The Nichols Family-Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

Praises from 2023

Reflecting on God’s Faithfulness

As we reflect on 2023, I long to be reminded of God’s faithfulness among the chaos. Despite many trials we faced in 2023, God has been so good, and we want to take the time to praise Him and thank you for being a part of these blessings!

• Friends in Morelia
• Reggie’s amazing Spanish tutor
• Reggie’s guitar students
• Karlee’s English students
• Seeing my students graduate from the English program
• The English teachers Karlee gets to work with, train, and encourage
• Salvation decisions that have been made by our students and their family members
• Our home as a safe haven for our family and a place for ministry
• A working vehicle
• Our health and that of all four of our children
• University of Iowa Children’s Hospital and their amazing staff
• Our Stateside church families for their support in prayer and financially
• The faithfulness of our donors through good and difficult times
• Smart, ambitious people who can invent insulin pumps and can discover how to treat Type 1 Diabetes
• Safe travels to and from the U.S. multiple times in 2023
• Wisdom and encouragement from Ann Hinrichs and Francesco from ACCI
• Our visit in May from Ann Hinrichs and Amy Wonnell with ACCI member care and their encouragement while here
• Daily safety for the Nichols family
• Permanent residence status that allows us more freedom in our life and ministry
• Our incredible youth Bible Study that loves and encourages every week
• Watching our kids do things they love and use their gifts and talents
• Increased language learning for the entire family, specifically Reggie
• Ed Sommerville and his North Carolina team that visited us in November and encouraged us greatly during their visit: Thank you, Ed, Bob, Kim, Sonya, and Eva!

Prayer Requests for 2024

We are already one month down in the year 2024, and it has been a fog. Again, we want to be transparent in our prayer requests, as we know that we can never have too many people in prayer, and right now our hearts are heavy. Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or just to say hello. We appreciate all the prayer warriors out there who have so consistently lifted us up in prayer over the last three years. We feel your prayers moving and know that we could not have made it this far without you!

-        Levi’s salvation and openness to the Truth

-        Healing for our marriage and the ability to work together with the same purpose and spirit

-        Parenting unity as we navigate helping our kids navigate cultural adaptation and acceptance struggles

-        Wisdom, clarity, and financial stability for what is coming after June

-        Healing for relationships with NOE staff

-        A renewed energy for Reggie and Karlee

-        Deep friendships in Morelia

-        Deep relationships with our students and families in our communities

-        Cultural understanding and wisdom

-        Discernment in conversations with NOE staff – when to speak, when to be silent

-        Renewed sense of purpose for Reggie and Karlee

-        Close Christian friends for Levi, Weslee, and Harmony

-        Selah as she transitions to a new high school this semester

-        Clarity for Selah as she begins to make post-high school decisions

-        Continued language learning for Reggie

-        Levi’s motivation to perform well academically and understand there is purpose in life

-        Harmony’s on-going T1D (Type 1 Diabetes) healthcare and financial needs

-        Karlee’s upcoming women’s conference (Feb) and retreat (May) for spiritual and emotional renewal and discipleship training

-        Reggie’s continued language learning

Sunday, January 29, 2023

ANSWERS TO PRAYER:

- Karlee finally got over her sickness that lingered over the Christmas break and can sing again! Everyone else stayed relatively healthy over Christmas break

- All four of the kids have great friends they hang out with outside of school

- We helped our close friends Hiram and Cristina get engaged! We will be walking them through pre-marital counseling as they prepare for a life together!

- Both of our dads (Reggie and Karlee) had major surgeries in December during the same week! Although healing was a bit slow and some final results are still unknown, they are both recovering well and there were no long-term negative side-effects.

- We have had to find local businesses to help us on a couple small repairs for our house and vehicles. We are grateful to now have connections in our immediate neighborhood, which makes this faster and easier, but it has allowed us to develop relationships with our neighbors!

- On January 3^rd, Karlee was able to get permanent residency! What a blessing this is – and no trips to the US were required!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

- Language learning for the kids and Reggie. Reggie is still exploring language-learning options without a tutor

- We are waiting for a couple pieces of documentation to get Reggie and the kids

permanent residency. If they don’t arrive by the end of February, we can easily renew their temporary residency status and upgrade to permanent when all the paperwork comes in. Please pray it arrives from the States quickly so we can go straight to permanent status to save $360 per person.

- We are still working on raising long-term funding to meet our family needs, emergencies, trips to the U.S., emergency travel, etc. Please pray with us as we build our long-term team!

- Reggie: guitar class, Dream Team conversation class, short-term group coordinating, and responsibilities at home

- Karlee: English classes, sharing at Bible study and youth group, and teacher training workshops

¡Hola, amigos! - It’s a nichols Kids Update!

Karlee Nichols

We want to thank everyone who has been actively praying for our children as we transitioned to life in Morelia. I’m not going to try to sugarcoat it…the first school year was tough. Although each child adapted at their own pace and in their own way, the exclamation, “I’m so grateful this year is not last year!” has escaped my mouth more times than I can count concerning many things, including for my children.

This school year has been FILLED with friends! All four of them have found themselves genuinely excited for returning to school, church activities, and NOE because they can’t wait to reconnect with their friends. What an answer to prayer! Hand-in-hand, this also means that their language development is starting to snowball.  Although still far from perfection, it is incredibly rare that language is the reason for stress. (That being said, please pray for Selah as she takes on classes like chemistry, Mexican history, and Spanish literature while still trying to learn the language!)

We know God is faithful, and I find myself with tears swelling in my eyes, praising Jesus for His faithfulness as, almost on a daily basis, I hear laughing, giggling, game-playing, group project meetings, and recounting things that happened at school in 100% Spanish with people they love and who love them. Sleepovers, playdates, hanging out with friends at the mall, etc. As parents, our hearts swell with joy!

We know they are SUPER excited to see all their friends in the U.S. this summer, to reconnect and share everything they have experienced in almost two years, but it is also so comforting to see them make Morelia “home” and “normal” as we watch them truly become Third-Culture Kids.