He's Here!

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our son, Samuel Leeland Ackerman! He was born Saturday, March 24th at 7:39 pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz., and he was 20” long.

His name was chosen after we experienced several encounters with the Lord during the pregnancy. Both of us were brought to the conclusion that Samuel should be his name, and Leeland refers to a meadow, pasture land or valley. We chose this name because we felt it reflected our journey through some valleys to reach Samuel.

We are grateful for the many encouragements we received before and after Sammy was born. Also, your prayers for us have been answered in a sweet and wonderful way. Thank you for praying and encouraging!

The Ackermans are ALL growing...

Not much to say, but Matt and I are attending some pretty neat leadership workshops at Missionary TECH Team. They are based around the book Leadership 101 by John C. Maxwell. We're learning a lot... and let me say that this weekly workshop plus all the books we're reading at home are packing our brains with great information and ideas! Not only that, but this new knowledge is going to help us more efficiently and effectively serve the Lord. Pretty cool stuff...

Some things we're learning that we should be: budgeting (via Dave Ramsey), prioritizing (John Maxwell), expressing thanks and love (Ken Blanchard), praying for our brothers and sisters around the world (Voice of the Martyrs), setting goals (John Maxwell), relying on the Holy Spirit's real power (Francis Chan), listening to what God is saying through the whole text of the Bible (Larry Crabbe), and Spanish (I have NO idea what Matt's curriculum is). All that to say, we're learning a lot now as we invest our time in reading and reflecting. (We decided that since we have some quiet before bed, we should take advantage of it while we can...)

So we're growing a bit.

And our little guy is growing, too. This is December's scanned ultrasound 4-D picture of our sweetie. He's quite a bit bigger and chubbier now. In FACT, we had an ultrasound at the beginning of this month (a month after the one shown), and the ultrasound tech said, "WHOA! He as chubby cheeks!" It cracked me up. He's gaining good weight. He's over 2 pounds now, and on his way up. At this week's appointment, my doctor said he's measuring perfectly, and all seems to be in place! Thank you for praying, guys. It appears we may carry him full-term and be parents! How strange to wrap my mind around that. Meet our little man:

(You're looking at his profile, and his arm is bent with his hand near his ear. He kept trying to cover his face, and he finally let us see his eye and nose, so the tech quickly grabbed this pic.)

So this is all I have for you today! Hopefully soon I'll have another newsletter to post!!!  :)

Back to Business... and Busyness...

We are so delayed in updating our blog.  There are a lot of excuses--- Goodness, maybe they're even legitimate! Hahaha! Here they go: I don't know if you know, but we don't have Internet at home, so we update our blog at our lunch break, usually, at Missionary TECH Team, or after hours now.

Another thing maybe you didn't know... we're pregnant. I was in my second month during the last post--- when Matt was in Cameroon. (He got home safely, by the way!) I began working half-days, so I could be sick at home instead of sick in the office. :) Half-days are the way of life for me, still, since my amazing manager is so flexible---as long as TECH isn't hurting for help. Several days I've stayed all day or late to help ministries, but if possible I cram as much work into my mornings and then head home for rest or to teach lessons. 

So maybe those are the two main reasons why our blog was on hold... ?  We're doing very well! We're excited for Christmas for sure!

We went on deputation last month. Deputation is a ministry update visit where a missionary runs around like crazy telling friends and family about what God is doing, and then they return to the ministry often without a moment to take a breath. FORTUNATELY, we got several moments to breathe before we got home because when we got back to Longview, things moved very quickly!  Here's a look what's been going on:

- Unpack after trip (of course)

- Got home and found the fridge had been off due to a circuit thing during a power outage, and we had rotten food, including a rotten turkey in the freezer to take care of. And then that smell... oh, how it's lingering. Fortunately we were in great spirits & didn't really get bothered by it all! (Praise God for that miraculous work in our hearts!) So we scrubbed the fridge... twice.

- Doctor's appointment and ultrasound.

- TECH Women had a Christmas party, and I played music for it.

- Started private lessons (teaching) back up.

- Took care of Jones boys

- MTT Christmas social

- Northwood women Christmas banquet (I got to prepare the special tradition of the Good and Perfect Gift, the devotion, craft and a song! Matt was one of the servers--- boy, I wish I had a photo! He was quite handsome!)

- Northwood church Christmas Potluck (Matt and I got to do the special music: a fifteen-minute musical medley of the Christmas story, walking through all the Scripture on PowerPoint slides accompanied by illustrations. This took a lot of prep, but it was neat worship as a couple; Matt took care of coordinating the slides while I sang. I guess we were "the entertainment.")


- For chapel at MTT, Tom Brewington (our part-time, retired mechanic) and I did the entire chapel full of music with our stringed instruments. It was a blast!

- MEANWHILE while all of this is going on, Matt has been working extra hours most days to finalize the report for Mbingo Baptist Hospital in Cameroon. This week he has worked over 40 hours... and it's Thursday morning!  (He hopes to be done this morning, so the hospital can receive the report in time to propose it for funding.)


- Tomorrow night we have an event that Rebecca Friedlander, Matt and I are putting on at her dad's cabin called The Patchwork Christmas. I'll share the flyer with you, so you can get a better idea. (See below)


- Christmas Eve we are hoping to pack our house with friends who are missing their families or wanna be together for supper! We're making a turkey and ham, along with all kinds of sides and snacks. I already started baking. :)

We are really excited for all God's let us do! Please pray that we are sustained and that our attitudes glorify God. We REALLY long to have opportunities to help bring people closer to Jesus through all we're doing... especially tomorrow and Saturday.  Please pray that we, too, would have VERY intimate times with Christ.  Someone once said that when you're busy, you're like a speedboat: the faster you go, the more shallow your bottom is in the water. We want deep times with God that bless Him... not shallow moments. :)

This is the Patchwork Christmas flyer we handed out.

From Jan Schill

I received an e-mail from Jan, Bob's wife!  She shared some great information, and she gave the go-ahead to pass it on to you as well.  Here it is:

Monday evening, August 8, 2011

I finally made contact with Bob on Saturday morning.  Matt, the architect who is with him, had SKYPE on.  We couldn't talk, but could Instant Message.  I found out they had arrived safely and were settled in at the Mbingo hospital.

Sunday morning Bob called me on SKYPE and we had a great connection for about 15 minutes.

He had attended the Mbingo Baptist Church that morning.  He estimated there were about 300 people there.  They preach in English and they give a summary in French. 

In the afternoon, they took a jeep ride around the hospital property.  He said it is a huge area.  On the site are mountains, dams, waterfalls, a landing strip.  They also have a helicopter.  The hospital treats about 80,000 people a year with about 10,000 of those staying at the hospital.

They have never had a comprehensive Master Plan done or done any preplanning before building..  There are about 1,500 buildings on the site.  I'm sure many are very small.  They are needing to expand so Bob will begin the plan while there and finish it by the end of December.  The hospital has received some grant money, so need to have a plan to show them.

Bob said there were quite a few American doctors around.  He thought they stayed about one month and during that time work with and train the Cameroon doctors.

Bob said they have mostly western type food.  It has rained almost everyday.  He thought they would be working in another building, but decided it would be easier to set up in their rooms.  He and Matt each have a fairly large room with 2 or 3 beds and a bathroom. 

Bob said he was feeling good and enjoying being there.

Jan


 
Thank you for praying!!!  Please keep it up!  :)

Bob and Matt at TECH working on a model of a church.

Bob and Matt working

I Got to Visit with Matt....

Hi, All!  Yesterday, Sunday, I talked with Matt on Skype for about an hour and a half.  It was really nice to catch up on everything... but of course I thought of more to say afterward, so it was great that he called me again today! 

He is doing well.  He seems very joyful, and he's doing a lot of hard work creating charts of the measurements and buildings' needs. (Soon he'll work on drawings.)  He's met some really neat people--- all of the doctors are Americans, it seems.  Indigenous people work at the hospital.  He said many of them speak "Pidgin English." He said it's pretty hard to understand them even though it is a form of English. 


He is staying in a motel-like building.  He has his own room, so he didn't know the answer when I asked if Bob was sleeping enough. (Bob is notorious for working late into the nights...)

He said the food is kind of like American food, and it's pretty good. Tonight he had home-made doughnuts at Dr. Sparks' house. He is the main doctor who organizes the volunteers, I gathered.  He said he DOES miss my cooking, but that those doughnuts would be pretty hard to beat.  :)

He said Bob is doing well and creating these amazing drawings.  Matt is in awe, I perceived.  I'm so thankful (as is Matt) that he has this great opportunity with Bob.  

Please keep praying for their health, safety, and productiveness for The Kingdom!  :)  THANK YOU!!!!

This is Mbingo Baptist Hospital where Matt is at work right now!

Matt's Haircut!

Just wanted to share a few pics with you!  Matt convinced me to cut his hair, since he is about to go to a part of the world that is very conservative.  So I have two motives for this post: 1. Show you his new hair. 2. Introduce you to some awesome guys he is grateful to know.

Matt with his full beard and growing hair on the left.  His hair got about 2 inches longer than this.  Next to him is Ron Peacock (our awesome friend and pastor at NorthWood Church) and Matt Freid (our friend from NW Church).

Matt with longer hair and less beard next to his very good friend Rob White.

HIS HAIR IS NOW CUT!  Taken Sunday, July 31, 2011. (He's next to me! Oh, and when he saw this picture, he asked me why there was lightning coming out of his ears... ahem... it's just some pretty lights we have up at church on the walls... not lightning.) :)

Some Updates

I've been weak at writing... I'll try to update y'all on the goings on!

Matt IS going to Africa in a week.  He'll head to Atlanta where he'll meet Bob Schill; from there they'll fly to Paris, then into Cameroon, Africa.  The work? They need to work on some designs for an existing HUGE hospital in the area.  Western hospitals are rare, but needed.  You can read the info in our last post, if interested in Cameroon. Please pray Matt will be effective as a teammate, and also come home safely to his waiting wife.

Our house is almost done! It has been 8 months since we bought the house, and we've had some wonderful help with fixing it up. We've gutted the entire thing and had the electric done, the walls insulated and rebuilt, we mudded, sanded, painted, put flooring down (in a couple rooms we had to put a FLOOR down...), built counters, cut cabinets from existing cabinets donated to us(!), cut trim for the rooms, doors, window, began sewing curtains... All of this in 6 rooms.  We are GRATEFUL for this house. It is the cutest thing now... still quite quirky, as both of us had NEVER done any of this, really, before.  But it's wonderful! Praise God for how He provides!

Some TECH Team responsibilities are changing. I'm a graphic designer at MTT, as you probably know, and in the last few months, my manager has started focusing me on advertising-like projects. PR kinds of things.  I'm having a blast.  Still doing the design work, but I've also started on our Facebook presence, e-mail ads, bulletin ads, and program ads. Pretty fun stuff! 

What else? Feel free to leave a comment regarding anything I should blog about, as I've been feeling a little bit uncertain what to put up!  Thanks!!!  :)