Celebrations & Surprise!!

As we ended a week with what seemed like disappointing news, we were able to celebrate our time here with some close friends and family. Jeffrey's parents threw a party to have some time of "goodbyes" with our friends and family. We know this is particularly hard for them with us moving and taking the grand kids so far away. We also have mixed emotions saying goodbye without a set date to leave. They also decided to have a surprise birthday party for Jeffrey at the same time. Great surprise!! We had an awesome time with great food and time spent with everyone. Thanks,MOM and DAD!!

On Sunday we also celebrated Jodi's grandmothers 80th birthday in Gatesville. Again, great time with family and some goodbye's. We are looking forward to celebrating Jeffrey's grandmother's 88th birthday this week. What awesome lives lived!

Waiting!!

As we are waiting on our God for the work permit from the Jamaican govt. I received an email from Nicholas with CCCD in Jamaica that said he has been calling all week to get the status on our paper work. On Thursday they said "we can't find it!". Now he will have to personally go to Kingston and present them with copies of our paperwork that we sent to them in April(almost 3 months ago).
After receiving this news there was a sense of disappointment, just the thought that it will take that much longer to get approval before we can move. Then we remembered who was in charge and the fact that God's timing is perfect and not always ours. He has greater plans than we do so at this time we are happily waiting on God but praying for a quick resolution to this situation. We are thankful for a great support team that quickly and continually lifts us up in prayer.
Also, Jeffrey Jr. aka "Pickle" continues to ask almost daily if we are going to Jamaica (I love those conversations)! This always reminds me of how we should be anticipating God's timing, with faith like a child!!!

Family and Fireworks

We celebrated the 4th of July with our family in Port Aransas, TX(a tradition for over the past 10 years). As we traveled down we were anticipating the arrival of hurricane "Alex". We didn't get to experience much with the exception of a day of rain.

We did spend some quality time with our family and friends and was able to watch the fireworks on the water. The children enjoyed being at the beach with their cousins and friends.

Faith like a child

In the last several weeks Pickle(Jeffrey Jr.) has picked up on the fact that we are moving to Jamaica. Now every time we get in the car to go somewhere he says"Going to Jamaica?" and we have to tell him that it is not this time. Yesterday I told him that we would be going on a big plane when we go to Jamaica. So now he says "Going to Jamaica on a big plane?"
As we are packing and trying to figure out the way to do this moving (internationally), we've been very frustrated because we can't always get the answers we want on how to do this without paying for a full service moving company. While discussing the move yesterday with a friend I told him of our frustrations, he reminded me of how God will provide the answers when we need them. I then was reminded of Pickle's desire to go to Jamaica. He asks nothing about what it will be like, how will we get there, what will we take, is it going to be OK, or anything about the move away from the life he knows here with his friends and family. He just knows that we have told him we are going to Jamaica and in a two year old way trusts his mother and father for all the details. Faith like a child(Matthew 18:2-4)!
Please pray that we would have faith like a child and as we are waiting for our work permit from the Jamaica govt. and packing/sorting through our house we can continue to walk and serve God with the faith like a child.

Graduation and a Weekend in Surfside

We are wrapping up our lives here with a celebration of Lexi graduating from 5th grade at her school this week and the end of another school year.

We just returned from a great weekend with Jeffrey's family at the beach in Surfside, TX. Surfside was a place that Jeffrey's family spent their vacations as he was growing up. This was a gift from Poppie who hasn't been to the beach in probably 25 years. It was great to see our children get to spend time with their cousins and also to see Nonnie and Poppie on the beach with their grandchildren.

Arrived, not yet !!

We reached 100% of our monthly committed funds on 5/11. This has been such a paradox for our whole family. Happy that we get to go but also sad that we are leaving. We know that our fund raising is not "completed" and will always be a part of our lives as long as we are missionaries. We have been so excited in the past few months to be able to focus full time sharing our "Ministry Vision" with others and getting to know so many people that we would not have had the opportunity to get to know otherwise. We are so excited to have reached 100% but also reality is that we will be moving soon. As we wait for our Visas to come in we will continue to raise our support team to a level, so that we don't have to return soon after leaving to raise funds. We have also been blessed by different people offering services to us for little or no cost for different things we need. We are so thankful that God provides in so many ways and that we are so blessed!

Allison singing

Allison came in last night with the guitar and wanted to sing for me. After the first song I asked if I could record it, she said "Sure". Here are the results. Amazing talent!!