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.

Waiting Pattern

As you know, we've been in a waiting pattern to find out whether or not we're actually going to Venezuela April 1. You may have already heard that New Tribes Mission Venezuela has begun to evacuate tribal stations in an effort to be responsive to the deadline that was given to them in November. They were hoping to have a stay on this directive from the Supreme Court before this, but it still has not come. If this resolution to have NTM removed from the indigenous areas of Venezuela goes through, we will not be continuing on the path to Venezuela, as they will probably not need our help anymore. We are considering 2 other fields in case this does not work out. Please pray with us that we would know what the Lord would have us do. We hope to have a decision made by February 9.

Please continue to pray with us for closure on this situation - the missionaries in Venezuela have held on for a long time and are weary of the waiting, the uncertainty of their futures.

Thanks for lifting us and the missionaries in Venezuela to our Heavenly Father in prayer.

Better Now

Wow, since we had those shots, our kids have been sick. Julia ended up with bronchitis and the boys with bad colds. We seem to be close to the end now, though, and we're thankful. Some nights were a bit scary with the uncontrollable coughing. We had Julia in the shower to steam her a number of nights in a row and I even went as far as a mustard plaster a few nights! We're thankful for nights we can sleep through now. Guess you don't really appreciate your health (or your kids' health) until you don't have it. Good reminder.

Things are still hopping here. We continue to go through stuff and the Goodwill pile is getting larger again. We also just sent out a letter to all the people on our mailing list, so that was a big job.

We continue to wait to hear good news from the Supreme Court in Venezuela. There was a resolution printed in the newspaper there on November 14th, 2005 that said that NTM had to have all of their missionaries out of the tribal locations by February 14, 2006 and we were hoping for a stay of that resolution by this week. The way it works is that the resolution is printed in the newspaper and then if after 90 days it is not contested or repealed then it becomes law. We have heard that NTM Venezuela will begin to evacuate their tribal stations on Monday or Tuesday if a stay has not been granted. The mission's Venezuelan lawyer has submitted a petition saying that this resolution is unconstitutional, as there is freedom of religion allowed in the constitution. So we continue to wait and pray.

If for some reason the Supreme Court does not agree that the resolution is unconstitutional, then NTM will no longer be able to work in the tribal locations and will need to be more creative (where they can be) to work with their tribal contacts by bringing them out to urban locations or something like that. If that ends up being the case, we won't be needed in Venezuela as much anymore, as the missionaries will each be able to handle their own finances.

Thanks for praying with us about this verdict.

Shots II

Whew - glad that's over! Last night our appointment was for 6:30. Before the appointment I spent about 2 hours filling out their paperwork (12 pages per person - no joke). We didn't leave the travel clinic until 9:15. The kids did well when they had their shots, as well as can be expected, anyway. I gave them tylenol before we left the clinic, but realized much later that I hadn't given the boys a large enough dose. We were home by 10 and our very tired kids fell asleep right away.

By 11:30, though, one of the boys was crying and moaning in his sleep. We tried to tell him to just sleep on his back, but by 12:30 we were so exhausted and couldn't handle any more crying, so we dosed them both up again and they conked out for the night.

I felt terrible that it had to hurt so much for them, but the vaccinations are a much better alternative to getting yellow fever, typhoid and so on. The typhoid didn't hurt going in like the yellow fever did, but it hurt the most later. We're looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight! They did say that the side effects for one of the shots was the throw-ups, so thankfully that hasn't happened yet!

Josh and I are both so in awe of this magnificent creation that God has made - the human body. It heals itself all the time, and you can inject sicknesses into it so that you won't get too sick if you're exposed to the real thing. Amazing. Makes serving the creator a much more comfortable proposition, knowing that He thought of absolutely everything, down to the most minute detail. And He knows us each intimately, down to the number of hairs on our heads...wow! We serve an awesome God.