4.7 Earthquake and more!

Well, I have to admit, that an earthquake at 2:40 in the morning can really "shake" your nerves.  Kami and I were both startled awake this morning by what we now know was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake.  There was no damage except to our nerves!  When we checked on the kids, they were all still sound asleep!  I can honestly say that our kids 'can sleep through an earthquake'!

We had a great service yesterday.  It was good to have Kami and the kids back.  I have been doing a series on Prayer and really emphasizing the fact that a true prayer life is the evidence of being saved.  Our main/starting text has been James 5:16 "...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  If God doesn't answer your real prayers, it may be that you aren't saved or there is sin in your life.  After three weeks, the ladies are beginning to answer questions and really participate.  Next week's lesson will be that of answering the question, "What things do I pray for?".   After we finish next week's lesson, we will begin a new series.

It is good to have our telephone and internet finally hooked up at our house.  We have been able to post on our websites/blogs, keep up with current news, and talk with family on an "anytime we want to" basis.  What a luxury after almost 8 months!

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  Although we had three sick young ones, we were all together as a family for one of our favorite holidays.  We managed to get a small turkey and feasted on all the trimmings.  Kami did a great job on her newest pie: a sweet potato/coconut milk pie with marshmallow meringue.  Mmmmm!  Josh said it is his second favorite pie...Kami's apple pie is first.

For Christmas, we are working on a number of Christmas carols in French.  We plan on going Christmas Caroling here on St. Barths.  This is not a tradition they do here, but one we will take advantage of!  The girls are making Christmas potholders with Bible verses to give out while caroling.  We will also include with the gift a French copy of the books of John and Romans, a tract, and an invitation to our Bible study on Sundays.  Please pray that this goes well and that we can see a man saved who will start coming to services. 

Thank you all for your prayers!  Until next time...

Finally!

Great news....Kami, Elisabeth, Silas and Callie finally arrived back home yesterday after more than a month of being in Florida.  As most of you know, Kami had to leave to be able to apply for her French VISA in Miami and Elisabeth had to have an orthodontic appointment.  It has been over a month!

We met them on the island of St. Martin to help them take the ferry back to St. Barths.  When their flight was over an hour late, I panicked because I knew we were probably going to miss our Ferry boat to St. Barths due to the construction and traffic from the Airport to the Ferry boat across the island.  When we jumped into the taxi, I told the driver, "There's another $20 if you can get us to the Ferry dock before 5 PM."  I just want to say that speeding taxi-drivers can be a scary thing!  However, we made it at 5PM!  I ran in and got us checked in right as they were going to close the office.  Praise the Lord!

Another praise is that after 7 1/2 months, we finally have phone and internet service at our home!  I got a call this morning from our phone company's technician and they hooked up our internet service this morning!   What a blessing!  This means that if you would like to call us here in the West Indies, we have our Vonage set up so you can just call our Florida cell-phone number to contact us!  (239) 898-3436.  

Yea! Another Update!

Just to let everyone know, we still do not have internet service nor telephone at our house.  Thus it has been difficult to keep up with regular posts and updates.  We did receive our telephone line on November third, but it doesn't work so we have an appointment on November 16th to hopefully get it fixed!

Here are a couple of updates for now:

- Kami is presently in Florida with Elisabeth, Silas and Callie.  She needed to leave St. Barths by the end of October so that she would not be illegal here.  She has been in Florida since October 22nd.  There has been a lot of paperwork to take care of.  She has been able to renew her American passport which needed to be done before she could apply for her French VISA.  This past Wednesday, Kami went to the French Consulate in Miami and applied for her French VISA that will allow her to stay here for 1 year.  During this time, we will finish registering the rest of the children and obtain their French passports.   After we have done this, we will apply for Kami to become a French citizen. 

-As many of you know, Satan has worked very hard against us in getting all of the paperwork completed to have French passports for our family.   Satan has blinded the eyes of the people here in St. Barths to the truth and filled this island with false religions.  He is working very hard to hinder us in presenting the truth here on St. Barths.  But God is good and has allowed us to overcome all of Satan's hinderances and obstacles that he has put in our way thus far.  Our latest obstacle has been that the Chief of the French Consulate in Chicago has accused us of adopting Elisabeth and Brenna and that their birth certificates are not valid.  (Only Satan could have put this in his head!)  Thus he has required that we provide a lot of documents to their office to prove that the birth certificates are authentic and that our girls were not adopted.  He told us that if he is not satisfied with our documents, he would send our entire "dossier" to a judge in France to rule on the authenticity of the birth certificates.  We have had to gather and will be sending several documents such as:  Kami's medical records confirming her pregnancies for both girls, military medical records, official letters from the Department of Health documenting our situation and authenticity of the girls' birth certificates, letters from myself explaining the birth certificates, and we are even sending the pictures of Kami's ultrasounds as an added bonus! (Although I think the ultrasound pics look like were going to have little aliens!)  Praise the Lord, we should have all of the necessary documents by the end of this week to be mailed to Chicago including a personal letter written by the State Registrar of Missouri's Department of Health on our behalf.  To be honest, I didn't think we could get any of the documents that we needed to provide but that is a testimony to our great and mighty God, Jesus Christ!

-We also praise the Lord, because with the same Birth Certificates that the Chief of the Consulate in Chicago accuses is not real, he said that they can be used in France to allow our children to live with us until they are the age of 18.  (So doesn't that mean the birth certificates must be real?)  So we have plenty of time to get the girls paperwork straightened out and completed before they turn 18.  Thus, for the time being, we should have a totally legal family here on St. Barths as soon as Kami gets her VISA.

-Did I mention that we serve a mighty and great God!