Three Days To Go

How do I explain the veritible swirling of thoughts and emotions. "To-Do" lists keep flying through my mind. I do one task and then another while making sure we've got time with family and friends too. In three days, we leave for Italy. We'll be gone for over two years. All the things that I love about Tulsa and the USA in general, will out of reach and sight for those two years. We are looking forward to being in Verona, but time is sooo crunched right now it is hard to wade through the feelings.

We heard from the landlord of our storage in Ancona. He has been graciously making sure our car is up to speed for us. This is way above and beyond any repsonsibility he has. He had a nearby mechanic check the fluid levels, the shocks need work and the tag is out of date, all of which the mechanic is doing before we return.

Also, our rental agents in Verona have gone the extra mile for us. They already have our electric and water running. They were going to have it painted and cleaned for us too, but the cost was more than we were willing to pay right now.

We spoke with the manager of our apartment in Tulsa and she said everything looked great and we would be getting our entire deposit back within the next 30 days.

Last night, I found out our first flight had been changed which in turn didn't give us enough time to change planes in Chicago. So this morning, our travel agent got our new reservation for a few hours before. So, now we leave earlier, but still in America the same amount of time. We have a layover in Chicago for four hours!

We found out that excess baggage prices have almost doubled since we last flew internationally. So, we will be going through our previously set aside stuff to determine its "weight in gold" and therefore take it with us.

Lots to think about. Lots to be emotional about. We are metaphorically straddling two continents. My mind bounces back and forth like I'm watching a tennis match in my head. In a week.....things will again begin to sharpen in focus.

Crunch Time

Just a little over two weeks in the states is all we have left. It is crunch time. It doesn’t matter how much we plan ahead and try to get things done ahead of time these last weeks are always crazy. There are just some things you can’t do ahead of time. You have to do them at the last minute. That is where we are now. The last minute.

I am so thankful for the time we have had here in the states. I never would have guessed that we would have a year and a half in America at this point in our lives. I see it as a gift from the Lord and I have thanked Him every day. He knows the desires of my heart. I am happy to serve a God who loves me and cares for me. A God who provides not only what I need but what I desire. I love you Lord!

Newsletter - May 2009

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Pre-Departure Stage Has Begun!

Pre-departure Stage Has Begun
This week we received confirmation from a church that is supplying $4,000 out of the last $5000 that we needed in one time support. Since that is 96% of what were raising in one time support we are moving forward into our pre-departure phase. We are currently shopping for tickets around June 7-10th. That gives almost three months to do everything we need to do before heading back. Several tasks had to wait until we had confirmation, so now we can begin those tasks and in fact have already begun some. Thanks for your prayers, your gifts, your sacrifice and your support as we have gone through this very flexible period of preparation, training and support building. The time has not been wasted and we have been grateful for the extra time with family, friends and an America that we love.
April Houk, who is also ready, will be joining us in Italy about three weeks after we arrive there. Arriving prior to any team members will allow us to set up a more stable environment as they arrive and experience the culture, Italian style. It also allows us to take care of some of our specific legal and logistical tasks and then be allowed to put more focus on April and all subsequent team members that follow.

Featured in Horizons

We were featured in the August 2008 issue of Horizons Magazine. The article is about missionaries when they are in the states for their Home Assignment. Horizons is "devoted to publishing news about cross-cultural mission work among the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. "

Go check out the article at Horizon's website, click on the August 2008 magazine:

http://missionservices.org/horizons/horizons.html

Or here is a direct link to the latest issue:

http://missionservices.org/horizons/2008_08.pdf

Ice Storm in Tulsa

So, we had only been in our new apartment in Tulsa for a week, when a major ice storm hit. It has been pretty bad, with up to half of the Tulsa residents being without power for one to three days. We have been very fortunate that our lone apartment complex has managed to keep its power on throughout the entire process. Our apartment has only had a few blinks off and on of our electricity and internet, other than that it has been great. Angie's sister, Mary Ann, and her two kids have been staying with us, while her husband, David, has been getting extra time making sure cable stays on for the homes that have electricity (he works for Cox Cable). My parents, and one brother lost their electric, so they went over to my other brothers house and he has two fireplaces....which ended up coming in handy since his electric finally went off today. At Wal-Mart today (my first journey out for two days) I picked up some more items in case the electric still does go off, like three cans of self-heating soup, a bag of beef jerky, several candles and heat bags, that once popped will provide small amounts of heat for 10-24 hours (depending on which bag you use). At Wal-Mart several of the food shelves were low or completely empty....my cashier has not had electric since Sunday. It's bad, but hopefully getting better. Here are some pictures.

Check out the thickness of the ice on these branches (above and below)!

Below you can see one of the many trees that fell in our complex...this one just happened to fall on one of the townhouses...ouch.
Below you can see the icicle beard along the truck we have been driving.

You wouldn't want one of these icicles to fall on your head.
This was the hot dog section at Wal-Mart (for all those using fireplaces and outdoor grills for cooking, I imagine).

The section below looks like it was part of the dairy section. Not sure if this was because it was shopped over, or because it went bad when Wal-Mart lost electricity.

And here you can see the empty pizza shelves, with one lone DiGiorno pizza left behind. There were more around the corner, but this sight was pretty shocking to see.

Breaking the Silence

Well, we've been back in the states six days shy of one month now. We are just now starting to relax. Five days after returning we headed out to Louisville, Kentucky for the Team Expansion team leader summit. It was a great experience for Angie and I to get to know other Team Leader's and become more prepared as a leader for our Verona team.

After the team leader summit, we stayed in Louisville a few more days going to various meetings with personnel at Team Expansion's home office and visiting our PACE church, Shively Christian Church. One day I got incredibly sick with fever and bronchial congestion but the next day it was gone and we were ready for to leave once more.

We then headed to Cincinnati, Ohio for the National Missionary Convention. We were able to connect with many old friends which is always good and hang out with Team Expansion missionaries as well as others. Our two main goals were find new churches for support and recruit for the Verona team. We spoke with several contacts in churches, but none seem to be able to help financially right now. However, we were able to interview and informally chat with several potential recruits. Many top notch candidates and we are in various stages of development with them. All in all, it was a good trip for us. We left Cincinnati Sunday and got back in Tulsa Monday evening.

The last few days have been spent with family and friends, enjoying the holidays and down time. There have been some negative stressors too, but the good definitely outweighs the bad and God continually supplies what we need in every given moment.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to a good football game between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys....go OU. Then tomorrow night I will be watching the Kansas and Missouri football game. The winner of that game will determine who OU plays, if OU comes out on top versus the Cowboys. Overall it should be a good day for college football.

We'll be working on things next week and then taking some vacation time during December which will combine with the holidays in order to provide us some great refreshment and recharging. We will be start doing presentations in January of 2008, so I will be putting the finishing touches on our promotional materials next month. And now to bed. G'night.