Mark W. Bolon We serve the living God who is all powerful, ever-present, and entirely good.  Yet still tragedies do occur. On April 9th, Kara's father, Mark, died in his home in Gahanna, Ohio.  His apparent suicide was a shock to his family, friends and church community.  He was loved by many and many are struggling with his absence.  He was a great family man.  His first priority was always his wife, Nora, and his daughters, Kara and Kendra.  He was a loving husband, wonderful father, committed church member at Stonybrook UMC, and friend to many.  He has left a void that cannot be filled and he will be greatly missed. We are grateful Mark was a believer, a child of God.  We are confident he was welcomed home, having received his eternal reward through Jesus Christ, and is right now at peace with his Heavenly Father.

We completed the PILAT language program.

We did complete our language training before returning home. The program was very insightful and worth while. It included practice at making and distinguishing sounds not in the English language. It also included working through the language process incuding specific drills and techniques. PILAT is comprehension focused and shares some techniques with the LAMP program. As part of learning the process, Kara learned some German and Chad learned some Russian. We were amazed at how quickly the mind can comprehend the new language (repetition is another story) and also reminded how much work will be involved in learning Turkana our first year in the field.

We are getting much closer to our financial goal.

We are making great progress toward our financial goal. For our sustaining monthly budget, we have now raised $5855 of the necessary $7201. That is 81% currently being donated. We also have many speaking engagements lined up with mission committees soon. We are hopeful that we may finally raise the remainder of our budget. We have always been confident in God's faithfulness in His promises and it is exciting to see Him fulfilling them. We all can rest confident in His provision. We have Elias' passport and all paperwork collected to complete our Kenyan visa applications.  We have rescheduled the SPLICE training in Colorado for the end of September through early October (the only possiblity that would work with Kara being due in mid-July).  We hope everything will come together to leave shortly after that training is complete.

Berwick Christian Church March 1st and 2nd we were back on the road again, this time to eastern Pennsylvania. Berwick Christian Church has supported CMF for many years and this year picked us up. They supported the Chapmans (CMF career missionaries in Turkana) and have a heart for the Turkana tribe. They are familiar with the medical side of our teams efforts and were interested in our vision for ministry with well-drilling and women's bible studies. We presented during the Sunday School hour and during the service. We also enjoyed a carry in lunch together. It was a great time of fellowship and worship. We are grateful they invited us out for the visit.

Crossroads Church in Eaton, OH

March 30th (the day before leaving for PILAT training in Colorado) we were invited to speak at Crossroads Church in Eaton, OH. We have known the pastor, Nancy Amos, for years from back at Stillwater UMC. Crossroads is a relatively new church having just moved to the Eaton YMCA four years ago. The are a passionate congregation that has stepped out in faith and made a big impact in the community. They were very welcoming of us and we had a great morning of worship together. We hope we will be able to partner together to bring glory to God among the Turkana.