Last week was a busy one for us – we spent most of the week in Ohio.  A friend from college contacted us about presenting the ministry at his two churches.  That email alone was encouraging.  We haven’t had much success “cold” contacting churches because most places already have their missionaries and ministries set up that they give to.  Meeting the sweet people in these two congregations was a big blessing, and we had a great time sharing our hearts and catching up with college friends.

Afterwards, we drove on down to Columbus and stayed with Ang’s parents.  There we spent a good portion of two days in state buildings getting official copies of our marriage license and Angela’s birth certificate.  Then we visited other state buildings to get our certificates stamped a second time, proving that the first official stamp was actually… official.  (Confused yet?)  Although it was a bit frustrating to spend that much time and money (over $50 for a couple of official stamps), it felt good to check another task off the “to do” list.  Now we’re waiting on Leyton’s passport and Noah’s “officialized” birth certificate from Virginia to come in the mail.

While we were in Columbus, we also made the plans to sell our little green car that we’ve had for the first three years of our marriage.  A couple months back, the transmission finally decided to die on us, so we’re borrowing my parents’ car until we move to DR.

Noah decided to get his first ever flu bug during the week, so he spent some extra time with his thumb and blankie the last few days.  He was quite the trooper though, and he still found time to terrorize Grandpa’s kitty cats and go for a wagon ride.  We’re thankful he’s been a pretty healthy dude over the past 18 months.

Well, those are the nitty gritty details of last week.  Praying for more monthly supporters this week.  Can’t wait to make The Big Move!

– Scott

Hey everybody,

There are some exciting things happening and so I just wanted to jot a few of them down.  This could potentially be considered “information overload” – if you get our newsletter there might be a little overlap, but hopefully you will be able to handle it.  So without further ado… the update.

Things are going well for us in Indiana.  Since returning from the Dominican, we’ve had seven new people join our sending team which has been really cool and encouraging.  We’ve been traveling alot too, meeting with new people and catching up with others.  We also found out that we’re going to be having another boy in February (by the way, for those of you who didn’t know, Ang is pregnant)!  We’re excited about being a family of four in the Dominican.  At 13 months, Noah is close to walking (he took a couple of steps yesterday), but I think he’s too lazy or stubborn to do it on his own just yet.  He wants to hold our hands and make our lower backs sore while we trot him around everywhere.  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side (the Dominican that is), there are also amazing things going on.  We have completed the 10-week “VBS” that we did in two villages over the summer.  It was neat to hear about the kids who came to Christ, as well as the three Dominican young people that traveled with our team from village to village that we believe will actually start their own “VBS” in a different village in the late fall.  It was an awesome opportunity to begin the discipleship process with them and the future looks exciting.  Finally, Freedom International has been looking for land in the Dominican over the past few months and we found a 15-acre plot of land available!  From what I understand, it even has a bunch of lemon and mango trees which we will be able to use right away for the people in the village.  Feel free to check it out.  The Hilgemans leave the DR today for the States, and we’re going to be having a banquet on October 11th to begin raising the funds for this land. If you could be in prayer over the next week about the banquet, that would be awesome.

Anyway, I hope I didn’t lose you in all of that.  We hope that you are doing well and that you’re able to enjoy the fall weather.  That’s it for now.  Catch you later!

Scott, Ang, Noah, and Unnamed Male Baby Mitchener-

It’s hard to believe we only have about 2 1/2 weeks left in VA.  That’s right, we’re getting ready to make the move back to the Indiana area to work on raising support there.  Ang is working on packing during the days while I finish out my last two weeks of work at Liberty.

Right now, we are at 28% of our monthly budget.  We would LOVE to leave Virginia at an even 30%.  That means we need 4 more partners at $25/month or 2 partners at $50/month. Pray with us as we finish up our last few days of meeting with people and churches and as we get everything loaded up and ready to make the 9-hour trek to Anderson.

We’re excited about this new step but definitely sad to leave all of the friends we’ve made here in Virginia.  This is where we started our family and our lives together, so it’s definitely going to be a change after being here for three years.  We’re trusting that God’s plan is perfect and we’re looking forward to what’s in store.

Here’s the Noah-man looking ready to make the big move.

Hey everyone and happy New Year! We are totally stoked about the upcoming year. In fact, just in case you didn’t know, we plan on moving to another country before the next ball drops. We have been watching God provide up until this point and we can’t wait to see how He continues to work to move us to the Dominican. After making a short trip to Ohio and Indiana for Christmas, we’re back in Virginia and focusing on finishing raising our monthly support. It’s cool for us to be at the point where nothing is keeping us here. Not having to sell a house or anything else gives us the feeling that we could be leaving at any moment. I think that helps us prepare better.

Noah is doing quite well. He’s beginning to move around a lot more in his crib and certainly is developing a bit of a feisty personality. He also likes to make a lot of noise. Of course, he spends his days with his mother every Monday through Friday, so I guess that makes some sense.  🙂

Anyway, we hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. We’ll continue to give updates as we go. For now, I’m going to go make a milkshake.

See ya,

Scott-

Hello everybody.  A lot has been going on for us the last couple of weeks.  Noah is growing like a weed and now weighs 11 pounds. (I understand for some people, this is nothing because they gave birth to an 11 pound child.  Noah was born at 7 though, so for us he is a big boy.)  Thank you all for the support in these first 2 months.  We have been totally taken care of as we transition. God certainly provided for us through all of you.  So again, thank you for praying for us and being willing to give.

This last week, Angela and Noah took off to visit to our families.  She stayed in Indiana for the first half of the week, and then spent the latter half in Ohio.  I was able to accomplish lots since I was home by myself. Believe it or not, I even did the laundry and the dishes.  You’ve probably experienced that when you’re away from your family, you still want to communicate with them.  In our case, Ang and I would call each other and send texts back and forth.  We talked to each other every morning, but we talked at random, too. Whenever Noah did something new, Ang would call me.  Whenever there was a deal at the store and I wanted to know if I should pick it up, I would text Ang.

As I was away from Ang, I began to think about my relationship with her.  I considered the “fluidity” of it.  In other words, we communicate constantly.  Even if we only have a few minutes to talk – even if there’s only one thing to say – we still make the effort to share what’s going on.  In fact, we both know when we’re not communicating well.  We agree that our relationship struggles when we don’t take the time to check in with each other.

Why is it often hard to see a fluid relationship as a goal with our relationship with God?  Even though it’s difficult to achieve fluid relationships with people, our relationships are better when they involve consistent communication.  At least for me, it seems that when I realize that I need to work on my relationship with God, I start trying to plan it out.  I think about reading the Bible in the morning or praying at night.  But I wonder if my relationship with God would grow much more if I spent more time focusing on my entire life being centered on Him.  Of course, it is good thing to practice a daily discipline.  I just think God has a whole lot more for us if we take the time to walk with Him, communicating all along the way no matter what happens.

Those are pretty much my thoughts as of late.  Now, I must tend to my son who needs a serious diaper change, I do believe.  Catch you all later.

Scott-