We’re starting a church.

When Becca and I were moving back from Korea, five years ago, God told me that we would be missionaries to the United States.  That we would live like missionaries, like an Abraham on the earth.  If that seems vague and difficult to understand, you know how we felt, but we had some idea that one day that would translate into starting/planting churches.

There’s a lot that goes along with this, but this is a very important next step for Becca and I in God growing us into the people He wants us to be.  We have a heart to go out and make new disciples, gather them into being the family of God, and train them to be disciple makers themselves.  We’ve never had to be more dependent upon God than we are right now, which is a good thing.

This church will be in the Duluth area, so not far from where we are now, and we are still in the stage of laying a foundation of prayer to spread the good news of the kingdom of God.  And it is good news.  God ruling and reigning in the hearts of men is the best news around.  We know from experience, especially with the group of people we’ve called a spiritual family for the last ten to fifteen years, both here and in Korea, helping to mold and teach us and love us to this point.

If this excites you and you’d like to know more, message me or email me.  If you’d like to commit to pray for us, let me know, get me a good email address and you’ll get the updates so you can stand and go to war with us in prayer.  And believe me, starting a church is picking a fight with the spiritual enemy.  And he’s a pretty serious dude.  Good thing I already know the winner.

Otherwise, just know that to all our friends, we love you and I continue to count myself the richest man I know to have the church and friends and family that I do.  Beyond what I could possibly deserve or imagine.

As a last note, Becca has been, and continues to be, the best partner in life and ministry a man could ever ask or hope for.  Thank you, my love, for going to war with me.

Peace.

The problem becomes the modern connotations with the term “evangelism,” some of which are valid and others that are so disconnected from the biblical reality and confused with man-made traditions that it doesn’t properly express what it means to be like Christ.  To use the term, evangelism, as biblical as the word is, brings to mind a one-way communication of the gospel designed to bring another person to conversion.  Now, at some point, evangelism, even with this definition, should happen.  The gospel must be communicated.  Some point of commitment, repentance, is made.  This is good, but only one piece of the picture if that’s all we understand.

A missionary is a more complete picture of what I’m talking about and is what is needed to bring believers to understand what it means to be like Christ and what we are all called to.  A missionary is sent from one land and one people to another land and another people to spread the good news of the kingdom of God.  Doesn’t sound like a big difference, but if you look at it, it is.  We have been sent by God from His kingdom and His Church to the world and to its people to call them back to His Kingdom and His Church with us.

A missionary takes time to listen and learn, to discern the culture around him and his situation and context.  A missionary feels called to people, not just to a message or just to preach.  A missionary falls in love with these people and challenges them to leave their land and people for the kingdom and the church.  A missionary seeks to remove cultural barriers, not create them.  A missionary is willing to change his own stripes, as much as he can, to become all things to all men, to win them to Christ.  A missionary seeks to learn, humbly, about a people before he tries to teach them.

A true missionary will evangelize by nature, but his identity is more like Christ, an alien in the land, and therefore a better representation of Him.  The missionary will make disciples, not just converts, seek an indigenous expression of the church in a culture and place and time.

I’ve lived in another country, another culture; I know what it means to look and feel stupid, to be humbled, to not be able to communicate, to only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because those were the only ingredients we could recognize at the store, to learn to love without feeling superior and appreciate other peoples not like me.  It is powerful.

The truth, however, is I am just as much a stranger in a strange land here in the US as I was in Korea.  And so are you.  Start thinking like a missionary.

I know I promised some thoughts on the gospel … those are coming up … one more on being a missionary and then we’ll get there .

Peace.

Some of the responses I would get would be how great it was that we were missionaries and what a great experience that must be and so on and so forth.  So when we had the little get together at Faith Community, what God put on my heart to encourage people with was this: you are a missionary.  Everyone who is a true disciple of Christ is a missionary.  I just happen to do it in a different country.  You’re called to be a missionary here.

Yeah, people didn’t really get it.  They still don’t.  At the end of our four years in Korea, God told me, “I’m sending you back to the US to be a missionary there.”  As usual, God has me put up or shut up.  I knew what He meant, and much of what that entailed.  People didn’t have a problem with us living like missionaries in a different country (living simply or in community, focused on the kingdom, etc).  They loved it … overseas.  But it challenges people when you live like that next door to them.  It challenges their idea of what it means to be Christian since so much of it has been tied up into being American.

If you are to be a “Christian,” or “like Christ,” then you have been sent AS HE WAS SENT.  That scripture is as clear as the nose on your face and takes some serious self reflection to truly understand.  Here is the scripture if you don’t believe me, from John 20:21: “Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you!  As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’”

Jesus was sent from the Father to heal a broken world, to give hope to the poor, to call people to righteousness, to preach about the judgment, to heal the sick, raise the dead, and deliver from demons.

So were you.

You have been sent to preach good news.  You are a missionary.  You are called to look at the world around you as an alien and a stranger, as someone from another world and another kingdom, and to call people to that world and kingdom … because it is good news.  It is the best news EVER.  And you don’t hide a light under a basket, you set it on a hill and declare it.  That is not for a few Jim Elliots or, to a much lesser degree, Britt Mooneys or others.  It is for everyone born of God to be sent to a hurt and dying world.

Forget evangelism.  You are a missionary.  Start thinking like one.

This naturally leads to a discussion on the gospel … which comes next.

Peace.

Per my personality, I immediately argued with God.  My excuses were many: there are too many books already on the Christian market, I’m too young, I’m too old, nobody will listen to me, I’ve never written a book like this before, etc.  The most realistic reason I espoused to my Creator was my extreme feelings of inadequacy.  This is too big, I told Him.

If you haven’t figured this out, yet, arguing with God is fairly fruitless, possibly dangerous, and God kept bugging me.

Before we left for our stint in Korea, God told me I wouldn’t leave Korea until I had written this book.  I began at some point, maybe sometime in 2002, making notes, putting together scriptures, but stalled at the end of the first section on Faith.

My inadequacy was even more pronounced when it came to the section on Hope.  Not that I didn’t have hope in me, necessarily, but I didn’t feel as if I understood it well enough to explain it.

So I spent the next couple years asking God to teach me about hope.  I read related scriptures, but most of the section on hope came from personal meditation and subsequent revelation.

But I didn’t finish the book by the time Becca and I were called back to be missionaries in our home country.  I felt a little guilty about this, almost like a failure, but God quickly showed me a couple of things.

First, crying and whining about it now won’t help.  Finish the book.

Second, I did finish writing the book in Korea.  It just wasn’t down on paper yet.

While I’ve been a member of close communities here in the States, and those experiences birthed the theme of the book, our time in Korea and the ministry there among such a close knit community matured some things that were only concepts before into actualized truth.

So the last two years have been spent finishing the book, revising, rewriting, and editing the material.  Then came the daunting task of self-publishing — type setting, creating a cover, etc.

And here it all is.

Some thoughts on the book: It is a little long.  But there was just too much I had to say.  So I did.  My revisions either extended it or just equalized it all out, so I focused more on editing and rewriting.  That kept it a little more concise, but without a more professional editor, which I am not, I did my best to say what was on my heart to say.

The sections on love are really powerful, but the treasure of the book might be the section on hope.  I considered separating the sections into more than one book.  The hope section really could be its own book.  Ultimately, I wanted to stay true to the theme and original vision and accepted one book of bigger scope.  Hope needed to be in the context of the other two, faith and love.

I won’t be making any money off of this book.  All proceeds will go to the Mercy Home ministry in India.  If I sell 100 copies and there’s a decent demand for more, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it with God’s leading.  My heart is not to be a “peddler of the gospel,” so to speak, but it is up to God where all this leads from here.

Any feedback is appreciated.  Leave a comment on the blog or email me.

If the book blesses you, share it.  If you don’t like something I’ve said, contact me about it to explain further or just pray for me.  I need it anyway.

For all those who have encouraged me along the way, thank you.  To Becca especially, I’ll be serving you in heaven, so thanks for your service to me here.

Peace.

I realized the other day that it had been a while since a Mooney Report!  I know that many of you have just been lost without a random update from us, so please forgive me.  Hopefully this will be enough for you.

I’ll start with personal stuff.  Becca and I are doing well.  We’re still living in the suburb of Lawrenceville in a house we share with another couple and a young man, Jason, who moved in this last spring.  He is 19 and a missionary kid, musician, and his parents have a house church in Paris.  It has been great having him around and he’s fitting right into the community.

Since we’re trying to cut back financially, Becca and I have gone out to eat less and sat on the porch having coffee together and just talking instead.  While we still go out every now and then, this has been awesome.  We put the kids down and then just sit outside in the night air, have coffee, and talk about things, really connect. 

Becca is teaching at Siemens.  She taught two classes in the spring, but they cut back to just one on Thursday nights.  This has given us some extra cash and allowed Becca to do something professionally with a skill she didn’t use much in Korea … her German proficiency.  Pray she’ll be able to continue doing those types of things.

I’m still at Faith Academy.  I still enjoy it, although enrollment is down.  Some of you ICS peeps know what I’m talking about.  For private schools, enrollment can be an issue.  In the spring I was asked to give a short gospel message after an extra credit event at our school, captive audience type of thing.  We had 20 professions of faith, although I always question those types of numbers since I don’t know most of the kids that just checked a box.  But it did give me some more relationship opportunities with some of the students, which I appreciated.

Becca is trying to juggle two kids and house church stuff and everything else in the world and find time for herself.  The teaching at Siemens helps, but she also struggles to find time to be creative with stamping and cards and scrapbooking type stuff.  Some of the Mooney family ladies have gotten together to scrapbook every now and then, and that has been good for Becca.  Good friend Laura Beth came into town, as well, and they scrapbooked (is that a word?) themselves into exhaustion … literally.  They both were dead the next day.

Micah is growing like a weed … he’s getting so tall … where did he get that from?  We are finalizing the potty training.  He’s doing well, but still lacks the motivation to initiate times on his own.  We still have to encourage him often and just take him to the potty with us. 

Micah is also becoming more and more verbal and more and more like a little boy.  For recent pics, go to his blog and look.  He is awesome.

Since we’ve decided not to have cable in our home (great decision), we rent/borrow seasons of TV we want to watch.  I have introduced Micah to such classics as Flash Gordon, the Superfriends, and Buck Rogers.  Our housemate Jason has all the seasons of Scrubs on DVD, and after a couple days of getting hooked on that show again, Micah said the other morning, “Daddy, I want to watch more Scrubs.”  The education has begun.

He also knows his letters and can write a M and a C fairly well.  He loves to have table time with Mommy and do just about everything and anything I do.  That is a powerful responsibility.

Elisha is also growing leaps and bounds.  She’s thinner than Micah was, but they look very similar.  She started crawling about 6 months and then went straight to standing and cruising around furniture and stuff.  She wants to be big and independent.  I didn’t think it was possible, but she might be more verbal than Micah.  She already says several words and uses signs every now and then.

Elisha doesn’t laugh as much as Micah did at that age.  She definitely has her own personality.  She’s a thinker and always looks like she’s figuring everything out.  Micah used to figure stuff out pretty quick, he’d just be way more lighthearted about it.  Elisha can be very serious.  Micah is the only one that can REALLY make her belly laugh.  It is awesome.

They are in love, too.  Elisha loves to be with her big brother and Micah LOVES his little sister.  They like to be together and do awesome sleeping in the same room.  Check out Elisha’s blog, as well.

Micah’s main adjustment has been time with Mommy, but table time with her has helped him in that area.  He will also be going back to pre-school soon, so that will get him some different and healthy attention.

We’ve had some cool visits from Korea folk … the Flemings and their little one, Faith, were here twice (we’re an awesome halfway spot between DC and Dallas, TX).  As I mentioned earlier, a pregnant Laura Beth flew down to hang with Becca for a few days, and Rob and Amy Ellis made their way through town as they finish training to go overseas.

I’m still looking to self-publish my book soon, but I got sidetracked with songwriting.  Beginning in January, I really focused on getting demos of most of the songs I’ve written.  This led to more songwriting.  I’m currently trying to send off some of those songs to sell them.  This is a long, slow process, and rejection isn’t fun for anyone, especially when it’s something you’ve created, but I really feel like I need to be dedicated to this.

We bought a new computer in the spring, as well, and the hard drive crashed in May.  I just got it back last week.  That has been a major factor for finishing the book to get it self-published.  I need to finalize the cover artwork and do one final edit on the text.  Christmas?

Community living has been going really well.  It helps that we all have similar schedules, so we get to eat a couple meals a week together and hang in the evenings or on the weekend, watching movies or reading or whatever.  We’re about to sign a lease for another year at our current location.  Still praying about it, but I think we will.

House Church stuff has been going well.  The Friday night meeting that used to be at Alice Trammell’s house moved to our home on Friday nights.  We’re still praying and fasting for more community with that group, but it has come a long way over the last couple years.

We’ve established a monthly corporate meeting among three house churches, with a couple peripherals showing up every now and then.  That has been a big vision for me, and it has really come to fruition.  One of the negatives about house churches is how cliquish and self-absorbed they can be.  We are really challenging people to have a more community mindset than a meeting mindset.  It is still a work in progress, but it has come far.

There are some adjustments and changes coming for our community soon, all for the better, I feel, but it will be a challenge. 

So pray as your led for the following: the challenge of building true relationship and community (BEing the Church) and songwriting and book stuff.

Also pray for Becca and I as we are continually challenged with being missionaries in our HOME country.  God told me before we left Korea that we would need to live a simpler, missionary life in our home country.  This is very difficult.  We are under constant emotional, spiritual, and financial stress for one reason or another.  God loves to use fire to bring out the tested.  Pray that we will stay strong in our calling and not get discouraged. 

Check out the new blog while you’re here.  Not a big change, but an important foundational step for things to come.

We love you all and would love to hear from each of you!

Britt, Becca, Micah, and Elisha, Missionaries to America and the World

Later that night, as Becca and I was waiting on Becca to get back, I was hanging out on the porch with Lisa (her daughter Beth was going to help with some babysitting). Our neighbor across the street, Icela, was cutting his grass with his big riding lawnmower. He waved me over as Lisa left, and I went to talk to him.

“Hey,” he said. “Why don’t you take my riding lawn mower and cut your grass?”

While this was majorly sweet, I let him know I’d never driven one before (I know … I’m a wuss). He explained that it was easy and I followed him over to his yard. He quickly showed me how to work it, I drove it across the street, and began to cut the front yard. He helped me get it in the back yard, through the gate, and told me, “Just drive it back over when you’re done. You can use it any time you want. Just come on in the back yard and get it.” What a blessing! He began to walk away and came back. “Actually, Ann [his wife] wanted me to ask you if you would like some bean bag chairs we had for the grandkids but they’re too old for them … they’re like brand new and we were just gonna throw them out.” You’re kidding! I had just been in Wal-mart the other day (or maybe Target) and saw a cheap floor chair like that and wanted it to play ps2 games with … didn’t think it was anywhere close to a “need”, so I forgot about it.

Micah got home and Daddy was cutting the grass on this big tractor. He was in total shock. Micah loves Bob the Builder, Thomas and Friends, and construction equipment in general. Just to let you know, he probably knows more names of construction vehicles than I do … I set him in my lap as we cut the back yard and he rode with me over to the neighbor’s when we were done.

That Friday, we went over to sing some songs to Ann, Icela’s wife. She feels very homebound because she is missing a lung and is on constant oxygen. From meeting her before, I knew she liked old hymns and country gospel stuff, so towards the end of house church on Friday night, we went across the street, in the drizzle (fo shizzle) and visited with Ann and Icela. We sang songs and prayed over both of them. They were both very touched.

Okay, so one last thing. As I said before, I finally bought a new computer, a maxed out Mac Mini. Two things along with that:

First, our old printer didn’t work. We just kinda got over it and talked with Eric about getting on the network and printing from his printer, which he said was fine with him. On Wednesday, some corporate guy came to our school and replaced one of the main printers with a big dog one. I was oblivious to this being in my own little corner. At lunch, one of my coworkers pointed to a like-new laser printer and said, “You want a printer?” Um … yeah. “We were just going to either trash it or give it away.” I told them I would take it if no one else wanted it. No one did.

I have Logic Pro on my new computer, and some other programs that I want to start working on but don’t know a whole lot about. I can learn fairly quickly and can figure some stuff out on my own, but at our local Apple Store at the MoG, you can pay this $99 thing for like a class a week for a year, which is a pretty good deal, I think. Anyway, I was just gonna wait on it until either I could afford it or find the time to do it. Someone in our fellowship got me $99 gift card so that I could get it whenever I was ready. What a blessing.

Now, I want you to understand how spiritual and non-spiritual this all is. These were all things that I wanted but didn’t ask God for. I decided to be content with what I had and He still gave me desires of my heart that I figured weren’t that big of a deal. Not that my life is perfect or struggle free, but it always amazes me how God provides even when I don’t ask.

Peace.

This Christmas, I can only say how blessed we feel. Not only do we have a great little girl to love on, but this Christmas we have definitely been reminded of the overwhelming support and love of our family and friends.

Becca finished her ten week German class at Siemens and thoroughly enjoyed it. She is in discussions to do another class or two starting early next year. We’ll see how that pans out. It was a great opportunity for Becca to use one of her many gifts, her fluency in German and great teaching ability, and the money sure didn’t hurt, either. She also loved teaching adults … less detentions, I guess.

I still love my job at Faith Academy. Not only are they great people to work with, the company is severely generous, and everyone was super understanding and supportive of Becca and I as Elisha made her way into the world. Faith Academy is very family focused for their staff (and others), so I was told to just take as much time as I needed. Elisha was born the last week of work, and since I had busted my tail to get all my grading done, it was easier for me to just be gone.

Our housemates, Eric and Heather, and my sister, Gina, and her husband, Ben, are all in Pakistan right now. They spent some time in Germany with my other sister, Shane, and her husband, Jason, before making their way to a wedding. Hence, the Mooney family Christmas was a little sparse this year. But everyone will be back in a couple weeks, including Shane and Jason for a week visit, so we will do Christmas again in January.

The Schneider family Christmas, however, was bigger than its ever been, which was a blessing for everyone. The living room could barely hold all the presents! Becca’s brother, Matt, and his wife, Kim, drove in from Dallas to spend Christmas with us. And since Becca and I have been in Korea for four years, this is the first Christmas in a while where everyone is together. Kim is also expecting, which everyone is very excited about. Micah loved playing with his uncle Matt and we all loved holding the little baby.

Speaking of Eric and Heather, it has been going extremely well living with them. While they might have a different perspective, we get along pretty well and have enjoyed the fellowship and family atmosphere. There are some changes on the horizon, though. We’ll see how a new little one, Elisha, adds to the mix, and the Friday night house church meeting will soon be held here at our house, which will be good but a stretch for our household as well. We all want more community and fellowship, but even that desire can be tested at times of frustration or moodiness, which is natural and important to get beyond to true community.

Personally, I’ve been concentrating on a couple major creative projects. First of all, I will be self-publishing my book, The Better Way: A Case for Love, at the start of the new year. I haven’t aggressively looked into publishing (a few rejection letters are only the beginning, I feel), but feel that some people will be blessed if able to read it. Look for more info on that in a couple months.

Second of all, I’ve endeavored to record many of the songs that I’ve written over the last twenty years. A quick count gives me close to 70 songs. Yes, that’s right, 70 songs. I’ve got about 25 acoustic/pop rock type songs, another 25 heavy Christian material, and another 15 praise songs that I would like to get down. The goal here is not to have the most professional version of every song, but a good demo of each to hear the basic form, melody, and hook to eventually sell a few of them. And I just would like to have a recording of what I feel are some great songs. I’ll probably find a way to post them all as mp3s somewhere for people to download for free … or possibly for a donation to a charity or something.

Which also leads me to the next thing, my own personal website. I’ve enjoyed my time at blogger, here, but over the next couple months (along with publishing the book and recording music), I will be transferring my blog over to another website where I can do more than just blog. Look for that as soon as I get some cool graphics and stuff set up.

House church meetings have been going extremely well. While the changes on Friday night will shake up the group, I feel it will free us up to do more and, more importantly, be more with each other. It will be different, but good, I think, and God is really doing some cool things. Sunday night is even more encouraging. Its growth will lead to some splitting and extension pretty soon, I think. God is moving, and I really just feel like I’m only sitting back and watching it unfold.

As a short testimony, let me share that Becca and I have given more than we ever have this year, to those in need. As God more shares His heart with me in this area, I’ve tried to be faithful and give as much as I can, if not more. The result has been that God continues to bless us financially. I’m waiting for a time when I feel like I’ve really given something away, to feel some sort of material loss. It hasn’t happened yet. We’ve been blessed more this year than any other so far, which only means we have to keep giving it away. It’s not a formula, only a testimony that it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

Also coming up is a visit from Kenny and Nicole who have moved back to the states from Korea. What a blessing it will be to see them and little Faith! I am also going to go visit my great aunt Bea in Florida with my dad (this is his aunt, his mother’s sister). I am hoping to interview her about my Grandma and her life as a young girl. It might take a few years, but I hope to get enough info and interviews to put together a book about my Grandma’s life. Believe me, you’ll want to read it.

I love you all. Pray for us as you feel led. As blessed as we are, God has so much ahead of us to do and be, that many times I hardly feel up to the challenge. We need His help more than ever.

Britt, Becca, Micah, and Elisha, missionaries to the world!

Well, if you haven’t heard by now, Elisha Abigail Mooney was born on December 17th, three hours past her due date.

On the 16th, her due date, a Sunday, Becca started having regular contractions around 1pm. We kept track of them, but they were only 10 minutes apart or so. We were supposed to wait until they were 4-5 minutes apart for an hour before we called to check if we should go to the hospital. I called Nana (my mom) and she came to get Micah after his nap around 4pm. Becca and I did not go to house church, although we really wanted to, and watched a movie waiting for the contractions to get closer together. They didn’t get much closer, but they did get more intense. About 7pm they got to about 4 minutes apart. We called an hour later, at 8. They said Becca sounded too comfortable, to just wait another hour or so.

Well, an hour and a half later, we called but had to leave a message again. About 10:30pm, after Eric and Heather had returned from house church, Becca was shaking during the contractions. They called back as I finished packing the car to go to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 11pm. They admitted us quickly and the nurse was very sweet and got Becca all hooked up to monitor contractions and heart rate. The midwife eventually came in and said they were going to closely monitor the baby because her heart rate was dipping during the contractions from time to time. As the contractions got more intense, Becca was able to lay on her side and we made the room very dark.

The contractions were getting more and more painful, and when the nurse checked Becca around 1:30am, Becca was only at 7cm. Becca cried, “I don’t wanna be only 7,” and I prayed that God would speed this thing along. Becca’s water broke soon after that.

The contractions were again getting more intense and painful, and around 2:30 am Becca looked at me during a contraction and said, “I wanna push!”

I said, “Lemme get someone for that,” and went to the nurse’s station. The nurse came in and watched as Becca tried a push. Hair was visible, so the nurse called in the midwife and the whole circus act piled in the room. Becca was told to wait for only a minute or so while the other nurses and the midwife got everything set up.

Then Becca started pushing. Elisha crowned with the first push. Becca pushed a couple more times and Elisha was really close to popping out. The midwife was very concerned about Elisha’s heart rate, so she did a slight episiotomy (sp?) and Elisha came out on the very next push, perfectly beautiful and healthy, about 2:50am.

They placed Elisha on her mother’s chest first thing, and I got to cut the cord this time. Then they took Elisha to get cleaned up and started cleaning up Becca. Elisha was cleaned first, so I got to hold Elisha for a few minutes while they finished up with Becca. After Becca was clean, they let her try and nurse Elisha. Elisha eventually nursed and everyone was happy.

The nurses, while cleaning Elisha up, kept saying, “She’s a beautiful baby … she doesn’t even look like a newborn.” I said, “they probably say that about all the babies,” and the midwife shook her head, saying, “no, they usually just say, ‘what an interesting looking baby.’” Elisha was awake and alert for a while after birth.

We were so blessed with the birth. Not only was Elisha very healthy, she was only 8lbs and 1oz (although 21 1/2 inches)! Micah was almost 10, and we were concerned she would be as big (or bigger). The pushing took maybe twenty minutes total compared to two hours with Micah. Becca felt much better afterwards, as well. We also did not have an IV, no drugs except some novocaine while sewing the small episiotomy up, and did everything natural.

I started calling sleepy people around 3:30 and wasn’t done calling until about 4:30. Oma, Becca’s mom, came over about 4:30 and stayed for a while until she had an errand to do.

We got a couple hours of sleep (me more than Becca because they were constantly checking her and the baby for stuff) and Nana brought Micah over to see his baby sister. He was immediately in love. He wouldn’t let even Nana hold her until he got to hold her. He wouldn’t stop kissing and hugging her. We sang her songs. It was very cool. Nana then took him out to lunch and we were alone for just a little while until more visitors came.

We had all of our visitors in the hospital that first day. And we loved it. In Korea, no one came to the hospital to see us. They waited until we got home. But it was cool to have everybody over, even though we were dead tired by that evening.

Becca’s milk came in that night (which is supposed to be fast), and Elisha took to eating pretty well. No one came to see us on Tuesday morning, and we got to go home by early afternoon. A couple people came by on Tuesday and Wednesday to see little Elisha. She is very cool. She has monkey toes like her brother, and I think they will look fairly similar.

Here are a couple pictures for the faithful …
God bless you all!

Britt, Becca, Micah, and Elisha!

Peace.

We’ve traveled quite a bit since the last Mooney Report. I’ve been enjoying my job at Faith Academy, and they have a six week summer session that is their busiest time of the year. But I had a three week break brefore and after the summer session.

Back in June, we took a much needed trip up to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. My grandmother Dewitt is still there in WV and Becca’s grandparents are in Pennsylvania. We were able to spend just a little time with my grandmother. She is very frail and declining in health, so that limited our time there. Micah got to meet her and give her a kiss.

Becca’s grandparents are a little more active, and we had a good couple days hanging out with them.

On the way back from West Virginia, we stayed in Charleston to see my uncle Harold and his son, Jeff. Harold is in his nineties and Jeff, my cousin, is older than my dad. My main reason for stopping and talking to Harold was to get some stories about my Grandma and her first husband, Fred Mooney, my paternal grandfather who died in the early 1950′s. One day I would like to write a book about my Grandma, and that was the first step in what will prove to be a long process, I think. But it was good to see Harold and Jeff.

Also in June we were able to go up to Tenessee and see Pastor Daniel at Rose Creek Village. Rose Creek Village is a Christian community in rural Tenessee about an hour outside of Memphis. They support several Mercy Homes, and Pastor Daniel was there to speak at a conference about community. We went to see him and to check out the community there. We met and stayed with some incredible people and will be going back for another event they have there at the end of September. It was good to make new friends (okay … meeting other brothers and sisters of the same family!) and especially to see Pastor Daniel, who is so dear to our heart.

We drove up to Ohio at the beginning of July to attend the Matt Miles/Beka Older wedding extravaganza. We also got to see Becca Teat and Julia Hazen … all Korea folk, which was a treat. Micah spent the next couple weeks playing with phones as if Miss Becca or Miss Julia were calling.

School ended for the summer and we made a trip at the end of July to be a part of Paul Koerper and Leandra Rose’s wedding. I actually officiated the ceremony, which was pretty fun. The only other wedding I had a hand in officiating was a Korean wedding and … well, that was kinda different. We also saw Emily Wiltshire and Laura Forner and Matt Harris from Korea. Micah was a hit as always.

The wedding was in Wisconsin, so we had to fly into Minneapois anyway, Becca’s old home. So we worked in some time to see some friends of Becca’s from high school and college. It was a blessing to see them all: Michelle, Nicole, and Andrea, their husbands and children.

We got back from Minnesota on Sunday. On Tuesday we packed the car, picked up Becca’s sister, Andrea, from the airport and drove down to Mobile, Alabama to see Becca’s other grandparents. We had dinner with her uncle Dan on Wednesday night. Thursday night we drove over to Pensacola to have dinner with Becca’s aunt Diana. Then I drove home while everyone tried to sleep.

I had another week off, but we were pretty pooped after all the running around, so we rested the next week.

So I’m back at work, and the first week was fairly busy and exhausting.

Becca’s pregnancy has been going well. She’s chasing around a 2 year old this time, so she feels more tired in a general sense than the last pregnancy. And we found out …

It’s a girl!!!

We are very excited and looking forward to Micah’s little sister.

As many of you know, we’ve been living with my parents for the last year or so, which has been a blessing. Well, we’re moving out! We found a house to rent nearby and will be sharing it with another couple, Eric and Heather. Eric and Heather are a big part of house church on Sunday night, and it has been very cool to get to know them better over the past year. They love Micah and Micah loves them.

While it will cut down on much of the cost to share a space, that’s not the primary reason we’re moving in with another couple. We feel we need to be intentional about sharing more of our lives with other Christians and having more fellowship than just the hour a week. We’ve seen the benefits of a close knit community in Korea and want to be a part of something similar (not the same … that won’t happen) here in Atlanta. Eric and Heather also have the same heart.

Becca will be starting German class at Siemens very soon. She is excited about that. She’s been talking to them about this possibility since January!

God has been so faithful and is really starting to bring things to us we’ve been longing for since we moved from Korea. Pray that we will also continue to be faithful to Him and do what He will ask of us.

Check out some more recent pictures of Micah and Becca here.

We hope all are doing well and God is blessing you!!!

Britt, Becca, Micah and little Elisha Mooney