Goals and Expenses

/in /by

While at candidate school we realized the importance of setting goals for deputation and seeking to meet them. So we came home and James started a new job. We’d set some goals for setting up meetings but James’ work schedule didn’t really allow him to meet any of those goals.

The last couple of weeks God has really opened up them time for him to make calls to set up meetings. It is exciting to hear from him each time he gets done making calls and see what God has done.

Saturday we found out that the water pump on the van was going out. Thankfully it doesn’t look like anything is messed up in the engine. However, we can’t get it fixed yet. We needed an oil change on the smaller van that James uses for work but needed to save our money to fix the bigger van. James gave the smaller van an oil change. It went smoothly for the most part. He did get the wrong oil filter but was able to go back and get the right one without a problem.

Time Management

/in /by

More meetings. I scheduled these sitting in the shade in my van in between calls, using my cellphone. Juggling a full time job and deputation can require creative time management sometimes.

As of Friday, we’re scheduled for meetings at Open Door Baptist Church on November 13th, First Baptist in Grafton, IL on January 26, and Lafayette Bible Baptist for their Missions Conference January 12-16. Thanks to all the Pastors who graciously granted us time to share our vision for Uganda, Africa.

Spider!!

/in /by

Last night when I was getting ready to climb in bed I had to move James’ work bag (has tools, software, etc. that he needs for work). As I reached to pick it up a HUGE spider crawled onto the side of the bag. No kidding, it must have been 2-1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. And it’s legs weren’t even really spread out completely. It was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. Even James was a little horrified by the size of it! I screamed, did a little jig and called for James. I made sure he saw it then went into the livingroom to get over the chills running up and down my spine! Most of the time spiders aren’t really a big deal to me. I might jump when I see one fall off something I just picked up but killing them is no big deal. This one was just too much for me. I was even a little scared to get close to look and see what kind of spider it was. Thankfully, it wasn’t a brown recluse. I get to look forward to this kind of thing happening all the time in Africa! Maybe, by that time the boys will be able to kill the really big ones!

Busyness

/in /by

Today was a productive day. Currently, we’re booked for a Sunday meeting in December, at Lifegate Baptist Church in Ellisville, MO, and a missions conference in Heritage Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO in February. I wasn’t really sure how the whole calling Pastors thing was going to work, but it turned out to not be so bad once I got started. Sure appreciate the graciousness of those guys. I’m finding it to be rather challenging to work the needed calling around my job schedule, which has been very busy of late. I’m looking forward to getting the requisite 10-15% support we need to live on, and/or a full meeting schedule, so I can quit my job and do this full time. Hate serving two masters. Just isn’t fair to my current employers, and puts a real drag on my real calling, which is deputation.

As of now, the prayer card design is done, all but the family picture, which should be back from development early next week. We’ll be getting it off to the printers after that, and should receive the output not too long thereafter. Our letterhead (for prayer letters) is done, and our slide presentation script is complete. We’re working on getting the pictures selected and organized, and are picking out the music. We’ve booked the third week in August to go back down to Chattanooga to work with Jerry Dwire and get the slide presentation done. That leaves the display, for which we have all the component parts. We just need to finalize the design, and we should be all good after that. In the meantime, I’m calling pastors as often as I can find time, which is tricky, because pastors keep business hours too. Pray that I’ll get adequate time, and a full schedule quickly, so we can enter the full time phase of deputation soon.

Interesting days ahead….

Beginnings

/in /by

We have started. Deputation is on. James and I agree, we are really eager to get started. However, we have a long road ahead of us. James has been making phone calls to set up meetings. We have one meeting in September and one meeting in December. It was SO exciting when he got that second meeting! The kids are excited about "driving around" as they call it. Jamie has been begging us every day to start driving around. You see, when we got back from Candidate School we told them that we would be riding on an airplane to Africa but first we had to drive around and get support. At first they just reminded us about this every day. Now he has started begging to start driving around. I wonder, will he be this excited about getting in that van and driving around when we've been doing it for a year!? This is just the beginning and the end is just a distant point on the horizon. More later….