Just a quick update..........

Joshua and I have arrived safely this past Tuesday on St. Barthelemy.  Joshua has fell in love with the island here and loves just about everything about it.....except for island time!   Island time is basically, "you live on an island that is 8 1/2 sq. miles so there is absolutely no need to be in a hurry....so just wait around for awhile, everyone takes their sweet time!"

Yesterday, we traveled around and accomplished several things:
1) We signed our lease agreement on our house....so it's official!
2) We got the electricity changed into our name.
3) We ordered our phone/internet service...it should be available sometime around May 6 or later.

I have already run into a Jehovah's Witness.  We exchanged some French dialogue but I was at the hospital visiting someone and could not get into a deep conversation.  As for now, my French is still lacking in vocabulary, especially when trying to discuss Biblical doctrine.

I have already begun to be introduced around the island as the "Pasteur" (Pastor).... and we have already begun to be asked to pray for someone in the hospital.  A pastor once said to us, "God is preparing the people of St. Barths to receive the Gospel just as much as He is preparing your family to deliver the Gospel."  We can see that our Heavenly Father is already at work!

Our household goods arrived today.  It must have been pretty rough seas for the boat that shipped our belongings...many boxes were crushed or broken open but I think our stuff looks like it faired okay.  Joshua and I got everything moved in just two truck loads, and we are glad for that.  We even have begun this evening to start putting together bunk beds and get some things set up.  It will be a very busy next few weeks but we are looking forward to having a home and get off the road of deputation!

2 Saved!!!

I just wanted to write a quick post that Grandma's funeral went very well.  Praise the Lord 2 ladies raised their hand that they accepted Christ as their Saviour after I preached!  Josh and I are traveling today and will be on St. Barths by 5:15 this afternoon.

Blessings, Laughs, & Crying......and a vehicle!

This week has been filled with all sorts of emotions.  From "How are we going to get everything ready and together?" to "Wow, God is bringing everything together!"

Let's look at a few:
The Crying
-Kami's Grandmother passed away this Friday.  She was an amazing lady and knew Jesus Christ as her Saviour.  It seems hard at times to balance the grief we have in knowing that we cannot see her again in this life versus the joy we have in knowing that she is with our Lord Jesus in Heaven.  We will miss her.
(on a side note: I will be conducting/preaching her funeral this Monday, the day before we leave for the West Indies.)

(This is Grandma June's last picture before she passed away.....she loved Callie Grace.)

-There are times that we begin to cry as we think of the family and friends that we will leave behind here in Ft. Myers.  Especially the fact that both of our parents are here in Ft. Myers and attend the same church. 

The Laughing
-We have had so much fun with family and friends these past few weeks.  We have shared stories and had great fellowship as we remember the "good old days". 

The Blessings
-We have bought the tickets to leave.
-We now have a Suzuki XL-7!  I was able to put new brakes, spark plugs, air filter, & wipers on it so that it will be ready for the mission field.  (We still have to put new tires on it, a new right front outer boot, and get it shipped as soon as we can.)
-We have already shipped about 2/3 of our stuff to the field.

The Overwhelming
-The constant packing of household goods.
-The constant paperwork for customs, shipping companies, driver's licenses, etc.
-The constant little "Oh yeah, we need to do this.......Oh, don't forget this....."  things. 

And they tell us that things get harder when we get to the field!!!

Our "Send Off" Service.........

This past Sunday, our home church had a special "send-off" service for us as we quickly approach the day of our leaving for St. Barthelemy.  I have to admit, I knew it would be emotional, but the entire day was a roller coaster of emotions.  I preached in the AM service and Kami sang a song that got both of us crying.  This started a waterfall of tears throughout the church!

The evening service was was our actual  Send-Off service.  Bro. David Fenley, who is our field director with Macedonia, came down and preached the service.  He did a great job!  Here are a couple of pictures to tell you how our evening went.

(Some of our family surprised us by singing a mission's song for us...)

(Of course, Pastor Strange wouldn't let our family get away without singing some specials as well...)

(A special touch was when the Deacons and Trustees prayed with each member of our family

and gave us a special word of encouragment...)

(Pastor then had all of our family line up to show our long heritage

at Winkler Road Baptist Church.....)

We ended the evening in the Fellowship Hall with sandwiches and cake.  It was a great time of fellowship and a day I will never forget.  I truly believe that we have one of the greatest churches as OUR sending and supporting church.  There are so many people who pray for us on a daily basis.  We praise the Lord for our family, church family, and our Pastor.  Thank you everyone!

Almost There!!!

Things are coming together (except for the vehicle, still looking for one!).  

-We praise the Lord for Central Baptist Church of New Port Richey for taking us on for support! 

-We also had a dear Pastor friend who personnally took us on for support this past week as well. 

-I received a call this morning from Pastor Tim Perry of Calvary Baptist Temple (E. Bernstadt, KY).  He said that the church will take us on for support!

-We had a wonderful meeting at Pasadena Baptist Church of Dade City, FL this past Wednesday evening.  Pastor Douglas said he was very confident that the church would take us on for support when they bring us up at their next business meeting which is May 1st. 

(Thus we are needing only 2 more churches to take us on for support to reach our goal!)

We are still packing our household goods and getting everything ready for shipping.  There is so much work still to be done and we are anxious to get everything in place. 

(Trust me....it looks much better now than this!)

This Sunday evening, we will be having a "Send-Off" service for us at our home church.  It will be a special service yet one filled with emotions as we say good-bye to friends and family.

I have also received an email about our paperwork that is being worked on in the French Government.  The lady said that she is waiting for the Government of the Virgin Islands to send her some information regarding their laws.  Once she receives this, she can work on finalizing our paperwork.  However, she still needs some more paperwork from us.  I am contacting (via handwritten request) for this paperwork from the Virgin Islands.  When it comes in, I will forward it to her in France.

Please keep praying about all of these matters.  Especially a vehicle.  We are still trying to find one in our price range so that we can ship it out this Monday but time is running short.  There are some vehicles that we have found that would be perfect, just none we can afford.  So pray with us that we can find one that is affordable. 

Until next time......................

More Tickets Bought !!!

We now have all of the tickets that we need to get to St. Barthelemy.   We purchased the tickets for the second leg of our trip.  The first set of tickets that we purchased were from Miami to St. Maartin.  We were then planning on taking a taxi across the island and then taking the ferry over to St. Barths.  However, after looking at all of the prices involved, (taxi fares, ferry tickets, and an additional round trip ticket to St. Maartin for me to meet Kami and the kids to get them to the ferry) we realized that it didn't cost too much more for us to get plane tickets from St. Maartin to St. Barthelemy. This would be easier than trying to load everyone into a taxi with all of our stuff and then having a 3-hour wait for the ferry and getting in pretty late.  Not to mention, I will not have to meet Kami and the kids to take them across the island, they would just stay at the airport for their connecting flight.

Although the total flying time from St. Maartin to St. Barthelemy is only 15 minutes, the cost of the tickets seem like we are traveling some great distance! 

Please continue to pray for us as we are still packing all of our belongings for shipping and trying to find and purchase a vehicle as well.

It's Official !!!

Yes, it's official!!!  We purchased our tickets this morning to leave for a very special place called, "Our Mission Field & Home". 

I will be leaving on April 26th and then the family will follow on May 3rd.  We will be flying on American Airlines out of Miami, FL to the island of Saint Maartin.  From the airport, we will take a taxi to the other end of the island to Phillipsbourg and purchase tickets for the ferry-boat.  We will then take the ferry (if it is running!) to St. Barthelemy to the main harbor town of Gustavia.  From there we will head to our house in Grand-Cul-de-Sac.

Even though the airline tickets were expensive, they are paid for!  We have been putting aside money each month to go towards the tickets and it feels great to have them purchased!

Our next major hurdle is that of a car.  We would like to purchase a vehicle in the next 2 weeks to be able to have it shipped to St. Barthelemy for when I arrive there.  Please pray about this with us.  Please also be praying for our goal of 6 more churches to take us on for support, this needs to happen in the next couple of weeks as well.