The Golling Family

2012-01-05T12:12:00.001-08:00

Update from Dec. 26, 2011

Merry Christmas!

We are very excited to report that we have received 100% of the needed financial support for the mission trip to India! Not just the Golling family, but the entire India Mission Team. We want to thank all of you who have partnered with us in prayer and giving. THANK YOU so much! Please continue to pray for the trip: for spiritual preparation for the entire team, for the hearts of those who will hear the Gospel message, and for all the many details of the trip itself.

God has taught us so much already in this process. Trusting in him to bring in the financial support is just the tip of the iceberg. Through our training classes and reading assignments we are learning so much about Indian culture, sharing the Gospel, growing in our walk with Christ and in deepening our relationships with others on the team.

We have our final training meeting on January 8th, then we leave for India on February 15th.

India Mission Update: Nov. 22, 2011

2011-11-22T18:44:00.001-08:00

Wow, God continues to teach us and grow our faith through this process of raising prayer and financial support. We are now at 88% ($12,358 in with $1,642 still needed). God used a recent experience to teach us a valuable lesson about missions.

We have received three support gifts from people that we don’t actually know, but who were given our support letter from friends. These individuals chose to support this mission and our involvement in it without ever having met us. When we opened the envelopes we were humbled by their generosity and faith. God has obviously moved on the hearts of these brothers and sisters to give toward His work, in spite of the fact that we are strangers to them. What an act of faith and obedience on their part! What an example they are to the rest of us in terms of stepping out at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And on top of that, as I thought about their gifts, it was as if God was sending me a message: “John, I know you doubted that you would be able to raise enough financial support for this mission trip, but you need to remember, my mission does not depend on you. I have connections that you don’t. I have people and resources that you know nothing about. I have children who will give generously to the mission because they are led by me, not because they know you. I have the power to provide for my Kingdom to be built and it will be built. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So, John, don’t worry, I have everything under MY control. If I send you and your family to India, I will get you there. Just trust me and obey.”

India Mission Update: Nov. 17, 2011

2011-11-17T20:24:00.001-08:00

We are learning somuch in our preparation. As you may know, both Beckie and Megan madecommitments to Christ when they were small children, so they don't remember allthe details of when they first came to Christ. They both have a strongsense of faith today, but like a lot of others who accepted Christ as children,they just don't remember NOT having faith in Christ. This has madewriting out their testimony somewhat difficult for them, but it is all part oflearning to verbalize their faith and what it means to be a follower of Christ. It has spurred many good discussions. The articles our leader ishaving us read are written at a college level. After reading a couple ofthem, I contemplated asking if the girls could have a "replacement"assignment, but again, reading a difficult article will be much easier thanwhat they will experience when we get to India, so being stretched in this wayis just one aspect of the training process.

Our last trainingsession focused on culture, lifestyle, and learned a few greetings and words inthe Telugu language. We also continue to practice giving our testimoniesand our presentation of the Gospel at each training session. Although theessential elements are the same, each person is required to write out andpractice their own Gospel presentation, so it is more personal and not"canned". The training sessions are 3 hours long and we have 1per month.

We have not yet gottenour shots. I am still doing some research to find out exactly what shotsare recommended or required.

As for financialsupport, we are currently at 82% (we have $11,547 with $2,453 still needed). We are so thankful for all the generous support from so many brothers andsisters in Christ!! It has been so humbling for us to see the sacrificialand selfless gifts given for Kingdom work. We have raised enough supportto purchase plane tickets!!

Prayer requests:

1. That God would bepreparing the hearts of those who will hear the Gospel and they would respondin faith.

2. Pray that theywould understand that there is only ONE true God, the one who sent His SonJesus Christ into the world. We know the people will be "spirituallyopen", but we must pray that they will trust in Christ alone and not go back to the many other gods thatare worshiped in that culture.

3. Pray for thepastors and workers of Lone Star Church who will be following up with everyperson who prays to give their life to Christ. That communities ofbelievers would be formed in each of the villages and they would have supportand teaching that they will need.

4. Pray for all ourpreparations, that we would be as ready as we can be for the adventures andtrials ahead.

5. And ... adapted from Eph. 6:19-20 ... Pray for us, that whenwe speak, words may be given to us so that we will fearlessly make knownthe mystery of the gospel, for which we are ambassadors ... Pray that we maydeclare it fearlessly, as we should.

"Oh, ye of little faith!"

2011-10-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

God is truly challenging our faith in the process of preparing for India! Last week, I started to worry that we would not make our next benchmark for raising support. We are suppose to have $8,000 of the needed $14,000 by October 22nd. Within a couple days of me starting to fret, we reached the benchmark - two weeks early! Thanks, God, for being patient with me. So we are about $6,000 away from the final goal. We are so thankful for all of you who have prayed and given!

Other preparation for the trip has included: reading through the Gospel of Mark, reading an article about defending absolute truth, specifically the claims of Christ, in an increasingly pluralistic culture, writing our personal testimonies, and writing out how we plan on presenting the Gospel. All of these assignments and training have led to some great conversations as a family!

P.S. If you feel led by God to support us financially: please make the check out to "Jane's House" and do not put our names anywhere on the check (per IRS guidelines), that can be sent to our home address or church address (with my name on the outside of the envelope).

For more information about our trip, click here to read the previous post.

2011-09-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Why India?

Whynow?

Why theGollings?

Until recently I didn't realize that leper colonies stillexisted. But they do. I also did not realize that approximately 31,000,000 (yes,that’s 31 million) children live in orphanages in India. But they do.

Over the last several years, our church has sent 3 shortterm mission teams to India and our relationship with the local believers hasgrown, resulting in effective evangelism and discipleship. In the trip in 2010, over 4,860 people prayedto give their lives to Christ, and were introduced to local, national pastorsso they could learn more about what it means to follow Christ.

Something very unique is taking place in this part of Indiaright now and the openness to the Gospel is unprecedented. Jesus encouraged us to be looking for suchopportunities when he said, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They areripe for harvest. Even now the one whoreaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life” (John 4:35-36). God is working, and He seems to have opened awindow of opportunity at this time.

As a family, we have participated in praying and sendingthese teams. This time, we believe thatthe Lord is telling us to "Go!" Yes, it seems crazy to think that we can raise the needed $14,000 of supportfor all four of us to go. To be honest,I am not really sure how we are going to pull this off. When Beckie and Megan first came to us andasked if we could go, all I could think of was 14 thousand reasons why we couldn’t go. But as we prayed and sought God together as afamily, I was convicted of my lack of faith and sensed that God was calling usto trust in Him in a way we never have before.

Our trip will be in February of 2012 and will includevillage evangelism as well as ministry with a leper colony and Jane’s Houseorphanage. We know that the ministry ofthis team will have an eternal impact on those we are reaching. We are also looking forward to seeing how Godwill change our lives as we trust in Him and serve Him together as a family byreaching out to some of the least fortunate people in the world.

As I mentioned above, we are trusting God toprovide the needed $3,500 per person for each of the four of us to go. Our goal is to have this support in byNovember 30, 2011.

We would like to invite you to participate with us on thisadventure of faith and passion for reaching the lost with the love of Christ. If you would like to help, you can send atax-deductible gift to our home address, listed below. Please send the gift to our address, but make the check out to “Jane’s House” and do NOT put our namesanywhere on the check per IRS guidelines.

If you would like to pray for us, we would like to send youperiodic updates via email. Simply putyour email address on the slip below, and we will add you to our distributionlist. Or, you can just email me at jgolling @comcast .netand say, “I want prayer updates about your trip to India.”

“And pray for us, that God may open a door for our message,so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.” Colossians 4:3

Respectfully yours,

The Golling Family

Donations can be sent to: 9634 191st Street Court East, Puyallup, WA 98375

Thank you for your support!!

WHITEWATER!!!

2009-08-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

Riding the rapids of the Payette River!
What a day!

March 2009 Pictures

2009-04-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Tatianna

Tatianna

Eylahn

Tekoah

Beckie's Soccer Game

March 2009 Pictures

2009-04-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

Beckie's Soccer Game

Zack and Samantha

Anna and Selena

Samantha, Zack, and Anna

Tatianna

Angela

2009-01-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is not the greatest video of Angela, but I am just testing out our new camera and learning how to post from the camera to our blog.

Snow!

2008-12-18T11:55:00.001-08:00

Baby Angela

2008-12-18T11:53:00.001-08:00

The Christmas Program

2008-12-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

Zack's Adoption!

2008-12-18T11:32:00.003-08:00

Decorating the Christmas Tree!!

2008-12-18T11:16:00.000-08:00

Zack's Adoption is Finalized!

2008-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Zack's adoption is finally official! He has been with the PJ & Mandy for about 6 months now. We are so happy! We prayed so fervently for a good family for Zack (and one that was not too far away) ... we could not have imagined that God would answer in such a complete and awesome way. We are thankful that we got to be part of Zack's life and we are so thankful to continue to be "Aunt Sandra and Uncle John" to him. Thank you PJ and Mandy and Anna! We know that you are the family that God had planned from eternity past to be Zack's family!

Here is the whole family with the judge who finalized the adoption!

Angela

2008-11-02T21:18:00.001-08:00

Pumkin Carving!

2008-10-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Pumkin Carving!

2008-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Random Kid Pictures from August

2008-09-01T11:29:00.001-07:00

Zack, playing Settlers of Catan.

Kyra, Mike & Jenn's foster daughter stayed with us while they were on vacation.

Beckie, doing something strange to her hair.

Katelynn, a 4-year-old who stayed with us while her foster parents were on vacation.

Megan, looking cool.

Beckie's 6th Grade Graduation

2008-09-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Beckie won an AR (Accelerated Reader) award for reading lots of books!

Beckie and her teacher, Ms. Armstrong.

Beckie and Ashlynn.

Golling Family Adventure 2008

2008-07-26T12:25:00.001-07:00

Berkely, Sandra & Taryn

Monster Ice Cream Cones!!

Everyone got very wet on this ride!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but we are pretty much soaking wet from the rapid ride!

Uncle Robin, Megan, Uncle John and Jacob.

John is taking the picture.

Why is Jacob licking his shoulder ... I don't know.

Some cool chicks in the back of the van.

Lake Tapps

2008-07-12T16:13:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful time at Lake Tapps!

Kelsey, Megan, Beckie, Kate and Joy!

Disc Golf

2008-07-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

We played Disc Golf at Ft. Steilacoom, but the kids were much more interested in climbing a tree!

Megan, Beckie, Marcus and Kelsey

Vacation Pics

2008-06-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

This bird liked the video camera!!

Swimming with the Dolphins in Florida

2008-06-18T16:50:00.001-07:00

Last month we had a wonderful time on our vacation in Florida. One of the highlights was swimming with some dolphins!

Sandra's Foot!

2008-05-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, in all its glory!

Double Dutch Sandra

2008-04-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

(click on the picture to see what she did to her foot!)

It is Tuesday evening and it has been a very eventful couple of days. Sandra ruptured her Achilles tendon on Saturday when she accidentally kicked herself while jumping rope (Double Dutch style) with the kids. Yes, her right toe, smashing into her left foot, did this much damage!

She went to urgent care and they sent her to the ER. On Monday, our friend, Dr. Anthony VanBergyek checked her out and today (Tuesday), he put her back together again.

We are so thankful that we just happen to have the best foot-specialist-orthopedic-surgeon in the country here in our own church family! The experience at the Rainier Orthopedic Surgery Center was wonderful.

Sandra is resting now and recovering well.

Please pray that she can resist the temptation to put any weight on the foot in the next week.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed!

We love you all!

Some of the kids

2008-03-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day

2008-02-25T19:53:00.001-08:00

We took the girls on a Valentine's Date to Red Robin!

2008-01-06T11:16:00.001-08:00

2008-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Recent Photos

2007-12-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

Our Annual Christmas Letter

2007-12-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and warm wishes to all of you. This big news this year is … we changed our address again. Yes, it’s true, after just two years in our last home, we moved. Some of you may know our little foster boy, Zack. Well, the short version of the story is: to be in compliance with the “gender-age foster rules” he needed to have his own room. There were other reasons for the move also, but the bottom line is: God blessed and opened up the door for us to purchase a 4-bedroom house with a large dining room for hosting friends and groups from church. We promptly filled up all the rooms and at the time of writing this letter we have 4 foster kids: Dakota, 7 month old boy, Zack, 2 years old now, Najwa, 6 and Aubry, 8, who are sisters. With Megan, now 10 and Beckie who just turned 12, needless to say, we have a very full and busy house.

We are happy that Zack has been in our lives and part of our family for the last two years (we got him when he was only 5 weeks old). We thought he was going to be adopted by some of his family members, but the plans have now changed. He is awaiting the right home for him and we ask your prayers on his behalf in this matter.

Beckie is now in the 6^th grade and she is growing up to be a lovely young lady. She is taking Tae Kwon Do and choir and serves in the nursery at church. Her favorite hobby is reading and she has started doing some babysitting. She is doing excellent in school and aspires to be an actress some day. And no, that’s not a typo, she has changed the way she spells her name. Can you say, “I am almost a teenager”?

Megan is in the 4^th grade and is full of energy and life. She is also taking Tae Kwon Do and choir and loves to spend time with her good friend Katelyn. She saved up and purchased her very own pet snake, who she named Salizar. We brought him home from the pet store when he was a wee baby of about 8 inches long. On the ride home, he escaped out the seam of the little box they put him in for transport, and she had to grab him off her lap and hold him the rest of the ride home. She is fearless.

Sandra has definitely had her hands full with such a busy household of six kids and me to take care of. In addition to all the diapers, doctor’s appointments, discipline, and homework-helping-duty, she also serves as the nursery coordinator at church, developed an intensive parenting curriculum for use in our small group, she completed 36 hours of foster parent continuing education classes, prepared and took Beckie on a “preparation for adolescence” weekend away, and served as a chaperone at a recent Youth Conference. Whew. I am tired after just typing that sentence.

John’s role at church has changed a bit this year with a worship pastor being added to the staff. His responsibilities in the area of worship and music have been replaced with a focus on marriage mentoring and helping couples and families in the church. He continues to lead a small group, oversee the small group ministry and administration of the at church, volunteer at the kids’ school, help with the cooking, and every once in a while get in a quick game of Burnout on the PS2.

Salute to Veterans

2007-11-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

"Thank You" to all Veterans.
Your sacrifice is appreciated.

Special thanks to our Golling Veterans:

Halloween

2007-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Dakoda was a panda bear.

2007-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

We went to the Andersons for Halloween.

Zack was a clown. Dakoda was a panda bear.

Aubry was a princess.

The beach

2007-11-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

We flew kites at the beach in seaside Oregon.

September and October

2007-11-04T17:16:00.001-08:00

Dakota.

September and October

2007-11-04T17:08:00.000-08:00

Zack holding little Dakota.

Aubry and Megan having fun at the fair with goats.

Riding a roller coaster at the fair.

Dakota hanging out.

September and October

2007-11-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

Here is Megan and Najwa hangin' out at home! :)

Zack and Dakota wrapped in a blanket.

Zack at the Lake

2007-11-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Here is Zack playing at the lake!

2007-11-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe this is a bit sick ... but here is a video of Salizar the snake eating a meal.

New Additions

2007-09-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

We have several new additions to our home this month.

Dakota

Aubri & Najwa

This is Salazar.
Megan saved up for months to get him!

McCall, Idaho

2007-08-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Zack at American Lake

2007-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday (7/24) we went to our favorite summertime hang out, American Lake. Zack loved to play in the water!

Hello.

2007-07-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Beckie in her natural habitat.

Mom & Megan

Party with Friends and Family!

2007-07-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

Bruce & Tara

Tim ... having some chips.

Merlan ... having some ravioli!

Some kids ... having ... a variety of things.

Sandra, Xea, and Tim ... having some fun!

Our New Neighbors!

2007-07-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

We live in one of those communities where the houses are built very close to each other. So you can imagine our surprise and delight when we met these new neighbors just behind our back yard. These were taken from our back porch!

Easter 2007

2007-07-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

Frosty and the Girls

2007-07-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

We are finally in!

2007-07-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

After several setbacks in our closing date, we are finally in the house! Thank you to all you wonderful people who helped us move! We are more than blessed!

The Finished Product

2007-06-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

The House is finally done.
We signed on Friday the 22nd and hope to close on Monday.

Looking Good!

2007-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

The trim is painted and half the front yard is in!

Ordination Council

2007-05-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

On May 19th, John "walked the theological gauntlet" as he presented and defended his views to an ordination council of pastors and representatives from our sister churches in the area. The council approved his ordination and on June 10th, at 3:00 PM at Christ Community will be an ordination service. Woohoo!

House Update

2007-05-25T20:46:00.000-07:00

May 16th.
We have a driveway!

Inside we have cabinets, carpets & appliances! We are getting very close.

It looks like we are right on track for our June 22 close date.

The Paint is done ... interior and exterior.

2007-04-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

These were taken on April 24th.

Siding Complete! Time for some sheet rock.

2007-04-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

These were taken Monday, April 9th.

Siding

2007-04-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

These were taken March 30th.

Windows

2007-04-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

A bit more each day.

2007-03-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

On the West side of the house is some wetlands. Behind them is Mt. Rainier in the distance. We can see the mountain through the master bedroom window and one of the kid's widow's.

Some pics of the new house

2007-03-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Golling's 2006 Pictures

2006-12-21T02:29:00.000-08:00

Below you will find our Christmas pictures as well as a pictorial recap of some of what we did this year!

Christmas Pictures

2006-12-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

Zack

2006-12-21T02:19:00.000-08:00

In December of 2005, a little boy named Zack (5 weeks old at the time) came to live with us and stole our hearts! He has now been with us for over a year (the longest of any of our foster kids).

First crawling ... first tooth ... first steps ... first word ...

First ... symphony?

March

2006-12-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the kids that stayed with us this year.

April

2006-12-21T02:16:00.000-08:00

At Easter we made a trip to Portland.

Becky & Megan with their cousin Tekoa.

May

2006-12-21T02:14:00.000-08:00

During the 05-06 school year, Sandra watched a couple kids in our neighborhood everyday after school. Here they are with Megan, Katie & Becky enjoying the sunshine on the porch swing.

June

2006-12-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

Megan & Becky at their piano recital.

In June we traveled to Colorado for a church related conference.
On the way we stopped in Portland.
Sandra, David and Xea.

We stopped in Boise to visit the cousins on the way back from Colorado.

July

2006-12-21T02:07:00.000-08:00

Hanging out at American Lake is one of our favorite summertime activities.

In July, cousin Jacob came and stayed with us for a couple weeks.

August

2006-12-21T02:02:00.000-08:00

In August we had our annual family camping trip.

Also in August we spent a couple days camping at Deception Pass.

September

2006-12-21T02:01:00.000-08:00

Megan turned 9.

November

2006-12-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

Becky turned 11 ! ! !

In November we took a trip to Portland and spent some time with our good friends the Goforth’s.

December

2006-12-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

Zack turned ONE in December.

He really liked his birthday cake!

We got some snow and the kids enjoyed a day off of school!

Stockings for Soldiers

2006-11-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 19th
Stuffing Stockings for the 125 Soldiers of Rich's unit in Iraq.

Each soldier received candy, a CD or DVD, cookies, crackers, meat, trail mix, chap stick, microwave popcorn, hand lotion (the 25 ladies got "girly", nice smelling lotion), hand sanitizer, instant drink mix, breath mints, socks, mini-tissue, a puzzel book & pencil, and a copy of Max Lucado’s book, A Love Worth Giving To You at Christmas.

Stockings for Soldiers

2006-11-20T08:47:00.000-08:00

Zack!

2006-11-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, he really is this happy!

And CUTE!

Dress Up!

2006-11-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

2006-11-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Megan's 9th Birthday Party!

2006-10-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

2006-10-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

Move Vacation Pics!

Uncle D & Officer Friendly

2006-08-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Golling Family Adventure 2006

2006-08-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Zack Attack!

2006-08-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

Megan, Becky & cousin Tekoa

2006-08-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Golling's - Christmas 2005

2006-08-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

2006-08-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Lord, for my smokin' hot wife!