Dedication celebration

As we start another week we are that much closer to moving. Our lives have been so busy(as we know everyone has). We are trying to make the most of every moment we have with our family and friends.

Sunday we celebrated the dedication of our son Matthew to our Lord. We chose Isaiah 49:1,6 to pray over him.
1 Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the LORD called me;
from my birth he has made mention of my name.
6 he says:
"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

As we searched for a verse to pray over our son I was reminded of how so many times we were asked while Jodi was pregnant with Matthew "So what does this mean for your move to Jamaica?" My response was "There will be one more person serving God in Jamaica!"
Our children's calling to Jamaica was done before they were even born. God knows what our lives will bring and how he will use us. We are so blessed to be used by God to serve the deaf in Jamaica.We look forward to seeing how God will use not only us but our children.

How much more??

While in my office, Erin comes in and says "Dad, How much more do we need?" I told her that we were now at 89% and only needed 11% more. We are close! She said "when we get it all can we stay here just a little bit longer, maybe another week?". With us getting close to 100% she thought we would be leaving quickly after the funding was there. So I turned to her to focus my attention and to explain to her how this will work. Once our support team is together and our funds are committed we have to wait for the Jamaican government to grant us our work permit(could take 6-8 weeks or more). After we receive the paper work for the work permit then we will make a trip to the Jamaican embassy in Houston and get the rest of our families visa. We will make the 4 hour trip to acquire the visas instead of mailing them and it taking 2-3 weeks. Then she says "we need to pack everything up too!" I said yes we have to pack everything to move too. She says "can we start packing now??"
What a blessing it is to have children that are excited about our move, as parents we know it is hard for them to think about leaving but are excited about the change in our lives.

Easter Bunny

We spent Easter with our family. The kids enjoyed the time with their cousins. My brother dressed up as the Easter Bunny, enough said....

Awesome God!!

As God has shown us in the last several weeks that our job right now is to share our "Ministry Vision" with people and give them the opportunity to join with us and He will do the rest. So,we have been very excited to meet with our friends and family to share our vision and allow them the opportunity to partner with us. Our emotions have been up and down through this process with God super exceeding our expectations. I don't know why we would expect anything less because He is God.
As we started this week with 73% of our monthly funds committed, we had a goal to raise our 80% by the end of March. That only allowed 3 days to have the 7% committed. By the early evening of the 31st we had made it to 77% and we were very happy but a little disappointed that we didn't make it to our goal. Then through a few phone calls late that evening God poured it out and we reached 85%. He not only allowed us to reach our goal but provided in abundance. The next day we then reached 89%, which means only 11% more! As we are praying to reach the 100% we are so humbled to think that God is allowing us to be a part of this process.
We are celebrating this Easter weekend with a humble heart because of what Jesus did for us all and what God is doing through us. We hold these times close realizing that this might be our last Easter celebration with our family in a while.