Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “The Little Drummer Boy”-a song that tells of a poor little boy who was asked to go and honor the newborn King. He inquired, “What shall I bring him?” He thought he had no gifts fit to offer the King. However, he used his drum and played his best.
In return, the Babe smiled.

What a blessing to know that the Lord Jesus wants our hearts, obedience and willingness to be our gifts to Him. Even when we think we don’t have anything to fit for our King, we know that He takes pleasure in our faithfulness. May we not grow weary in giving the King of Kings, Lord of Lords our best.
In return, He smiles.

We have been very busy saying farewell to friends and family from one side of our state to the other this month. We are getting closer to leaving for Ethiopia and the packing becomes more detailed and intense. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for the change of jobs, culture and location. We will fly out when our house is sold and financial support is at 100%. We have such blessed peace!
Merry Christmas!
Rejoice in the Prince of Peace in 2006!

Twelve Days of Christmas
(Parker 2005 Version)
12 dozen cookies to make (Jon says he will miss chocolate chip ones while overseas so we better enjoy them while we can!)
11 gifts to buy (most shopping is done-we are sure Naomi will LOVE receiving two bottles of anti-diarrhea medicine in her stocking!)
10 bags to pack (Mattie says she can’t live without praise music while Lauren insists on taking cuticle oil!)
9 time zones to travel (or 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time)
8 shots in one arm (ouch!)
7 shots in the other (YEAH-we’re finished with all our immunizations. It was hard to convince the girls that they will be very thankful for these life-saving shots, but a trip to Starbucks helped ease the pain!)
6 recipes for goat to learn (got any to share?)
5 Visa applications to be approved (Praise God that our passports arrived in record time!)
4 more days of school (yeah…from students and teacher!)
3 kids with excitement for a new world
2 parents trying to keep it all together (When we are weak, HE is strong!)
1 sold house! (OK, so we haven’t sold our house yet, but we are praying that the Lord will bring just the right person who will love it as we have.)

Prayer Requests
*Work visas to be granted.
*Adequate financial and prayer support. We have seen many miracles happen to provide 88% of our up-front and 75% of our monthly financial support. We still need about $3000 in up front costs and about $700 in monthly support.
*Sale of our house.
* Bingham Academy still needs staff!

Praises
*Faithful supporters like you! We praise the Lord for how He has joined us together. Our financial team consists of over 50 individuals/families and 5 churches. We are encouraged knowing that our family is being prayed for daily.
*Continued good health and strength as we prepare to serve as missionaries at Bingham Academy in Ethiopia for the next 2 ½ years..

We love to hear from friends and family! Please feel free to contact us at our permanent email address: jon.parker@sim.org

Preparations in Progress

The last few weeks we have been preparing physically, spiritually and emotionally to leave our comfort zone in Tennessee to move to Ethiopia to teach at Bingham Academy. We are so thankful to each of you who have joined us in the ministry in Ethiopia through your faithful prayers, financial support and encouragement. We could not do this without you.

PHYSICALLY-We are setting up our garage for a series of BIG yard sales to lessen our load as we store and pack our belongings. We received most of our immunizations during our training in Charlotte last week and will finish the rest up next week. Did you know that Naomi enjoys wearing a live snake around her neck but has a tendency to pass out while receiving shots? We just found out, the hard way!

SPIRITUALLY-The last two weeks at SIM’s headquarters were spent in countless sessions about sharing our faith with those we will be ministering to, handling stress and culture shock, combating spiritual warfare, and much more. We hold to His promise that when we are weak, He is strong. We are praying that the Lord will be glorified in our willingness and obedience.

EMOTIONALLY-We are beginning to say ‘goodbye’ to many people, places, and routines. The girls asked to be home-schooled for the rest of the time in the states and we joyfully obliged. We enjoy the family time together and are working hard to prepare them for an international curriculum at Bingham Academy. All five of us will be learning to speak Amharic, one of the five hardest languages. (Thank goodness most of our teaching will be done in English!) With 256 characters in the Amharic language, we should know our “ABCs” by this time next year!


Prayer Requests
1) Visas to be granted.
2) Adequate financial and prayer support. We have about 50% of our up-front and 30% of our monthly financial support in SIM’s office now. SIM requires all of our support to be pledged by the end of November to guarantee our fly out date of December 27th.
3) Sale of our house.
4) Bingham Academy still needs staff!

Praises

1) Orientation and training went very well for all of us.
2) Jon’s business, MowMaster, is sold!
3) Good health - even through all of the immunizations, travel, and fatigue.

On My Knees
By Mattie Grace

On my knees

I said a prayer

I know God heard

Because He is always there.

I asked for God

To hold me close

This will be

The time I need Him most.

My life is changing

Before my eyes

But to God

It is no surprise.

He’s gone before me

And created His plan

I know He’ll walk with me

And hold my hand.

God is Calling Us to Africa!

We’re going to AFRICA!
Bingham Academy, an international mission school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia URGENTLY needs teachers and dorm parents. After a lot of thought, and prayer, we heard the Lord telling us to GO! So, we applied to teach at Bingham Academy for 2 ½ years. We have been accepted by Bingham as teachers and hope to fly out in January 2006 (VERY soon)!

There is one small twist to this job… we don’t get paid!
Instead, we will be going out with SIM (Serving In Mission - a non-profit mission organization) and raising financial support from churches, family and friends who are interested in being a part of this exciting work in Ethiopia.

Bingham Academy is an interesting place!
There are more than 200 students in grades K-12 from over 20 countries, and teachers from over 6 countries. About 50% of the students are MKs (missionary kids), and the rest are expatriates and nationals. Fortunately for us, the teaching is done (mostly) in English.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the world, with many basic needs!
Parents of Bingham students work in various parts of Ethiopia, helping the locals with clean water projects, farming methods, veterinary medicine, medical clinics, HIV/AIDS work, translation, literacy, and church planting. Our goal is to provide an excellent education for their kids, in a nurturing environment, so they can continue in this work. With our girls, we will also help with other projects over the next few years during our summer breaks and as time permits.

Our hearts’ desire is that we will be faithful servants, just as Isaiah was when he said to the Lord, “Here am I, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8) as we fulfill the Great Commission found at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “Go and make disciples of all the nations.”
We would love to hear from you!

CONTACT INFORMATION
If you would like to receive future Newsletters, become a Prayer Partner, or help with our Financial Support, please contact us: jon.parker@sim.org We'd love to hear from you and let you know more about our vision!

Jon, Julie
Lauren, Mattie Grace and Naomi