Latest News for October

Hi All, October. Wow! Time has flown! We can’t believe we are due to leave for Asia in 2 months time! This morning I was reading to Mya about Gladys Aylward. She was a missionary in China who took care of orphans. In this particular story about her, she and 100 orphans had escaped a Japanese invasion and were fleeing for their lives. They had been walking for about a week already, and she had been shot and they had had no food for 2 days and barely any water. They eventually get to the river they were planning to cross to get to safety on the other side, only to discover all the boats were gone. Anyway, to cut a long story short they had been waiting for boats for three days when one of the little girls comes to Gladys and asks her if she remembers the story of Moses, and asks why they can’t just ask God to part the water for them. Gladys says to her that this is true, but she is not Moses, to which the little girl replies, “but God is still God“. This statement nearly had me in tears. I find we so often see the amazing things that God did in the Bible or for others long ago, and say “if only” and we forget that God has not changed. He is still God. He is still the God today that he was when he parted the sea for Moses, or created the world with a word. He has not changed. God is still God. I pray that whatever you are going through right now that you will always remember, and be encouraged as I was, that in spite of the way things look right now, God is still God! On that note, let me tell you what we have been up to. Since August, Aleck and I took on a web site construction project in order to serve and to help towards costs for Mya’s schooling curriculum. Aleck has just completed the site (www.templateinstitute.com) while I have been working on audio and video podcasts for the site to be uploaded. It has been a challenge as it has been a lot of work to get everything functioning in a short period of time, but nice to be working in Design together again like old times. Right now Aleck is in Harpenden teaching on the Web school for 2 weeks, actually he has been in England for almost a month in total. It has been challenging in that there were only 3 students and so a lot more curriculum was required as they were going through the material quickly. But it is a great school and Aleck is enjoying himself. Just before this, Aleck took over teaching the kids as we were all in Harpenden, England. I was asked to help staff the Humanities course for the first 2 weeks of the school. It was good fun. I had the opportunity to talk about Time Management – one of my favourite topics – the University of the Nations, another favourite, and Student Integrity. it was fun to be involved in a staffing capacity on a school again. In the next couple of weeks we will be wrapping up the website for Landa Cope and the Template Institute we are working on and then Aleck will be heading to Switzerland for 2 weeks to teach on the design school there. He will also be meeting with 3  key people involved in the planning of the design school we will be running in India. So that will be a very key time for him. Please pray into that as we have more details to nail down in a very short time of meeting. Aleck has also been helping my dad work on the property they are renovating for a new ministry they have started called Solace Trust. It is its own charity and not part of YWAM, and the aim is to work with family ministries. Mya and Micah are doing well. Mya is really doing great at school and I am enjoying teaching her. The curriculum is so fun and interesting – even I am learning!!! Micah is such a  precious little boy – he just gets on and plays by himself while we do school. It so amazing. I don’t know what I would do if he needed constant attention. They are both growing so much and it is a pleasure to see them grow and even to see how they integrate their world travels into their playing. We have all really enjoyed being with family and friends. It has been wonderful to live so close to my parents so that the kids can have interaction with their grandparents on a daily basis, as well as seeing Aleck’s parents and brother and my brother and sister-in-law and the kid’s cousins regularly. It has been good to see the kids develop friendships with some of other kids around us as well. It has been really good on a relational level. Of course we have also seen our fair share of challenges. Finances are still a major challenge, while we have our monthly costs covered, we have been working hard at saving towards our upcoming Asia trip and will need a big break-through in the next 3 months or so as we have huge upcoming costs in pioneering the schools in Thailand and India. This has challenged us and tested us, but we keep coming back to the fact that God is still God; that although we may plan our path He is the one who directs our steps. So amazingly in spite of our seemingly insurmountable challenges, we have peace that God is in control and he will show us His miraculous power! We have outlined our expenses for the upcoming trip. (Not including ground costs – this is just to get us there): > Thai Visas: £235 (due to be sent in 1st November 2011) > India Visas: £600 (due to be sent in 5th January 2012) > Malaria Pills: £390 (latest date of purchase, January 1st 2012) > Flights: £4500 (approximate need to be purchased by mid December at the latest) Aleck has and will be doing about a months worth of teaching but both of the schools have not been able to pay a full honorarium as student numbers were lower than expected. While it has been good to serve it has meant that financially it has been tighter over the last month. Please continue to pray for us as we work towards our next adventure in Asia. The schools there will be a profound development in skills training and Biblical thinking about Communication and Design. Please can you pray about giving to any of the expenses we have listed above or praying for us as we work towards raising our air fares etc.. We know God can do this. He did it last year when we were in a similar situation with our trip to Nigeria to start two Design schools there, and just perhaps He wants to do it in part through you. We have ways for UK tax payers and USA tax payers to get tax back if you require it. If you need this info please do get in touch with us. Otherwise our transaction details are below. Thank you for being a part of our adventures and supporting us with your friendship, your prayers and your resources. We really couldn’t do what we are doing without you. Please keep in touch with us and let us know what you are up to. Just another parting thought. Mya and I were reading in the Bible today about when Jesus tells his disciples that He will die and Peter pulls Him aside and tells Him to stop talking like that and Jesus rebukes him. It made me realise that sometimes the voice of reason can be the enemy telling us not to embrace the adventure, the life, the plan that God has for us. If we choose to follow the voice of reason we can loose the fullness and the abundance of what God has planned for us. Man, life can be scary exciting with God!! Also, please check out our new website online… www.aleckcartwright.com. You can keep up with our latest news and make paypal donations through the site too. Also, there are lots of pictures of the family that will show you more of our day to day lives!! Thanks for your interest, prayer and support, you make our service as missionaries possible. Please continue to be a part of our service in missions! Be Blessed! Aleck, Donna-Rae, Mya and Micah