November
2015
Dear
friends and family,
I
have majorly slacked at writing Christmas letters and sending
Christmas cards the last few years, but this has been such a good
year that I'm determined to “get 'er done.” :) So Merry
Christmas, y'all!
Us
Gansons have been in
South Carolina for two years now, and we're still getting used to
sunny skies and warmer weather around the holidays. (Not that we're
complaining!) Most of you know that we moved to Rock Hill, SC, to
plant a church through the Vineyard, and this coming January will be
one year since we began weekly Sunday morning services. I admit, we
heard lots of church-planting “horror stories”, and every book we
read told us we would just have to grit our teeth and live at an
unsustainable pace the first year or two. But we have experienced
the exact opposite... we have felt free to rest in what the Lord is
doing, enjoy the way He pulls people together, and see Him at work in
ways that we could never orchestrate. The church is slowly growing,
we've seen people come to Lord, we have many friends who “belong”
with us even though they do not yet “believe”, and we just
simply feel a lot of “life” and refreshment in being here.
Obviously not everything has been a bed of roses, and there have been
some very hard circumstances, especially for some of our teammates
who came with us, but overall at this point in life, it feels like we
can relate with Psalm 16:6: “The boundary lines have fallen for me
in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” (Our
church's website is http://rockhillvineyard.org/
if you want to hear more about the vision of the church.)
One
of the ways the Lord has really blessed us is through the job He has
provided Ben. We truly wanted Ben to be able to work bi-vocationally
long-term, and in March, Ben was hired at Carroll Financial part-time
as a financial advisor, a job that matches his giftings, personality,
and heart perfectly. He works for a good friend of our's, Mike
Jette, who has been a financial planner for a long time and whose
client load was becoming a little too much to handle for one man.
Mike really took all of us Gansons under his wing, paying for Ben to
study and take the necessary tests he needed to take (he passed the
last one just a couple weeks ago!)... but even more importantly, Ben
and Mike have a similar vision to use their careers to further the
Kindgom (and not vice- versa.) Ben comes home energized with stories
of the ways they were able to pray for clients and co-workers and of
the ways they see the Lord at work. In a career field that can often
lend itself toward materialism and hoarding, it's exciting to be able
to encourage people to approach finances from a Kingdom perspective,
and for Ben and Mike to approach their work in a spirit of
stewardship and generosity, leaving it all in the Lord's hands. Ben
had a conversation a few weeks ago with another financial advisor who
basically said, “You don't know know how lucky you are. Most
people entering this field have to scramble quickly to come up with
clients who are ready to invest a lot of money because that's the
only way to have an income.” But because Ben works for a base
salary under Mike, we can spend time dreaming not about how to get
clients who can invest, but how to help people (at no charge) set up
healthy financial patterns. It's a good place to be!
The
other big news from 2015 is that our family is expanding! (NO, I AM
NOT PREGNANT! If I see you over the holidays, please don't rub my
belly or ask how I'm feeling. :))
In
February, I (Janelle) took a trip to Haiti. I saw poverty in the
extreme, and kids eating cookies made of mud because they had nothing
else to eat. The
Lord spoke to me very personally during that time about the story of
Gideon, how He takes people that are the "least" and the
weakest, and calls them warriors because that's what He has designed
them to be. He turned my heart toward the people of Haiti, to see
them not just as people who live in the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere, but as people who, when their hearts are captured
by the Lord, become warriors. Jesus has always favored the underdog,
and it made sense to me that He could use Haiti, the underdog of our
hemisphere, to do great things. He also spoke to me about ME, about
the fact that I often dream too small and restrict God to my
"spreadsheet." Now,
we
have had it in our hearts since the beginning of our marriage to
adopt, but
we
are "numbers" people who like spreadsheets and formulas and
for things to "make sense", so we thought we would adopt
domestically, possibly through foster care to keep costs low. After
returning from Haiti, I was convicted - like one of those
two-by-four-over-the-head/take-your-breath-away convictions - that we
were meant to return to Haiti... and this time to bring home
children. And since my heart immediately turned toward bringing home
two siblings (although
I had previously thought "no way will I adopt more than one!"),
that is what we have requested and are praying for. Even though this
does NOT make financial sense to us (it costs between $45,000-$57,000
to adopt two children from Haiti and
will take about another 3 years),
I became convinced that if we did not step out in this, we would be
disobeying a specific calling God has for our family... and so we've
stepped out of the boat, trusting that God always pays His bills. We
have already received
a couple of grants and been approved to do a fundraiser in March
through Both Hands which helps
us raise money for our adoption by fixing up a widow's home (heads
up: most of you will hearing more about that at a later date!) :)
Finally,
in our daily lives, we continue to enjoy homeschooling. (“Enjoy”
might be a fluid term depending on the day and which child you ask,
but overall, I'm very grateful to be able to spend this time with my
kids.)
Micah
is 9
and in
the 3rd
grade, and although he can pretty easily absorb most of what we learn
(especially math), he would 100% rather be spending his time doing
hands-on work, like cleaning the backyard, than
anything labeled as “school.” It must be the farmer in his
genes. :) He LOVES (read: “slightly obsesses over”) anything
sports, especially football. We just finished soccer season, and
have really enjoyed
building relationships with the kids and their families there. Ben
has coached all of Micah's sports (soccer, basketball, baseball), and
Micah is out throwing the football with neighbor kids (or Ben) every
day. Micah is still “Captain Justice” who sees things in black
and white and really wants to do what is right.
Caleb
is 6 and in kindergarten. This little booger has proved to be
sharper than I realized, and most of his work is actually first grade
level. The thing with Caleb is that if there is something he enjoys,
he works and works on it until he gets it down pat. Last year that
was geography; he loved learning the states and capitals and would
trace the US map over and over until he could do it from heart. (He
still answers to the name “Alaska”, his favorite state.) This
year, he's taken to reading and will sit and work on a book by
himself for an hour. He has a goofy, sweet personality, and often
comes up with ideas for “our kids in Haiti” (like digging holes
all over my yard, searching for buried treasure.) He's got an
imagination, this one.
And
then there's Abby, who will turn 4
in January, and is FINALLY starting to move out of the tantrum stage.
She is all girl, loves pretty things, and will make any inanimate
object into “people” who have long conversations with each other
(toothpicks, crayons, trash... doesn't matter.) She is the crown
jewel of the family at the moment. If
she doesn't know you (or if she knows you, but you are a male), she
won't acknowledge your existence, so don't take it personally. She
is our only child who still prefers Mama over Daddy.
I
wish we could see and hug each of you this holiday season. We're not
the best at always keeping in touch with our many friends and family
members, but we love you all dearly, and pray that the
presence of Jesus is very real to you right
now. Merry Christmas!!
Love,
Janelle
(for Ben, Micah, Caleb, and Abby as well!)
*We
occasionally
update this blog about adoption, church-planting, and life in general... but if you
would like to get more frequent (monthly-ish)
updates about our church
planting experience, shoot Ben an email at ben@rockhillvineyard.org
and let him know to add you to the list. We also have a separate
email list of friends and family who would like to stay up-to-date on
what's happening with our adoption, so let him know if you would like
to be on that list as well!
