Praise

God is amazing! Serve Him no matter what. Sometimes we don't know the next step. John, Jonathan, and I have a huge desire to get to Unalaska and share Christ with the people there. I have struggled with health issues but am doing much better. We've become grandparents to a beautiful little girl, who is now a year old and so precious. We are getting used to my daughter and grandaughter living away from us after having them in our home for a year. To me that's kinda tough. Such a quiet house. I guess what I want to say is that no matter what God allows in our life He is stil God and He is in control. We have lots of stuff coming up the next several months. Jonathan will be working on catching up on his schooling and I'll be working with him. I'll be speaking at a mother/daughter banquet in April. We will be going to Junior camp with the kids in our sending church and planning a VBS at our sending church. John will be calling churches and visiting churches trying to raise more support. Our hope is to move to Unalaska in August! Your prayers are very much appreciated.
Jonathan just got up, got his cereal, and came and sat next to me on the couch. He's 12 now and doesn't want to cuddle much these days so when he does I love it. He had a growing pain this morning and told me that he usually gets them a few months after his birthday! Come to think of it I think I have had some growing pains lately. The kind I get when God is growing and stretching me, reminding me that my strength is found in Him and that I am not my own.
OK... Jonathan is needing my help with his Bible quiz, working on learning the 10 commandments. Guess I'll post this and hope you all have a great day.

Prayer Letter April/May

As I have been traveling to visit churches while on furlough I have been repeatedly reminded of the importance of your prayers. While traveling from one missions conference to another the last several months I have encountered many snow storms, rain storms, high winds, and road raged drivers. It is great to know that many of you are praying for us. Your faithfulness reminds me of the many prayer partners the Apostle Paul had while on his missionary journeys. It is interesting that the Lord allowed Paul to give us the names of some of his prayer partners in his Epistles. At the end of most of his Epistles, Paul has a “hugs and howdys section”. In this part of his letters, he mentioned specific names of eople in the churches he was thankful for or particular ones who had helped him. Some of these people we wouldn’t know anything about if he hadn’t put a little “hello” to them in his ritings. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:9 that we are laborers together with God. Just as Paul needed faithful men and women to pray to God on his behalf, we too need your prayers. Without the prayers of many hristians, and the financial support of many churches we couldn’t continue doing what God has called us to do.
The last couple of months 6 more churches have started to financially partner with us and many of you faithfully pray for us. I wish I had the space to hank each of you personally but the list would fill too many pages. So once again I say a very heartfelt “THANK YOU” for praying for our family as we prepare to take the Gospel to the people living on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

We are still needing to raise around $1,000 a month dditional support before we can leave for the Dutch Harbor/Unalaska area. The last ferry of the year leaves for Dutch Harbor/Unalaska in September. If we don’t have enough support to leave by then we will have to wait until next May. Please pray that we will be able to raise the additional funds necessary so that we will be able to reach the Unreached of Unalaska!

John and Jody Warrick

Waiting..... in Iowa

We are in Iowa now, waiting for our grandaughter to make her grand entrance into the world. Kristi's baby is due February 23rd and I can't wait to hold her. Kristi is planning to come home with us after the baby arrives. I am very happy about this decision. I'm so thankful for a nice big house to live in while John travels to raise more support. Also thankful for a supportive sending church that's waiting to welcome Kristi home. I will try to post soon with pictures :0)

What if..... then God!

My friend Rebecca and I at the July 4th celebration in Wrangell 2009



I used to be a What if girl and I must admit that I still sometimes ask God why and what if! However as the years go by and I see God work in some pretty amazing ways I'm learning to just take one day at a time and instead ask, OK Lord.... what today? Is there someone I can encourage or love with YOUR love? Is there a way that I can help John that I normally wouldn't think of? What little thing do YOU want to show me today that I'll miss if I'm to busy? One thing I learned from the Alaskan people, especially from my friend Rebecca was to appreciate the small things. The salmonberries that Jonathan fell in love with. The smell of spruce, and even the taste of spruce tips (Rebecca said they are good in jelly)! Fireweed in the summer and a sunny day in the winter! Sea glass that's been refined by the sand and the sea! Just the little things.








Kristi and I when we visited her in Iowa, at Thanksgiving Time.

The date is right on the picture. Aren't you proud of me?



As I look forward to the birth of my grandaughter, and at times worry about the choices that Kristi is making I am reminded of how much God loves us and that the God who can create the universe, set the stars in the sky, start the storms and calm the storms is the same God who makes those spruce tips smell so amazing and causes the Kansas sunflower to open up facing the sun each morning (yep had to slip Kansas in there too!) A God this amazing can surely be trusted with my daughter and my grandaughter! Our kids and we ourselves for that matter, go through some tough times and sometimes it's because of sinful choices but I've learned that no matter what, we can trust God to be the perfect parent to our kids. He knows what they need even when we aren't so sure!

Kristi's due date is February 23rd so your prayers are much appreciated at this time!!



Prayers,

Jody

Saturday Mornings

October zoo trip - Like usual the date on my camera was wrong.

Why is it that I can never sleep in on Saturday mornings? It doesn't seem to be a problem for John and Jonathan. A quiet house, a bit of a chill in the air, the sound of the heater. Enough to make me sleepy on any day when I need to get up so why not on Saturdays. I slept so well last night though, and you know what helped? With some of my birthday money I bought a noise machine thing. I went to sleep to the sound of ocean waves and I slept better than I have in weeks. When I heard the train I just turned the waves up louder. Poor John.... not sure he appreciated the waves as much as I did, but he didn't complain. He's a good man!

We had a nice day yesterday. A busy day, but a nice day. I think we're adjusting well to this crazy furlough life. After spending the last 8 weeks home with Jonathan while John travelled alone we are extremely thankful to have him here with us. Then again, we also want him in churches sharing the ministry God's called us to in Alaska so we can get "home" for real. Late October and most of November John has churches in Nebraska. Since that's not to far from here he can come home some between churches, which will be very nice.

The time at home without John made me think of the fishermen's wives in Alaska who stay home with their kids while their husbands are out making a living. I want to get to Dutch Harbor and truly reach out to these women. I also thought of military wives, whose husbands are gone for a very long time fighting for the freedom many of us take for granted. I pray that our country will appreciate these families who sacrifice so much. I pray that each of us will appreciate them more.

It's been fun teaching the 4 and 5 year olds in Pioneer Club at our sending church, Wellington Baptist Temple. I love to teach and want to serve while I'm here. Singing in the choir is also a lot of fun.

I have enjoyed homeschooling Jonathan here in Kansas. So many cool opportunities. A few weeks ago they had homeschoolers day at the Sedgwick County zoo in Wichita. Our friend at church, Grandma Bev, was kind enough to take us.

Friends

I knew I would miss Alaska but I didn't realize how much, and I sure didn't realize how "homesick" Jonathan would be! However we are adjusting to life in Kansas while John travels. We're praying that the needed additional support comes in soon so we can get out to Dutch Harbor. While we wait we are being thankful! Jonathan for his new friend, Christian who came and spent a couple of days with us last week, and I for the amazing, beautiful field of Kansas Sunflowers I see every Sunday and Wednesday on our way to church :0) So pretty. I'm also thankful for family and friends, both in Alaska and here in Kansas. Please keep
us in your prayers!

When it storms we use duct tape.......

Today I enjoyed church so much. First for Sunday School I taught my Jr. High girl, Erica about facing trials in life and looking to God to get us through. She's so sweet and I'm going to miss her terribly when we come back South for furlough. Then in Children's Church I was teaching the little children about the disciples and Jesus being in a boat on the Sea of Galillee when a storm came up. Jesus was asleep in the boat and the storm didn't even wake him up. Then the disciples woke Him up to help them. Well, this lesson was especially fun to teach to these kids because their Dad is a commercial fisherman. I let them tell me about times they had been out in the sea when a storm came and they said it got all bumpy. Then the little girl (in the picture above) piped up and said, "but my Dad just puts duct tape on the cabinets so the food doesn't come out." I told her that was a really good idea but the little boy said "no it's not cuz then I can't get any food out." How funny. I am amazed and grateful that God has given me the opportunity to teach these kids that no matter how bad the storms or problems in life get that Christ will get them through if they ask Him to. Very cool.