January 2013 Newsletter

Riley Family Christmas

Please pray for us as we prepare our Children for Liberia.  Melanie and I feel God is calling us to move to Liberia in May rather than when we close on our house in March because we believe God wants us to focus on pastoring the hearts of our children through this radical transition.  We believe God is saying that we must give our children adequate time to grieve the loss of the things that are most precious to them and to process what good bye really means.  The next few months will be challenging ones as we pastor our precious children.  Please keep us in your prayers.  Here is what it feels like: It feels like Melanie and I have found a treasure hidden in a field.  This treasure is greater than anything we have ever seen or experienced in our lives.  To obtain this treasure, it requires us to give up everything.  We must sell all our possessions and walk in obedience.  What is the treasure?  The treasure is not Africa.  The treasure is intimacy with the Creator of the Universe.  It is the thrill of waking in the morning, listening to our Heavenly Father’s voice, and then walking in obedience.  Obedience for us looks like Liberia, Africa.  Liberia is not our goal, it is the fruit of our goal.  Our goal is that we would know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship that is found in sharing in His suffering.  We are blessed.  We get to run our fingers through the most abundant treasure that any man can have, intimacy with Christ!  We are BLESSED!  We desire our children to know this treasure as well.  We must pastor their little hearts gently through this transition so that we may serve our Lord together with one heart wherever He leads us.  

Melanie and I have discovered a book that we highly recommend you reading.  It is called Kisses from Katie.  This book describes a 21 year old girl’s discovery of the same treasure we have found and are now embracing.  For those who are struggling to understand why our family is going to Liberia, this may be a good read for you.  I don’t believe we have read a single page without tears.  It is our hearts.  Love you all!

Updates:
1.  Our House Sold!  FREEDOM!  God is setting us free to pursue His calling and He is also setting us free from all debt!  We praise You Lord!  We will be closing on our house March 29th!  After we sell the remainder of our possessions, our family will be completely debt free while still owning our second house!  Praise God.  We are renting our second home to some of our friends.  The money we receive from the rent will help offset our living expenses in Liberia.

2.  We have set a moving date!  By God’s grace and with His provisions, our family will move to Liberia May 16th.  This will be a fun time for us to move because May marks the beginning of rainy season in Liberia.  From May to October, Liberia will receive somewhere around 14 feet of rain!  Fun!  After our house closes (March 29th) our family will temporarily move in with Don’s parents until our move in May. 

3.  Prayer Requests:  Please pray for our family’s airline tickets.  A ticket to Liberia costs around $1,500.  To move our family to Liberia, it will cost around $9,000 in airline tickets and around $2,800 in passport fees, visa fees, and other travel expenses.  We have saved enough money to cover all our expenses except the cost of airline tickets.  Please pray for our family in this area.  Literally, all that stands between us and Liberia is airline tickets!!!!!!  Praise God!!!  Once we get to Liberia, our operating budget will cover the need of all future airline tickets.

4.  Land was purchased in Liberia.  Praise God!  In my last newsletter, I asked you to pray for the 2 lots that are next to our home in Zwedru, Liberia.  These two lots with their 4 partially completed buildings have been purchased by our ministry.  Over time, these two lots will be turned into a Bible training center where leaders from churches will come and receive further training for their ministries!  The senator who owned the land had invested over $10,000 in the land and buildings.  When he heard our vision for the Land, he requested that we give only $2,000 to him to help him start a literacy program in a different region of Liberia.  Earlier in the month, God had laid it on someone’s heart to give our ministry exactly $2,000 toward the purchase of this land.  Isn’t God awesome!  In time, the buildings on this land will be complete and the sounds of pastors and church leaders will be heard coming from the buildings as they are being discipled.  Praise God for what He is doing.  I have heard that it will cost around $10,000 to get this new part of our ministry up and going.  

5.  Please pray for Judah!  Judah is Kim Smith’s grandson.  Kim will be returning to the States in February due to Judah’s illness.  2 year old Judah has cancer around his heart.  The cancer has not responded well to the treatment that has been given.  Judah will likely have a life threatening surgery in February to remove the cancer.  

Update from Christian

Hi, my name is Christian.  I am moving to Africa.  Yesterday, I went skiing.  I went on a bunny hill, then the green hill, and then the blue hill.  It was fun.  I wish we could have stayed longer.  Oh well!  It is just one trip.  We sold our house.  We are moving to Liberia, Africa May 16th.  I am excited!  I can’t wait to get there.  We got a bunch of Christmas presents for Christmas.  It was fun.  I love having fun.  I love hunting, knife sharpening, and everything outdoors plus using the knives of course.  I love my cat and dog and my family.  I am kind of nervous about moving to Africa.  I will miss my family and my cat and dog.  Oh well.  I have to move forward.  I will miss some of my toys and America.  It is time to move forward though.  I told you my heart.  From Christian.  Bye.  Please pray that I will not miss my toys and family too much and my stuffed animals and pets.  That’s it.  Bye.  

Update from Grace

Hi, I’m Grace.  I have three brothers and I am the only girl besides my mom.  Anyways, Tommy is the youngest one and I am the second youngest, Christian is the third youngest, and Don is the oldest.  Even though Don is the oldest, he is a little smaller than Christian.  I went skiing last night.  It was really fun.  I went on a green diamond hill and a bunny hill.  We had really fun.  I went on the  chairlift. I had skies that you stand on, not sit on.  I had tons of fun.  Our house sold.  We have a couple more showing to do like making our house all comfortable for them and to make sure that everything in the house works right for them.  My cat Noah and my dog snickers kind of get along but not when they are next to each other.  Kitty sits on the chair so snickers will not see him.  Kitty hisses but he is a good tom cat.  Snickers stays on the floor so Kitty won't hit him.  Snickers is a good house dog.  My mom and dad, Christian, Tommy, and of course Don, they are all my family.  My name is Grace.  My mom’s real name is Melanie.  My Dad’s real name is Don, the same as my big brother.  I love my family very much.  My Papaw boings (bounces) us everywhere and my whole family including my friends give me such a joyful heart.  Love, Grace.  

Update from Tommy

We are going to Africa.  We are going to be eating monkeys.  I went snow skiing last night.  We went skiing down the big hills and went on the chair lifts.  It was really fun.  We went with Papaw and Aunt Mindie.  We went on a green diamond.  We went on the bunny hill.  My favorite part was riding the chair lifts.  Good bye from Tommy

Update From Don

God, thank you that our house sold.  Please help our family go to Africa.  Please help Kim in Africa.  I love You.  Thank You for all You do. 

Donations:
If you are interested in supporting our ministry, donations can be mailed to:

Wordsower
P.O. Box 1648
Piqua, OH 45356

Checks should be make out to Wordsower.
Tax-deductible receipts will be sent each January

House Update

Yesterday, we had our last house inspection!  Here is the good news, the future home owners only requested that we fix a light in the basement bathroom.  This is a very simple fix!  These two inspections were the last hurdle we needed to cross to sell our house.  The future home owners are pre-approved for the loan and inspections are over!  Next is closing!  The future home owners have also asked if we could move the closing date to mid March rather than the end of March.  We are excited about this because it saves us a mortgage payment!  Praise God!  It is starting to sink in that God is really opening the doors for our move!  I praise Him from the bottom of my heart!  Thank You Father for graciously allowing my family to serving You in Liberia!  Yesterday, while preparing our house for inspections, Mel and I realized this was the last time we would need to clean our house from top to bottom for a showing!  NO MORE SHOWINGS!!!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!!  Thank you for your prayers and support!

May 16th Moving Date!!

By God's grace, we will fly to Liberia as a family May 16th.  We have talked to the team on the ground in Liberia and this date works for all of us!  The remaining time we have in the States will be spent moving out of our house, preparing for Liberia, visiting family members, and speaking at churches.  Thank you for your prayers and support!  

Prayer Request:  

1.  Please pray for Airline tickets:  It cost $1,650 per airline ticket to move our family to Liberia.  Total cost of airline tickets: $9,900.  We already have enough money to cover our passport and visa fees.

We will purchase airline tickets as soon as we have the funding.  

If you are interested in giving toward our airline tickets, checks should be sent to 

Wordsower 

P.O. Box 1648 

Piqua, OH 45356.  

Please make checks payable Wordsower so that you will receive a tax receipt at the end of the year.

Thank you!

Update

Update:

1.  The people who are buying our house are having a house inspection this Tuesday from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
2.  We will be closing on our house March 29th.
3.  The new home owners will get possession of our house after closing.
4.  After closing, we will temporarily move into my parents house in Indiana until we move to Liberia.
5.  We have been communicating with the team in Liberia to set a moving date.  No decision has been made at this point in time.

As more details become solidified, we will keep you updated.  Thank you for your prayers and support.  

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!!!

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!  PRAISE GOD!!!  AFRICA, HERE WE COME!!!  HALLELUJAH!!!

Now we start the process of moving our family to Liberia.  Over the next few weeks, passports and visas will be purchased, travel dates will be set, and our family will begin to make the big move to Liberia.  Please keep us in your prayer.  We will keep this blog up-to-date with information so you will know how to pray for us.  I am sure there will be many posts within the next few weeks.  Thank you for your prayers and support!!!!!

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