A New Normal

Wow, it's November. So why does it still feel like summer? And I don't mean in terms of the weather because actually, lately it has been quite nice; highs in the upper 80's during the day and lows in the mid 60's at night and I think the humidity might have actually dropped below 100%!

But it feels like summer because the previous 19 years of my life have revolved around a school schedule. Summers were spent getting ready for the new school year and then in August there was the hustle and bustle of getting ready for parent orientations and the excitement of welcoming families back on the first day of school. The ensuing days were filled with watching the preschool kids learn how to walk in a straight line down the hall, coaching new students on how the lunch line works, school pictures, the college fair, the annual school auction, football season, the craziness of homecoming week, the annual Preschool Fall Fun Day ... oh the memories. It's hard to believe that football season has come and gone at JCS and we haven't been to a single game! Life is marching on ... and I am still waiting for summer to end.

I recently talked to a friend and she used the term, "new normal" in describing some life changes she is going through. I think that is what we are trying to figure out, what our "new normal" is. We were warned about this by friends and family who had been on the mission field and when we did our cross-cultural training at MTI in Colorado. Basically, everything that has been normal, natural, right, and good is now different. In talking to my friend and fellow-new-missionary she described it as having your whole world turned up-side-down. Yup, that's what it feels like! 

Take driving for instance - think about what normal driving looks like to you. I can assure you that it looks nothing like driving here, even on its worst day in the States. Here, traffic lights are optional, especially if you drive a "moto" - anyone of a number of 2-wheeled vehicles that range in size and power from a moped to an actual motorcycle. Whole families can be seen traveling by motos - including days-old infants, no car seats or helmets required. Oh, and at night, lighting on said motos is optional. See something on the side of the road you want or someone you want to talk to? Just park your car in the traffic lane. Get behind a very slow moving vehicle on the mountain road? Just pass it, it doesn't matter that you are going into a curve and you can't see what's coming around that bend. And when you stop at an intersection in the city be prepared to be mobbed by all manner of street vendors and people begging for money. The traffic lights change and they come crawling out into the stopped cars like foraging ants. Need garbage bags, windshield wiper blades, cold water, pineapples, limes, oranges, flowers, newspaper, cell phone cords, cell phone minutes, your windshield cleaned? There's a vendor for that! Yesterday on our way back from Santiago, we bought a bunch of mandarines (tangerines) from a vendor. Total transaction time about 5 seconds; I can't say that I've ever done that in the good old U.S. of A.

Another thing we are dealing with that we hope and pray does not become our new normal is ... rats. So far, we don't think any have actually taken up residence in the house but we have had about 4 encounters with the little critters recently - 2 outside and 2 inside. I could handle the outside encounters but a couple of weeks ago when I went to put something away in my pantry I heard something and then felt something brush against my foot. After waking Dick and retrieving a flashlight we found the little bugger behind the refrigerator. I can assure you that staring into those beady little eyes has NEVER been part of my "normal."

Dick and I tried to chase it out the door but it dove under the stove and then up into the insulation of the stove so we couldn't get it. The next night a cat showed up on our back porch, starving! So we fed it and it rewarded us with killing the rat. We continued to feed it and it made our porch its home. Last night we returned from an awesome evening with friends to find a rat in our curtains in the living room. After Dick wacked it with a broom and it landed at my feet, I retrieved the cat from the porch and it chased the rat around the living room and chased it ... under the stove. Today's task - block off the bottom of the stove so the rats can't hide there anymore! The kitty is lying curled up in a chair next to me as I type this. Another one of those new normal things - Dick is allergic to cats but what's a little Benedryl when you're in a battle against vermin?

In the midst of all the chaos of adjusting to a new culture and new way of living, we are so thankful that Jesus is our constant. As we learn to live our "new normal," He is our anchor, our strong-tower, our provider, our joy, our strength. He is our anchor as we have those days when we wonder why we are here and have the urge to bolt. We know He has called us here and that brings such peace. He is our strong tower as we run to Him in the midst of complete despair over everything from learning the language to chasing rats. He is our provider in every way, including bringing us a starving cat to combat the rats. He is our joy as we seek Him and find Him in the midst of turmoil. He is our strength as we continue on this path He has placed us on and we look to Him to give us what we need moment by moment to walk this out. Our pray is that He will continue to use us to bring His light and His love to those who battle far worse then rats in the cupboard.

"Let not faith cease from seeking Thee until it vanishes into sight. Ride forth in me, thou King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that I may live victoriously ... "
~ from The Valley of Vision

Thank You Just Doesn't Sound Like Enough ...

Four months ago today we landed in the Dominican Republic. Tomorrow, way before the sun rises, Lowell and Cheryl Troyer will get in a car and drive away from the place they have called home for the past 11+ years. We cannot begin to express how much we have come to love and appreciate them and their hearts for the work of the Lord. As we have trained along-side of them (and Maggie Slabach too) we have at times been overwhelmed by the many details of running a ministry such as Students International. For years, we have been on the other-side of this ministry, bringing teams from Jupiter Christian School. We always appreciated how smoothly things seemed to run as team leaders but we didn't fully understand the length and the depth of that until now.

The day after we landed in the DR, we went with Lowell and Cheryl to Santiago to shop for the group scheduled to arrive a few days after us. It was an impressive thing to watch how the van load of groceries was bought, paid for and stashed in the van in an amazing order. We came home, looked at each other and said, "what in the world have we gotten ourselves into." We felt as though there was no way we would ever be able to do the shopping on our own. Over the next couple of months, Lowell, Cheryl and Maggie gradually transitioned out as we transitioned in. I don't know when the actual full shift took place but this past week we went to Santiago and managed to buy groceries on our own ... granted it was for a much smaller group, but we were encouraged that we accomplished this once daunting task on our own! We were trained well by the masters!

As we have gotten to know the kitchen crew (Mili, Carlos, Angela, Juana, Nieve, Milagros, and Lucila) and the grounds crew (Son and Rudy) and the sweet family that lives next door (Wilian, Isabel, Samuel, and Isabella) we have witnessed the deep love that they have for Lowell and Cheryl, Nate and Maggie. There are deep bonds of friendship that will last a life-time between them all. We know that the only reason the "fearsome foursome" as they have been dubbed, would leave is because there is Someone much bigger at work in their lives.

All of us who have stepped into roles to fill the vacancies left by the Slabachs and the Troyers do so with a tremendous appreciation for the vision and the ground-work laid by them. We love you so very much and look forward to seeing and hearing all the Lord is doing in your lives and through you as you move on to planting a new work in Nicaragua and overseeing your new roles in Students International.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

traditional gaelic blessing

How Great Is Our God!

Today is Sunday and we went to the little church we have settled into here called La Vid Comunidad Cristiana. This was the first Sunday since moving here that we came away feeling like we actually understood what was being taught and were mostly able to pronounce the words in the songs being sung. We know we still have a long way to go until we aren't trying to translate everything in our heads but this is real progress and we are encouraged. Thank you Lord.

When we got home, we listened to a teaching from the 2011 Desiring God National Convention called The Global God Who Gives the Great Commission. The essence of the message is that when we receive the Gospel of Grace we become inherent participators of God's global purpose. Lou Giglio is the speaker for this session of the conference and he talks about the universe and the quest of man to explore the universe. Man's reason for reaching into the heavens is to prove that there is life on other planets; the universe is just way too big a place if it was only created to house humanity. But as we read in Psalm 148, the primary function of the universe is to magnify the creator!

Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

praise Him in the heights!

Praise Him, all His angels;

praise Him, all His hosts!

Praise Him, sun and moon;

praise Him, all you shining stars!

Praise Him, highest heavens,

and the waters that are above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD,

for He commanded and they were created.

He has also established them forever and ever;

He has made a decree which will not pass away.

Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and mist;
stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills; fruit trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all livestock;
creeping things and flying birds;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
princes and all rulers of the earth;
Young men and maidens together; old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for His name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
And He has lifted up a horn for His people,
praise for all His godly ones;

even for the sons of Israel, a people near to Him.
Praise the LORD!

So, if all the universe and everything in it, and all the earth and everything it contains was created to praise the Lord, can you imagine the symphony that is playing for our heavenly Father? After reading the above Psalm, Lou Giglio takes the actual sound of stars (yes, stars make music) and the sound of whales and mixed it together and played a version of "How Great Is Our God" by Chris Tomlin. It brought tears to our eyes to think that we are such a small part of a continuous symphony of praise and worship to our God. The You Tube video below is the song we listened to.

There are so many wonderful hymns and songs that lead us into what we call "worship." But maybe we should take a lesson from the heavens and the earth. Let our lives, the whole essence of our being, be lived out in such a way as to bring honor and glory, praise and worship to our Lord.

Español ... otra vez!

It's Saturday morning and I should be doing homework, but after three solid weeks of Spanish classes and homework, I'm taking a little mental health break. We started class on September 5th, and since then we have been immersed in a five week college course, worth 3 college semester credits. One of the college students remarked, after we got our our first graded assignment back, "What are you guys worried about, you aren't doing this for a grade ..." No, we are not in this for the grade. We are doing this in part, out of necessity, but mostly out of a deep desire to be able to communicate with the Dominican people we work with and those we interact with in the stores and streets of Jarabacoa, Santiago, and anywhere else we venture!

Our schedule looks pretty much like this:
Between 6:00 - 8:00 a.m., wake up, have quiet time, and then breakfast ...
Between 8:00 a.m. and noon, work on Spanish homework ...
We break for lunch somewhere between 12:00 & 12:30 ...
Then it's back to the books until it's time to trudge down the hill to attend class at the base ...
We attend Spanish class from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Following class, we take a little time to unwind and eat dinner ...
Somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., it's back to the homework until we can't keep our eyes open ...
Go to bed, wake up, and do it again the next morning!

On the weekends, we sometimes travel down the mountain to grocery shop, we attend church but  then pretty much the rest of our time is spent doing ... you guessed it, more homework!

We have been told that verbs are the heart of any language. Some verbs that describe what we have experienced in the midst of language learning are (mostly in their gerund form =): Challenging, annoying, interesting, exasperating, gratifying, stressful, valuable, perplexing, useful, puzzling, thought-provoking, taxing, satisfying, vexing, fulfilling, provoking, nerve-wracking, delightful, frustrating, worthwhile, infuriating, and rewarding. It just depends on the day ... sometimes on the moment!

I think one of the things we are looking forward to the most when this is all over is reconnecting with our co-workers and friends. While it has been a tremendous gift from everyone we work with to be able to set aside our job responsibilities to concentrate solely on learning Spanish, one of the things we love the most about this culture is that it is a very warm culture that puts great emphasis on relationships. Because of the pace of this course we are in, we haven't had much time for that lately.

The reality of our living in the DR is that we will spend the rest of our days here learning to communicate. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, we read, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Please join us in praying that in the midst of our learning to "speak with the tongues of men" we don't become a noisy gong and lose sight of the reason that we are here, to love in a way that it is evident that Christ lives inside our hearts and we are here to serve Him.

Catching Our Breath!

It has been exactly 3 weeks since our last summer team left and we feel like we are finally catching our breath! We not only survived the summer but we learned SO much and are beginning to feel like we may actually be able to do this! You may laugh but we've had a few days in the last couple of months where we had our doubts.

What a whirlwind we dropped into that sunny day way back in June. As we said before, from day one we dove right in to do what we had come here for. None of our "jobs" are difficult; there is just a lot that has to be done. The first thing we learned is that every day of a two-week outreach brings a different list of things to accomplish that day! We never had a clue of the amount of work and coordination that goes in to running a "simple" outreach. But we have learned how to schedule transportation and housing, plan a menu and figure food amounts for various team sizes, divide up a 2-page-double-column shopping list, check out of a grocery store in a store full of people who speak a different language, pack a van full of groceries, schedule the cooks, the cleaners, and the maintenance crew, order bread, coffee, and snack food for hungry American students, sort and distribute donations, wash load after load of clothing and bedding teams leave behind and sort and distribute that. Surely there is more on that list of "things to do" but you get the general idea! All we can tell you is there were nights where we forced ourselves to stay awake because 7:00 is just too early to go to bed! 

With the busy summer months behind us, we took a little time to relax and get rested. We drove up to the north coast and spent a few days at the beach and drove through some incredible countryside to see more of this beautiful island nation that we now call home. In the next couple of weeks, we will be able to finally unpack the rest of our belongings and maybe hang a picture or two. We will also spend more time with Cheryl learning as much as possible before their departure for Nicaragua. In September we will begin more Spanish - please pray that we learn much!

We so enjoyed getting to know the people who have come through the base this summer - the interns, the team leaders, and the outreach participants (from age 1 to 75). We had many great conversations across the tables at meal times. We never grew tired of hearing how being in a new culture, experiencing new things and sharing the love of the Lord Jesus Christ has an impact on people's lives. We look forward to new teams coming and seeing some of the folks we have met return - we hope that some of you will be among them!

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." 
Ephesians 3:20 & 21

We Are Here ... Home!

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.” 1 Timothy 1:12

This past Wednesday (June 15th) we touched down on Dominican soil ... home. For the past few months we have been on the road, living out of suitcases. What a wonderful feeling to know that we can finally unpack our bags and settle in somewhere!

Thursday dawned bright and early and we were off and running. During the summer months we have back-to-back teams that come for a two-week outreach. The Thursday before new teams arrive, we journey into Santiago and shop for the upcoming outreach. Our predecessors, Lowell and Cheryl, have this process down to a science and it is an amazing thing to behold! Our first stop was Pricemart (like Sam's Club) and in a little over an hour we had amassed 3 flat-bed carts and 2 shopping carts full of groceries. As we surveyed all those groceries we couldn't help but wonder how they would all fit into the van! Prior to the trip to the city, the back seats of the 12 passenger van are removed. What made this trip a little more challenging is that one seat was left in since we were along! The back of the van is lined with coolers which each get 4 frozen chickens tossed in. Packed around the chickens are the other meats and perishable foods. The non-perishable foods are packed into boxes and larger items (like gallon bottles of cleaners and gallon cans of ketchup) are stacked around the coolers and boxes, all the paper products go on top. By the time the carts were empty, we probably still had half the van left for our next 2 stops! Cheryl is a master packer - next shopping trip I'm taking pictures - you will be amazed! After a quick stop for lunch we were off to Nacional and La Cerena, two large grocery stores in Santiago, to buy the rest of the supplies on our list. By mid-afternoon we were on the road back to Jarabacoa thoroughly exhausted, especially as we contemplated unpacking and putting away the load of groceries now occupying the entire back of the van. Fortunately, once back at the base, there were people that jumped in and helped to get everything unloaded and stowed in plenty of time for the cooks to get dinner out on time. We will only have 3 more shopping trips with Lowell and Cheryl so please pray that we are quick studies!

On Friday we had the day off and were able to unpack the bins Mary Ellen and the Jupiter Christian School team brought down in March. As familiar things began to appear and get put away we began to feel even more at home. On Saturday, Mary Ellen worked with Maggie in the donation room and Dick had his first experience with Dominican driving, helping Lowell shuttle teams that were leaving the base. Aside from the near miss he had on a narrow bridge with a semi he fared pretty well! Tomorrow will be the real test as he does a series of airport runs with Lowell.

We spent today going to church in the morning with our friend and house-mate, Amy (who runs the Special Ed school), ate a delicious lunch prepared by Cheryl, reviewed what we can expect as this new outreach begins with Lowell and Cheryl and did as much resting as we could for all the activity that is to come!

Please continue to pray for us as we become familiar with our job responsibilities, practice the Spanish we have learned, learn MORE Spanish, and continue to settle in. In spite of most everything being new and different, we are happy, we are among friends, and we are at peace knowing that the God who has called us will equip us for the work He has for us to do!

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17

Making Choices

We sit in a crowded restaurant in Panajachel, Guatemala. The menu choice was simple for a change: Tipico or Continental. We choose "Tipico y café, por favor." We sit and enjoy our breakfast of coffee, scrambled eggs, fried plantains, wonderful slices of warm bread with New Zealand butter, a watermelon wedge, and frijoles fritas ... Okay, maybe not the frijoles fritas. We haven't yet acquired a taste for the black bean purée that is often served cold.

Our "simple choice" this morning makes us think about choices we are making in this phase of our lives. We can simply choose to live in victory or in defeat. Defeat is easy to choose. We are very often weary - learning a new language is hard. Adapting to a new culture is difficult. Dealing with physiological changes brought on by a foreign diet that contains things our bodies are not used to just adds to the challenges. We have both had our days of sitting and feeling sorry for ourselves, longing for a home we no longer have.

But we chose this path because the Lord has called us to serve Him in a different place and in a different way. Our transition to the DR will most definitely include difficulties and challenges as we deal with "different" and we must choose to walk in a way that brings honor to Him.

We were challenged this morning by these words from Oswald Chambers, from May 15th: "First Peter 4:12 says, 'Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you ...' Rise to the occasion - do what the trial demands of you... May God not find complaints in us anymore, but spiritual vitality - a readiness to face anything He brings our way... We are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. Once we realize this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine with which to feed and nourish others." To borrow some words from a good friend, "Easy to say, hard to do."

But we will attempt to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and get busy with the task that is before us - Honoring the Lord as we learn Spanish, as we are constantly accosted by Mayan woman peddling their wares, as we attempt to check out of the local tienda, and as we bump into people who ask us questions we can't understand. Lord, help us to be broken before you.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ~    2 Corinthians 12:9

Muchas palabras nadando en mi cabeza!!

Translation ... Many words are swimming in my head

I walk down the cobblestone streets trying not to cry. I have just made my second trip from the school to the lab where I have to go to get test results for Dick. He has not been feeling well for a few days and is not getting better so we are checking to see if he has an amoeba or bacteria or some other such foreign substance swimming around in his body. I picked up the test results, having no idea what to do with them. No explanation was offered and even if there had been, I probably wouldn't have understood it. I then walked back toward the school to "La Bodegona," a large variety store where I know there is a pharmacy. I show the slip they gave me at the lab to the pharmacist and she fires a response at me. I can't even pick one word out of her response that I understand. After trying to explain to her that I only speak a little Spanish she slows down and obviously tries to simplify her response. It is finally clear to me that I do not have what I need to get medicine and that I will have to return to the lab with Dick so he can see the doctor and get a prescription. So, I walk back down the cobblestone street toward "home" empty-handed. I know Dick feels lousy and I so wanted to be able to bring something back to him to help him. And I also wanted to be able to succeed at something ... anything. But I am finding that lately, the learning curve is huge!

I am tired of feeling like an idiot and looking foolish. I stand out like a sore thumb with my gringo accent, my unstructured sentences, my American clothes and my "Earth Shoes" - they are a bit on the ugly side but so comfortable and helpful on the uneven streets (how the Guatemalan woman walk these streets in heels I will never know). Every weekday, I sit with my tutor for 4 hours and we practice what feels like the same thing over and over again. And I feel like I am making the same mistakes over and over again. My tongue trips over letter and word combinations and I just don't seem to be able to put the right endings on words. I use an "a" when it should be "o" and "as" when it should be "ar" and so forth. Most days I am able to laugh at myself. Everyone keeps telling me it will get better and I cling to that hope.

Along the lines of hope - the strangest thing is happening to me. As I think and as I speak in English, I am hearing bits and snatches of Spanish words and phrases in my head. It's a little strange. Kind of like when you start to drive out of the range of a radio station and you are hearing two songs at one time. I feel a bit crazy but I guess this is part of the process. Those of you who have learned a second language hopefully understand what I am saying (or else I really AM going crazy). It's like my translator button is stuck in the "on" position and I can't turn it off. Even as I type this, I am fighting the urge to type certain words in Español! The silver lining in this is that I think this may be proof that I am actually learning! I can honestly say that I know more today then I knew last Monday.

Just to let you know, the day did turn out okay, after lunch Dick and I walked back to the lab and he was able to see the doctor, get his prescriptions and is now resting comfortably. He should be good to go by tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to me ramble and be thankful that I didn't include the "Spanish static!" Off to study "mas Español."

The Journey Continues ... From Colorado to Guatemala

Today marks a month that we have been on the road and what a journey it has been! We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends in Texas and New Mexico as we made our way to Colorado. Cross cultural training at MTI was everything we had hoped it would be and more. It was challenging, stretching, heart-wrenching, and fun all wrapped up together. It caused us to dig deep inside to become more aware of our core beliefs and who we are in Christ so that we will be compassionate toward those we minister to and along-side of. We left MTI feeling better prepared, or at least better equipped to handle the stresses and challenges that will surely come as we cross cultures and learn to minister on foreign ground.

We are now in Antigua, Guatemala to attend language school until the 3rd of June. We arrived here on Friday night and were immediately challenged by our lack of knowledge of the Spanish language. We are looking forward to learning to do more than stare blankly at people as they ask us questions in Español, such as "Can I please see your luggage tags," or "What do you have in your bags?"

Fortunately, we were met by a driver from the language school who spoke a little bit of English and with our little bit of Spanish we were able to get loaded into the van and get to our hotel where we spent the weekend catching up on sleep and trying to acquaint ourselves with this beautiful colonial community. Our first challenge on Saturday morning was finding the language school so we could meet with the director and discuss our host family and the program itself. It's a good thing we left a little early because we made a few wrong turns along the way! Saturday ended with us feeling like we had accomplished much. We were able to: exchange money at the bank, order Burger King, buy a cell phone, pick up a few groceries, get an ice cream cone, and order dinner that was actually something edible! We were so exhausted from walking what felt like hundreds of miles! The streets in Antigua are challenging - you have to watch where you are stepping because the sidewalks are uneven and have holes in them and there are also wide cement window ledges that stick out onto the sidewalk so we have had to master the art of looking up and down at the same time! The streets are not much easier to navigate as they are cobblestone so it's easy to twist an ankle!

We attended a bilingual church this morning and appreciated being able to actually worship rather than spending the whole time trying to translate things in our head. We will have enough of that beginning tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin language school. Pray also that we can settle in with our host family (a 75 year old woman and her maid), and that our tutors will be the best ones for us. Please let us know how to pray for you. We love you and we miss you!

We are on the road!!

Thursday was an insane day of frenetic activity. We closed on the house and then spent the next 4 hours or so clearing the rest of our stuff out of the house. We then drove a very packed car up to Mary Ellen's parents house in Port St. Lucie and dumped it in the pile already accumulated there. In between dining on mom's wonderful swordfish and a visit to Heather & Berto to say goodbye to them and six of our seven grandchildren, we sorted stacked and stored bins. We repacked our suitcases and sorted through more stuff to make sure we weren't leaving anything vital behind! Will we ever be done with sorting through stuff?

Now we are on the road as this is being typed. It didn't take long for the emotions of leaving all behind to hit. We have been too busy over the past few months and even more so, the past few weeks to process through any of the emotions of what we are doing. As we reflect on that, we find that while it is heart-wrenching to say goodbye to our children, grandchildren, parents, other family, and friends there is a peace we feel in doing what we are doing. The Lord has been most gracious to us in confirming and reconfirming this call on our lives. Family members have come to the Lord as a result of this act of obedience. Others have renewed their commitment to Him. We are amazed and excited to see God in action in such dramatic ways.

Thank you to all who have provided prayer, financial, and emotional support to us. So many of you have spoken words of encouragement and blessing into our lives. We treasure each and every one of you! Leaving your presence is the most difficult part of the process. Things will pass away - your love and friendship is what will be with us on into eternity.

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and go through these next couple months of preparation and  please let us know how we can pray for you. Love and blesssings to you all!

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn"  ~ Isaiah 61:1-2
   

Here we go!

Wow ... it really been an unbelievable month and we have been so blessed in so many ways:

• We sold the house! In God's perfect timing, He brought the perfect person along to buy the house. We are so excited for the plans that the new owner has for the house ... knowing that it will be used for ministry makes it so much easier to let go of.
• We are close to having about 50% of our fundraising done!
• Mary Ellen was blessed with a free ticket to the DR so she traveled with the Jupiter Christian School team on March 5th and they helped her take 10 bins of our belongings down - a HUGE blessing! She will spend until the 12th of March doing some more training with Cheryl - another HUGE blessing!
• We participated in our first missions conference as missionaries at our home church - Grace Immanuel Bible Church. Our church family has been such a tremendous encouragement to us!

Our updated time-clock looks something like this:
We will close on the house the last week of March. Provided that all goes according to plan, on April 1st we will begin the journey of our lives! We will leave Palm Beach County, Florida (home for over three decades) and take the next ten days to reach Colorado, stopping to visit family and friends along the way. Cross Cultural training begins at MTI (Mission Training International) in Colorado Springs, on Monday, April 11th.

On Friday, April 29th, MTI finishes and we will fly directly from Colorado to Guatemala to begin five weeks of language school at Centro Linguistico Maya in Antigua, Guatemala. While in the program, we will live with a Guatemalan family and will be fully immered in language learning.

On the 3rd of June, we will return to South Florida to spend a little over a week with family and friends before leaving to head to the DR on the 14th of June! If you are able, please reserve the afternoon of the 11th of June to attend a farewell get-together. We should would love to see you before we leave! We will send out more details as they become available.

Please continue to pray for:

• Our final stage of moving out of our home & our ability to let things go.
• Travel mercies as spend the next couple of months on the road and in the air!
• Our time at MTI and our cross-cultural training.
• Our ability to learn - and RETAIN - Spanish!
• All the goodbye's and see-you-later's we will be having to say.
• 100% funding!

Plans Change AND God is Good!

"The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." 
Proverbs 16:9

We are going to the Dominican Republic.
Our plans were to have the house sold in December.
Our plans were to finish packing and fundraising in January.
Our plans were to be in Guatemala studying Spanish in February.

We are still in Florida. The house hasn't sold. There is still packing and fundraising to do. We are studying Spanish at home through Rosetta Stone. We are still going to the Dominican Republic. Our plan is to be there in June. BUT if we are learning anything through this whole process it is to be flexible, to trust God, and to allow Him to direct our steps. This is surely a lesson that we will learn and relearn (over and over again) on the mission field!

We are trusting God for our next step. We have had lots of traffic on the house in the last week and a possible offer that we are trusting Him for the answer to. Again, it's not what we had planned but we trust that He knows what is best for us. So, I should probably go pack some boxes then work on some fundraising so that I'll be freed up to work on Spanish later this evening.

Unless the Lord has other plans for us ...
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I work better from a list!

Old post from January 11th that I never posted ...
One of the greatest things I learned from working at Jupiter Christian School over the years is that I work better from a list. Making a list isn't something that comes naturally to me, even though I've watched my mother make lists for years. I usually "rediscover" list-making after I've fallen flat on my face. Yesterday was one of those days.

The first thing I did after breakfast was clean the kitchen. I was done in a matter of minutes; off to a good start! The next task on my list was to start going through the stacks of Christmas stuff scattered all over the living room. This isn't like every other year - I can't just stick them back in the 5 large tubs that they've always been stored in. These days everything has to be sorted. The now familiar sorting process that I have adopted goes something like this:

·       Quickly go through and pull out what I absolutely love and don't want to part with

·       Throw away obvious junk

·       Make piles of things to give away (to family, friends, and charitable organizations) 

I had already started sorting through the Christmas things but it was in piles that needed to be packed away and distributed to various family members; doesn't sound like such a big deal but here is my problem. I went out to the garage to get the bag that Melissa stores her Christmas things in and remember that I stripped the bed to wash the sheets. Better go get the sheets. I go get the sheets but before taking them back out to the garage I stop to hang up the sweater and jacket that I brought in from the car the night before. My once sorted closet is a mess again but I refrain from doing anything with it, "I need to stay on track," I tell myself. Okay - sheets in the washing machine - where was I. Oh yeah, Christmas decorations. 

I start putting ornaments, mugs, and household decorations in various boxes for the kids and discover that one of the boxes isn't big enough. Back out to the garage ... what a disaster area ... and I can't reach the box with all the boxes in it so I better sort through this stuff. 

Why in the world was I keeping a bucket of sand? 

I take it out back to dump in the yard and see the wind chime that I've spent the past couple of days refinishing. The only step I have left is to clear-coat it. I grab the wind chime pieces and take them to the garage to spray them since it's too windy out back. I start the clear-coat process, which involves a number of trips back to the garage every 10-15 minutes. Finally the wind chime has the necessary coats, done in sections so that nothing sticks together. In between these trips, I have spent some time checking and responding to email and looking through Facebook. In my defense, my whole purpose for going on the computer was to email some pictures of items I need to get rid of but now I'm feeling like I've gotten off track and am more determined then ever to get back to the Christmas stuff. That’s when I remember that I had started sorting through the stuff in the garage. I walk out to the garage, look around and decide to finish the Christmas stuff and THEN finish the garage.

Finally, the Christmas stuff is in boxes, bins and bags and ready to be distributed or stored. I go to the office where we are collecting all our storage containers and see that I have a couple of bins of gift wrap and craft supplies that I need to go through so I pull those out. But before I can go through those, I stop to fold up the air mattress the kids used when they were here over Christmas that was left on the floor. Oh, and I also need to fold up and put away the sleeping bags that have been airing out back.

The phone rings so I go to answer it and as I'm talking, I look around at the absolute chaos that I have created in the process of trying to “organize” the house. Thankfully, by the end of the day all the Christmas decorations were put away, the gift wrap and craft supplies have been whittled down to one small container to take and one to store, the wind chime is ready to be reassembled and the garage is in good shape!

I think from here on out, I need to work from a list!

Packing ... ugh!

Soooo ... I've decided that I hate packing. Actually, I love the challenge of fitting stuff into boxes and suitcases but this deciding what to take, what to give away, what to throw away, and what to store is not my cup of tea. I keep vacillating between this desire to just purge everything AND trying to be a good stewart of what I have. I mean, if I get rid of it here, what if I need it once I get to the DR?

And then there's the challenge of HOW to pack it. Basically what we are taking with us has to fit into suitcases. I'm not so worried about the gift wrap stuff and the craft supplies (do I really need craft supplies?) but what about my favorite ceramic baking dish or the bowl my daughter made for me? We're only allowed 2 carry-on bags and we have WAY too many breakable things to fit into just 2 bags. And then there's the computer, how in the WORLD are we going to get that down there? So I'm back to my original dilemma, what do I take, what do I give away and what do I store?

Forget packing, I'm going to get a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and watch a Hallmark movie. I'll pack tomorrow.