5 min read

Old Updates: The One About Arlo's First Birthday

Fall 2023

It’s been a big month both in our personal life and in ministry, read on for more.  

 

What is going on:

Campus Visits-   Daniel had the opportunity to represent OMS at two different colleges. The first was Grace college for their mission's conference and then his alma mater, Indiana Wesleyan University. At Grace it was encouraging that he talked for three hours with students coming to the booth almost every 30 seconds. 

It was a joy hearing their hearts for mission and how God is stirring them. In particular the chance to talk to one guy, George (not real name) who graduates this winter and knows God is calling him to missions in a closed access country in Asia but is unsure what to do. Daniel was able to share with him some of the work going on there and get his information to connect him with people on the field. 

At Indiana Wesleyan Daniel had a chance to talk to students, but the conversations were a little fewer and far between as students ran from class to class. He still had a wonderful time walking around some of his old stomping grounds and eating food that tasted just as good as he remembers. 
 

Please pray for students like George who God is stirring their hearts. Whether it is on the mission field or in everyday life that they would be representing him. 

1.) Daniel enjoyed his time at his Alma Mater, IWU. 2.) The setup for Daniel to share what God is doing through OMS with college students. 
In Office-   It has been nice to see the culmination of months of work come together as Daniel was able to craft some internal policies for OMS global. Some were member care documents and training for missionaries already in the field. That is the true joy of working in the global office, working for the best of those in the organization to make sure they are able to do their job well and fully. 
CROSS Training-Finally, we started cross-training in early November. This is pre-field training that all missionaries go through. We both had the opportunity to pray with the participants at the beginning of the week and Daniel was able to participate in a cross-cultural game to help grow the cultural awareness of the group. Honestly, it's odd to be on this end of the training for both of us, but was incredibly hopeful and exciting to see these new candidates be commissioned to service on Friday morning. 
Family updates:
Arlo's First Birthday!-  Arlo is officially 1 year old! It is a strange thing to think of ourselves as parents of a 1-year-old. Arlo keeps thinking about walking (currently he is incredibly fast at crawling) and is developing quite the sense of humor. It was sweet to celebrate his first birthday with a fiesta in the same place we met years ago (the coffeehouse :) )
Baking for Amanda-  Amanda is baking cookies for a friend's upcoming wedding and has enjoyed experimenting with different cookies and flavors. She also continues to bake part-time at Coffeehouse Five and has been having fun coming up with new seasonal items there as well, incorporating some of our favorite Hungarian flavors. 
1.) We have taken a picture of Arlo with this toy dog, Cleo, every month since he was born! It is definitely getting harder to get a non-blurry photo.  2.)Arlo was not completely sure what to do with his very first birthday cake 3.) Arlo loves beans, so of course we threw him a fiesta-style first birthday! 4.) Arlo did a great job opening presents, of course the boxes were so much more fun than the presents inside!
Joys:
Walks Around Campus-  We have enjoyed being able to take walks around campus and the surrounding parks and neighborhoods. We do miss the ability to walk everywhere in Budapest, so this is a nice transition for us and Arlo loves seeing all the colors (and sometimes dogs!) Daniel has also taken to doing prayer walks in a lower income neighborhood near us. Please pray with us for God's presence there as well. 
Family-  It feels like it almost goes without saying, but we are so thankful to be close to so much family now. Arlo is loving time with both sets of grandparents as well as great-grandmas, cousins, aunts, and uncles! 
Concert-  Daniel and I were thankful to be able to go the Chris Renzema concert in Indianapolis. He holds a special place in our hearts, as his music has been the soundtrack to our faith for a few years now. If you haven't listened, we recommend you check out his most recent song "Manna". 
1.) So far it's all boys on the Peters side and Arlo LOVES time with his cousins! 2.) Arlo also loves getting to visit his great-gram and play with her "toys" 3.) I think the joy on the faces speak for themselves 4.) Again, pure joy... Arlo loves all his family!