Yay Duck, Yuck Duck

We have now finished our month long training at World Missions Institute.  Throughout this past month, we have learned through many speakers about basic theory, real life experiences, case studies, cultural experiences and we've heard a variety of spiritual journeys. The most impactful part of WMI for us was when we watched the EE-taow video (more here ) and the next day, Mark Zook came to speak to us, and I am sure none of us wanted him to stop. He shared with all of us how he and his family went to a remote tribe that had never seen white people before and proceeded to learn their language and culture and then began to teach them about Jesus Christ. He took us through the things they did in order to establish a ‘ground’ to share the gospel.  The first thing we need to do is learn the language and culture of Guinea Bissau before we can do anything.  That was a central theme of our entire four weeks.  We want to form relationships with the people and know them well, so that when we do have opportunities to share, it can be in their context and in a language they understand. 

Beyond the teachings at WMI, we built friendships with some great people.  We lived together, ate together, worshiped together, prayed over each other and our children did all of those things with their friends.  We are connected.  When we had to say goodbye on Saturday, tears couldn't help but be shed.  Some of the people we were with, are not with EMM and we may not see them again.  God touched each of us in a different way, but he worked in all of us so powerfully.  It was a blessing to be able to pray over our friends, and to bond with missionaries that will serve all over the world.  We had a hymn sing one evening. It was the first time Michael or I had been a part of a hymn sing, and we really enjoyed it. 


Our kids had a wonderful four weeks too. The childcare workers that took care of them were just phenomenal. They were all so creative, enthusiastic, loving and caring.  Our children were loved and they taught them so much.  They have all these wonderful songs they know, one of our children learned how to swim, they played games, did crafts, field trips, just so many things.  The best way to show you is through pictures.  

Settlers of Catan was the favorite game of the month.  At any given point during free time, kids could be found playing, and when the kids were sleeping, the guys were playing.  

The kids got to go to a dairy farm where Josiah milked a cow.  

Here they are playing a game and they are doing an Indian in a teepee.  

This is the older kids class. They all had a blast together.  

That is a glimpse into our kids life these past four weeks.  Like I said before this was a wonderful experience for all of us.  We are all so thankful for the things we have learned.  Oh, one last thing we learned, yay duck and yuck duck.  They are a pair of ducks, or a paradox.  Each day, we all get to say one thing that was good about the day, the yay duck, and one thing that was bad about the day, the yuck duck.  Our prayer is that this will help our kids to know that it is okay to have things go badly, but also to be able to see the good in it.  This was an idea that was told to us from another WMI participant that learned it from another missionary.  We loved it, so we are adopting it for our family.  Yay duck for today, we got to spend the day with family. Yuck duck for today, we had to say goodbye to my aunt this morning.  What are your yays and yucks for today? 

Experiences

We just finished our third week of World Missions Institute.  We are shocked at how fast it has been going. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what we are doing.  

Our first Sunday we went to a church service being led by the Karen people of Burma. The service was done in their language and translated into English.  

We went on Father's Day which is a very important day in their culture.  All the fathers age 45 or older were escorted to the front by the young girls and given a gift and a handmade necklace. The fathers under 45 sat in the front pews and were presented with handmade necklaces.  

The second week, we visited a mosque.  My previous blog has more details about the mosque visit. 

While we were at the mosque, the kids got to play in the sprinkler.  

This week, we had language training.  The language we got to practice with was Uzbek. Let me tell you, I am so thankful Creole is an easy language to learn! Languages are in groups based on how difficult the language is.  Creole is a group one! 

One night this week, we had a cultural experience.  They 'took' us to Swaziland to experience a church service.  Typically church services would last all night, but ours only lasted 2 hours.  

This picture is difficult to see, but he is holding a stick that has a cross at the top.  He would pray and start singing and we kinda had to guess what was going on.  It really gave us a good idea of what it will be like for us when we are in Guinea Bissau and don't understand Creole yet.  The experience was pretty amazing though, and the Holy Spirit took over.  

By the time we are done with our classes, we are all so tired we have to find something to relax with.  Puzzles have been a hit! Here is Michael with some of his friend, Kosti, LaVonne, and Ted.  

We had two great surprises this week too.  We had a friend stop by to visit Wednesday night and our kids got a package from their friends at church.  Both of those things were such blessings to us! 

I hope this gives you a good glimpse into our life here at WMI.  We have thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot believe we only have a week left.  Thank you everyone for all the prayers you have covered us with and for everyone that is financially supporting us.  We could not be doing anything of this without your help! 

If you still want to donate to help us to get to Guinea Bissau, there is a link on the right side of this page.  Thank you for everyone for all your support! 

World Missions Institute

Well, here I am sitting in a dark room with a little nightlight and the glow from my computer. I see a sick child laying on a cot like bed on our floor, right next to the bathroom of course and a exhausted husband drifting in and out next to me in bed. He just got done cleaning up from our sick child and now we are just praying that this bug doesn't continue through our family. We are at World Missions Institute where we are learning about being missionaries in a different culture. That really isn't even a good description of what we are learning about. We have had Old Testament Foundations and World Religions by a phenomenal speaker and person, David Shenk, New Testament Foundations by yet again another wonderful speaker and person, James Krabill, we've learned about Healing Ministry, Discipling, Evangelizing, and learning about the Islam faith. We visited a mosque on Friday. That was quite interesting. The muslim people are so friendly and hospitable. The thing we have learned is the Islam faith is closely related to Christianity. One difference is they don't ever know if they will actually enter paradise. Christianity offers a relationship with Christ and promises us a place in heaven. Christianity has hope, whereas the Islam faith is lacking hope. I noticed that all the women were covered except their hands and their face. Their dress even came down to the floor and only when they walked did you see their feet. I just got this sense that it was almost as if women were sinful because of the beauty they have. As though if a man would lust after them, it would not be the mans fault but the woman's fault for not being modest enough or covering herself enough. I feel like the Islam faith is favorable towards men. With that being said, that is only my opinion from observation. I have not read the Qur'an, so I do not know what it says regarding women. It is now morning, I had too many distractions last night to finish this blog. World Missions Institute (WMI) has been such a great experience. We have learned a lot, like I mentioned above, and we have also made great friends. There are 18 kids here and 22 adults. It is so nice to be with such a great group of people. We are all like-minded, we are all leaving everything we know, we are all leaving our loved ones and our church, and what I love is that all our kids are with other kids that are doing the same thing. They have found friendship in commonality. All of their friends are doing the same thing in going someplace they haven't been, and having to learn everything new...language, culture, friends. They are even sharing sickness. :) The sweet thing is that the kids are concerned for one another and pray for each other. This is such a wonderful group of kids at WMI. The kids have a class that they go to while we are in our sessions. Their classes include worship, devotions, games, crafts, field trips, outside activities and so much more. Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) has a third culture kid (TCK) coach that talks with the older kids and gives them a chance to talk about their thoughts, fears, expectations etc. The kids look forward to going to their class and Jada and Lydia get bummed when Saturday comes and they have no class. Some difficulties that have come up during WMI has been sickness. It seems to be going through people quick, which is good. The other hard thing is our washer and dryer have died in our house. The washer never worked from when we got here. It would wash the clothes but not spin them, so we said that God was preparing us for Guinea Bissau. Then the dryer died. We are thankful for these difficulties. When we are in Guinea Bissau, life will not be perfect. Hardships will arise and we will need to adapt, and rely on God. We are thankful for these small preparations. God is good...ALL the time. Here is a picture of our home here at WMI

If you would like to help us to get to Guinea Bissau please click this link to EMM Please be sure to designate your gift to Michael and Karen Baker. Thank you so much for supporting our family and our ministry in Guinea Bissau!! Since we have been here at WMI we are so excited to get there! We only need 17%!!!! Every little bit helps!

What has been going on?

Wow! It is already May 13th! Where does the time go? Since our last update, so much has happened. We all have our shots done except Micah, passports arrived, a living will and POA accomplished, and lots of reading and homework. In the last two weeks, we have made several new friends and visited 2 churches to share our hearts. First was Chambersburg Mennonite and than Edgerton Wesleyan. It was a blessing to share our story and hearts the last two weekends. It is always neat to make new friends and of course it was awesome to reconnect with old friends at Edgerton, which was the first church I (Michael) worked at. We also made a trip back to Indiana with a van load of stuff to store in my brothers basement. It is so weird to be packing up everything and getting rid of so much. As a bonus, we got to spend a few days with family and take the kids to the Children’s Zoo in Fort Wayne. This last weekend, we had a garage sale and began to purge what we are not keeping or taking with us to Africa. Training starts in 4 weeks, June 10th. We can’t believe it is almost here. Next up, pack for training and finish up fundraising. We are so close we just need about $36,000 to finish up. It is getting really exciting.

Preparations

So much has happened since our last post.  Actually, we are feeling a little embarrassed at how poorly we have done at keeping up with our blog.  We shall try harder.  

So here's a quick recap of the last few months. We have began the shots and will finish up all those by the end of April. We have received all of our passports, began to pack, gather up things to keep, and began a pile for a yard sale. We have spoken at two churches and in the next three weeks will speak at two more. Our support is up to 71% and we just need to raise $47,000 to finish up. That means, 40 people to pledge $50 a month or 20 people to pledge $100 a month or some really generous gifts. God is faithful, so we know that this money will come in.  Our prayer is that we will have 100% so that we may leave in August.  Please pray with us and if you are feeling like God is calling you to support us, please contact us and we will let you know how.  

One thing that has been confusing for some is the importance of the response form.  In our first letter we sent out we had attached a response form.  That form is important in many ways.  If you are interested in supporting us but can't start just yet, still fill out the form and put how you want to support us.  Pledge the money and send it in later if you can't with the form.  If you can't support us financially, but would like to pray for us and/or receive a newsletter, send in the form.  Your name will then be added to our list and you will start receive our newsletters and/or our prayer requests.

We have been officially invited to training this summer.  We are excited as a family, to be going to training and preparing for what God has next for us.  We also just recently had Grandma visit us.  She worked hard on her visit! She made 18 skirts (six for each girl) and 14 shorts (7 for each boy)! She also has been making headbands and scrunchies for the girls with the extra scrap material.  She is one extremely talented lady and we are so thankful for her willingness to make all those things for us. We also went to Target the last weekend for a few things and randomly found sandals for the kids at a wonderful price.  We couldn't pass them up, so now our kids have their sandals! We also found travel pillows for them, aka mini pillow pets. That was a highlight for our kiddos. They were so excited about getting to pick out what animal their pillow pet could be.  It brought excitement for them about moving to Guinea Bissau.  This transition, at times, has been hard on the kids.  They have been asking really good questions though.  Some of those questions are, "Will we have a toilet?", "Do we get to bring any toys?", "Will I have my own bed?", "Will people laugh at us when we try to speak Kriol?", "Do we have to go?", and many more.  The story that has been told the most is the same story that was told when we left Indiana to move to PA, Jonah.  We explain how God has asked us to move to Guinea Bissau and it is our choice to go, and we have chosen to obey. They usually answer with "Yeah, we don't want to be swallowed by a big fish!". We also talk about how God tells us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19,20  This has been a really great opportunity to teach our kids and to show them how to walk through decisions in life.  We are all faced with choices and have to make decisions that sometimes can be quite complicated.  Our kids are learning, hopefully, how to lean on God when we are unsure.  

If you would like to join in our financial support, please click the link below and then go to the tab 'donate online'. Please be sure to designate your contribution to Michael and Karen Baker.  http://emm.org

Thank you for your support and prayers! We could not be doing this without the love and support of our friends and family.  

FAQ's

We want to spend a few minutes on this blog post answer some frequently answered questions. I will pose four questions and answer them to the best of my ability.  

"So where are you with fundraising?" - That is a great question.  Without knowing officially, but based on what we know people have been giving, we estimate we are about at 40% for our first two years. This entire fundraising experience has been such a new and exciting experience, it truly helps you depend on God and the church as well as breaks us out of our boxes to really talk with people about all aspects of life. 

"Are you fundraising the whole 4 years right now?" - No, we are focused on the first two years. Once 100% is reached by pledges and donations, we will go to training and then to country. We will focus on the last two years as we enter our second year and return on furlough. 

"When and how do you leave?" - We need to have the first two years 100% pledged or turned in, then we go to training. Once training is complete we would leave country 2-3 weeks later. One other option would be to go to training if we are close to 100%, but then return to work afterwards and finish raising our funds. We would then leave for country once we are at 100%.

"Where does the money go? It seems like a lot of money to live in Africa." - If you break down our total, 10% goes to EMM, to support them and all the training, tracking, and work they do for us. The rest is basically split 50/50 between in country cost and cost here in America.  In country cost include daily living allowance, transportation, utilities such as cell phone, and language training to name a few. The stateside cost include taxes, health coverage, training, and flights and our furlough expenses. That is a quick breakdown of where our money goes. We will gladly sit down with anyone to go over this in more detail and answer any questions. 

Those are the most frequently asked questions we have had.  I hope these answers are helpful for those of you that have had them.  As you read this, you will probably see that we live in a lot of uncertainty and we are just taking it a day at a time. As a planner, this can be difficult, but it has taught us to rely on God even more then we knew possible. Thankfully, we have a Missionary Support Team (MST) to help us with all of this and these decisions, so we are by no means alone in this journey.

We will do our best to update this blog weekly. If you have more questions or would like to make sure you are added to our prayer team or newsletter shoot us an email or a Facebook message. If you need our email address send us a direct Facebook message and we will get it to you.

Some prayer request we would like to share: 
- for the remaining funds to come in and reach our goal before the June training
- for our family as we deal with many emotions. Some days we are full of excitement and some days we are full of sadness. 
- for us to have no problems getting passports, visas, and all our shots. 

Thank you for supporting us and partnering with us in this journey.

In This Together,

Michael & Karen
Jada, Lydia, Josiah, Micah, Isaiah Zane

letters

So the letters are done and hitting the mail. We have been speaking with various groups and churches. It has been neat to see God continue to open doors for our provisions for these next four years. It is crazy to think this could be our last snow, cold weather, holidays with family, and many more things that happen and we don't even think of. We are excited but reality has set in the in the upcoming months we have some tough decisions to make. We would ask for prayer for continue support to be raised,  when to leave and make our transition  and a visit by me this March. We will try to post stuff as they happen to keep you in the loop as you walk this journey with us.

Mike