Exactly the thoughts we have been sure most of our prayer partners and supporters have been wondering!!!!!
Well, let us tell you.... we are still here!!!! :) And seeing God move in our lives, and in our ministry, Network 211!
There have been a lot of challenges the past 18 months that have taken our complete focus and left us with little to no margin in time, energy, or brain cells!
More about that later down in this post!
But first!!!!!! We must let you know that this is probably the most EXCITING time for us at Network 211 that we have had! Not only are we continuing to reach out to many language groups and countries daily through our websites... but we just launched our BRAND NEW sister site and full-on ministry to our military families called, "The Warrior's Journey". This project has been in the works for months now - and to see it coming to launch has been super exciting!
About 9 months ago we had a new guy join our team as our C.E.O. that is passionate about all things we are doing at N211. But in addition to that he brought a life of experience from being in the military, and a desire to reach out to our soldier's and their families.
Brad has had the opportunity to work with a pretty amazing guy, a Hollywood film director, on many of the video shoots and interviews they have done around the US in preparation for the launch. More details about "The Warrior's Journey" and all of the amazing things Brad has been doing will be in our next post!
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Now, as to where in the world have we disappeared to over the past 15+ months of little posting on the blog, Facebook, or emails....
There is a backstory that I feel ready to share....
Our oldest daughter, Macy, was having tremendous struggles in public school both socially and academically. We had noticed from a very early age that she seemed limited in her verbal skills, and then from Kindergarten on there was always a struggle. We kept thinking it must be all of the moves and upheavals with our missions journey and/or changing schools and therefore curriculums every year of her young life. This may have contributed some to her struggles - but we began to sense and see that it was more than that. Much more. And about 15-18 months ago, right after the Lord supernaturally healed me (Glenda) of my 2 1/2 year sickness with nervous system upheaval and PTSD - I jumped in and began to pour all of my energies towards finding help and healing for her.
We had her assessed and found that she has had a
Language Processing Deficit, both receptive (hearing what people/teachers/friends are saying and comprehending it) and expressive (being able to express with words what you are thinking). The gap in her assessment scores between non-verbal skills and verbal was significant. Severe enough that she was going to drown in a classroom, but not severe enough for the state to offer any type of therapy or support. One school speech pathologist I met encouraged me privately, "You need to get her out of the school. She is going to drown, and there is nothing we can do to help her b/c the state only allows us to help/give therapy to kids that are considered 'severe'. We want to help these kids b/c they are not going to make it without therapy - but we can't do anything! Our hands are tied!"
So there was my confirmation. I knew I had been feeling a call to home-school her. But I'm the girl who also said I would never home-school....because I didn't think I had the skills or patience to do it!
So....I (Glenda) have spent the past 17 months pouring my days and nights into seeing her make gains with this deficit (not really a disability) through different therapies AND embracing home schooling her with the community based co-op Classical Conversations.
The difference is night and day. Miraculous. The broken, insecure, shy, girl that was wilting away in 5th grade - just started her 7th grade year with our homeschool co-op as a blossoming extrovert with a smile on her face and a song in her mouth. We praise God for the work he is doing in her and continues to do!
But the shift for our family and my (Glenda's) time to be completing my part of our missions responsibilities has been severely limited by these changes! I have spent literally HOURS with her everyday for the past year and a half - and at the end of the day/week - had no brain margin or time left to engage in my missions updates, much less staying on top of our reporting, blog, social media, etc. Any time reports came due I would find myself staying up all hours of the night to file the documents and email them. What a drastic change from when I was able to work during the days doing ministry while the kids were in school - to never having a moment of margin for "ministry" because of the all consuming demands of time spent on this
new season of ministry; complete focus on the health and healing of our children and family.
We have made HUGE strides with our 3 kids in the past 2 months towards having them ALL home for homeschooling. FINALLY our oldest is finding herself in her studies and is able to complete most of them without mom's presence and hand-holding through every moment of the day. (Hallelujah!!!) It's been a long road but SO WORTH IT to see God's healing in her over every area of her life.
Brad & I have been discussing how it has been so hard for me to keep up with our ministry communication! And that we need to get back to consistency with updates. Too much is at stake. We greatly need the prayer covering, both as a family and as a ministry.
We also definitely want to continue to communicate that we are so blessed by the partnership of our family, friends, and supporting churches - for we could not do what we do without the care and support of our faithful church partners and individuals!
THANK YOU FOR STAYING WITH US!
MUCH LOVE!
BRAD, GLENDA, MACY, MIA, AND MICAH MCMATH
