We’re moving! In two weeks we are moving to a new house here in Columbia. One of our favorite families has offered to rent their four bedroom house to us for the same price we are now paying for our mill village duplex. We have been looking for a new place to live for a long time due to the 100 year old, uneven, and steep steps in our current dwelling. Many thanks to the Franklins, a family who has blessed us in so many ways already, for this amazing blessing! Our new address (as of 6 February) is:

Doug and Heike Riddle

226 Steeple Dr

Columbia SC 29229

Other than that, we are continuing on as normal. Doug is still working as a delivery driver, though he is looking for a new job that has the same flexibility but better hours and pay. If you could pray for God to provide in this (or another) way, we would greatly appreciate it.

On the Partnership Development front, we have gone from a $16,000 deficit to an $11,000 deficit with Cadence in just the past three months. God is amazing in providing for our support needs and is well on His way in moving us to Germany. We are still around 45% of our monthly need, though, and are looking for individuals and churches to come alongside us in that respect.

Thank you for your prayers and support for us, they are always greatly appreciated! If there is any way that we can be praying for your family, please let us know.

Sudan Trip Letter

Hey, sorry for the LONG silence. It's been a busy time for us.

We finally finished and sent out our letter on our trip to Sudan! If you'd like to get it by mail or e-mail, let me know. If I get a chance I'll just transpose it on here, but I don't want to guarantee that....

You can also check out: www.xanga.com/wordscrossedout (Doug’s travel blog) for more stories and pictures! He did a great job.

Traveling

God provided all the money for our Sudan trip!!!!  We stand amazed at how quickly and thoroughly He provided. All we have left to do is acquire some supplies as well as donations for the Sudanese and we're ready. We've even got Visas stamped in our passports. =)

Christmas was fun. We enjoyed our new cat, Shakespeare:

(Doug did not enjoy the Redskins losing--as you can see on the TV in the background)

Shakespeare 'helping' me wrap presents:

We had a lovely Christmas Eve with my family: 

Christmas Day with Doug's family (which is all on our new video camera that Dad gave us)

and then a late Christmas with my aunts and uncles and cousins in Illinois.

We are now up north, on a fundraising trip. We visited people in IL, PA, and are headed to NJ tomorrow to speak at Doug's home church.

We head home next week, and I have to say, I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again with my fuzzy cats on top. =)

Halloween and Missions

We're hoping to be able to go to Sudan next year in February for a 2 week medical mission trip. Heike went on this trip last year (see www.xanga.com/for_love_of_Akobo).  We wanted to go this year too, but we would have gotten back two days before our wedding.  We decided against it. =)  However, raising support for a mission trip as well as to go to a different mission field is proving to be a difficult challenge.

We had a halloween party at youth group tonight.  The group has grown slowly over the past couple months, which is exciting.  The two girls on the left were new tonight, they are two of three kids in the group who are not chaplain kids.  Check out Doug's new pirate hair-do:

Slowing down

Well, it's been a while since I wrote, but thankfully, life has slowed down so there hasn't been much to write about.
Doug and I are still struggling with being sick a lot. We're both busy at work: me at the hospital with newborns and he at Fort Jackson with his youth group. Other then that, we've been doing some work on the house we're renting (when we feel up to it).
So, if you're reading this, please pray for our health. We really need to get moving on visiting people and trying to raise support.
Thanks!

More camp, Boston, and the Red Sox

Doug is currently at camp with his Fort Jackson kids. It's a Young Life Camp in NC, Windy Gap. It's pretty impressive. I miss him, though, and can't wait for him to be home again. =)

The last few weeks have been busy with him getting ready for camp. I also took a trip with my parents-in-law up to Boston to see Doug's older brother, Keith, and his wife and 2 kids. I'm enjoying being able to be an aunt and getting to play with my 2 nephews.

We also played some games...

...saw some sights, and went to a Red Sox game!
Here we are standing in line for tickets:


We all had a great time, including Joseph. It was his first time going to see a baseball game.


On a side note, my arm is now better. After going from its previous state to this:


It's now almost back to normal!

Home again

We're finally back home again, hurray!!

We finished up in CO with Cadence and then hurried to Myrtle Beach, SC to spend some time with Doug's family. I don't have any pictures yet, but it was a good time of playing with our 2 nephews, going to the beach, sleeping, eating yummy food, and sleeping some more. Unfortunately Doug and I both got a virus and were sick for a few days.

Then it was off to the MK Re-entry Retreat/Seminar at Bethel Camp in Gaston, SC. I have worked with this particular retreat each year for the past 4 years, and this year I was in charge. It's a retreat for kids who have grown up overseas or spent a considerable amount of time there. Most of them have just graduated high school and now they are coming back to the States for college.

Here's a picture of our group this year at the end of the week:

Thankfully, Doug was on staff (due to my recruitment =)) and took over for me the first day as I was still really sick. It was hardly a good way to start the week, pretty much all 6 of us staff were already worn out, but God used us anyhow. It was a great group, but a tough week, and Doug and I came home exhausted.

I unexpectedly ended up bringing something back with me:
It has since grown a little in size and turned incredible shades of yellow. It's the worst bruise I have ever had, so I had to show it off a little. =)