She's 5!

Thanks to everyone for giving Olivia the birthday every 5 year old girl wants. We had 11 five year old girls over that day to celebate - and we survived!
In other news we are doing really well. We have made some adjustments to our routine and things seem to be move smoothly now.
Jae has been Christmas craft crazy lately - this was all kicked off by a great party that she had at our house with a whole bunch of women. It, I was told, was a great night of ministry and craft-making. Anyway, we are in full Christmas swing here.
I, Mike, have been fishing acouple of times, most recently for pike on the fly. The only thing that I caught my limit of was humility! Someone tell me how to catch fish!!!!
Noah and Stella are both doing great. We dropped Stella last feeding so now she sleeps from like 8 to 7! Noah is talking a lot lately - I love this time of life.
Well till next month or sooner!

Girls just want to have fun

I don't know what to say....
We are doing well, we have had some nice weather lately.
Re:Hope church is gearing up for the huge wave of new college students who will flood our west end location. We have feasts and other great welcoming events planned for these students and our regulars.
Please continue to pray for us as we seek hard after God and the course He has set for us.
Thanks

First days

Well Olivia has begun the schooling chapter of her life. How long this chapter goes is up to her. Not even falling down the stairs to meet her parents today and locking herself into the bathroom stall on her second day could take away from her love for school. Less then a week into it and she is already more level-headed and generally happy. She is like a sponge right now, just taking in everything - she loves homework!
Now I know that this will never last, but it is a good start.

Well Noah was a bit unsure about little Stella at first, but now he gets excited when he sees her, and keeps kissing the top of her head!

Sisters....

It was love at first sight for Olivia.....she is quite taken with her little sister.

Here's us right after the birth! Two relieved and happy parents, and one calm little baby!

Introducing.....Stella Mae Libolt

6lbs 8oz
21" long
born 2:31am July 18th
perfect little peanut

Road Trip!

One of my key responsabilities at work is to lead our 9-14 day short term missional experiences. So in the middle of May I hosted 6 Azusa Pacific students and 2 others from other parts of the States. They were a great group of young people, we were really blessed to have them journey with us for a week or so. While they are with us here they receive some of our core teaching in the areas of communion, community, and mission. They also get a crash course in Glasgow culture and are exposed to the needs and bonuses of living here. No minute goes waisted on a road trip, we pack in a little bit of everything. It has been a couple weeks now since the road trippers have gone, and almost all of them are still in touch with some of the locals from here, who have definately left a big mark on the lives of 8 American college students.
Apart from the Road Trip we are still working with our 42 week apprentices, who are looking at what the future may hold for them when they leave our community in July. Please join us in prayer for them as they have many hard choices to make in the near future.

Thanks Steve!

If you were to login to the Multnomah Alumni 10 year reunion internet page and look up the profile of one Mike Libolt, this is what you would find.
This may alert some of you as to my health, both mental and physical. I am here just to tell you that I am feeling fine.
Hope you are well!

You got a little something on your face.

What is that look in his eye?

Well we had had a crazy two weeks or so. I will spare you the details only to say I have learned so much from it all. Over the past 4 years I have felt like I have platued spiritually at a level of maturity that I was not comfortable with. Recently, this "next step of spiritual maturity" has found me. God is shaping me and using me, but this molding comes with great pain to, I only write this blog entry from a place of "good perspective". If you could remember us in your prayers over these next 30 days or so we would love it.

P.S. the kids and Jae are in great health, and the weather here has been great! Plus we got a new area rug in the living room and it looks awesome!

Thanks again,
Mike

Life in community

A sleepy day on the West End of Glasgow.

This past week we were paid a visit by CRM's Staff Develpment and Care Team. This gave us (NieuCommunities) a well needed break from the normal pace, and time to unload as a team.
You might think that living in "community" sounds easy - but for many reasons it seems to have gotten complicated.
This is free: An important thing to keep in mind when living in community is "feedback". Let others on your team know what you think about team things. Not in some verbal explotion but instead with consistancy and constructiveness. This gift of feedback greatly benifts your team, your feedback my not always be right (unless you are Brian I.) but it is what you see as the best course of action and you need to share that.
What might be the side effects of not sharing ones feedback? Maybe growing frustration with your lack of influence/direction, gossip, team might get stuck, communication happens only between a few so the team fractures, etc.
I am learning a lot about leadership. The SDaCTeam has really shown me how I am not contributing to the feedback and movement of our team. I have not been good at communication, which is not good for someone in the leadership development business.
Anyway, just some thoughts
Mike

The scan

This is the little one who is nameless. Why is it that boy names are so hard to come up with, I guess we should hope for a girl then.

Nothing special

First, a quick reminder to check out our flickr link to view more photos. Go ahead, check it out now.

Well lately Jae and I have been reminded of the burdens of pregnancy. You may ask "Mike you are not the one with a being growing in side you, what possible burden could you have?" Mmm. At this point I should say, "good point, my bad!" but its not a good point, not at all.
Listen to this, and you tell me who suffered. Jae no longer likes to sleep on her right side, no, now it has to be the left side, which would not be a problem if I was not sleeping to that side of her. See, I have a tendancy to breath when I sleep, which "blows all over" Jaelyn and disturbs her greatly.
So we switch sides of the bed - I love my right side of the bed, I have a special connection to it. I love not being near the door and close to the coolness of the window. But I, out of love for my wife, switch over to the left side of the bed so that now when she lays on her now prefered left side on the right side of the bed she breathes fresh cool air, and not my disruptive, hot fumes. Not a problem, right? WRONG!
The second night sleeping in this new formation I do nothing more then a textbook "right spin and advancement to the center of the bed manuver". Except, now the usual center of the bed is replaced by nothingness, just hardwood floor and a nightstand that is located at about face level. Landing on the floor would have been nice, instead I smash my face on a dresser at about 4 in the morning. Anyone who knows me, knows that I like my sleep.
So you tell me who is suffering here?
Later,
Mike

I would expect a reply from Jaelyn soon.

Our whirlwind tour

As many of you know, Jae and I packed up the kids and made our way to North America for the holidays. A well needed break was in order, and I needed to attend a "new staff" oreintation toward the end of January. The whole trip was a great blessing to us, we didn't get to see all of you, but felt very supported nonetheless.
I came with the plan of broadening and deepinging our financial support base, but instead, I found myself more in meetings and talks with people who have been or would be our strongest prayer supporters - I guess God knew what we needed more.
Many of you approached Jae and I with a common question surrounding the purchasing of a church facility here. Here is the news. We are still waiting, property here is at a premium and the market moves very fast at times. Re:Hope has a team in place seaching the West End for potential places to plant themselves. Right now we are renting a nice little room in a local church, it has been a blessing but we outgrew it the first afternoon service we had. Many of you have pitched in money and resourses to make this happen, thanks to your vision and kindness we actually have a down payment in place. So pray for a place to use it. The original building is still a small possiblity, but we are having to broaden our search.
Pray for the Re:Hope church staff, and check them out at www.rehope.co.uk