A Bunch of October Treats

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

We have much to share this month from family stories to mission updates, and we hope you’ll enjoy catching up together! 

As we do, we want to begin by taking a moment to thank everyone who is supporting us each month! Your continued monthly support is what allows all the good work taking place to happen, both now and in the future. Your investment in us, and in His Kingdom, is already bringing fruit, and we hope to share some of that with you today. 

Through your support we have been able to meet and invest in five families in our apartment complex! Earlier this year, we sold 90% of our possessions and moved up the road to an apartment complex as we prepared for our transition overseas. It  has given us the opportunity to build relationships and love on people around us. Your investment is allowing us to give our time and energy to show them who Jesus is through us, while we continue to raise our monthly support to get us on the field in Scotland. I shared in the last blog that we had met a fellow and his son who just moved to the area, and we were able to help them unload their moving truck. We have also baked and taken brownies to new families at our apartment complex this month. When we drop off the treats, we introduce ourselves, leave contact information, and let them know that we are here for them if they need anything. I make sure it is clear that I am serious, it isn’t just an offer, that we are really here if they need anything.  During the summer, a family had a new baby and we were able to show up at their door with a gigantic lasagna and brownies.

This month we have been able to work with several folks dealing with the hardships of life, from working out guilt and shame due to feelings of depression, to questions about scripture. Shannon helped deliver a baby this past month, filling in for a midwife whose mother passed away, and helped a few other folks get into labor or who needed to talk. The work of ministry takes many forms! 

We hope this update helps to give you all the latest news and information about what’s happening with us!

October Mission Updates!

This month, we kicked of a new project to raise $6000 toward our November research trip, which I’ll share more about below. The project invites you and others to help us “fill the bucket”! You may give online, or grab a $1 pumpkin bucket from Walmart and help fill it up with change, cash and checks! Keep it on your counter and drop in change this month, or consider taking it door to door, invite your church family to donate, have a bake sale, etc.  The options are limitless! We are ending the project on on November 1st! Reach out to us with questions! Give now! Below is the kick-off video for the project starring Gideon as, “Chuck Horseman”!

A Neat Story!

At the beginning of October, Silas and I (Chris), had received permission to setup a table outside of Arlens grocery store in Waller. Our hope was to pass out a few information papers and share a little about “Clan Stellhorn”.  We setup our candy basket, our pumpkin bucket for donations, and also our shirts. We greeted everyone, and we invited folks to come get some candy and a Clan Stellhorn sticker. Most accepted graciously, some turned us down, and some were excited to hear. 

Silas and I, while sitting out there, took turns serving people as well. We gathered the baskets from the parking lot and offered to help people load up large loads. It was halfway through the morning, and a fellow comes out of Arlens. We visited a few minutes and he left, but soon returned with a check for $753! Silas sat completely unable to process what was taking place, and I stumbled in my words a few seconds as I was trying to comprehend what God was doing. He pulled out this cashier check, and wrote it out to us on the spot. It was a gigantic encouragement for us, and will be set aside toward the October project. We also gave him a Clan Stellhorn shirt as a “thank you!”. We are at 13% now of our October Project goal!

0%

Our November Planning & Preparation Trip

The first week of November, we will board a plane to hop across the pond! The journey will begin at the end of October when we will drive to Missouri where we will drop off the kids (minus the baby) to stay with grandparents while Shannon, Cullen, and I drive north to Chicago and fly to London out of O’Hare. I had always wanted to visit Chicago, so the fact that it works best to fly out of there is a bonus for me.  I am looking forward to seeing, “Home Alone” filming locations and also the Chicago “Field Museum”. In the museum are a couple of lions on display. In the book, “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo“, John Patterson a Lt. Col. in the British Army, is sent to go build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in what is now Kenya. It is a true story and, in short, these two male lions terrorized the camp and would literally drag away workers from their tent in the middle of the night and eat them. It was unusual behavior for lions to be so brazen to want to eat men rather than their normal prey. To become man-eaters was unusual for a lion, because they would only eat men as a last resort due to starvation or possibly old age, but these lions continued the hunt for months!  It was almost ten months of terror for these workers as they watched around 135 of their colleagues dragged away, maimed, and eaten. They had tried just about everything to keep themselves safe and the lions away, but nothing worked. They tried to hunt the lions down, and although the task was very difficult, in the end they were able to put a stop to both lions. I encourage you to read the book, it is inexpensive (Kindle .99c) and an easy read. They did create a movie based on it starring Val Kilmer years back, but it is very loosely based on the true story at best. (The Ghost and the Darkness)

Back to the trip: In Chicago, we will board a plane for London, and arriving at Heathrow Airport, we will rent a car and hit the road northbound! This trip will have several stages to it. The first stage will be driving to Birmingham and meeting with, “The Fellowship of Churches of Christ of Great Britain and Ireland” for a conference they are hosting. The FCC (www.the-fcc.org) are our Visa sponsoring organization. This conference is a chance for us to meet everyone involved, as well as many staff and leaders from churches across the UK!  We are excited for this opportunity.

The next stage of our trip will be in Scotland. We will drive north through England and spend a day in the Yorkshire Dales before arriving in Scotland. Our first stop is to visit with some new missionaries (not with New International) to Scotland that are working east of Edinburgh. We have not met them before, but they are friends of friends and we want to encourage them and build our contact base. Our hope is to be a support to local churches in Scotland, but also to  other missionaries. The mission field can be a lonely place at times as you find yourself thousands of miles from friends and family.  Having someone nearby to encourage and put their hands upon your back can be life saving. We hope to be there for others in this way. 

The next stage is arriving in Oldmeldrum, a small village about 30 minutes outside of Aberdeen. A family from Scotland  planted a church there right before COVID and, God-willing, we hope to serve them in their endeavor. Oldmeldrum currently has only one church in about a five mile radius, and it is a member of the Church of Scotland. Five miles is a world apart in Scotland, especially if you don’t own a car! Think about your own home? Within a five mile radius of our apartment in Waller, TX which is more rural than Houston, there are approx. TWENTY churches within FIVE Miles!

 

All of those church buildings wouldn’t hold all of the citizens of that area either! Imagine what it is like in Scotland!  We hope to change that, and we need your help to do so! Imagine wanting to go to church, but not even being able to find a church to attend near your home. 

The close of our trip will be to spend two days visiting the town for which Baby Cullen received his name, and to meet up with a couple ministers in that area.

Other Events of the last Month!

This last month we visited several churches! One of those churches was a first time visit down in Katy, TX called, “Venture Christian Church“. They have expressed interest in wanting to partner with us. It was a great time! When we visited, we were warmly welcomed and they even invited us on stage and introduced us to everyone. We enjoyed getting to share individually with a few church members after the service about our ministry vision and heart for Scotland.

Earlier this month we were able to stop back in and visit with C4, and the past week to visit the church in our neighborhood, Waller Baptist Church, which we pop into when we have a free week. This past month, we also had one Sunday where Shannon helped deliver a baby in the morning as mentioned above, so the kiddos and I were at home since we are down to one vehicle only. This has made the importance of our Apple Calendar scheduling all the more important! 

We have also taken the time to sit down and work out all those little details needed for our trip, and we usually choose to go do that at, Seasons Harvest, a family owned restaurant near 249 and 99 in Houston. We met with the owners recently (Shannon trained the wife as a birth doula, and I have taken some of their kids to church camp) and they will be hosting a Scotland themed fundraising event for us in December. Keep an eye out for that as details unfold! 

An Update from shannon

I think it has been a minute since I have sat down and written an update.  I officially shut down my practice at the beginning of August, and turned in the keys to my office.  September has been an interesting month for me being the first month home after our road trip that I am not working beyond full time, and on call 24/7.  I have always felt that midwifery was a calling and a ministry, and always loved and helped anyone God brought to my doors to be part of their pregnancy and birth journey.  However, now is purely being open to what God lays on my heart to do or help.  I processed through some of my thoughts on this on a post on my Sacred Journey social media platforms earlier this week.  My highlight for September was getting to catch a baby for a past client of mine, making it the third baby I have helped them with.

I am hoping to invest some time into navigating midwifery licensure in the UK.  I have low hopes that I will be successful in getting to be licensed as a midwife in the UK but do feel that I need to at least try and have that answer. 

I found out in late July that I passed my IBCLC (International Board of Certified Lactation Consultants) exam, which is exciting and huge for me as this license is recognized in the UK.  My heart is for women in the childbearing years, and I hope to start a support group with free lactation service, which is made even more possible with this license.

Finals for the Month

Each month, we try to reach out and share about Clan Stellhorn. This month we have changed tactics a bit. I usually carry Clan Stellhorn papers with me, folded in my pocket, but now I am attaching stickers to them. This allows me to offer them a sticker and along with it a paper as well. I am now able to hand out 4-5x the amount of papers! 

I have continued to reach out to churches. I still find there’s not always staff members in the offices at church buildings, but I try to connect with 30-50 new churches each week.

Our hope and prayer is to launch in the Spring of 2022, but it all depends on the support raising process. We must reach 100% of our monthly funding before we can launch overseas and begin this work. If you have been considering beginning support, please reach out to us! As we come toward the end of the year, please keep us in mind for your end of the year giving! 

At the beginning of October, we attended a special event at our local coffee shop in town. The picture is of Silas and I that night. We had a long conversation with some folks about Scotland and our plans, and then enjoyed some karaoke!

Prayer Requests

  • Our heart is for rural Scotland, and our time in Oldmeldrum is the most important portion of our trip. We appreciate the prayers through our meeting with the couple who minister through the missional community there and our time in Oldmeldrum. 
  • We are waiting for sleep study results for Aibhlinn.  We appreciate prayers for those results and follow up care and appointments.
  • We are praying for who God wants us to meet with to be part of our clan, and to help get us on the field in 2022. 
  • We appreciate prayers for Shannon as she navigates if she can get her midwifery license in the UK.

More from Our Blogs

Winter in Scotland

It has been a while since a new blog post, but with good reason, as it has continued to be a busy

Autumn is Upon Us (Sept/Oct 2022)

A Wee update As nighttime continues to creep sooner and sooner, the tasks of the day are not decreasing. Actually, the opposite

Scroll to Top