The Beil Family Blog

Februrary 29, 2008

Wow � it has been awhile. We sincerely apologize for not updating the site sooner. These last few months have been a blur. I will try to do my best to update you on all of the time that I have missed.

1.    New Years

We had a watch night service at church that was very highly attended and enjoyed. Brett and I made some new years resolutions, which included reading the Bible through according to the yearly plan that was handed out at church. We are both enjoying reading the same passages every day. Jackson is starting to get more and more attentive as I try to read to him at least 1 chapter a day. This morning he sat on the couch with me and listened intently to Deuteronomy chapter 4. GOOD BOY!!! Brett and I obviously have always read our Bibles daily but we have never read the same passages before. I really enjoy it � we ask each other a lot of �what do you think this means??� and quiz each other at night to see who retained more information. Because we had the watch night service the team did not get together for our usual holiday celebrations.

2.    Pastors� School

Pastors� school is still a daze for me. It was a very exciting, encouraging, and tiring week.  It was really nice to see and fellowship with the American group. Bro. Keith Cowling and his wife, Michelle, came and we got to spend a lot of time with them. We really love them and it was nice to talk to people we really enjoy spending time with. It was a great experience to get to talk awhile with Mr. Schaap, Pastor Schaap�s dad. He is a really nice down to earth man and it turns out he knew Brett�s great grandfather pretty well. The delegates really spoiled us with a lot of junk food. We actually just ran out of most of the things that they brought us. The highlight of Pastors� School was the last night of the conference. Dr. Schaap preached an amazing heart-moving message and gave an open invitation. I would say 75% of the crowd went forward; but, the greatness of the invitation was that nobody wanted to leave. Dr. Schaap started speaking again to see if the people would go back to their seats, but they just continued praying. After a few more minutes Dr. Kalapp went up, but he couldn�t close out the conference so everyone just continued praying. Dr. Schaap lay prostrate on the platform as the Ghanaians were praying on the alter � some you could hear praying audibly. It was incredibly moving. The greatest invitation I have ever been in that is for sure. There is no doubt in my mind that a number of the Ghanaians would have prayed throughout the night if Dr. Kalapp did not finally end it. All in all Pastors� school was a tremendous success, and much worth the hard work that went into it.


3.    Jackson

Jackson seems to be going through the terrible two�s a little early. It must be that Beil stubbornness that I have often heard about. We are trying to nip it in the bud early and he is doing A LOT better. Having Jackson has definitely been a humbling experience. I remember when Brett and I were first married we would go out and see bratty kids act up at restaurants and say to each other, "our children will NEVER act like that!" To my dismay � you don�t have to teach them to do bad, they learn that all by themselves. My hope and prayer is that by the time we go back to America he will be a perfect little boy and we will not be embarrassed in the least bit. But I am not holding my breath. He is saying many new words now: Please, thank you, Amen, bath, hot, bye bye, ect. He is still the cutest boy ever in the world and I am excited to see how he reacts to his new little brother.

4.    Brett

Brett is staying plenty busy with all of the maintenance at the church and compound. The dry season is now over which means violent storms and winds. As a result of the high winds the 5 tents that are up at the church get shredded almost daily. This has been a thorn in Brett�s side but he gets it done. He is preaching at church this Wednesday night. I am always so excited when he preaches. He got down to less than 200 pounds this month. That was when he was sick with a stomach virus that was passed throughout the team. His bus route is doing well. He has seen many of the parents of our riders saved and in some cases whole families come to Christ. That has been a great encouragement to him. Please pray for one of our riders named Pascalin. She is five years old and comes with her 3 year old sister and mother faithfully to church. Two weeks ago she was hit by a motorcycle that was passing a taxi. Her mom saw the accident and said she flew several yards when she got hit. She broke her leg and scratched up her eye pretty bad. She is still in the hospital. Brett and I are actually heading over there tonight to go bring her some goodies.

5.    Jennifer  

Not much new with me except my bulging belly. I was pretty sick 3 times in this pregnancy, which has made my weight gain very minimal. Especially compared to my weight gain with Jackson. I had only gained about 6 pounds by my 6th month and that was starting to make me nervous, but all the junk food that the pastors� school delegates brought us did the trick and now I have gained a healthy 15 pounds. As long as I don�t go crazy now I think I will be ok. This is the hottest season in Ghana, which has made pregnancy not so fun. We are almost decided on a name but I cannot disclose it until I get the final OK from Brett.

6.    Our traveling plans

I am going home with Jackson on April 8th to spend 2 weeks with my family. (I am really nervous about the flight � it is 11 hours long and I will be by myself with Jackson � please pray for us.) Brett will come in April 22nd and we will drive together to Indiana where Brett will work for the First Baptist Church of Hammond and I will have our second son. Then we move onto California for Kari Beil�s wedding, back to New Jersey to visit with my family again and then to Tennessee for Caleb Beil�s wedding. Sounds busy huh � WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SEE EVERYONE!!

Well I guess that is all for now. Please sign our wall!! We love to hear from you.