phone), and noodles of any kind (called “loo loo”).

Prayer requests

-Monthly supporters
-Personal family finances
-The missionary families in Northeast Thailand, that they would be encouraged in their work and not give up on the task
-Thailand and its unreached provinces. Click here to view the Christian presence map. We will probably end up in Khon Kaen, Kalasin or Sakon Nakhon

Please let us know how we can be praying for you!

-Jason, Jenn and Moriah

Friday, July 27, 2012

July 2012 - Oregon + 1st quarter done!

Dear Friends,
First and foremost thank you so much for all that you do. Your heart, passion and sacrifice toward missions truly amazes us. Your prayers for the gospel to radically transform lives amazes us and encourages us to continue to preach the glorious gospel of God’s grace to all people. We appreciate and thank our Lord for you.

A little Family Update
In June, we took a trip up to Oregon to see both sides of Jason’s family. We spent time with the Barnharts on their logging property and Moriah loved playing with her cousins and seeing all the animals! We then traveled down to Creswell, Oregon and stayed with Grandma Byers. More time with cousins, aunts and uncles, a “tea party” with Great Grandma and the kids, it was a blast!




 
We are loving Heber City, Utah and have had opportunities here to share Christ so we are very thankful. Moriah is our main source of entertainment these days. She is 16 months now, has curly blonde hair and is cutting molars (ouch!). She confidently speaks a language that we don’t quite understand, mimicks “real words,” loves to kiss (mostly daddy!) and to imitate animal sounds like “mooooooooo.”

Getting-to-Thailand update
We were able to speak at Heber Valley Baptist Church (The Worship Center), which was a great opportunity and awesome to see old friends again (Jason was a Youth Pastor here). Also, we had an opportunity to speak at Provo Baptist Church, again this was a privilege and it was great to meet such wonderful believers in the Provo Valley- they are an amazing group!

On June 23rd, Creekside (our home church in Park City) organized a HUGE garage sale for us. What a great God we have and what great people He has to organize things like this. The Lord brought in a little over $4,000.00, our pre-Thailand expenses are most likely covered!


As for monthly support, we are at 25%! In football terms: the 1stquarter is over with, or in a mile race, the first lap is complete. Like in football, the first quarter is used to find your rhythm and plug into it. Therefore in the second quarter, you can go into it confident and focused on what needs to get done. We feel like we have found somewhat of a rhythm during this 1stquarter, so let’s approach this next quarter focused on Christ and His global Kingdom and move forward with confidence that God will provide.

Things to pray about:

1. Pray that more churches will open up for us to share our vision and God will lead more monthly financial partners our way.

2. That we communicate our vision well (please see where we will be sharing the vision these next couple of months).

3. God will prepare hearts in Thailand and here in North America to receive the gospel of Christ.
 
“Jesus Christ laid down his life for you, so that He could give His life to you, so that He could live His life through you!” (Bob George).

You all are so dear to our hearts!

Standing in Grace,

Jason, Jenn & Moriah Byers

Monday, April 2, 2012

Birthdays + Hello Heber!

Hello from Heber City, Utah!


Just a few a days ago we moved in to our new apartment in Heber, Utah! We are very excited to live down here and are excited to get involved in the community. We are only 20 minutes from where we werAdd Videoe living in Park City, so we are keeping our same jobs. We signed an 8 month lease as we are hoping to leave for Thailand in November. We are keeping our old PO Box as well.

Birthdays! Moriah turned 1 year old on February 9th. WHAT A FUN and CRAZY YEAR! She just started walking, and her favorite words are daddy, baby and ba-ba (but really, she says daddy ALL THE TIME!). Her favorite things in this last month: pulling off her glasses, wearing sunglasses, playing with her cousins, blowing her nose (and yours), and looking at herself in the mirror. Jason turned 27 in February and my birthday is on Easter Sunday this year.
On a sad note, I returned home to Mission Viejo (with Moriah) in early February to attend a funeral for Amanda (Hoffman) Gordon, one of my best friends from middle school/high school. So hard to believe she is gone. The memories are countless, and I know I will hold her memory in my heart forever. She left behind her parents, husband, and two kids.












Thailand is on our minds and it is so hard to be patient! God has raised up some amazing partners in the last few months and we are very grateful. We are still praying for more individuals and churches to become monthly financial partners and prayer partners with us for our first 5 year term. Financially, we are about 1/5 of the way there! Still a long way to go, but we can only trust Him and not ourselves!



We see this waiting time as amazing preparation for the field. In the last few weeks, we have really felt the opportunity to trust Him in a way that we haven’t trusted Him before. All I know is that knowing Jesus is freeing, He takes away fear and gives undeniable courage. He is so good!

Would love to know how you’re doing!

Lots of love,

-Jenn, Jason and Moriah


Pigtails!

Cousin Caleb!
The Three Jenns with their babies
Cousin Addy, Jason, and Moriah

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Photo Book

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

2012 is here!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011 was amazing. We received beautiful Moriah and we love being her parents! On February 9th we will be celebrating her 1st birthday…can’t wait to see those cheeks covered in cake! Moriah is fluent in baby talk! Her English words are: mama, daddy, uh-oh and Boo (for the dog, RIP as of this last week). She’s crawling everywhere, has 2 teeth and 1 more breaking through and currently loves tearing her Winnie the Pooh books into pieces.

As for Jason and I…we are tired! And having fun!
2012 is here and we have hit the ground running! We are hopeful that we will get to Thailand by November 2012. We have just really begun our Partnership Development with OMF International, we are praying for prayer partners as well as financial partners. We have some of both already, praise God! We trust God will bring everything together in His way and in His timing! Jason spoke at Ephraim Church of the Bible in Ephraim, Utah (the church we met at!) and will be speaking at our home church here in Park City this Sunday.
OMF International US put out an amazing video on their heart for Asia. It’s 4 minutes long, and definitely worth your time! Their video is also posted on their website: www.omf.org/us

HOPE FOR BILLIONS - OMF International U.S. from K H on Vimeo.


After our year of language school in Lopburi, Thailand, we plan to be church planters in Northeastern Thailand, known to Thais as “Isaan.” I found a video on Isaan with our future field leader in it. Marten Visser is from the Netherlands (most of our team is from there!). As I’ve read about the situation in the Northeast, there are a less than 100 missionaries in Isaan to date. 100
missionaries for 22 million people, about 1/3 of Thailand’s population…wow! Isaan is still pioneer work, and we are excited to go there!

Isaan - Northeast Thailand from Jennifer Tibbetts on Vimeo.


Hope you’re having a wonderful New Year! And as always, please write us and give us an update!
Love you all,
-Jenn, Jason and Moriah

Sweet girl!
Moriah and cousin Addison!
Pretty in Pink
Christmas in Mission Viejo, CA!
Crawling with cousin Caleb!
Hugs
First time seeing Santa!
Gunderson & Byers Family Photo
She didn't like the hat!