Abby and Jeffs wedding went off without a hitch and they spent a week in the Smokey Mountains before coming home to open gifts, load a 20' trailer with all of their earthly possessions and head of to Edmond Oklahoma, a suburb on the North side of Oklahoma City. Abby will be working at SandRidge Energy, where she worked as an accounting intern last summer. And Jeff will be using the mechanic skills he learned in College at a local Car Dealer (which one is yet to be decided). Jeff and Abby are also now the proud owners of Emma Jean, the family yellow Labrador Retriever. We knew that we had to find a new home for her and Abby wanted first chance at her.(actually the only chance). Things are beginning to look different at our home now as Abby took some of our furniture with her, Fred is also starting to set up his house in LaGrange and Greg is living on his own in Kendalville. So our house is getting emptier and more cluttered at the same time as we keep finding things that we need to get rid of before we go. So once more we cry out, GOD HELP
On our trip back over Memorial Day weekend, it felt different to know that most likely our next trip down will be to stay. Nina was not able to come with us as her passport did not come to our house until the day after we left. It seemed that there was a contest with who could be the most stubborn about the issue, the ones in the Passport Office or the Father of the Passport-less traveler? Well I already told you who won and it was not Nina. It was a really good trip besides all that and Marcy and Janae just loved it there. Marcy was really intrigued by all of the "brown kids". We quickly headed that off by explaining to her that they had names just like us and we need to use their names and that they were people just like us. Then it turned to the "brown people", instead of the "brown kids". Somehow she missed the message. I guess we do that many times too. Miss the message, Too many times I am so sure that I know what has gone wrong with a situation that I miss the bigger picture of what God is teaching me in all of it.
During this trip we looked into housing, vehicles, household furnishings, ......... and of course the closest Ice Cream Shop. Soon after returning home on June 1st we did actually buy a vehicle, a fridge and a gas stove from two different missionary's down there that were leaving to come back as their term had ended. We also accomplished getting Janae and Marcy into Jarabacoa Christian School (JCS) and they enjoyed the 1/2 day that they spent there in the classrooms. Nina will be attending the school where Karen and I will be at, Genesis School of Special Education. Now we begin raising our support for our time there. That will be challenging to say the least but again as we learned in Colorado, GOD HELP! We feel very confident that we are on track with where God wants us at this point in our lives and he will provide what ever it takes to pull this off, as it says in James 2, that we need the Faith of God, however we also need Works. One without the other is worthless, dead, useless. Along with the Faith, we need to do our part in the Support Raising portion of this adventure. I do have to admit that I am somewhat looking forward to having so many of you partner with us in the mission that we are doing, it will be more than the five of us in this project. It will be literally hundreds. Thanks in advance for the help. Look for more posts as we draw nearer to our departure date.
