Right now we're waiting for a delayed flight in San Francisco, en route to meetings in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. I'm writing because it's been so long since I sent an email update.
Since we said, "Hello, Houston," we've returned to Colorado, spent a spring break week with our kids, traveled to Maryland for a week of meetings, and finished our taxes and financial aid forms. We both slept little last night and feel like we have jet lag before we have jet lag! Maybe this will help us adjust--some people believe it does!
You may wonder why I include the mundane matter of taxes and financial aid forms in my list. We are well aware that this year Rice University is not only hosting our emerging adults' education one and all, but also funding those educations through scholarships that total about as much as the total funding for our ministry in a year! That makes them a pretty important financial partner, and we are grateful. It's important that our financial paperwork gives them a full picture of our family situation, so that they have freedom to provide as much aid as their parameters allow. We've been very thankful for this part of our college equation, which perhaps helps you to understand why all three of our kids are at the same school. Rice has been very generous and we pray they will continue to be so. We also pray that each of our kids will make a unique and valuable contribution to Rice in their time there and also represent the school well to others in their activities "beyond the hedges."
A couple summer activities we want to share with you: Joey has applied for and received a state department (government) scholarship to study Chinese in Suchow, China, this summer. He is excited and honored by this opportunity, and he has been studying Chinese hard this year, and will learn more in this intensive summer program. The State Department Critical Languages Program pays all expenses (and expects all their time!) in this intensive summmer immersion program.
Sarah would like to head to Asia with a different sponsor. Her student ministries group, where she is actively involved in leadership and influence, sends a small group to Asia where they will study language at a university, build friendships with local students using their status as internationals as an attraction, and share their hearts in a way they hope will be winsome and influential. Unlike Joey's program, she'll have a lot more freedom to share her heart and also the need to raise a significant amount of funds if she's going to do this. (If you would like to know more about this project or partner with Sarah in this, she would love to hear from you. Her email is sarspin@gmail.com. Enough said!) The rest of the summer, for the second year, Sarah will be working at my former ministry, MTI.org, coaching and mentoring children whose families are heading into international ministries around the world.
Robby, so far, is planning to spend the summer with us in Colorado Springs. We're excited about that. Since Joey and Sarah will each be gone for significant parts of the summer, it will be great to have Robby around without his gregarious sibs.
Now about this trip to Asia. I don't want to go into too great detail about the meetings, but obviously we believe they will be important or we would not be making this effort in the middle of a busy "home assignment." The meetings in Hong Kong and Thailand will not be ones where we're leading, but ones where we are listening and participating while others lead. Pray with us that these meetings will be profitable, enjoyable, and lead to future benefits that have lasting impact.
Laura and I are also looking forward to biking in Taiwan and snorkeling in Thailand in between meetings :-) You're all invited for that part ;-) It will be a very busy month, but we want you to know we do not have ministry travel planned after our return from this trip May 4 until we move back to Taiwan again Sept first. (No promises, but certainly for us this has been an especially busy year for travel.
With love from the far side (of jet lag?), Steve and Laura
PS You may be wondering about our ministry finances, both with the global economic situation and our increased travel this year. We need your partnership, so thank you! But we are doing okay. While some partners have lowered or stopped their contributions, we continue to have healthy reserves to cover our current ministry expenses. We've been absorbing some ministry expenses ourselves, we have lowered living expenses because we are sharing a home with Laura's parents when we're not traveling, and as we mentioned, Rice has been a generous partner in funding the cost of education for Sarah, Joey, and Robby. If you want more information, their is a detailed budget on the google group "TEAMspinella" website, and of course, we're always happy to answer any questions you have. We thank you for your partnership with us, and we invite your partnership in the months ahead.
Dr. Steve and Laura Spinella, Sarah, Joey, Robby
Da Yi Street, Lane 29, #18, 2F-1, Taichung 40454, TAIWAN
011.886.4.2236.6145, of 4.2236.1901, fx 4.2236.2109, cell 9.2894.0514
USA: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, 719.528.1702, cell 713.408.7208 (new cell #, note Houston area code)
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187, 800.343.3144 <www.team.org.tw/ccg>, <http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella/>,
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu>, <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>
