Merry Christmas!

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 3^rd 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!