The Next Step.........

Well, in the next week, we will be purchasing airline tickets to move our family to St. Barthelemy.  Our current plans are for me to leave in the last week of April to make sure everything is prepared for the arrival of our family to our mission field. 

Kami and the kids will come a week later.  My goal and hopes are that while I am there the week prior, I can get our vehicle set up and ready to go, get our house cleaned and some groceries in place, and any other necessary things that I haven't even thought of yet! 

Please pray with us that the airline tickets that we need will go down in price over the next week and that we can get a vehicle that fits our needs and be able to ship it and our stuff to St. Barthelemy.

Cross out 7.......needing 6!

We want to praise the Lord for Bible Baptist Church in Bradenton, FL  for taking us on for support last night at their mission's conference.  Pastor Mark Campbell came to me after the services and said that they are taking us on for support and wanted to be a part of our ministry. 

It was a great conference and we would love to be there for the entire conference but we start another mission's conference tonight through Sunday.  We had such a wonderful time of fellowship with everyone and folks didn't leave the building until 9:45 last night.  There was such a sweet spirit there!

So you can cross out 7 and now put in that we need just 6 more churches to take us on for support!

If you don't believe Satan fights......you're not in the fight!

     Whenever we have a big decision to make for the Lord or we are about to take a big step of faith, we have always seen Satan fight us along the way.  (By the way, if Satan isn't fighting you, then you must be on his side!)  Here we are at a major step of faith in our lives, about to leave to bring the Gospel to an island controlled by Satan and covered in "darkness".  We have seen an incease in not only a spiritual attack on our family, but a physical one as well.  Many of you who have kept up with our blog have seen that we have faced many physical problems while in language school and especially since we have finished language school.

     Well, we are at it again!  Kami took Silas and Callie to the doctor today after a week of having colds and here is the outcome:
Callie has two ear-infections that rate on a scale of 1 to 4 (4 being the worst) hers being 3 1/2.  She also has a severe case of pink eye which has spread an infection to her lungs and sinuses.  She again is running a fever and looks so sad.

Silas has the same severe pink eye infections and also infantigo (spelling?) which is another infection as well. 

Please remember to help us through prayer as we draw near to bringing the Light of the Gospel to a dark island......

Praises from this week!

Well, it seems as if we are getting somewhat better.....yes, this week, myself, Callie & Silas have had the flu/colds.  I am doing much better today but Callie and Silas still have cold symptoms that have lasted a week.  The closer we get to leaving for the field, the more physical attacks we become placed under. 

I did want to mention a couple of blessings from this past week that I thought you might enjoy reading about.

Last Sunday I preached and two young people came forward and accepted Christ as their Saviour!  We praise the Lord for working in their hearts and I am thankful that they came forward and made a decision for Christ.

Today, I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize my nephew at our home church.  He is 19 and I can see the Lord working on their entire family.  I want to give a testimony as to what is making a difference in their home.  Kami's sister (Keela) and her husband (William) started becoming faithful to church and wanted to get more serious about their walk with Christ.  I gave William a CD of a sermon by David Gibbs, which is my favorite sermon.  They listened to it and then downloaded every sermon by David Gibbs they could find and listened to every one.  Talk about a shot in the arm!  (The Bible says, "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.")  the more solid preaching you put in your life, the more you will grow! They then joined the choir at church, started tithing, and right now, they are on track to finish reading their Bibles through in 60 days!  Let me tell you, this is a recipe for revival!

Update on our paperwork..........

I received an email from the French Government in France concerning my paperwork that I am needing to have changes made to in order to be able to apply for our French passports.  The lady that sent me the email apologized because my paperwork was sent to the wrong department and has just now made it to her department which is the right one...all this after 2 years!

Basically, she is working on it but needs me to send some more paperwork in which I have to have translated into French by a registered translator.  I have already began the process of getting everything translated and should have it all back in my hands by the end of next week.  Then I will over-night everything to the government in France.  Hopefully when they receive everything, we will be able to get our paperwork changed and approved.

Little House on the Island....

     Praise the Lord that we have secured a house to rent on St. Barthelemy.  We received word this morning from the landlord that the house is ours to rent and we are so excited!

     Now that we know where we are going to live, we have so many things that need to come together that we would love for you to pray about.  We are needing so many things to come together in such a little time.  One of which is our paperwork from France.  We need this paperwork so that we can register our marriage and children and then get French passports. 

     Our other prayer requests are the same as any other missionary getting ready to leave for the field.  We are praying for all of the finances to come together for shipping our household goods, airline tickets, and also a vehicle for St. Barthelemy.  We know that the Lord is working on our behalf and we have come a long way since the day that we started deputation.  The Lord is great and greatly to be praised!  Just this morning, we received an email from one of our supporting churches that they have a surplus in their mission's fund.  They emailed all of their missionaries asking for a couple of their financial needs at this time so that they can try to help.  It is good to see the Lord working on our behalf!  Thank you for your prayers for our family!

Please Pray w/ us about this house...........

(We have a two-bedroom house that has become available to us for 1,500 Euros.  It has a very secluded yard that is surrounded by lots of trees and vegetation. Even though it is on a main road, it is fenced in so it would be safe for Callie and Silas to run around the yard.)

(The bedrooms are the same size (10.5 x 11.5) and can fit two sets of bunk beds very easily)

(This is one side of the front porch.)

(This is the living room looking from the kitchen)

(This is the back of the house...can't you just see an awning put up and chairs lined

up for church services one day?)

(This is the other side of the front porch)

(This is absolutely the biggest kitchen I have yet to see on the island!  It would be great for

fellowships and having people over!)

We have prayed about this place and have peace that the Lord would have us to rent this place.The current renters are leaving at the end of this month and then the owner wants to do some things to the house.  "Through the grape-vine", we were told that he wants to put in a dishwasher for us since we have a large family and he wants to get a new fridge and washing machine as well.  He also wants to add an air conditioner to one of the bedrooms as well and get the place cleaned up.  This is, by far, more than we ever expected in a house to rent.  We had previously expected to rent one of the older kinds of homes without any windows or screens.  The owner has several other families lined up to rent the house but we are supposed to have the first option.  I emailed him yesterday and told him that we would like to rent the house.  I have not heard back from him yet, but please be praying that we will hear from him soon and that he has not made the house available to anyone else yet.

A Great Mission's Conference & Another Teenager!!!

We have spent the last week with Southside Baptist Church at their Mission's Conference and what a great time we had!  We had a great fellowship and ate plenty of wonderful food!  Here the kids are standing with our "goody" baskets that we received the first night. 

On Friday, the missionary families and Pastor Nance's family went to the zoo.  We had a great time but if you notice, we were all in jackets and sweaters....it was chilly for Florida!  On the last night of the conference, Southside Baptist Church added us to their Mission's family!  We praise the Lord for Pastor Nance and the church family for their wonderful kindness and spirit in which they serve the Lord.

Today, March 14th, is Elisabeth's birthday.  She is officially a teenager!  She is growing up so fast and maturing into a wonderful young lady who loves the Lord.  She is a great daughter and loves her daddy.  Last night she sat in my lap and put her head on my shoulder and said, "I love you Daddy."  She can just melt your heart!

Happy Birthday Elisabeth!  (My Bethy-pooh)

Hotel Life and just a bit more..........

(Silas playing with his train in the hotel window.)

Hotel life can get tiring but we try to make it as fun as possible.  Sometimes, we get into the hotel and we unload all of our stuff (suitcases of clothes, bottled water, 2 play-pens, suticase of shoes, briefcase, hanging clothes, sleeping bag, and much more.....) and then we find our own corners to just have a moment to unwind.  Silas found this window sill (above) and loved looking out over the water below and playing with his train.  Sometimes we read books, sometimes we play family games, and sometimes we collapse into bed and take a nap!

We just arrived back into Ft. Myers yesterday (Monday) and spent some time at Kami's parent's house.  Then we came back to my mom's and unpacked and re-packed all of our suitcases and did laundry.  We head back out tomorrow to Tampa to be a part of the Mission's Conference at Southside Baptist Church with Pastor Kerry Nance.  We are excited about the conference and especially the fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  

The conference runs from Wednesday thru Sunday and then we come back to Ft. Myers to celebrate Beth's birthday.......yes, she will be our newest teenager!  Yikes, two teens in the same house!  She is developing into such a Godly young lady.  Just the other day, she was ironing all of our clothes and I asked her what she was doing.  She replied, "Daddy, I am practicing my skills!"  I praise the Lord for her!

As for our family's health, every one is doing fine but I went back to the doctor today and got some more antibiotics.  Hopefully this latest prescription will cure me for good!  I just praise the Lord that we are able to attend this upcoming conference.  Please continue to pray for a house to become available next month for us to rent, for my french paperwork from France to come in so we can get French passports, and for all of our finances to come together.  We are still needing 9 more churches to take us on for support, a vehicle, and all of the finances needed for moving a family of 7 to a foreign country.  We appreciate and covet all of your prayers for us and praise the Lord for each and every single one of you!

Sick Again.....

It seems that the closer we get to leaving for the field, the more spiritual and physical attacks we face.  For almost two weeks, we battled through some of the most miserable flu/fever/lung infections.  Then we had one week of repose and then Silas started throwing up on Monday morning.  He threw up all the way home (a 2 hour drive) from our meetings.  Then on Tuesday evening, Brenna started throwing up, followed by Callie, followed by Beth, followed by Joshua (all in the same night), and then Kami got sick the next day!  I have to admit that I kidded with Kami when Brenna started throwing up and Kami was helping her.  I said,  "Wouldn't it be funny if two of them got sick at the same time!"  How stupid was that to say!  I learned my lesson.......

I literally did loads of soiled towels, one after another, then bed sheets, then quilts and comforters.....what a mess!  (Do you know what it is like to get creamed spinach out of bed sheets?)  Yes it's gross!

We are now doing much better and I have yet to get sick (and hopefully won't).  Our plans are to leave tomorrow for some "drop-in" meetings in the Tampa area.  Please pray that all goes well and that I don't get sick and that our family doesn't get any new "bugs" as we travel.