Travels

As we sit here in Jamaica pondering our last week of God sightings. After packing and saying goodbye all day Saturday, we arose Sunday morning at 5:30 am to attend service at Beautiful Feet, also for prayer and goodbyes. We arrived at the airport with 18 pieces of luggage. Our family was there to help us get checked in and to say goodbye. After many hugs, tears and goodbyes, Jodi and I braved the security check point with the five children, six carry on bags, 2 backpacks, car seats and diaper bags. At the terminal the lady at the desk allowed me on the plane before everyone to put the car seats in place. We all grabbed a piece of luggage and loaded the plane. One flight attendant was especially nice to us offering free(yes free) snacks and sandwiches for all of us. She was very compassionate for what we were going to do and our move. After getting off the plane we were able to go through immigration on the Jamaican side(where there was no wait) as opposed to going through the visitor side that everyone else was going through. After leaving immigration walking to get our luggage, a gentleman said "Mr. Daniel!" I said yes, he proceeded to tell me that he had all of our luggage stacked on carts and would help us through customs. We went to the lady in customs and she asked how many people and how many pieces of luggage, I told her seven people and 18 pieces of luggage. She said that is quite a bit for a 2 week stay. I told her that we were moving here. She said OK stamped our papers, then said get going! We walked out of the airport to meet our friends from CCCD and an added surprise was The Black family was also waiting for us(they moved to Jamaica in April and are serving with another ministry). They helped us get settled in and get to the grocery store but could only buy a few basics since the refrigerator wasn't working.
That day was particularly hard for all of us, just saying goodbye to our friends and family. Many tears and conversations about what will be missed. God is so good to provide for us even in the hard times. We also praise him for the blessings as we traveled.

A week of God sightings and Goodbyes

Again God is showing Himself faithful! As we/I stress about how we are going to get our visas and get into Jamaica, this week is a time of Awesome God sightings.
So far the scenario that needs to happen is that my work visa needs to be finalized(we got news today that it is ready!!!). Next it needs to be picked up tomorrow(Tuesday) in Kingston and sent overnight to us here in Texas so we can have the original paperwork and take it to the consulate in Houston on Thursday and get the rest of the family a visa. As you see if we don't have our visas when we leave on Sunday Oct. 3 then we will have to return to the states within 90 days. Doesn't sound like such a bad deal but the cost for our family to return would be around $3000.00. So after we get the paperwork on Wed. we already have an appointment with the Jamaican consulate in Houston on Thurs at 11:00 AM. They are only open Mon,Tues and Thurs from 9:15-noon, so this will have to happen on Thursday since we leave on Sunday. Our desperate prayer to God this week is that all of this process would take place, the visas would be granted and we would be able to arrive in Jamaica with our visas in hand.

Through this process I am personally having a hard time saying goodbyes because I will be coming back to Texas in November to load and ship our container and prepare our house to sale. The emotions of the family have been up and down, strongly desiring to get to Jamaica but not wanting to leave our family and friends. Through all of this I have been so encouraged by Erin's desire to give our prayer cards to everyone and share with them about what we are going to do in Jamaica. Even tonight at BSF when I went to pick her up from class she ran over to me asking for more prayer cards to pass out in her class. I thank God for children, they sure help me to stay focused on God.

So as you see we have a lot going on this week with our emotions, packing, paperwork and we have so many friends and family we still want to see and say our goodbyes to.
I'm so glad that God is in charge of the details, I know I sure couldn't do it without Him.
-Jeffrey

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!

Home?

We arrived here at our house in Ft.Worth on Saturday morning after leaving Colorado on Friday. I am afraid to call it home at this time, I don't really know where home is at this time. Leaving our new friends at MTI was very difficult for all of us. I always opt for the quick getaway without the long goodbyes. We learned during our training that we need to be good at saying Goodbye but we first have to learn to say Hello. Some of the staff at MTI waited for us to leave(we were the last to leave in the group)and then they followed us down drive waving goodbye until we could see them no more. We did this with them as each group left MTI and I also got to hold Lexi as she wept as the first van left with our new friends. I think she is learning what it is to say Goodbye, as her teacher told her "I hope it hurts when you have to say Goodbye". What a great way to say Goodbye! Allison said tonight one of her favorite parts of this week was when we got to run after our friends waving Goodbye.