Family Fun

Brice's sister and brother-in-law gave us their vacation time and decided to visit us 2 weeks ago!  So, here they are.  We feel bad as they have been serving all day long and helping out.  So we all tagged along on the group fun day.

The Long family came from Texas.  This was a rare treat as not many people bring their kids and they brought theirs (3 kids 3 and under:)  Our kids really enjoyed playing with theirs.

Special cousin time at the waterfalls

Turtles at the pirate beach are so fun to pet.

One of the murals painted by Tierra, Ribinson, and Jamie at the preschool bathroom.   If you could have seen it before this area for the preschool was just an overhang and garage, so it is really special to see it transformed.

Our new shape tree by Mrs. Donna.

Special friends sent some money in honor of their sweet grandson and our son's close friend that went to heaven when he was only 2.  So with their help and my mother-in-law donating paint, and the group, Tierra, and one of our students painting they it is beautiful!

Here is a friend from Ozark College days, Westin Williams, teaching the students as an adjunct teacher for 2 weeks.  

Longview Visit

It is not often you get a church to come on board that you don't really know or grow up in.  Longview let Brice come and share, sent special friends the Reed's to see the work here, started supporting monthly, continually pray for us, and now brought a team all in the last year.  They have been a huge blessing.  Here are some pics of all they are doing this week and we still have several more days left with them!

Walking around passing around the word about the church, prek, and Bible College.

Visiting the waterfall by our house.

Helping and passing out t-shirts to kids at Kids Club.  Loving on our Bible College students and staff.

Painting amazing murals!

And a special surprise has been Brice's sister (above), brother-in-law, and baby all got to come and visit this week too!

Building and putting on the new added part at WISE.

I can't even list all the things this group has done.  From 6:30am-late at night they help out in so many ways.  Tiling, roofing, painting, sorting, cutting, the list is endless all they have done.  Thanks so much, Longview church family! 

Settling in

Arriving home was a busy adventure.  I had thought to be unpacked, house swept and mopped, and start having old friends over by the next day.  Ha!   We, of course, arrived home after 5 hour delay from LIAT Airlines at 10p.m.  

Upon entry to our home we realized -

The water was not working, there had been a leak and needed to be repaired.

We had no cash on us and our debit cards to get cash had been turned off since we had again traveled to another country.

We had no groceries and no money to get groceries.

We had no internet- this can be a blessing too!  But since our phone is through the internet, could not call to get our cards reinstated.  

The AC unit in the house had a bees nest inside and no longer worked.  

The stove was out of gas.  

And you know what.  For 2 days we were smelly, hot, and hungry. It is so hard to imagine that so many in the world live like this everyday. I pray we love others and when aren't as comfortable as we would like, we would still be grateful.

 I think we got grouchy some.  And the school let us some borrow some things.  But, it was also so wonderful to be back HOME.  Hearing old friends at the airport say, "Welcome Home" thrilled us.  It really has become that for us.  We are just so grateful to be all be together back home.  And as I looked around me more, I was so thankful for friends and people we have come to know here, for the school and those who work there and for the students yearning hearts to learn and grow, and for God's provisions with a roof over our heads and knowing exactly what we need when we need it.  

And now that we are settling in we got to celebrate Naiyah's 7th b-day party! We had a slumber party, which was a first for us. 2 of her friends came that are her age.  And then one of the younger girls big sister came along too.  And of course little brothers had to tag along.

Chaotic US

Memories surrounding this summer  :

•  Over 12,000 miles of driving to churches.  
• A donated can full of cracker crumbs.  
• Many cookouts full of love.  
• 3 long plane rides to America and back. 
•  Different floors to sleep on each night.  
• Packing and unpacking and loading. 
•  Convention. 
• New friends and new support.  
• Our kids thinking Wal-Mart is a zoo.
• And finally being back home.

My family and friends accuse me of constantly organizing things.  I make lots of lists.  When plans change or go differently than I had thought they would, I get frustrated.  So, God using us as missionaries on a foreign field has us all laughing.  Trying to keep everything perfectly organized is useless.  I still try.  But.....

everyday I need God's grace

because I can't order it all perfectly.

Only He can.

And because I am human, I have to be reminded of this daily, maybe way more so while on furlough. I can't control times we have to be places and arriving late when construction is going on.  I can't control that my kids don't nap in the car and have to stop often for potty breaks.  So most days in my orderly world were chaotic this summer without our routines.  It wasn't often we all got out of the car at a presentation or new place clean, happy, and eager to present.  Sometimes we were tired, grumpy, and extremely messy.

 We try to be back about 5 weeks every summer to see family and visit supporting churches and families and share about the work of WISE.  This summer we had to be back a little longer to see a few more churches, since support has been down lately.  We got to be in several weddings, and see lots of places and faces.

If you have visited, you know despite my planning and apologies in not having a clean house- usually it is a home filled with kids, chaos, crumbs, and love.  If we stayed at your house this summer you know I had great intentions to be very organized with 1 bag for the boys and 1 bag for the girls and we would live out of those 2 bags.  But of course: encountering garage sales, extremely cold weather (Hey- upper 70's to us means pull out the winter wear!), and dirty laundry we always toted around so much.

And after living and overnighting at 18 different guest homes these past few weeks, we grew so much in blessings and encouragement.  I can't even begin to list all the ways we have been blessed.  I still get amazed that all these families are willing to put up with the 5 of us. We're blessed to have families that have space for us and lend us their cars and watch our kids and the list is endless.

2 BIG things I'm thankful to not have or do in St. Vincent:

1.Driving-We drive on the other side of the road in St. Vincent, so I don't drive there as I'm not a great driver in the states.  On our last day in the States this time, I took the new van graciously given to us to use while back this summer and hit a curb in an effort to avoid a semi.  So, it's a really good thing I don't drive in St. Vincent!
2.Dryers- We don't have them in St. Vincent and it is a great thing.  My poor in-laws dryer and the clothes in it got ruined by things left in our pockets.

Being back with you, our prayer lists have grown.  We pray just as we are extremely chaotic people that Christ will continue the good work in you and us and carry it on to completion forming and growing us until Christ returns.  (Phil 1:6)

Special friends along the way

How I wish I was better at remembering our camera at every house we get to visit and see dear ones.  But, I'm not.  Here are ones people sent us.  We miss home in St. Vincent, but have been very grateful to come back to raise support, be in a few weddings, and see so many familiar faces.  We wish we could have seen everyone who supports and we love, but only had limited time back here.  We're sorry if we missed you.

Our dear friend and supporter Steve married  sweet Beth and we got to be there!  Steve has supported us in huge ways and he and his new wife asked friends to donate to help WISE instead of receiving wedding gifts.  We were so hunbled by their giving hearts.  Here was a picture at their wedding dance.

My only brother got married, so now my 3 sisters and I gained another sister!

Catching up with old friends is so refreshing.  Even more so when they are our old youth kids all grown up!

Cousins are so much fun!

Traveling all over with our booth sharing about WISE.

Catching up with special friends in Nebraska.

More cousin time!

Meeting up with new friends who will visit us in Sept!

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Celebrating our summer b-days.

Pax is pretty fortunate to have 3 boy cousins all his age!

More family time around the wedding.

Getting to see dear friends we served with in Haiti - so much to catch up on!

Fun with our 2nd cousins in K.C.

Fundraising, Family, and Friends

We're on a roll.  Thanks to the staff at WISE and intern Morgan Woods helping at the preschool things are rolling in St. Vincent.  And we are rolling on wheels around the country (special thanks to Brice's uncle for loaning us his van, since we don't own a car).  

We get to share with supporters and a few potentials in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida.  Good thing the car seats have not been to much to get used too!  And we are off and hope to see you while feeling blessed to share what God is doing at WISE!

Jesus loves the little children

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak,

But He is Strong!

Yes, Jesus loves us.

Yes, Jesus Loves Us.

Yes, Jesus Loves Us.

The Bible tells me so.