Dear Friends,

Another year is drawing to a close and I'd like to take these few words to share some more personal thoughts and prayer requests. Our family has been slowly adjusting to our new life since moving up to Quesnel at the end of August. We love it here so far, especially the slower pace and quieter neighborhood. Winter hit early though and we have been scrambling to find good cold-weather gear for each of us. Carolanne does an amazing job finding good deals on gently used supplies.

Pray that God would help us make good connections in our neighborhood and church. Pray also for the kids as they are having some difficulty stepping out and making friends. And continue to pray for our fundraising efforts.

To learn more about our family and this ministry visit our website at: jamesandcarolanne.com

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been praying for us in our move! We have a new home!

We are SO thankful for this new place. We have been here a week as of Wednesday and so far we love it! Though the journey has been rocky and super stressful at times we're thrilled to be finally through and officially moved in.

Thank you for praying for us! We know there have been many who have prayed diligently as we have walked through this process.

A little about the journey so far...

The picture above is the new place that we bought in the small town of Quesnel, about 6.5 hours drive north of where we used to live in Chilliwack. Since my (James) work is entirely online, I can work from anywhere as long as there is good internet connectivity. We started this process back in March, packing boxes into a storage unit and then listing our house for sale in April. We both felt like this was the direction that God was leading us.

One cool example of this was on the day that we were having pictures taken of our place. I had been praying the days before that it would be sunny for the pictures. I really wanted the place to be presented well and so sunshine coming in the windows would be just perfect. But we woke up on the morning of pictures and it was very grey and POURING rain. Still, I hoped for a miracle, though looking outside wasn't very uplifting to my faith. Even 20 minutes before the photographer was scheduled to arrive it was still grey and raining.

Then, the Lord answered my prayer. When the photographer showed up and started taking pictures the rain stopped, the sky opened up, and sunshine shone through. There are very few times I have seen such obvious and unmistakable answers to my prayers, but this was one of them. I know it might seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it was very meaningful to me and it gave me a little glimpse of what might be to come.

So, we listed our place for sale and the real-estate market in Chilliwack promptly crashed.

The crash...

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one. We've talked to real-estate people who say the market turned almost overnight. We lived in a very nice townhouse complex and we saw another place in the same complex sell very quickly shortly before us. In fact, there was a bidding war and it went for $50k over the asking price within a week. However that place was a real "fixer-upper" so to speak. Realtors might say it had "good bones" and just needed "a little elbow grease". We know it needed a LOT of work.

So, we listed slightly higher, thinking we would have no trouble selling our nice, move-in-ready place. We wanted to sell because we really wanted to get into a larger place, in a quieter area with more room for the kids to roam and play. Not to mention we anticipated that Ben would want to park a car on the driveway soon enough.

But then, after listing with high hopes, nothing happened. No offers. Very few showings. We started to wonder if we picked the wrong agent, but he seemed to be doing what he could. We even ran into a few other agents who said he had mentioned our place to them.

After a month and a half the realtor encouraged us to consider lowering our price. We grudgingly hacked a year's wages off the price tag and waited for the lower offers to flow in. We hoped that we had taken enough off to capture people's interest and maybe still get bids over what we were asking. Yet, still nothing.

After what seemed like years, we finally received a very low offer for our place in July. This was another $35k lower than what we had already lowered our price to. At first we did not want to consider it. It was too low. It was far less even than the dumpy unit that sold in the bidding war down the lane. It was almost an insult!

However, time was moving on, and since we were planning to go further north we really wanted to be moved into a new place before the snow hit. After more thought and prayer we decided to accept their offer. Not having any insight yet into where we might move, we agreed to a possession date for the end of August. That gave us 1.5 months to find a place, make an offer, verify all the particulars and do the move.

The search...

Throughout all of this we had already been looking for new places up in Quesnel. We chose this town because of a combination of factors. We love the climate and terrain. We really wanted to live in a smaller, quieter, more peaceful area. We were constantly running into folks who spoke highly of the town. We could almost afford a proper house here. And two of Carolanne's brothers already lived here. When my sister and brother-in-law decided to move up to Prince George, (1.5 hours north of Quesnel) that clinched the decision.

Having accepted the offer on our place, we searched for homes with even greater vigor. I had multiple realtors sending listings to me, along with several automated systems watching for any new place or development. I scoured hundreds of listings looking for just the right place. We even put offers in on a few of them, though we were usually out-bid by others.

I think the Lord continues to have a sense of humour because in the end, in spite of the automated internet robots alerting me to anything new, and the multiple realtors watching for possible places, and my own constant searching, it ended up being Carolanne who found this place while casually browsing on Facebook marketplace. I'm so glad she did!

We moved in on Aug. 31'st. Now we have begun the long and tedious process of unpacking boxes and figuring out where everything is going to go. There are a few little things around the house that need fixing or repairing (hot water tank, fridge and some painting to name a few) but in general the place has been well kept and we're very happy with where we have landed.

Thanks!!!

Thank you again for praying for us! We really have appreciated all the support that folks have expressed to us and how many people have prayed for us during this move. It's a big deal to move a family that far. The kids had never moved before, and Carolanne has never lived outside the Fraser Valley. Thankfully since we homeschool there is less school exchange stress. We are going to continue with the homeschooling. We're still not sure exactly how prepared we are for the imminent snow. But we know that God continues to be with us and we trust He is guiding our steps.

As mentioned above, I James am continuing to work as a missionary with Power to Change. That part of our lives has not changed. I still serve with the internet based ministry called Digital Strategies (under P2C) and spend most of my day writing computer code used by our ministry and others to present the gospel and mentor people around the world.

We also still have many friends and family members who donate regularly to support us financially in this ministry. We are super thankful for each one who gives so faithfully and generously to help advance this kingdom work. Thank you for your continued gifts and prayer.

Our ministry really depends on these gifts and donations from people who understand the opportunity and impact, and who give generously to support it. If you would like to give to help support this online ministry, click here to go to our secure ministry giving form.

Thanks again on behalf of all of us,

James

Dear Friends,

We are excited and encouraged to tell you that it looks like we have found a place to live! Thank you for praying!

We have made an offer on a house for sale in Quesnel and it has been accepted. We still need to do our due diligence to verify things like financing and getting an inspection done, but over all it looks very promising! We are very thankful that God is answering our (and your) prayers about this!

It is an older home and will need a few updates here and there, but over-all seems to be in decent condition and shouldn't require huge up-front expenses to make it move-in ready. We will find out if there are major issues we haven't noticed once the inspection has been completed.

Thank you so much for praying for us in this. It's been quite a journey over the past several months, first trying to sell our place, then needing to find a place to buy and sorting out movers and such. We're really glad to be able to finally see the big pieces falling into place.

Please continue to pray that everything goes smoothly from here on out. We know there are still a myriad of details to get sorted out.

We will try to keep you informed as things progress.

James & Carolanne, Ben & Julia

Dear Friends,

We have a special and urgent prayer request for you today.

Please pray with us that we can find a new place to live by Aug. 30.

Here's a bit of background to this. Earlier this year (maybe February or March) we decided that it would be a healthy decision for our family to sell our townhouse and move to a larger place. We have lived in our Chilliwack townhouse for 15 years now and with the kids growing up it is beginning to feel pretty small.

However, mainly due to housing prices and mortgage costs, we decided we could not afford to buy anything larger around here in the Fraser Valley. Any actual houses around here typically sell for double the value of our townhouse. Usually over $1 million, which is far beyond what we can possibly afford to buy or mortgage.

As such, we chose to look for places in Quesnel which is a small town around 7 hours drive north of here. Prices there seemed much more reasonable, we had two family relatives already living there, and a third family of relatives moving to Prince George. (about 1 hour further north)

So, mid-April we put our house on the market for sale, expecting that it would sell fairly quickly at a good price. Two other places in our complex sold very quickly, with multiple competing offers. Then we waited... and prayed... and waited... and prayed... and waited.

Finally 3 months later we decided to accept the only offer we had received, which was very low compared to what we listed at originally. Our realtor informed us that if we didn't accept this offer, the next would likely be lower. So, we sold our place with a completion date of Aug. 29'th.

Now we're in the complicated position of needing to find somewhere else to buy, and quickly. We can't really afford anything larger here in the Fraser Valley; most likely not even the same size as what we have had.

We would really love to find a place on acreage. There are a few of these in Quesnel but they still have pretty high pricetags and many are older or quite run-down.

At this point we're starting to feel pretty desperate. We thought this was the direction that God was leading us. There have been several things that have taken place in the process to point us in that direction, however the overall progress has felt painfully slow and really stressful on all of us.

Please pray that God would provide just the right place for us and really quickly.

Thank you!

James, Carolanne, Ben and Julia

This weekend we couldn't bear sitting around at home any more so we visited Steelhead Falls up behind Mission. What a beautiful area to hike! Here are some of our favorite pics.

A Ministry Story:

Yes. I would like to make a commitment. I really need God in my life.

Prayer Requests:

1. That the ministry would continue to grow in effectiveness as we form new partnerships and seek out new and more creative ways to reach people with God's love using the internet.
2. That more people would be inspired to join our staff in reaching the world with the gospel.
3. For staff and family health. We have several staff members (including myself) who are undergoing at times severe health issues and concerns.
4. Wisdom, patience, unity and grace for our family as we will soon enter another year of homeschooling our kids.

Dear Jesus, I want you in the center of my life and commit, through your power, to serve and obey you – anytime, anywhere, at any cost, to do anything.