East Asia Update (kids and $$)

 $550 has been raised! We have 1 girl student committed to going and 4 guy students committed

SO READY FOR A HOLIDAY

Yes I am!!!

CONGRATS DUSTIN!

 I was able to attend Dustin’s Badge night very cool. We are so proud and excited for him! Dawn made the cakes for his graduation dinner and for his graduation party (a giant donut lol) 

IT’S A BOY!

 We went to Tracy’s ultrasound the other day! And it is a Boy…Ethan! Yea! Now Ella will have a little brother.

Pink

It’s a Girl Yea!! I went to the ultra sound with mom. It was weird… the baby look like a real baby that is creepy…I mean the kid is 7.5 inches and weighs 8oz and we can see its face and see it moving.  And as of now her name is Samantha! 

RANDOM DESSERT AND A NIGHT WITH THE FRESHMEN

So dawn was making the cakes this week for Dustin’s Graduation and she has to cut the tops off to flatten them. So we had 4 very large pieces of cake that were leftover. We did not want to waste it so I decided to make a dessert for the Freshmen Night that we were having at church. It was an interesting dessert. We layered cake and cool whip and icing and added toffee bits and then we poured chocolate syrup and caramel syrup all over it. I think they liked it since it was completely goneJ.

Isaiah 43: 18-19

"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland."

First Sunday in OBF

We don’t have to load in the sound every week!!!! We get there the band sets up their instruments and start practicing, oh happy day. Service went well. I had 2 kids down stairs with me and we had 120 adults/college students in service. Many were freshmen. God is so awesome. We had a great lesson down stairs about following Jesus and what it meant to be a disciple. All the children’s lessons are based on Chad’s sermons.

THE SCHEDULE

Welcome to another crazy school year and another wonderfully busy schedule. Josh and I have really one night home together…I guess it could be less! God help us to find rest in this.

Welcome Week/Bridge Cake

 Oh what a week…The guys had leadership training, water bottle loading, move in day, concerts, and meet and greets. Then we had our Bridge Birthday party! Lots of new freshman it should be a great year!! Everyone loved the cake!!

Less than a month

 With less than 4 week until “Move in Day” we are still going strong. Last week we held Vacation Bible School. We were blessed to have a PowerPlant team of 13 youth from Gardendale, Alabama help us this week. We were able to minster to over 85 children. We had 2 commitments and lots children asking questions that we are following up with. God is working in these children please continue to pray for them.  August 7^th we have 20 students and staff leaving for Madison, Wisconsin. There they will be helping a local church planner as he prepare to launch. Please pray for safe travels and a united team as they go to minister and serve. Just a week after the mission team gets back we will be greeting the thousands of students at move in.  Move in Day is August 19, we will be talking with students, carrying boxes and passing out “Bridge Water”(bottles of water with Bridge information on the label). This is a wonderful way for us to minster and build relationships with the new students.

We thank you for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for us as a church as we continue to seek the face of God. Pray for the East Asia team we have 4 that have committed to the Christmas trip. Please pray that financial assistance will be there and that God will continue to prepare and equip them for this trip. Please also pray for the Foundation Team as they are ending their summers we pray that they will be focus and intentional in their ministries. 

Faith Baptist Sunday

Church was a t Faith Baptist the week, small service but good. Chad preached since they are without a pastor at this time.

My friend is leaving

 bye marie Well I feel like I have told this story before. But this time it ends a little different. Marie (one of my teacher friends) has been looking for a job and has not really had any open doors. Well she has one but it is far away…Down in the Carolinas. But like her story last year there is a twist. 2 days before she was planning on leaving for her new home her old school called and offered her an assistant position (less money not full time and no benefits…but a job) so she thought about it and decided that it may work if she could take grad school classed along with the part time job. But Miami would not give her the teacher discount since the school is not an Ohio accredited school. Not fair, but when is life ever fair. So Marie headed down to live with a friends grandmother for a week or two until she finds and apartment with a pool! Another bummer she has to work summers too! 

Birthday Party

 We have lots of birthdays in my family and we are ever growing. This week was Mark, Tracy, Dustin and Jamey. It was a nice chilled party with yard games and lunch. I held Ella for a while, played with the kids and just relaxed. Josh was in WS so it was just me.

            Happy Birthday Guys!

Dawn Got a New Car

My little sister is great! She wanted to move out and get her own place but then after about 3 hours of doing the math and then the math again she decided it was not going to work. So she went to option B: Buy a new Car. She has been planning on getting a new car for a while since her car is ready to bite the dust. She did her research and went to the dealers…got $3000 on her car as a trade in which is great for a ’97 accord. She bought a very cute and very Dawn, Orange Element Yea Dawn! This will be great for cake deliveries

Good bye 11.5 inches of hair

A simple trip to the salon did not end quite as planned. Ok let me explain Josh went to great clips to get his hair cut…the lady did not do the best job. So we went back later that week to get it fixed and since we were there I was going to get mine trimmed. So we get there and the manager takes Josh back and is working on his hair, the lady that was working on me was super nice. We chatted and she asked what I wanted and I explained I was just trimming it today since I was going to donated it once it was longer. She explained how much she would need in order for me to donate it today and I said ok let’s do it. That is not a typical me response. I think things through much more than that but hey it is just hair right? I think I made the girl nervous because she was worried about what Josh would think and if he would say it was ok. So I yelled across the room (no one else was there) and asked if he cared and of course he did not mind. The best part is… I like it

The Moore’s bought a house!!

 Yep it is true the Moore’s have bought a house. Not the one they thought they were going to buy but it all worked out. They had put an offer on a house, the sent out the inspector and the house was basically rotting from the outside in. Not a good thing when buying a home. So the withdrew their offer. They had the loan approve, so they put an offer on this other house that was asking a little higher than their offer. After a few days of going back and forth the guy accepted the offer and now they have a new house…well they don’t move in until September but they are home owners. It is hard sometimes to be really genuinely excited for someone when you really want what they have…I know it sounds like jealousy but I truly don’t think that is what it is. I think it is more the idea that we may never have a house and I often blame myself because of the student loans and the car payment. If we did not have these debts we could have a house and we would not have to live with his grandmother. But either way God has a plan for our lives rather that is to live with Granny or to have our own home, I will just have to wait and see. But we are blessed.

Asia Photos/letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Amanda and I have made it through the first year of marriage and are looking forward to the years to come. Throughout each of our high school and college years we both have been given many amazing opportunities to serve in the name of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the advancement of God’s kingdom. Not that He ‘needs’ us, but rather calls us to serve and to go in obedience to His command. We are now at a point where we feel God is calling us to another special time of service and sacrifice this coming Christmas.

Amanda and I are currently a part of The Bridge Church in Oxford, Ohio, where I serve as one of the pastors on staff. This is our fourth year working at The Bridge. It has been a wonderful learning and growing experience for the both of us in our walk with the Lord and in our relationship with each other. We have a great desire to see college students and young people make a difference in the world by living beyond themselves for the sake of the gospel. This coming Christmas we are answering a call to lead a team of college students to East Asia to share the true Christmas story in an academic setting. The story of the birth of Jesus the Son of God, who came to save mankind from the penalty of our sins and eternal separation from a holy God by his sacrifice alone.

This is a decision that neither of us has taken lightly and with great humility we ask for your help in making this mission possible. The cost for both of us to go on this trip is $6,500. We know this is a lot of money, and praise God that he is greater than any dollar amount and will provide. Please pray for Amanda and I as we are raising support and have tightened our own monthly budget to invest in this trip as we feel we must sacrifice before asking for a sacrifice from you. Today we are asking that you would prayerfully consider supporting us in prayer, or in prayer and by donation. Your prayers are far more powerful than any amount of money, so please keep us in your prayers from the time you finish this letter until God has brought us back to the United States. Thank you so much for your generosity.

If you are lead to give financially please make checks payable to The Bridge Church and put “Parson East Asia” in the note and mail to:

                                                                        Josh & Amanda Parson

                                                                        718 Black Moat Place

                                                                        Miamisburg, OH 45342

In Christ alone,

Josh & Amanda Parson

Another Car...

bites the dust – Well yet again another car issue…this time Josh’s car it is lovely how everything tends to break or fall apart at the same time. We took Josh’s car in the other day because it make a wonderful noise and pulsates from time to time the new was not so wonderful. It pretty much needs a complete new motor. $1500-$2000 The car is worth about $4000 so we decided to put it up for sale. Anyone need a car? Honda Civic 1999 really nice! J Only $3000. So for now we sit and wait. God has blessed us throughout this time; Chad and Whitney have an extra car so we have been able to borrow it until we figure out what is going on with the civic.