Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Another Change

Change is a big part of all of our lives. I know that in the past six months many of you have experienced great change and all of you have entered into one of the biggest changes that we will experience; adoption. Whether by prayers or finances you have been a blessing to us during this time. In humility we ask you to continue with us in this journey as we are still in the beginning phase of all this. We would be content with the complexity of our lives if this were all we were going through, but its not.

In the middle of May we were asked to take on a national role with Campus Crusade for Christ. What this means, in general, is that we are moving to Orlando, Fl (the headquarters of Campus Crusade) to help give leadership to the 7,000 U.S. campus staff around the world. Specifically, I will work with our 200 teams in the United States that are trusting God to reach the next group of 4,000 unreached campuses and ethnic groups. Our vision has not changed. We desire to put someone who truly follows Jesus within arms’ reach of every college student in the world. Our scope has increased. Our mission is the same.

As we engage in the Great Commision in a new way we are incredibly thankful for you. God has used you in mighty ways to reach students in Greeley, East Asia, Mexico and the states around Colorado. God is now calling us (the Rietemas and you) to bigger things and we are grateful to have you as our team. The next few months will be full of raising support, finishing adoption, and planning to move. In the meantime I (and sometimes Erika) will commute a few days a month to Orlando to start our new role. We want to meet with all of you (either at a gathering or individually) to talk with you more and to thank you in person.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Paper Trail!


By the end of this week Erika and I will be finished with our paperwork for the adoption. We received a "no record of arrest" clearance from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation earlier this week and our birth certificates are being authenticated as we speak. After all of our paper work is turned in we will wait for acceptance from the Guatemalan Government. If things go well this could happen in the next 8 weeks. After we are accepted we will be in line to be assigned children! While waiting we will take some classes on adoption and look into taking a Spanish class to help with the transition.

If you were to pray for us please pray:
  • That our paperwork would go smoothly and quickly through the Guatemalan government.
  • That our children are safe and being loved on.
  • That the Spanish language would come easy for us.
  • That finances would finish up quickly and well.
Thanks so much...the pictures are from a great family vacation with my brother and sister in law!