Birthdays, Travels, & Water Days

Our eldest son Aidan just turned 12 on May 10th and managed to have 3 birthday cakes and celebrations. May has been a time for us to take a few trips to see family and friends as we near the end of our time here in the states for the next 2 years. As we wait on our home to sell we are spending time enjoying family visits and time with good friends.

NAWLINS
We went to see Lowell's sister in New Orleans in early May which was a lot of fun for our kids since it was their first time to see the Crescent City/NAWLINS/The Big Easy/NOLA... so many ways to refer to this unique and beautiful city. We enjoyed time eating some good food, seeing many sights, including a ride on the Creole Queen Riverboat to see an old plantation.

Galveston
After New Orleans we spent a couple of nights in some friends' beach house in Galveston. The water was slightly cold but we got plenty of sun and got to have an unexpected dinner with some long-time missionary friends of ours who had just returned from a trip to Africa who have a beautiful new home in Galveston.

Brenham
Last week we did an 11 day trip that started in Shay's hometown of Brenham where we attended Maifest - German festival. This was a time to see all of Shay's siblings and their kids and enjoy a parade and an evening at the midway carnival. We celebrated Aidan's birthday the first time (a day early) here and celebrated Mother's Day as well.

Frost
Then on to Lowell's hometown of Frost where we saw his parents and 2 nieces - we spent 3 nights there. We celebrated Aidan's birthday for the 2nd time here (this is where the top pic was taken). The kids had fun going to the city park and playing and Lowell got to witness his mom being sworn in as the towns first female mayor.

Denton
We drove from Frost to Denton to stay with Shay's sister Traci and family. Denton is where Shay and Lowell met and went to college. We met some old dear friends at a park and shared a meal together and did some catching up.

Dallas
Big D is just a half hour drive from Little D. Here we met some old friends for some good Texas Barbecue and did some much needed catching up. We got to share more in depth with these friends about our calling to go serve in Bolivia. This evening ended with some good frozen yogurt next to the famous Inwood Theater. We also got to take our boys and a friend to a concert music festival in Richardson to see their favorite band MUTEMATH one more time before we leave. This was a fun time together with me, Shay, and the boys!

Mansfield
We ended our trip seeing more friends in Mansfield. First, we stayed at our friends', Jeff & Kristy's, home with with their 3 lovely daughters. We got some great laughs and good food time with these longtime friends! We also got to enjoy a great home cooked TexMex meal with our longtime friend Melody and finally met her husband Steve and baby Jude.

This was a great time to see so many friends we have been very close to for many years and to share more 1 on 1 with them about our mission journey as well as just enjoy good company and fellowship together.

Last week we spent 4 days in the water at various events such as home school water day in Galveston, Pee Wee School water day, Aidan's birthday at the beach. Lowell is excited to get more opportunities to get rid of his "farmer's tan" lines and get more sun.

As we mentioned earlier we are in a season of waiting in faith for our home to sell which will then allow us to move to Bolivia to live. We appreciate all of you so much and are very grateful to call you friends. We appreciate your continued support and prayers for us as we follow where the Lord leads us.

The Ballews
(Lowell, Shay, Aidan, Liam, Jude, Olivia)

"when our house sells"

The biggest question we get is "when do you guys leave for Bolivia?" and our answer is "when our house sells". So we just want to let everyone know that we would appreciate you saying a prayer for our home to sell soon so we can move forward. We know God's timing is perfect and that we are in a unique season right now. We are enjoying a lot of quality time together as a family as Lowell is no longer employed at the church and is at home until we move. Other than continuing to teach a few guitar and drum lessons Lowell is spending as much time with the kids and Shay as possible. We have also been going on mini trips to see friends and family to say our goodbyes before we move (hopefully sometime this summer). We have our last scheduled trip to Brenham, Frost, Dallas/Mansfield/Denton area coming up May 6-14. This will be a time to see a lot of family and friends and we are looking forward to it! If you live near any of those areas and would like to try and see us let us know. Thanks again for keeping up with us - we covet your prayers and friendship!

Benefit Concert Success!

We just want to give an update to everyone and say that the concert that Clear Creek Community Church (home church) gave us was a huge success! Our Sr. Pastor Bruce Wesley approached me about 2 months ago asking me what I thought of the church doing this for us and I said "YES - this would be a perfect send-off and fund raiser for our family!" And that's exactly what it was. It was a time for me to play music with some very talented musicians from CCCC who I've been able to do life with over the past 11 yrs. and provide a really fun concert close to 800 friends from CCCC who came to the show! The guys in the band were: Jamie Chambers (drums), Richard Denson (drums), Russ Hatcher (bass), John Boyle (guitar), Rob Brownfield (fiddle) And as well other music staff like Brad Loser (piano/keys/vocals), Keri Lilley (keys/vocals), Kevin Hester (vocals), Duane Theriot (vocals), and Daniel Vencil (guitars/vocals). And there were countless others who helped volunteer tons of hours in the tech arts - Lighting, Media, Video, Sound, Greeters, Ticket & Support Table hosts. I want to say a huge thanks to these guys for making this an incredible and memorable experience that was an amazing blessing to our family. One of the most memorable moments of the night was me having the opportunity to play music with my three sons, Aidan, Liam, and Jude! We rocked the stage with a mean blues riff with Liam on drums, Aidan on bass, and Jude on electric. It was a truly proud moment! The concert raised $18,000 for our family to help us in or support raising efforts to live and serve in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We have been given enough money thus far to almost have 1 yr. worth of salary. We will continue to trust God to provide ALL of our needs along the way.

Sell That House

Well we have just spent the day fixing a few broken doors and drawers and have also been cleaning and organizing the house like mad and are dog tired now. Tomorrow is open house and we have been praying for a buyer and hope tomorrow shows some results. Our main prayer request is that we could sell the home by the end of April. This would be ideal to help us save as much money as possible toward our support raising efforts.

January update

For those interested, I thought I'd post a quick update on our journey. We have been hard at work raising the necessary funds to move to Bolivia. It has been an interesting season for fundraising - during the holidays and now with the urgent needs at hand for the people of Haiti. In spite of these circumstances, God has been good and folks have been committing to support us. Many have committed to a monthly monetary amount and even more have sent in one time gifts to help us get to where we need to be to follow God's call. We are so very humbled and grateful by these gifts and commitments, considering the current economical state so many are in. We are now at approximately 36% of our financial goal - so we still are in need of much financial support before we can make hard plans to return to Bolivia. We are preparing to put our house on the market, hoping that the sell of it will allow us to save more and have less material responsibility as we prepare ourselves spiritually for the field. Obviously, if the house sells quickly, we will be looking for a place to live temporarily until we leave. This is a little nerve wracking, but again, just one other way we can put all of our hope and faith in the Lord to provide for us. Our goal is to be able to return to Bolivia by the summer - June or July preferably. In order for us to realize this goal, we will be meeting with individuals and hosting "Dessert and Coffee" meetings for groups to share more in depth about our journey, our needs, and our goals. We are praying for those folks who are able to commit to help us financially to be raised up between now and then. If you have received a letter from us or read our letter online, please continue to pray about whether or not God would have you help us. EVERY GIFT, NO MATTER WHAT AMOUNT, WILL HELP US GET TO BOLIVIA SOONER TO BEGIN CULTURE ADAPTATION, LANGUAGE LEARNING, AND MINISTRY!! We determined that we have contacted approximately 900 people, through letters, email, and facebook. My wonderful Mother-in-law who loves math, figured that if all 900 contacts could commit to giving us just $5.00 a month, we would be at or over our monthly goal!! Wow! So cool. And hey..if just 450 of those contacts could commit $10 a month, voila! Done!
We could even take it farther and say 225 of our contacts giving $20/month, or 112 giving $40/month. That is VERY doable! We are just so excited to see what God is going to do with this journey. He has already shown himself true and real. We are trying to remain faithful to a very clear calling on our lives, and He will remain faithful - no matter what. "For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies." Psalm 57:10

With much anticipation -

Shay

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Waiting

We are in the season of waiting..waiting...waiting. Now that our support letter has gone out - by email, facebook, and mail, it is now just simply a waiting game to see how God is going to provide for us. There are still some letters we need to send out to folks out of town, but for the most part, we feel that the majority of the people in our lives know that we are deep in the throngs of trying to raise our financial support for Bolivia. It is all really a matter of serious prayer. God is ultimately the one who will work on people's hearts and move people to give, or make it possible for them to. We are also praying for His perfect timing. It is difficult to know how long it will take to raise the funds we need to make our move. It is difficult to know when to put the house on the market or to sell a lot more of our belongings. The future is certain, yet uncertain. For now, we will try to focus on living in the here and now, taking care of daily things, enjoying the holidays, educating the kids, and continue to share our story with folks who are interested and praying for God's provision! Raising financial support is one of those things that can REALLY grow your faith and strengthen your dependance on the Lord. It is out of our control, HE must work and move and provide. It is exciting, yet nerve-wracking! We know that He is good, He has called us, and that He will remain true to His promises. He is faithful. We must remain faithful and not fearful. We must not begin to doubt when it seems things are not going as WE plan or during the waiting period when Satan can do his nasty work on our minds. We are so thankful and grateful (during this season of Thanksgiving) for the people in our lives that have already committed to support us and that are praying for us. Please, as the Lord brings our family to mind, pray a simple prayer that He would provide financially for us to follow His calling, and that His timing would be perfect. Also, please continue to pray for us as we prepare -physically and spiritually - and that we would be empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. May God bless you all this Thanksgiving. Take time to reflect on all of your many blessings!

Shay