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 1^stquarter 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 1^stquarter, 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

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 were 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

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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!

Appointed by OMF – WE ARE MOVING to THAILAND!

New appointees at Candidate Course (and Moriah's babysitter!)

We spent the last 10 days at Candidate Course with OMF International, the missions organization we've been applying for…it was a blast! AND…they (OMF-USA) as well as the field (Thailand) asked us to join their team!

What does this mean? We will be moving to Thailand in the next year, spending 1 year in language school in Lopburi and then on to Isaan (the North East) of Thailand to begin church planting. WE ARE SO EXCITED! More information to come!

If you want to read about OMF International (formerly “China Inland Mission” or CIM), their website is: http://www.omf.org/ OMF focuses on reaching East Asia. OMF International has an amazing heritage, with J. Hudson Taylor as its founder. It’s a privilege to serve with this mission!

One of the best parts of the trip was getting to know the leaders. They are passionate, down to earth, loving, real, and servant hearted. During our training, we learned about partnership development and began planning for our future team. In addition, we learned that prayer is our number one support, and that we rely on God, not people, for our provision. We also explored different ways to encourage others to discover their unique role in missions, which is so much more than going or giving. We have an exciting journey ahead while on the “homeside” and even more excited about the ones that God will call to walk this journey with us!

Moriah had a blast in Colorado (see photos below). She was the “mascot” of the course and loved her baby-sitter.

We are always asking for prayer for Moriah's left eye. At her last eye doctor appointment, the doctor felt that her eye is doing pretty well and that she doesn’t need to be on medication for the time being. This is truly an answer to prayer. Please keep praying for her and for complete healing.

Oh yeah....on Friday, October 28 - we celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary!

We will be in touch. Thanks for your prayers and please send us an update!

-Jason, Jenn and Moriah

P.S. Thailand has had some serious flooding. A missionary with OMF made this video showing the devastation going on even where he lives (he even shows his kids SWIMMING in their living room!)

Flooding in Central Thailand 2011 - English from Ulrich Kohler on Vimeo.

At a Vietnamese restaurant - Moriah wanted it to be an authentic experience!

Jason and our friend Phil - who will also be going to Thailand with his wife Kate!

Picture day for Prayer cards!

Group picture at the Hideaway Retreat Center

Our girl

Summer 2011...and we've been accepted to Candidate Course!

Dear Friends & Family,

Hope the summer has treated you well! I am happy to say that it is not currently snowing here in Park City, Utah…but come October, we will see snow again.

In June, we celebrated 2 high school graduations…Congrats to our baby sisters Amy Byers and Jordan Gunderson! While in California for Jordan’s graduation, we got to meet Jenn’s nephew Caleb Hurley Gunderson for the first time. It was so fun having Moriah and Caleb TOGETHER!

In July, Jenn’s parents came out and we spent some time at the Sundance Resort. Sundance is quite picturesque! A highlight of our time together is when we went on a lovely 3 mile hike down the mountain…it was a little harder than expected, very beautiful, and memories of Terri sliding down a snow bank will probably never leave our minds. But we survived the adventure! They have come out to visit again since then…they just can’t seem to be away from Moriah for too long!

In August, Jason went as a leader on a Young Life (the Christian organization that I now work for) backpacking trip in Colorado. They roughed it for 7 days with only a few pairs of clothes and no showers. This was Jason’s kind of trip; rugged mixed with deep talks about Jesus.

While Jason was roughing it, Jenn and Moriah got on a plane again to CA to make a “surprise visit” to her dad. The doorbell was rung, and my dad came down the stairs to find a little baby on his doorstep. He was definitely SURPRISED!

Exciting Byers family news- We have another beautiful niece! Jason’s sister April and husband Jason had their baby, Kaili Ann Scarbrough, born on July 29, 2011 in Hawaii.

Moriah, or “Chew bug” as we have nicknamed her is now 7 months old and just as cute as can be. She says “mom,” is trying out different sounds, laughs, is captivated by the dog, is most likely teething (hence the nickname) and enjoys doing her little “motormouth” for all to hear. Please pray for healing for the hemangioma over her left eye. It’s growth is supposed to be less aggressive now, but it may continue to try to grow until she’s a year. She’s off the prednisolone (steroids - some pictures you’ll notice that she is REALLY chubby) but might be going on a different medication soon. We patch her good eye for two hours a day and we try to get her to wear her glasses as much as possible (Moriah has decided that glasses are yummy…so they do not always stay on her face for very long!).

We have been accepted to Candidate Course for OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship) in Colorado! The 3 of us will be going to the 10 day course on October 17-27th (only a little over a month away!). It is after that training time that we may or may not be accepted to join their organization. As we’ve asked before, please pray for God’s continued leading and provision for this huge step in our lives. We are VERY excited!

As always, please keep in touch. We love and miss YOU!

-Jason, Jenn & Moriah

Moriah & Caleb hanging out in August

Jason preaching on John 9 @ Creekside

Grocery Shopping!