God is Gracious

Our names, John and Jean, both mean "YAHWEH is gracious." God is gracious to call us and allow us to serve and be a part of the ministry of SonSet Solutions! John recently spoke at our sending church, Lansing Bible Church. The title of his sermon was "Satisfying Service from the Back Pew".  While he usually uses an expository approach, this sermon was personal and so he deviated from that norm.

The primary focus was that Jonathan, the son of Saul, had every right to be jealous of David.  David was not in the line to be king and yet God chose David to be king following Saul. Though Jonathan did not forfeit his kingship (though Saul did), he was a man of faith who indeed stayed true to God – it seems Jonathan's call was to yield to God and without jealousy.

We are serving in mostly a "back pew" capacity.  While John works on software development for some of our technology projects (which are solutions for our partners), his primary work is done on "in-office" software that keep the organization running. Not to be outdone, Jean is a displaced nurse, who is serving in the IT department as well as assisting the Communications and Donor Development departments. 

We love going out into the field overseas and miss the people of the places we've been, but are also satisfied with service from the back pew which is working in the office (yep, behind the computer), hosting interns and volunteers, and ministering in various capacities to the people we DO have contact with. We serve God fully in this way, and SonSet Solutions provides so many ways for the gospel to be shared in remote areas shown in the photos in this post.

We strive to live up to our names and continue to show that God is gracious. We do get the itch to go overseas, but we are encouraged by God's Word and Jonathan's example to serve faithfully and joyfully.

Young People Keep us Busy!

After moving JR to Kansas in March, we spent the next six days getting ready to host the first of our summer interns came who came to serve.  Ben Schubert is a senior mechanical engineering student from Liberty University.  The others did not join us until closer to summer.

Michael Dubisz (California Baptist University), Maury Funez (Cedarville), and Noah Peternel (Grove City College), who are all senior electrical engineering students, arrived end of May and early June.  We had the four of them together for a short time here at SonSet Solutions.

Additionally, John and I not only have had the pleasure of getting to know them at the office, they also joined our young adult group at McCoy church (Pathfinders) for most, if not all Bible studies and events.

Now all of them have returned are their respective universities this fall.  Please pray for them as they each finish their senior year and look to the Lord for what they would do following graduation.

Empty Nesters for Six Days

Slowly by slowly, they have left us...young adults living at our home.  In less than a year, four young adults moved out. It all started April 2018 when David Palmer moved out (having lived a significant amount of time here) into his own place here in Elkhart. 

July was when Anina married Tyler and became Mrs. Mounsithiraj...but that meant she moved out, too. Fortunately, she is relatively close as she is still in nursing school at Bethel.

Fall brought a job opportunity to David, and he moved to Taylorville, Illinois for a full-time job in his field.  Four and a half hours away, David works at MarkNet Alliance, a technical company that has found a niche to serve auction companies. He is doing well, working well with the other programmers and has been called "Super Dave".  

So far, each time one moved away, they have moved farther than the last one that moved out.  Not to be outdone, JR moved 1000 miles away (at least 14 hours drive) to Garden City, Kansas. This was the second weekend in March. John's first day at the Lee Richardson Zoo was Monday, March 11, and he is the animal keeper for the ambassador and quarantine animals. 

The ambassador animals are reserved for interaction with the public and includes the herpetological animals that JR loves.  The quarantine animals are not the sick ones but the new animals that need a period of quarantine when they arrive.  He is able to share an apartment with a friend who is also an animal keeper at the zoo. 

While on that moving trip, we were asked to host our first 2019 SonSet Solutions summer intern.  We spent our six empty nesting days getting a room ready for hosting. I guess we'll have to wait until June to see what empty nesting is all about!