Motherhood.

As I sit here on the couch with the sun shining on me and my baby in his room napping, I am reminded again of God's faithfulness to me. I am exhausted, I have bags under my eyes, my house is a wreck, and I think of all the responsibilities I have. Some days I feel I have it all together, other days I feel like this. 

On days that I do feel like this I consistently see how selfish I can be, motherhood easily points that out to me a lot. If you know Josh and I well, you probably have heard that Jude wasn't planned to be born this soon. Actually he was not planned to be born for another couple years. Josh and I wanted to wait until after we finished MTC to have any children. But you know as well as I, we cannot put our hopes and trusts into our own plans, we can only put our trust the Lord and His plan for our life.

Because Jude wasn't planned, I find a lot of my selfish desires trying to make their way to the surface. Sometimes I feel like I missed out or am missing out on important things, but I realize they are only selfish. Things that I can go without in the big picture because they don't have any meaning other than for my own personal enjoyment. Motherhood has pointed out things in my life I wish I never had to deal with. See, I don't know if it is just me...but I like being selfish, I like when it is all about me, it makes me feel good! But it is so totally wrong. It is my flesh who wants to be selfish. When I accepted Jesus as my personal savior I gave up that to serve Him. It is the old flesh who just wants me to be a selfish, self-centered, man-pleasing, liar who has no reason to serve anyone other than itself. Instead I serve Jesus, who gave me a new flesh. One that serves others, who lays down its pride and selfishness, who looks to Jesus for strength and one that is satisfied through Him. 

On days like today, when I feel tired, when I remember that if I had the plan my way I would not have this huge responsibility, when I remember that it would just be Josh and I; I need to remember it is not about me. It is not about my personal happiness. It is not about my life. It is however, about raising this boy up in the knowledge of truth. To raise him in such a way that is pleasing to my Father. To make disciples, starting with my children. To be thankful I have such a son who brings laughter, joy and growth to my life. Who stretches me more than I have ever been stretched. This is a challenge that I have to trust into the hands of my gracious Father. It is intimidating knowing that Jude will be here in our lives forever. It is intimidating that I will raise him past the baby years. But it is ever wonderful to know that the Lord showed us that this is the best time to start raising him, and He will be beside us every step of the way. He blessed us so richly by giving him to us; it is our job to see that through.

There are so many things that I can go on about, as these are things that I have been learning. I normally wouldn’t write a post that seems so personal to me, but I know our Father can use times like this for encouragement to our brothers and sisters around us. Jude has been such a wonderful gift to Josh and I; we love having him in our family and learning as he teaches us. I pray that maybe his little life has taught you too.

Photo Credit: Bethel Ann Photography

Felicia

Springtime in Pennsylvania!

They say April showers bring May flowers, but after these April snow showers, I just don't know what to think anymore.  Life is going well here in Northeast PA, and we hope and pray that you and your families are doing well and eagerly waiting for spring and summer just as we are!  It's interesting that among all the things I can become discontent with, weather and the seasons are one of those things as well.  And just as eagerly as we wait for spring, warmth and sunshine, God would have us wait just as eagerly for His Son's coming.

I'm not sure how many of you follow us on Facebook, but if you don't you may have missed new adventures for Jude.  He is starting to crawl, albeit army style, but once he sees something that catches his attention he will crawl for it.  He has new interests in the food category as he is eating avocados, pears/raspberries, carrots and bananas.  And as you can see in the picture, he goes bananas for...bananas.  He loves rolling onto his belly, so much so that he has fun doing it is his crib for nap time!

Josh's work is going good too.  I don't know if we've talked about it much on here, but he has a co-worker who we believe is a believer but he has some lifestyle behaviors that aren't consist with the Word of God and the life God wants him to live.  They've had lots of conversations and it has been challenging at times so please pray for that.  Josh gave him a book called "By This Name", the other day which is a book that tells the Bible's overarching story from Genesis to Revelation and also talks about the authority and reliability of the Bible.  Felicia is enjoying the time she gets with Jude every day and loves getting to see him learn new things and explore the world around him.  Of course it gets tiring sometimes sitting home all day and caring for him but she wouldn't trade it for anything and she has a mentor she meets with regularly and other activities with married ladies that gets her out of the house.  As for our MTC application, we are almost done!  All of our references and paperwork are done and our pastor just got his reference form on Monday.  So once he turns that in, we will hear back about our acceptance to missionary training for August 2016.  Thank you for your prayers for this, we are very excited for what lies ahead and where God will lead us.

Trusting God has been such an important lesson that God continues to impress on our hearts and minds.  I mean there's so many areas of life to trust God, from finances to raising Jude, our marriage, etc, but it sounds so vague to say "God I trust you with my life" you know?  I (Josh) have been reading Isaiah and I came across a familiar story about Judah and their relationship with God in Isaiah 26.  Isaiah says in the day when God destroys death forever, Judah will sing this song.  26:3-4 says "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."  For Judah they will have learned that peace and security doesn't come from human kings, earthly powers, Assyria or their own righteousness, but from God and Him alone.  Similarly, peace and security does not come from our acceptance to MTC, a right parenting philosophy or a healthy marriage, but from God and God alone.

I know we say this every time, but we truly and wholeheartedly appreciate every single of you.  We view you as family and value your encouragement, insight and prayers over the years and in the present.  We love you guys!!

Josh, Felicia and Jude

Jude's Story

This is something that has been on my heart for quite some time. Many of you were so involved in so many ways while I was pregnant and in the hospital with Jude that I felt I should finish the story of how he came into the world.
As most know I was in the hospital from 25 weeks pregnant until 28 weeks pregnant. My doctor realized that my body was handling the pregnancy weird and therefore trying to go into an early labor. I felt and noticed no symptoms, so it was a hard transition. During the time in the hospital many friends came to visit and keep us company. I had a few girlfriends come keep me company while Josh worked during the days, and in the evenings some of our couple friends came to play games and bring us home cooked meals and Red Robin! This time was so challenging for Josh and I but honestly, it is one of the greatest memories. Sure, I was an emotional wreck, we were tired of only having one room to live in, Josh was tired of sleeping on a cot and I was tired of having blood drawn every two days or so, as well as sleeping and sitting on a hard hospital bed. But, it was a time that Josh and I were able to grow closer and know each other more. Our friends and family did so much for us during that time and it was such a learning experience to realize there is nothing wrong in showing your vulnerability and weakness. God's faithfulness in teaching us these precious things is incredible.
When I was released from the hospital in mid July I was put on strict bedrest. The bedrest was hard for me to take since I had been so active during my pregnancy thus far! Josh and I were supposed to move back to Pennsylvania at the end of the month; but, because of the circumstances we decided we should stay in Michigan until the baby was born. That meant we had to find a place to live, but still move out of our apartment and have it cleaned by the beginning of August so students could move in. Josh was working 40 hours a week and trying to make up for a lot of the hours he missed while I was in the hospital, which meant I had to try to pack and clean little by little and Josh helping as much as he could while working. Unsure of where we were going to be moving to temporarily our friends Drew and Grace let us put our things in their basement. A couple days later Josh was approached by our friend Brandon who offered us a room at their place. Being a family of six, we were so shocked at their generosity and took them up on their offer. So, at the beginning of August, we moved our bed, dresser and Jude's things into our bedroom at their house. We loved living with them! Josh and I learned so much and really loved being a part of their lives. When I think back to those months and they always bring sweet memories.
Fast forward to the beginning of September our friends from school were getting married. The wedding was a couple hours away but we decided to go. Little did we know this was the last picture we would of taken together before Jude arrived! The evening before Jude arrived I remember I was

relaxing in the living room with Josh, Brandon and Heather. Josh and Brandon were playing their guitars and I was laying on the floor listening to them, thinking about how much space Jude was taking up.
That night I woke up around 2 a.m. thinking I had a huge gas bubble, I didn't want to wake Josh so I went into the bathroom and sat on the floor. I wasn't in pain, I was just really uncomfortable. After it subsided I went back to bed, however, every time I laid down another one would come. I then realized they may be contractions so I started timing them. I didn't think I was timing them right because they were about one minute-two minutes apart. Josh woke up to me moving around in bed, he proceeded to look at my phone and then sprung out of bed immediately. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "We need to get to the hospital!" I shrugged him off and told him I was fine. Very seriously he said, "No, we need to go!" Slowly I got out of bed and started getting dressed. Josh was already getting our bags and went to start the car. I took my time getting ready and we were out the door around 3:15 a.m.
When we got to the hospital they took their time, I think they thought it was a false alarm because of how calm I was. They took my weight, blood pressure, etc. and got me into a room to start monitoring my contractions. When the nurse came in to check she was very surprised at how calm I was (she kept calling me a Buddhist monk saying I had such a high pain tolerance) since I was 7cm dilated and contracting quite a bit. The staff scurried to get me into the birthing room and ready for delivery. They checked me again to see if I progressed and I was 9cm dilated and told me I was having a baby! Josh then made calls to our family to let them know I was in labor. The nurses were trying to get me to pop my water by pushing but it was too strong and had to be done by the doctor. I asked for some mild pain meds because the contractions were so tight but there was no time! So they went to try and find the doctor on call and finally got him into my room. He was surprised at how fast I was progressing and got dressed as fast as he could. As soon as he was ready I started pushing. At 4:30 a.m. I started pushing and at 5:15 a.m. on September 17th my beautiful baby boy was born without any complications. Weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz., 20 1/4" long he was perfect.

That day and the next were filled with visitors, phone calls and pictures. Our first visitors were Heather and her kids, they were all so excited to finally meet baby Jude who had been inside my belly  for so long! My parents were the next visitors. They left Pennsylvania around 4:45 a.m. after we called them and arrived at the hospital in Michigan around 2 p.m. They were excited to finally meet their third grand baby! Josh and I were ecstatic to finally meet our precious son.
We stayed in Michigan until the beginning of October and officially moved to Pennsylvania on October 9th. Josh and I have been forever grateful for all of the cards, gifts, support and love that our friends and family have given us. It has been exhausting, enlightening and encouraging. We couldn't be more grateful and are excited to have you all alongside us in this new journey and are excited to share Jude's life and growth with you all! God is so, so good.

With love,

Felicia

A New Year

Hey everyone!  How are you all doing?  A new year is underway here in the Sheridan household, with January filled with much less traveling than the last couple months.  We enjoyed the Christmas season with a quieter Christmas than usual with Josh's sister and her boyfriend and Felicia's family.  Jude didn't really know what was going on but he loved the lights on the Christmas tree.  He is onto month number five of life now.  He is 13lbs 12oz now and 25 1/2 inches tall.  He has yet to roll over but he has a habit of rolling onto his side and leaving his arms bent so he can't roll over.  He talks non stop and loves licking anything and everything.  He drools everywhere, loves his books and his toys.  He's learning to sit up in his chair and loves smiling and laughing.


Felicia and I are doing well, learning how to parent and communicate with one another better as well as maintaining a healthy relationship with another person in our lives now.  We are starting to get involved with teaching some Awana lessons and Josh may get a chance to teach a Sunday school class this Spring.  Josh spoke with our MTC rep last week and he said he will be calling our pastor right away to speak with him about us and our hopeful application to MTC so please be praying that conversation goes well and that we will be able to start our application!  There is also a guy Josh's works with named Dave who seems to be a believer, but has a worldview that isn't consistent with Scripture so please pray for good conversations, for wisdom in how Josh responds and for Dave's mind to be renewed.

The other day Josh challenged me with the question, "why did God create us?" My answer was the obvious, "because God desired a relationship with us." The next question he asked was, "how do we know?"  Going through each day we often take advantage of our life. We don't ever wonder the real reason we exist or seek out the answers to why we believe what we believe. Yes, I believe God created Adam to enjoy a friendship with him. They walked in the Garden of Eden together and enjoyed a friendship. When Adam told God he was lonely, God created Eve. When they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they hid. God made them clothes and then had a talk with them. When God heard the serpent deceived Eve he said to him, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." (Genesis 3:15) Like me for a long time, you probably just browse over this verse never noticing the significant meaning. This verse is God's first promise to us. This is Him showing us that he still wants to continue a relationship with us, even though Adam and Eve disobeyed. Let's start with the word enmity; another word for it is friction or hostility. So God is going to put some sort of struggle between Eve's seed and Satan's seed. The verse then goes on to say, "He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel." God is talking to the serpent right now, telling him that one of Eve's descendants will crush the serpents descendants heads, and he will only strike their heel. God is telling him that one day there will be a Redeemer, to redeem fallen mankind who has now been separated from God, and to make a relationship between God and man possible again. How cool is that?

This is the reason Josh and I are pursuing a life involved in missions among unreached people groups, because God continues to remind us that God loves mankind, mankind is separated from Him apart from knowing Christ and there are millions of people who have never heard of Christ.  Please continue to pray for us as we keep you all in our prayers as well.  We love you all!

The Sheridan's

Getting Back to Our Foundation

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word

We've been here in Pennsylvania for about a month so far, wow how time has flown by.  Jude just had a doctor's appointment the other day, the first since his 2 week one and he is now a strapping 10.4 pounds and doing well.  He is now 7 weeks old and loves looking at lights and basically throwing his head back and looking at anything he can get his eyes on.  Felicia is doing good as well, living the life of a faithful yet often tired mother and wife, adjusting to life with a new baby.  She has been attending a Monday night bible study for young women and has really been enjoying reconnecting back here at home.  I (Josh) got a job about a week after we got back to Pennsylvania.  I'm working for a general contractor with two other guys.  I love the work, most of you know I love working with my hands and doing construction but a lot of it is intimidating because even though I may have done the work before, its all professional quality and has to look really good because people are paying for it.  The company I work for does all kinds of construction; roofing, concrete, framing, siding, windows, additions, our own plumbing, electrical for those additions.  So for some stuff I have a steep learning curve but nevertheless I enjoy my job, so far we've finished an addition to an existing house, we've re roofed a metal roof, started on another roof and poured two foundations for garages.

A lot of preparatory work goes into building a house or a garage, even laying the foundation itself.  Everything must be dug out to a proper depth, everything must be square and level so that what is being built on it can be square and level.  It must be a certain height and thickness to give adequate support and it must be reinforced internal with rebar to make it stronger.  After the concrete is poured it must be filled in with dirt and gravel to give supporting strength to the foundation walls.  All so that the house, what everybody sees has a proper base of strength.  I thought a lot while building these foundations about the foundation of life.  I thought of first what my life was like before Christ, and what the life of a lost person is like.  Jesus talked a few times in the gospels about the wise man who built his house up on a solid rock and when it rained and the storm came, the house and man were secure because his foundation was strong.  The fool built his house wherever he pleased and when the storm came the ruin of his house and himself Scripture says was great.  The word of God is the foundation of life with Christ himself as the cornerstone off of which the whole foundation is made square and level.  Without Christ and God's Word, a man's life will come to ruin because it is not supported by anything sure and steadfast.  Whatever you build your life on is important because it would take a lot of time to undo the physical foundation we poured in the picture above, a spiritual foundation, a foundation for the soul, would taken even longer to destroy and start again with a proper foundation.  A second thing I reflected on was that in 1st Corinthians 3, Paul explains to these wayward believers that for their lives there is no other foundation other that which has been laid for them already, Jesus Christ.  But having said that each believer must take care how they build on that foundation.  They can build with permanent materials that won't pass away or they could build with cheaper materials, things that would burn up or waste away.  He says one day we will appear before Jesus Christ and our works will be judged, how we build will be judged.  So he says take care how you build on the life of Christ which is a challenge to me today to evaluate my life by faith with Lord and trust Him to show me what areas he wants to make me more like his Son.  

Just some fun things I've been learning while on the job, hope they encourage and challenge you as they have our lives!  We love you and appreciate you all and miss those who we aren't near to at the moment, you are all important to us and we thank God for you often.

Josh and Felicia

Please pray for:

1.  Our relationships here in Pennsylvania.  It's been enjoyable to be back home for an extended amount of time and reconnect with friends and family.  We love our church and everyone we get to see on Sundays and look to see our friendships with individuals as well as the church deepen in our year here.

2.  For us as parents.  I'm sure most of you know, and I know there's "I told you so!"'s out there, but parenting is tiring and exhausting and we would love your prayers for strength and wisdom and also for our relationship with God as a lot of our energy and attention is taken up with Jude which we love having a child but also want to keeping walking with the Lord and spending time in His Word.

3.  Our application to MTC.  It's in the beginning stages but our plan is still to go next August so pray we get accepted and that our finances all come together whether through supporters or other avenues. If you'd like more information on MTC and the support we will need, send us an email at jsheridan03@gmail.com

New Beginnings: Baby Jude and Moving

Hope this update finds you well, trusting the Lord and enjoying the new NFL football season, or baseball's playoffs, or whatever else you enjoy.  As most of you know the long wait is over, baby Jude has arrived, being born September 17th and 5:15 in the morning.  Weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 1/4 inches long, meet Jude:

We love having a little boy now although we are more tired and busy, as I'm sure most of you can relate.  Nonetheless, we're moving along, changing diapers, feeding and doing laundry, most of which is the baby's.  We're so glad to be living with a family of six who are so willing to help us with any questions we have about raising this baby because we've never done anything quite like this before.  It's been a lot of fun bringing him around to all our friends here and our church family, seeing everyone's faces light up when they first see him and hear the joy they feel for us as a family.  Makes all those late nights kind of worth it.





I don't know about you, but change always gets to us.  Obviously we have a lot of change happening in our family.  New baby, a move back to Pennsylvania from a place we've called home for the past 4 years.  But change always get us thinking.  We think about the overwhelming place we're at becoming new parents, where we don't feel quite up to the task or adequate enough to handle the new challenges life and God are going to throw at us.  We think about all the people we have to say goodbye to leaving Michigan.  All the people on staff here at NTBI that we've grown so close to in 4 years, the students we've poured into, our best friends, our church here that has felt like family.  We hate saying goodbye because people mean so much to us and so thinking of that makes us want to say thank you.  Whether you're reading this in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Paraguay, California, Michigan or wherever, we want/need to thank you for your friendship and place you have in our lives.  Our lives wouldn't have the joy it has without knowing and meeting the people we have over the years and we wouldn't make it through each day without the people we love around us.  And that pushes us to thank God because we know that without Him and without His Son's death for our sins, we could not have nor feel the love of His body, the very thing that makes it so hard to goodbye.  So while we get to say goodbye to some, we get to say hello to another group of people and we can't wait to see who and what the Lord brings our way and we're beyond happy to have Jude be a part of that.

Briefly the next year looks like us moving to Pennsylvania to take a year off.  We'll be spending a great deal of time with our home church at South New Milford Baptist Church, serving and hanging out with our friends there.  Josh will be working, hopefully with a construction company, he has two contractors to meet with we get back in town and Felicia will be working around our rental house on some products and working with the baby.  We're looking forward to this time to reconnect and take a break as we've been in Michigan for the past 4 years.  Thank you again for your prayers, your support and your love for us and our new son as we look to one day bring the gospel to people who have never heard of Jesus Christ.

From our hearts,
Josh and Felicia

Prayer Requests
1.  We're trying to make the most of our last two weeks in Michigan.  It seems like we've been here forever, in a good way, and so we have many relationships making it hard to say goodbye.  Please pray for our hearts to comforted with joy and not troubled as we leave.
2. We're heading back to Pennsylvania on Thursday the 8th so if you could pray for the Lord to provide Josh with a job in PA that would allow us to keep saving money for our next step of training. Also pray for our relationship with our church in PA, that we would not just see the next year as necessary for building a partnership, but to take time to enjoy the people and our friendship with them.
3.  Above all that we would trust God, and his providence, knowing He knows what we need.

Summer Update

Hey friends! We hope you have been well over this summer and enjoying the beautiful weather! As most of you know we have been here in Michigan (which wasn't the original plan) enjoying summer and now the new semester at New Tribes. We were planning on moving to Pennsylvania at the end of July when Josh's summer job ended. However, with the baby complications we decided it would be best for us to stay.

We have been so busy packing, and moving out of our apartment; some friends of ours offered us a place to stay so we have been living with them and their 4 kids! It has been a fun little adventure as we see parenting firsthand and experienced the life of a bigger family than what we grew up with. Josh has been able to keep his job going at the school so he has been enjoying working with some good friends of his. I have also been helping out a little bit at the school, helping with some jobs in the office and even child care. The new semester officially started on Wednesday so we have been busy catching up with friends and meeting new freshman! It is always a fun part of the year for us.

Josh and I are thinking we will be here in Michigan until no later than the beginning of October. Really it depends on when the little boy wants to show up but we are thinking about heading out to Pennsylvania about 2-3 weeks after he is born depending on how everything turns out. 

One big sigh of relief is we have found a place to live when we move! This has been such a hard thing because most places were wanting us to move in by September 1st. Thankfully we found a place to stay with someone who was more understanding and gracious to our situation :) Josh and I are so thrilled to be able to live in the area with a place meeting more of our needs and desires than we ever expected! Josh has also heard back from two contracting companies so hopefully when we move they are still interested in meeting with him!

In our year off from training we are hoping to be saving more money for the Missionary Training Center (MTC) and getting involved in our home church South New Milford Baptist Church. We are really wanting to spend time with people within our year off and for Josh to get to know more of the people from the church I grew up in.  Some of you in the past have expressed interest in supporting us for our training as missionaries with New Tribes Mission. If you are still interested we would love to talk to you about partnering with us. We have around $10,000 saved up so far which is a little more than our first semester of the 2 year program. We would love to have our first year paid for by the time we leave for training next August and would love to have partners help support us a long the way. Anything given will strictly be put in our savings account for MTC, if you would like to know more about what partnering with us would look like, please email us at jsheridan03@gmail.com

For both of us,
Felicia

Prayer Requests:
- For the remainder of my pregnancy to go well. And that when the time comes the delivery will go well!
- That Josh will be able to find a job ASAP. One that pays well to live off of and still save for MTC.
- For moving. That everything will work out, that we will be able to leave soon after Jude is born.