Summertime--home assignment. ..

Greetings everyone!!!  We are stateside and truly enjoying the time the Lord has been giving us here.  There is nothing like the beauty of a Midwest sunset!!!

 We wanted to update you all on our summer so far.  We began our summer this year in the DR celebrating Beka's high school graduation.  Rachael returned home after completing her freshman year at Taylor University and our son Shane came home too. It was such a treat to have them all with us for this very special occasion...

Uncle Tim (Dave's brother and Beka's godfather) also came to visit.  We truly enjoyed our time together on the island.

Beka had such a great senior year---academically she was class valedictorian and her soccer team had a super finish.  Here she is with her mentor Megan, a teacher at SCS.

We are stateside to take Beka to college later this month.  She will be joining her sister Rachael at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.  We will be taking a "home assignment" here this fall, our first in over eight years on the mission field.  We want to take time to reflect on our mission journey so far and hear from God as to His plans for how we continue to minister on His behalf.  To that end, we went to a Mission Training International DAR program (Debrief and Renewal) in Colorado the beginning of July.  It was such a rich experience in so many ways.  Here we are with our group facilitators, Bob and Linda.  They were a dear couple, veteran long term missionaries with such hearts full of Godly love and wisdom.

We met some wonderful missionaries from all over the world.  It was so refreshing and healing to share stories and encourage one another.

We were able to visit some incredible sites, like Pike's Peak, and spend time with one of Dave's cousin and his family in Denver.

It has been so fun to re-connect with many old friends and supporters here in Bloomington--even got to see our old neighbors and faithful supporters, the Bowar family...

On our "road trip"  to Colorado we stopped in Kansas City and celebrated the 4th of July with Cherry's brother, Keith.

Cherry has gotten to spend some very special times with her mom Josephine, now 93 years old and going strong and her sister Lori from Italy.

We were able to visit Dave's sweet aunt Wilma too...

Dave just spent a three day guided private retreat at the Jesus R and R house near Danvers.  What a blessing that was.  It is designed for rest and refreshment for pastors and missionaries.

So as you can see our time so far has been filled with so much of God's goodness in the beauty of nature and the warmth and love of good friends and family.  We feel so blessed! And we feel God is answering our prayer for rest and spiritual renewal.

MINISTRY NEWS:

Dave returned to the DR last month to help with a fine arts worship institute that was put on in our neighborhood by Proskuneo Ministries in Atlanta.  Our community was so very blessed by that event. Many of our young people were given the opportunity to develop their gifts in singing, dance, art, etc to be used for God's glory. What an encouragement for them to "be" all that God has called them to be and to love and serve others from that place!!

And every evening the community was invited to participate in worship and see the growing talents of the local youth on display!!

Our young people left extremely encouraged and grateful to God for His goodness to them!

We are so pleased with the young church plant as they have taken over the leadership and are carrying the love to Christ to the community.  Our absence is part of the "plan" to completely turn this work over to the locals.

The same is happening with the prison ministry--now Dominican run and our good friend and Dave's mentor, Paul Thompson is providing encouragement and counsel while we are stateside.  Please keep all this in your prayers.

After we get the girls off to college, we plan to start our "empty nest" stage by traveling out west to see friends, family and supporters.  We will be so blessed to see both our daughter Blythe and our son Shane!!

We will be back in Illinois in October to go family weekend at Taylor University and catch some soccer games!!!  Beka is joining the Taylor soccer team.  We plan to also travel out east, celebrate Thanksgiving with Cherry's mother and our children and then return to the DR.

As I write this we have less than a week before we take "our baby" Beka to college.  We just want to say how very proud we are of her and how she has blessed our lives the past eighteen years.  Her impact on our ministry in the DR and on our family has been HUGE.  She has left very big "footprints" in our community and in so many hearts.  We love you Beka and wish you the very best in your new adventure!!

As always we thank you so very much for your continued prayers, encouragement and financial support as we enter into this new "season".  Please pray for us and we will keep you posted as to what God has for us next!!!  And know that you are always in our prayers as well.

By His grace and for His glory,

The Dave Schwulst family