Greater Portland Baptist Church

Jesse and Tiffany Shanks: February 2007

While in Bible college, I remember hearing a professor say that "preparation is the key to success." We sure hope that all of this preparation is going to pay off in successfully learning French! Much of our time and energy this past month has gone into planning for our departure in May for language school in Quebec City, Canada. We have officially been accepted as students at Laval University, so the next step is to secure our CAQs (Certificate of Acceptance to Quebec). Once that is finished, we can drive to Seattle and apply for our Canadian study visas. We originally thought that we would have to wait for several weeks for each of these to be done by mail, but I recently found out that we can apply in person for our visas and receive them the same day. This is a huge blessing because we probably would have run out of time otherwise. Please just pray that there will be no unexpected delays in the processing of these documents.

Also, we ask that you pray for our housing arrangement in Quebec. I have searched the internet apartment listings quite extensively and have not found many options so far. Please pray that God will provide for us a furnished apartment at a reasonable price that is close to the university. The Lord has provided each and every need so far, and we have no doubt that He is in complete control of this situation as well.

God has already met a very important need for our son, Joshua, by providing a young lady named Malerie Humber who will come with us to Quebec and be a full time nanny while we are in school. We praise God that He has led her to do this, and we trust that for her it will be a great experience to live in the mission field of Quebec.

Many times on deputation, we find ourselves in situations that are completely unique to anything we have experienced before. At a recent meeting in Oroville, California the church had me speak at their annual Valentine's Banquet. Normally this would not be a concern, but along with speaking the pastor asked me to juggle before I spoke. I made sure ahead of time that he knew that although I do juggle, I am not a professional juggler and have never "performed" in front of a large audience. He was confident however, so after several skits, songs, jokes, and other acts, I was up. Although I was pretty nervous about it, God blessed and the people really enjoyed it. Well, they at least didn't throw things at me, so I think they enjoyed it! God gave us such a great meeting at that church, and we enjoyed the wonderful fellowship we had there.

Thank you so much for your consistent prayer and support for us as we continue this amazing adventure of serving the Lord!