There has been a lot going on in the life of our family and in the ministry of IVCF at Stanford. Read below to find out more.
Family News
This Saturday Joey is going to turn four! As an almost-four-year-old he has begun to challenge us in new ways. The other day after I told him he needed to take a bath he told me that was mean and that he was going to take something of mine and "hide it in a secret place!" He used the same technique in a more indirect way on Jane as well. He told her "I want to show you something" he then took her into his room where he had her wallet opened up and emptied out! We are learning new ways to help our clever young man unlearn this behavior but you can pray for that we don't loose our wallets, cell phones, keys etc in the mean time!
Joey will have an MRI this afternoon (4/3/2009). Please pray for both the time which will involve sedation as well as the results. He has mentioned that he has had more trouble seeing, which causes us a little concern about the possibility that the tumor is causing more disruption to his optic nerve. Once again we are praying that the tumor will shrink and that we would be able to avoid the need for more medical treatment.
Nathan is now almost 14 months and is walking around, stuffing his face with food and overall having a great time. We have been doing a better job in the past month keeping him out of trouble and from playing with the toilet water (see my last update for context). Still one of our favorite things for Nathan, Joey and I to do these days is to wrestle on the bed. Jane usually watches and wonders how she is going to survive with her three boys.
IVCF at Stanford
The ministry is going well at Stanford. Next year's staff team and student leaders team have already signed on for the 2009-2010 school year. The staff team will consist of Sarah Bury (one of the current staff) and two graduating seniors (Chris Light and Taiei Harimoto). Both the student leaders team and the staff team are young, passionate and gifted. I believe they are going to do a great job leading the fellowship in coming years. Please join me in praying for them and supporting them.
What is next for Jon?
As I have mentioned previously I am finishing my service with InterVarsity this coming June. It is hard to believe. I am having a party to celebrate my time in ministry on June 27th and would love it if as many of you as possible could come and join me in celebrating my time serving with IVCF. You can get more details and RSVP at: http://www.gracefultools.com/ivevents/jpministry.
From now until June I am focusing on ending well with the ministry and setting myself and our family up for my time off staff.
Many of you know about Graceful Tools Inc. and the website we created to do event registration, appointment confirmation and meeting scheduling (check it out if you haven't at www.gracefultools.com). You might not have heard that I have started another venture with a few people which we hope to launch shortly after I go off staff. I look forward to sharing more with you when I have more to show but it is pretty exiting.
I would appreciate your prayers that I would eventually be able to bring in enough income through these new ventures to support our family. I never thought ministry would be the safe and reliable financial option but leaving staff has actually taken a lot of faith. While I am leaving full time paid ministry at least for a season I look forward to continuing to love and serve simply as an amature - as someone who serves for the love of it.
With love,
Jon Paris
Note: Recently Fuller Theological Seminar wrote a short piece about my work with InterVarsity which was sent out to their alumni. Check it out at: http://www.fuller.edu/page.aspx?id=6389
* I will try and send more photos with our next update!
0 comments:
Post a Comment