Hello Friends and Family,
It has been a crazy last month, and we would love to share what God is doing and how to pray for us right now.
As you may remember, we started the foster care process/paperwork over a year ago and finished last spring. We also knew that when we returned from our trip to Oregon we could be called with a placement at any time. God, in His timing, knew that we were not ready for the first two months of school. Then, the day before the first day of fall break Heather received “the call.” A baby was in the hospital, his mom was in a coma, and he needed a family. When Heather asked me, my response was, “Ready or not, here we go.” Because how can you truly be “ready” for a monumental task of being a foster parent. Heather visited Leon that day, and for the next six days, she was going back and forth between the hospital and home until the doctors gave him the all-clear and he could come home to us. We knew his mom used crystal meth, which is what induced the coma, but, at the time, we did not know that she also drank hard liquor, smoked, and took meth regularly throughout her pregnancy. So poor little Leon is dealing with drug, alcohol and nicotine withdrawal. This means that he is either sleeping, eating, screaming, or being held most of the time. Sometimes screaming and being held at the same time. It has been taxing on the whole family, but we keep reminding ourselves that God was the one who led us to this task, that often He doesn’t call us to do the easy things, and He will give us the strength that we need. We have also been amazed by the love and support we have received from friends both near and far away. Food, physical help, and other gifts to help us in this process. We are only doing short term care, so the youth services are currently looking for a long term home for Leon after they figure out who the father is. So our role is to fill the gap and love him for the season God has him with us.
With that, we are also actively looking to buy a car. After our last email, we actually went to Erfurt to look at a car with the help of our neighbor Christoph. We loved the car, but it kept making this siren noise which the dealer tried to convince us it was no big deal. On further research, it seems to be the sound that the turbocharger makes before it dies. We have made a few other calls, but most cars are too far away to look at, too expensive, or the seller wants to sell it for export only because they can’t guarantee the vehicle. We know God will bring the right one at the right time, and we just have to keep trying different leads and see what door will open.
Please pray for Stanley as his transition to 6th grade is still tough. He is doing better, but he can be quick to go into a funk. Most of the time he is great, but then there is that morning or that disappointment which just sends him into a spiral. In a couple of weeks, he is traveling to Leipzig with a few classmates for a Lego Robotic competition (First Lego League). He is super excited and has worked so hard preparing their robot.
Please pray for Holly as she deals with 4th-grade girl drama in her class. Pray that she can be a peacemaker and a faithful friend despite the things going on around her. Also that she will not take the weight of the world on her shoulders and try to make everyone happy or put too high of expectations on herself.
Please pray for Stuart as he continues to thrive at his special needs school and continues to grow and learn new things. He has such an amazing support team, and it is one of the many reasons we are thankful to be here in Weimar.
Please pray for Samuel as he grows and is such an inquisitive almost 4 years old. He is completely done with diapers now and is loving Kindergarten and his friends there, although sometimes we hear about not so appropriate play and talk that goes on there. He did recently ask Jesus to come into his heart so we trust that the Holy Spirit can touch his heart.
Please pray for our Bible Studies. Monday night International Bible study is going well and we have new regulars with Maddy, Veronica, Mary, and Timon. Our Sunday evening youth Bible study has struggled for consistency as one of the girls is still in the hospital with anorexia but when we do meet it has been good. Mama Mittwoch (Wednesday morning mommy group) is now being hosted by Heather at our house as Susanne was no longer able to have it at her place. Yesterday there were twelve Mamas here and many children as well.
Please pray for our English Camp that our church will be hosting summer 2020 in partnership with Josiah Venture. We are helping our youth leaders Jonathan and Anne plan it and are excited to see what God will do through this camp. Our church’s partner church from First Baptist Garland will be sending a team led by their youth pastor Michael Murray.
Thank you so much for supporting us with prayer. It is what matters most.
If you would like to join our give team, please click the link below.
https://beonetogether.com/people/scott-and-heather-overby/
Our current goal is to have a $600 per month support team, which we are 1/5 of the way fulfilled. Thank you! Our current special project goal is to buy a van for our family and ministry needs. Currently, we have $1,200 in donations towards a van. A special thank you for those of you who have been willing and able to give as partners with us in God’s work here in Weimar.
Here are some (a lot) of pictures from our fall
Serving God in Weimar Germany,
Scott, Heather, Stanley, Holly, Stuart, and Samuel