...The Dawn Is Coming.

In preparing for this post (obviously my first in far too long), this quote from Harvey Dent from the movie The Dark Knight came to mind. It has been a tough couple of months for the Eidsmoe family and we are now just starting to see the dawn.

Job:
STEM as you know it, is STEM no more. Yes there still is a STEM Int'l, and there will be for at least four more years, but the short-term missions aspect is now under Bethany College of Missions (BCOM). Our main office here is located on the campus of BCOM and have had a loose partnership with them for several years. Recently Roger (STEM's CEO) saw it in STEM's best interest to have the missions side be aquired with BCOM. The current agreement is BCOM would continue STEM's short-term missions through 2012 at which point the division would be evaluated.

This is a great change for STEM Int'l and ultimately for God's glory. By having Bethany aquire the missions side of things, we can reach more people and more places. The STEM staff who worked in Team Operations are still there as well. It's an exciting time to see what God does with the division.

As for the rest of us?

Well, normally this blog suffers anyway this time of year due to Mission Maker Magazine. That was a big part of my absence as it was a tough issue to get out. With Dana (our Editor) now in Tulsa and Arika (our Saleswoman) also not here anymore, several others had to really step up and fill their roles. One of the people who really shined was the other designer, Dena (bigD). This magazine is about 90% her design. And no, I'm not trying to exagerate or be humble, she really did an excellent job.

In the past it had been me who took the lead in flowing articles and getting the layout completed but each year since she's been here (2005) her role has increased. This year I did what she had set up in the past, the GodSpace article. And even then, she gave me a great head start and help finish it. So a BIG thank you goes out to bigD.

Now, back to my original question, what does STEM's transistion mean for the rest us?

All I can answer is, "good question". Without the missions side of things here, we don't have volume of work we once did. We have a book layout in the works but other than that...who knows. As of November 1st, I'll be down to 3 days a week. I'm hoping to fill the time with freelance working with City Vision. There had been some talk of moving the office closer to downtown Minneapolis as well as talk of even staying on campus. Again...who knows.

I'd love to stay with STEM but it doesn't look like a valid option in order to keep food on the table. God has something in mind for me but I'm still waiting for his email. :)

Family:
Since my last post Brevin has:

• –Had his first birthday (July 2oth)
• –Attempted to say his first words - "Uh-oh" and "Cookie". Although when he says cookie it comes out as "Coo-Caa". We've also sworn he's said Bella only it comes out as "Ba-ba".
  
• –Discovered a heroin-like craving for anything Sesame Street
• –Found a love for the Vikings over the Packers despite their horrible season start. (Just checking to see if you are still paying attention.)
  
• –Discovered high-fives and raises his arms when you say "Steve Holt!" (Fans of Arrested Development will get that one.)
• –Cut his top two teeth
• –Started walking

Updates on Erin:

• –She has also started walking. ;)
• –Is pregnant with a girl. We have decided to name her Elodia Grace and will call her Ellie. Ellie is due January 8th, which is the same day her namesake, Great grandma Johnson. For those of you curious about the connection, grandma Joyce Elodia Johnson was the same grandma which recently past away.
• –Erin has started babysitting two little girls (2 year old Hannah and 9 month old Emma) to help make ends meet.
• –Her opinion of Brett Favre has severely been depleted after becoming "Brett the Jet". (For those of you who know her, that's huge!)
• –Because of Brevin's heart condition, Erin had a level two ultra sound to check out Ellie from head to toe. Thankfully everything looks normal and we are continuing to pray it stays that way.
  
• –Currently Erin is struggling with an inflamation of the eye called "Eyeritis". Basically it has made her right eye unusable. At it's worst, the white of her eye was almost completely red, it was constantly watering, any light was painful, it caused the area around her eye to swell, she could not keep it open to see, it caused her to have a constant headache, and well...it just plain hurt. After doing everything we could to avoid her taking any type of steriods which we were concerned might hurt Ellie (including Erin getting an injection into her eye), we had to resort to the 'roids. Thankfully we got a few confirmations from a couple doctors saying there won't be any side effects concerning Ellie, but we'd still like Erin to be off the meds. She has since gotten a lot better and has a follow up appointment on Tuesday.
• –Next up, jury duty. Hopefully she can get out of it but who knows. I'm trying to convice her to dress up like Chewbacca and maybe that'll scare them away. :)
  

Life:

• –We continue to be involved with church almost to a point of being too involved with church. ;) Hiawatha Church will be our home for a long time and despite gas prices, is worth the 35 minute commute a couple times a week. We recently had our second annual retreat at Camp Shaminau where I was honored to head up the small groups. It was fun diving into what it meant to be "Living Stones".
• –Betty the Jeep has since died (although I don't think it will take much to get her running again) and has been sitting in our garage for a while now. While it is a pain to only have one working vehicle, taking off the insurance has been a (in a small way) financial blessing.
• –We've taken a vacation with Erin's folks in driving down to Milwaukee and back through the Mackinaw Bridge.
  
• –Grandma and Grandpa Eidsmoe took us to a preseason Vikings game with great seats!
  
• –Two weeks ago, both Erin and I got the flu and it was the worst I'd had it in a long time. It was one of those where you could literally time when you were going to "get sick". It sarted every fifteen minutes of bowing to the porcelin thrown and eventually made it to every hour before it stopped. What made it worse was the next day having to wait in an eye doctors office for four hours before being helped. (See Erin's Eyeritis for that one.)

Is that everything?

Bottom line, like everyone reading this, we've been busy. There were times (especially at the end of September when we wondered when it would all end. But we trusted in God to get us through. I'm not trying to be self righteous either so please hear my heart. Going through the sickness and the ongoing financial questions has proven to me (and hopefully Erin) how much we've grown in our relationship with God since we were first married five years ago.

We are still in the midst of some hardships but only because of God, can we see the dawn.

—b

P.S.

If you'd like to see some pictures of Brevin's birthday party, the Brewer game, Michigan pictures, and other random goodness, click here.

Thanks again for reading!