Hello friends! We are doing well at the Halbert home and just wanted to take a few minutes to update you on current events! It seems as if the summer months are flying by and as they pass, they bring many important events along with them.
Ann Renée is 9 months old now! We can hardly believe how much she has grown and changed in recent months. She has mastered (for the most part) sitting up and is certainly very vocal! Her progress on becoming mobile, however, has certainly been at her own relaxed pace. Just this weekend she learned to get from lying on her belly to sitting up on her own – needless to say, she was very proud and has implemented her newfound ability to protest naptimes and bedtimes!
Julie is staying busy keeping up with Ann Renée, and making sure that everything is ready for the dinner guests that we have been privileged to have. She also has continued her training to become a Jazzercise instructor. Originally we had hoped that she would be able to complete her certification and start teaching in mid-July. However, the busyness of life has moved us to push her certification date back to October of this year. We are excited to see how the Lord will use this as a potential ministry both here in Columbia and eventually in Costa Rica.
Andrew is busy with work, serving at Rose Hill as an elder and teaching Sunday school. He has decided to divide up his ordination into two parts – the first is licensure and requires three written and oral exams. The written exams are due on August 1st so he is busy trying to find time to study. Assuming a passing grade on the written portion, he will go before the Candidates and Credentials Committee in September and finally before Presbytery in October. If all goes well with licensure, then we are hoping Andrew will be able to complete ordination by January of 2012.
Some super exciting news (all of the previous stuff was just build-up) is that we have been invited by the team in Costa Rica to take a vision trip. The mission has approved this trip and we are working on buying our tickets! The trip will not take place until the fall because that is when Andrew will have enough vacation to go. Needless to say, we are very excited about this trip and look forward to meeting the team and catching the more of the vision for Costa Rica!
Here are some specific ways you can pray for us:
1) Pray for Julie as she studies for her instructor’s exam in October
2) Pray for Andrew as he studies for his licensure exams over the next few weeks
3) Pray for safe travels as we will be spending some time in Knoxville, TN and potentially in New Kent, VA later this summer
Thanks for reading and for your prayers!
