JoAna Schaetzle will arrive in July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I'm 5 months pregnant and we are having a little girl in July. Her name is JoAna, after her grandmother, JoAnn. The meaning of the name is "God is gracious" which couldn't be more perfect and true. We are so thankful to God and so happy to be parents of another little girl. God is indeed gracious and good. I did an US yesterday (Monday, 10th) and everything is perfect with her. As we expected, she is a perfect creation of God and his wonderful gift of love for us!! Praise you, Lord!! Everything is going well with me during this pregnancy and that's great.

Julia is 16 months old and she is simply a doll. She is a wonderful baby, so full of joy and excitement! It's wonderful to see her grow and develop, truly! I don't think she fully understands what is about to happen in July when her sister comes but she stares at my belly as it grows and especially when I pray for the baby and touch my tummy. We are simply praying for both of them and their adjustments to change. God will show us the best way to deal with each situation as they show up.

As far as our Ministry, The Pregnancy Center, it's going really well. We are in the end of our training with Asher and Suzanne (the previous Directors) and we are learning a lot from them. They did such and amazing job, especially Suzanne, who's been the Executive Director for over 8 years. They are leaving HUGE shoes to fill in... We are not planning to step in their shoes, we have to have our own shoes, but we will do what it takes to keep up the good work and, God willing and helping, we will allow the Ministry to grow even more, to the next level.

We do need your prayers, though, it's an enormous amount of work and it's a job of huge responsibility. We really need God's guidance and wisdom to know what to do and when to do it. And we also need His guidance to know how to balance ministry life with personal and family life.

Two Fridays ago we had the visit of a 15 year old girl at the Center. She called days before the visit saying that she needed information on abortion. I asked her what kind of information and she said - I want to know how much it cost do have an abortion. I explained her we did not do abortions but we had all other kinds of information on that subject and we could even do a free Ultra Sound for her so that she would know for sure how far long she was. She said she had come to us before and done a Pregnancy Test so I scheduled her for an Ultra Sound, hang up the phone and went to look for her file. As I could not find her file, I decided to call her back to see if she was confused as far as having been to the Center before. As I spoke to her she told me she thought she was calling Planned Parenthood instead of The Pregnancy Center. But she was still interested in coming for the Ultra Sound.

Any doubts that this was a divine appointment?

She did come and Suzanne had a great talk to her before I did the Ultra Sound. We were able to help her to start thinking about all the aspects of an abortion and also about other choices that she had, other than the abortion of her 6 weeks old baby. She will come back with her boyfriend for another Ultra Sound so keep her in your prayers, please. As our services are confidential, I can't say her name but let's just name her Sally to make things easier. God knows who she is.

We are in huge need of more volunteers for the Center. We need help in all areas, counseling Ultra Sound technicians, office work, maintenance, cleaning, fundraising, outreach to the community and teaching. Please, pray that God will send more labors to His harvest. With Suzanne and Asher stepping out, we will need more people if we want to keep our doors opened as they are, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. We don't want to reduce our hours, we were actually praying for an increase of volunteers and hours.

If you are interested in knowing more about how to support The Pregnancy Center and/or how to support our family, as missionaries, please, let me know and I'll be happy to explain it to you

Well, this is all for now but I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading and praying.

PS - Please, also read our website. Matthew does a great job on it. You will find more details about us and about the ministries we are working with.

www.globalwarrior.org

We are back in Hawaii

Dear friends and family, it's been a long time since I've last posted something in the blog but we've been traveling a lot these past months.

We headed to Brazil on November the 20th, stayed there until December the 20th and from there, straight to Indiana until January the 3rd.

We had a GREAT, ABSOLUTELY GREAT time among family and friends. It was hot, hot summer in Brazil and that was a big contrast with the freezing cold winter of Indiana, but we survived. Julia had such a wonderful time getting to know so many people and everybody absolutely loved her. She is an adorable baby and I mean it!

After 6 weeks away from home we were certainly ready to sleep in our own bed and it felt good to come back home. We were also excited about starting our new job. We were invited, last year, to be the new directors of The Pregnancy Center. Both of us, Matthew and I, have been volunteering there for quite a while and the Center is a ministry that we both learned to appreciate and love. We prayed for 2 months and felt peace to accept it. It could not be a better fit, God knows what He is doing and we are so thankful for the opportunity.

The previous directors are also a couple, the Motola's. Suzanne has been the Center director for 8 years and Asher, her husband, came to help her 2 years ago. They are great, great people and the ministry grew immensely under their administration. They are still here and will be training us for 3 months until we are able to do the work on our own. So we are experiencing an intense time of training and learning. It's been great!

The other great news is that we will have a baby in July. I'm 15 weeks pregnant and feeling good now. I'm finally over the morning sickness, praise God! We still don't know the sex but will know in a few weeks, hopefully. Whatever it is, it is a big blessing and another wonderful gift from our Father in Heaven! Thank you, Lord!!

Julia is doing great, she is walking and is cuter by the day. She is becoming more and more expressive as time goes by and her personality is showing up more and more. It's so amazing to watch and it's such a privilege to be able to guide her as she grows and develops.

Well, I won't make this very long but I'll try to be more faithful from now on...

Blessings on all of you

Ana