Enjoying my yard one last time...

Here is the greenery I was hoping would bloom before I left - and the one plant that did bloom.

What's Going On With The Dycks?

VisasLast Thursday we submitted the final paperwork to the Consulate in Chicago and expect to get our completed visas later this week! Once we get the visas we have 2-3 months to get to Asia-Pacific.

Goodbyes

Goodbyes are always difficult. We have said goodbye to my MOPS Group,







our Neighborhood Group,

the boys' Awana Club,









and to various pieces of furniture, including the boys' bunk bed!










We will deeply miss the friends God has given us.

Packing


Most of our time is currently being spent packing and getting rid of stuff.






Last Saturday we mailed all of the books that made the cut. That was quite the job! They all had to be packaged in small boxes and then put into an "M-bag" at the post office. Everything had to be weighed and well-marked. We should get them in Asia-Pacific in about 3 months - they're going over by boat!!


The boys got in on the fun!






















Yesterday we mostly emptied the office, though I still have papers to go through. This morning we left a plate of cookies and a big pile of stuff for the sanitation workers. Today will be spent in the basement to sort stuff into "taking with us", "storing" and "getting rid of" boxes. We hope to move out of the house Friday or Saturday and then finish up here while staying at the Luy's. Our closing date is May 31st.

Josh's last day of work will be June 9th.

Once we are out of the house, we will have the month of June to connect with you. Our prayer is to be available to serve you - our friends and supporters! Life is full and we have not had the opportunity to connect one-on-one with many of you. Please let us know how we can interface with you.

Thanks for your prayers!

Visas and Departure Info

Visas
On Tuesday, May 2 we got an e-mail from Bill Cork in Asia-Pacific letting us know that our visas had made it through the second of three steps! Now all that is left to do for our visa is to submit our information to the Consulate in Chicago - this should go pretty quickly once we have everything ready to send. We are so thankful for how quickly this has gone!

Departure
We were anticipating departing on May 30th or 31st, but have decided to delay our departure by one month. We have not yet reached 80% in monthly pledges. Please pray with us that the Lord would provide the additional pledges needed. We continue to pray for Josie's folks to get their visas to re-enter the US - hopefully our delay will allow us to see them before we leave as well.

Good-Byes
We are enjoying having Josh's folks with us this week. They watched the kids last week as we were out of town for some training, and now we have them with us until Friday morning. Jodi graduates Friday night from The Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA, and they plan to fly in for that special event.

A quote from my reading this morning:
"Faith brings God into the scene, and therefore it knows absolutely nothing of difficulties - yea, it laughs at impossibilities. In the judgement of faith, God is the grand answer to every question - the grand solution of every difficulty. It refers all to Him; and hence it matters not in the least to faith whether it be six hundred thousand (dollars) or six hundred million; it knows that God is all-sufficient. It finds all its resources in Him. Unbelief says, 'How can such and such things be?' It is full of 'Hows;' but faith has one great answer to ten thousand 'hows,' and that answer is, -God" -C.H. Mackintosh
Thank you for praying with us as we trust the LORD with our future.

Accepted Offer!

Praise the Lord - He answered quickly! Our house was on the market for 7 days and we received an offer for the exact amount we were asking. It looks like a winner and we went for it! It is contingent on the inspection which will happen in the next 10 days, but we don't anticipate any issues. Margo - thanks for the many months of prayers! We have mixed feelings but mostly excitement, thankfulness and anticipation. More another day...

One Down, Two to Go!

We received this email this morning from Asia-Pacific:

Greetings all,
We just received your visa recommendation letter from ________!! That means that step #1 has cleared and the visa process is definitely on its way! With this step over, I have hopes of your visas being approved within this next month. This Immigration approval is step #2. Step three is getting your visa stamped into your passports at your chosen Embassy. Lord willing, it won't be long now!
Keep praying and moving forward!

Thanks for praying! We couldn't do it without you! God is answering those prayers!

House Listed!

The big news of the week is that we have put our house on the market. There will be an open house on Sunday. Here's the link to the listing online in case you know of someone who might be interested: http://www.shorewest.com/vp/ListingServlet?SITE=SHOREW&ScreenID=LISTING_DETAIL_P&cd_MLS=669968
It's feeling a little strange to be doing this, as this is our first house and it will be a bit hard to leave it, even with the adventure we're going to!
The keynote speaker at Breakaway last weekend said something that hit me at the heart level - "To go somewhere, you have to leave somewhere." That started my eyes leaking, and they leaked on and off all weekend!
Putting our house on the market now when we don't yet have a visa is a definite step of faith, as it could fall through. Though it's not likely, it's not impossible.
Please be praying with us that our house would sell quickly and that our visas would come through in a timely manner. It's so good to know that our Lord has the timetable and that we are in His hands. Thanks for your prayers and support in this next step!

Green Means Go!

Wanted you to be the first to know... we just got an email from our missions pastor saying that we had a green light from the Counsel of Elders to go to Asia-Pacific!

It "officially" begins now - I was just saying to Josh last night that I can't even begin to think about all that we need to do before we go. Obviously above all else we need to continue in prayer and seeking the Lord's direction as there are many decisions to be made. Beyond that the biggest thing to do will be to sell the house, which is mostly ready to put on the market. We will have to see how long the visa takes to get before we do so, though, since we'll need a place to stay until we leave.

Thanks for your prayers for us and our kids as we start to work through this process. We couldn't do it without you!

Good Times

Well, Jo left on Monday morning and life has fallen back into some semblance of normalcy. We had a great time with her, as always. The kids love Auntie Jo and she's nuts about them so that's a great combination. Julia was teething molars so she was on-again-off-again with Jo but they had their share of snuggle time too. Jodi watched the kids one noon so that Josh and I could have lunch together, a real treat. One night we got a sitter and took Jodi out to the Thai Palace in Milwaukee. We've been there a number of times and the food is always great! We really enjoyed the time to talk and the Volcano Chicken! These photos are from our evening there.
We were actually planning on dinner at Abu's Jerusalem of the Gold - an Arabic restaurant we have enjoyed a number of times. Jodi clued us in to the yummy schwarmas they make because she learned to love them when she studied in Israel last year. We got there, and the restaurant was closed for remodeling, so we headed over to our second choice, Aladdin's, but for some reason that was closed too! It was quite a trip to find an open restaurant downtown Milwaukee on Thursday night!!

 

Status Update

Just a quick update - we have a preliminary "green light" to head to Asia-Pacific from the Elmbrook Missions Committee and have one final hurdle before it's official - the Counsel of Elders meeting which is in about a week and a half. So, we continue to wait in expectation. Thanks for praying with us and we'll let you know as soon as we get the "GO!" 

Jodi and Julia Getting Acquainted

This is the first time Jodi's seen Julia since she was 5 months old, so it was great the Julia went right to her - not a common reaction to a stranger! 

Checking each other out!

Had a fun outing at the zoo last week - Julia had a fun time checking out the animals (as did the boys)! Josh's sister Jodi arrived Thursday and will be here until next Monday, so we're enjoying the time with her. Josh has Friday off, so we'll have 3 days at the end of her stay to hang out as a family! More snow coming tonight, so Jo will have had 60 degrees, major wind and a snowstorm in her 10 days in Wisconsin. Must be a Wisconsin spring trying to happen! 

Meeting Update

So sorry it's taken so long to get back on and update you on the meeting with the missions pastor and committee member. It went well, and I believe they had the opportunity to express their concerns with this "quick switch". We had some good dialogue and will continue to talk about the things they brought up. We will update you when we know more! Thanks for praying.

Recent Pic

I've been trying to figure out how to put this onto the blog, so here we go. This is a picture taken at the Parent-Child Dedication at our church on January 22nd. We dedicated all three children. 

Hold On

I'm listening to an old Evie song called "Hold On" as I write this. Some of the lyrics I'm catching as I type are:
"You've got to hold to His hand, God's unchanging hand, you've gotta build your hopes on things eternal, my God will never let you down. Hold on a little while longer, You've gotta hold on, you've gotta hold to his hand, hold to the master's hand. Never give up, never give in, He's always by your side, never let go of his precious hand. My God will never let you down."

That would be the theme of our days these days since February 5th. That's when we got the call to discontinue plans to head to Venezuela. Then, 5 days later (on the 10th) we left on our trip to Manitoba, Canada to visit my (Josie's) home church and relatives.

We hadn't been "home" for 2 years, so it was a visit long overdue. We got back on Sunday the 19th. We drove during the night both ways, so there was a lot of prayer involved - prayer that Josh would stay awake, that he would know when he needed to pull over and take a nap, etc. It's a 12 hour drive each way. The kids did fairly well, with Julia being the one who struggled the most with being in a carseat while she slept. Our time in Canada was COLD - -32 C with the windchill in the -40's. Not the whole time, though - it started a bit warmer. We had a great time of fellowship with people from church as well as family members we hadn't seen in a long time. We actually got to see all but one of Mom's siblings (she's one of 12) so that was quite the treat!

Since we got home on the 19th, we have been actively looking at getting visas for Asia-Pacific. Tonight we meet with the missions pastor and a member of the care committee to discuss issues associated with us going to Asia-Pacific, so I'll let you know how things look after we get a big picture "lay of the land". Thanks for praying with us in this next unexpected step!

Supreme Court Speaks - Mixed Decision

This is the official NTM Venezuela news release on the situation there:

Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down a preliminary decision on the case of New Tribes Mission of Venezuela. The Court determined not to suspend the effects of the Resolution from November 14, which gave missionaries 90 days to leave tribal zones. At the same time the Court accepted the request for a hearing on the constitutionality of the Resolution. New Tribes members will continue their exit from tribal areas in order to meet the February 12 deadline. In the meanwhile, NTM will be seeking the overturning of the Resolution. The final decision on that count could require up to a year.

Please be praying with us as we make the final decision on this.

We have been in touch with the field of Asia-Pacific about possibly heading there and have been encouraged by their positive response.