A bonus - no charge

Jesiah had a good time singing with the Mickesh family ( check out our previous blog for more info on this family and our whole trip) . Here is some video footage of his fabulous dance moves. (Jesiah is on the far left in his red spiderman pajamas ~ of course!)

Gwen found her new love....the slide. She is part penguin I am convinced...check out her bravery...

And as always check out our website for prayer and praise items (under our Schedule tab ~ incase you were curious)

Our MN trip

We hit the road rolling on Wednesday October 17th to head for the grand state of Minnesota. We took the drive in two days and arrived in Karlstad, MN on the 18th. We presented that night at Karlstad Baptist Church to a great group of believers that would normally have a Bible study that night. While there we stayed with the Dave Ingraham's family. Dave is the pastor at Karlstad Baptist. Jen Ingraham is one of the five daughters of Paul Olson, Houghtons pastor while he was getting his nursing degree. It was great for Jesiah and Gwen to have other kids to pal around with for a night!

The Ingraham Family

Karlstad Baptist Church, Karlstad MN

Friday we drove up to Deer River, MN to share a meal with Paul and Carol Olson, who formerly was the pastor in Fallon, MT while Houghton was in college. It was during the time that Houghton was under Pauls teaching that he grew spiritually and God used the Olson in a tremendous way to spur on that growth! So it was a great time to share with the Olson's what God is now doing in our lives and to catch up with them.

Paul and Carol Olson

While staying in Deer River we were graciously housed by Harley and Betty Steinbrenner. The Steinbrenners have retired in a home that they built on Jesse Lake. They were such a blessing to our family as we stayed for two nights. Harley used a bobcat and had cleared a number of trails outside their home through the woods for 4wheelers to go on. The Steinbrenners let us go out on their 4wheelers and enjoy the weather on Saturday.

Jesiah LOVED going 4wheeling! He was "steering" the whole time and he only got scared when dad got a little our of hand. ;) Gwenny was taking a nap while we were riding.Harely and Betty Steinbrenner

On Sunday morning we presented at Marcell Community Church. Paul Olson has been pastoring this church for the last 5 years since they moved to MN from MT and Harley Steinbrenner is a deacon while Betty Steinbrenner is on the missions committee. We had a great time with the Marcell congregation and were able to share a potluck with them after the service and we were able to chat more with some folks during that time which is always a blessing.

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

After spending time at the church in Marcell, we took off for the Mickesh family's home back in Deer River, MN. This tremendous family is currently looking at joining BMW as missionaries to Canada to the First Nations people or working in the states with First Nations groups in MN. They graciously opened their home to us for the night and we got to meet this fantastic family throughout the course of Sunday evening and Monday morning. Rick and Jamie have adopted six children as their own and it was a joy to spend time with their children interacting with ours!

That night before bed, our families sang some songs together which Jesiah thoroughly enjoyed and helped out with.

Me with their youngest Matthew

Jesiah dancing to a song while Rick and Mitchel hold the music

Brianna, Mariah, Emily, Gretchen with Matthew

Chatting with the Mickesh family

We then drove back to MT on Monday arriving on Tuesday after staying in Dickinson overnight to break up our trip for the kids a bit. God has been so gracious as we have been traveling. He has continually provided the money for our travel costs and we have not had to delve into our normal monthly income from our faithful supports for our driving costs since May! Thank you so much to you all who have given to us above and beyond what you have committed and thus helping us in a tremendous way with the expenses of "the road".

SOME ADDED NEWS:

We would also like to reiterate again how humbled we are at the team God has been building up as our support group here in the states! The work of a missionary is by far the most humbling work we have ever been involved with and we are amazed daily of Gods working in our lives and YOURS as He leads some to give financially and some prayerfully and others through encouraging us along our way.

Although we have already posted this on our website weeks ago, we also would like to announce that we will be expecting our third child in March this year and are thrilled to see God working through this as we hoped to have another baby before heading to Vanuatu. His timing is absolutely perfect and we praise God for this new life that is now growing and growing....

Please continue to check our website for our schedule and also for our added prayer requests and praises!

Our September recap :)

Last month found us in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska. We got to spend time with friends from school in every state which was a great encouragement to us and joy to catch up with them.

God has been raising up faithful worshipers throughout these states to join our team to reach the people of Vanuatu for Christ.

Here is a recap of our past four weeks. Please continue to check our website for our schedule and prayer requests.

Slide shows, scrapbooks, photo ecards, and more

Our current state...of mind that is...for now

We have been hanging out at "home" for the past two weeks. We have been able to start to make a dent in the paperwork that seems to build up when you are traveling a lot and not at home to do the regular "work".
It has also been a relaxing time for the kids too as they have been able to be on whatever sleeping schedule their bodies desire and also get caught up on some needed grandpa and grandma time!
We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing our family, friends, and supporters here in Miles City and the surrounding area and reconnecting with them. It amazes me that we were only gone for about a month and we are soon going to be gone for years! It just shows how awesome the Internet is and its "power" in keeping connected that way.
We are thrilled to be taking off again this next week. We will be heading to Colorado for some more training with our team. I am really looking forward to seeing them all again and being together. We love hanging out with each other and it amazes me that God has brought us all together as a team to reach Ni-Vans!

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. We have a meeting on Saturday at a house in Denver and then on Sunday will head to our training. On the next Sunday we present in a church in Nebraska in the AM and in Wyoming in the PM. At the Bible School we attended in Lagrange WY on Monday and then again in Nebraska that Sunday to follow.

For a more detailed and complete schedule check out our website.

Our Western Montana Trip

Ronan, Montana (South of Kalispel)

We got to Ronan on Friday the 10th of August to meet up with Aaron Skogen and his family which was our "contact" for the church in Pablo, MT just outside Ronan. We were taken care of in amazing ways by being fed marvelous food and also meeting tremendous people at our time in Pablo and also during the week we stayed in Ronan.

Houghton preached during the 2 morning services and also the adult sunday school class along with sharing about Vanuatu. That evening we had a time of desserts at the church for more question and answer time with the people who were interested in learning more about our ministry.

Gretchen is singing at the piano for the offertory

The kids playing in the nursery during the service

Click on this to view more pics from our time in Ronan

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Frenchtown, Montana (outside Missoula)

We left for Frenchtown from Ronan on the 17th to stay with our friend from Frontier School of the Bible, Josh McNeal who was our contact for the Frenchtown Community Church. We shared briefly in the morning service about our ministry and Gretchen was able to help lead the song time with Josh. The three of us shared in song during the offertory. That night we had invited people back for our presentation and we were also able to share with the Youth Group that night.

Houghton talking with people from Frenchtown Community Church

Click to view more pics from Frenchtown:

Click to play Make your own Smilebox Bozeman, MT We got to visit lots of friends on our way through Bozeman. We stayed at Lindsey Wilkersons new appartment and got to hang out with her and also meet up with Josh and Lisa Lang. We also got to reconnect with Ryan Solberg, an old family friend of Laura and I's. We thouroughly enjoyed seeing these great friends again! While there we also found out that some friends of ours Josh and Amy with thier four children, Hannah, Abigail, Naomi, and Ezekiel, had just moved to Bozeman and we got to enjoy a meal with them and reconnect. God totally worked out our meeting it was awesome. Click here to view more pics of Bozeman

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Back and all trained up!

On Tuesday we pulled into our driveway from our trip to Atlanta Georgia. We had an awesome time of training to get us closer to Vanautu and also reconnecting with our teammates whom some of we havn't seen since last summer at Pre-field training.
While on the way to Georgia we stayed with Faltynski's as mentioned in our previous post and also with Fred and Betty Foulkes, aunt and uncle of Laura and I. They were incredibly gracioius and let us stay at thier home for over a week total. They also took us to the airport etc. so we could then fly to Atlanta.

We also got to spend time with our grandma as she too lives in Minnesota. This was a sweet blessing to us as we cannot be sure when we will be able to spend time with these people again after we leave for Vanuatu. While visiting with grandma she invited over some of the other ladies in her complex and we were able to share with these great prayer warriors what God is doing with us and how they can join in that work by praying!

Checking out the mall of America

Jesiah and Houghton at the play land in Mall of America

On the weekend inbetween our sessions we were able to go and visit Houghtons sister and brother in law who live outside of Atlanta. Bethany and Waiman. We also got to visit with thier gracious neighbors.

We went to Bible school in Wyoming with Will Vestal who has since gotten married to Kate and they are expecting thier first baby. They live in GA and we got to drive down to see them while we were in their neck of the woods.

Our full Team Vanuatu....isn't God amazing!!!! What a good lookin bunch huh?! :)

The Vanuatu Bush Team (those of us going to live, along with our families, in a tribe) In order of L to R - (top) Gretchen and Houghton Richards, Tania and Jim Kenner (bottom) Laura Thulesen, Amber and Brad JonesWe began classes on the 16th and had our last class on the 25th. Thank you all SO much for praying for us as we took this trip. We were able to see so many answers to prayer! The bedroom that we stayed in while at "school" was in my opinion the best room in the house! Gwen was able to sleep in a walk in closet which was perfect since she loves the dark and Jesiah had his own large bed that he didn't fall out of! We, as a team, were able to meet several times and therefore got a great start on our planning. The Kenner family was accepted by Biblical Ministries Worldwide and was officially invited into the Team to which they accepted. It was a blessed trip and we are indebted to those who prayed for us. Thank you again.

There is a lot in store for us as a family now that we are hitting the road full time to share with others around the country about Vanuatu. Please continue to be praying for us.

*We have experienced a lot of sickness (both Houghton and I and also the kids) because of the hectic schedule etc. that we are now living with. We ask that you keep our health in your prayers.

*The kids don't like driving....crazy huh?!... :) So be in prayer that they will become accustomed to their seats and not dread it. We are so prayerful that our family will not look at this precious time of connecting with people as something that is frustrating but to see it as it is...a true blessing.

*All of our Bush Team is still hoping to be leaving for Vanuatu in March. Pray that things continue to fall into place for this goal to become a reality and that God will continue to raise up supporters for not only us but also those on our team. We intend to all move over TOGETHER (other than the Kenners who will be about a year or so behind us) so if any members of our team are behind in support we will all be waiting until 100% is there so we can do everything together. We feel that this is what God would desire for us to do and are SO thrilled that He is working towards that goal.

On the way home we were welcomed into Ralph and Shari's home in Bismark which was such a blessing. We were then able to split the drive from MN to MT into two days.

Please check out our website to see our full schedule for the next few months and where we will be sharing.

A pic of us hanging out and taking a much enjoyed break in Georgia

Some pics so far

We have hit the road running so to speak with our "deputation" process. We have lined out some churches to speak at while on our way to Georgia for further training. The Richards (all four of us) and Laura Thulesen all took off in our minivan for a month trip out East. It is begining to look like we may be gone more than a month but it is still up in the air.

Our fearless leader, Laura

Jesiah sporting his favorite "hat", Houghtons paintball mask.
On Friday, the first leg of our trip brought us to the home of the Faltynski's in Duluth, MN. We spoke at Brian and Laura's church on Sunday and thus got to spend the long weekend with them. It was a blast and the kids enjoyed playing together! Brian and Laura have two children, Winter (6) and Creedon (3).

Laura T, me, and Laura F. :)
Houghton and Brian

We spoke during the adult Sunday School and enjoyed our time with the people there! We were well received and we pray that God would move in the hearts of those He desires to get involved in His work in Vanuatu.

On Monday, the second leg of our trip brought us to Minneapolis, MN to the Foulkes (family on my moms side) home. We will stay at their home until our flight on Saturday which takes us to Georgia. We are hoping to have some relaxing time with the kids so they will be ready to face the next step on our path - training at Biblical Ministries Headquarters.

Our training is from 8 to 5 Monday thru Friday and so the kids will be babysat elsewhere on campus. This may be interesting for them both because of the seperation from mom and dad for this huge amount of time. This is a huge concern and anxiety for me (Gretchen) in hopes that they will still be able to get good naps and whatnot so they remain healthy and in good spirits. There will be a TON of other children there that they will be able to pal around with so it is my prayer that these weeks will be a blessing in their lives and not too stressful on them. Our family of four will be staying in a bedroom together so you can also pray for rest. :)

We are excited about what God is doing both in Duluth and also within the homes of the individuals that we will be meeting with throughout our week here in Minneapolis. We meet with a small group at my Grandmothers apartment tomorrow to share with them what God is leading us to do in Vanuatu. We covet your prayers of safety and health these days as we travel and are excited for what He has in store for us throughout July and August!

Gwenny and me chillin' on the lawn.

Homeschooling Conference

Last weekend, Houghton and I got to attend a two day convention for parents who are homeschooling. Because I will be homeschooling our children in Vanuatu, we thought it would be beneficial to get some ideas, incite, and frankly...motivation for homeschooling. I have been quite apprehensive and frustrated with the whole idea of teaching our kids at home. Because we probably will not have much options for schooling, Houghton and I thought that homeschooling was the best, if not the only way to go.

All this being said...I had yet to get excited about it all. But I have to say that because of our time in Great Falls, Montana at the conference, I am much more at ease about homeschooling and also excited about it! This was a huge answer to prayer! Thank you to you all who were praying for us as we were at the convention. Houghton also got a lot out of the speakers and sessions and he too is excited about having the opportunity to teach our children at home.

I haven't driven that route (to Great Falls) very often and we really loved enjoying Gods creation as we drove! It was absolutely beautiful!

We also saw the PERFECT Oreo cow and its Oreo baby! So cool! ;)

Video - Our Future

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

I am AMAZED!

Today I was checking up on how our blog and website where looking and where we could make improvements etc. As I clicked on our "cluster map" that is located to the right (near the bottom) I was brought to tears. I am so amazed at the locations around the world that happened across our blog. In some of the counties I have an idea who has visited our site but in others, I am clueless and wonder, what brought them here to our blog? God is doing incredible things around the world and I cannot wait to see people of another tribe and tongue have the opportunity to speak the name of Christ in their own language with an understanding of who He is and what He has done for THEM! God is SO WORLD minded....I find such frustrations with some who only have an American minded view. God desires the WHOLE WORLD to know Him and I ask you if that is your desire as well? May I challenge you with that.

Maybe the whole reason why you ended up on this blog is because you too, like Christ, are world minded....

To all of you out there in the other parts of the world who read our blog...THANK YOU for the encouragement you have been to me today!

~ Gretchen

Visiting the Vacation Bible School in Coalwood, MT

We were featured as the missionaries for the VBS in Coalwood for the whole week! We were able to go and show our video and share a bit about our recent trip to Vanuatu and why we are going there as missionaries.

These are GREAT kids and it was a tremendous blessing to hang out with them on Wednesday this week.

They had a program to invite their families to see what they had been working on and learning the past week. We were able to attend this and sing a Vanuatu song with the kids for their families. The theme was "Armor of God" and it was fabulous to see their armor and all that they learned. The teachers did a great job writing their own curriculum to instill awesome Biblical truths into these young lives!