Jacksonville

Well, here we are in Jacksonville, FL. It is kind of neat being in the city where I was born. I am amazed that my parents were able to stand this heat for a long time. It is a lot cooler today and humidity is down. The past few days have been very hot though. It makes me very glad that everything we have done has been indoors and the air-conditioners work very well. It is funny talking to missionaries who are based in Florida talk about going to other parts of the country and talk about how cold it is all the time.

We had one problem while we were driving here and that is that the siding of the trailer started to come off. In the front on the drivers side we had serious delamination occur. We have it sealed off with duct tape for now. We can only drive about 50 mph or it baloons up so we have to get it fixed before we leave here. We had one estimate for $1,800 to $3,800 depending on the damage to the wood underneath the siding. We are looking for other estimates as we do not have that kind of money.

This week we are at our Field Conference for Latin America which is being held at West Jacksonville Baptist Church. At the same time they are having their Missions Conference. We are having a great time and the church is taking such good care of us. We have eaten far to much and today they took us Ladies out shopping. I was able to get a beautiful dress and some earrings to match. I also got a nice casual shirt and a necklace to match that. It was such a blessing to have not only the fellowship of other missionaries, but also to get to spend some money that was just for us. I tried to buy some jeans for Jordan (he has outgrown all but one and is close to growing out of those) but the other missionary ladies wouldn't let me. They said it was for me and they were going to make sure I spent it on me. :-)

The preaching this week has been excellent. This morning Pastor Kelley spoke on Belzaleel from the book of Exodus. He was a man that was the master craftsman who built the tabernacle. He showed us that God inroduced him in Exodus chaper 31 (I think) and then showed us how Aaron didn't use him to build the golden calf and how wasn't that odd that Aaron didn't try to use the best craftsman in all of Isreal to make the calf. He said the Belzaleel was saving himself for the work of God. He was the only human to touch the Ark of the Covenant and live. It was a great sermon. We have had one great preacher after another. We only have one more day of this. :-( God has really touched our hearts this week.

Traveling again

Today we are traveling toward Jacksonville, FL for the field conference with other BIMI missionaries from Latin America. Please pray for safety in travel.

Passport praises

When we returned from Honduras my passport gave me some problems. On the front page of my passport it says it is only good for one year as it is a replacement for a passport that has been lost and/or stolen. When we returned to the states from Costa Rica in 2003, I turned the one year passport in with my birth certificate so they could issue me one for 10 years instead of the passport for one year. When the Passport Department returned it they had only stamped void over the explanation of why my passport was only for one year. At the time this didn't make sense to me, so I called them up and the person I talked to assured me that it was now good for 10 years. That was fine when I went to Honduras, but when I came back to the states in June the airline was not going to let me board. But because I am a US citizen and was returning to my country of origin they let me go.

Today I called the Passport Department and they had me tell them what had void stamped on it and they asked me if there was anything else stamped on that page. When I told them no, they had me look through all the other pages for a passport extension. It seems that when they extended mine, they didn't put the extension on the right page so we didn't notice it when I was at the airport in Honduras. When I had called a few years ago they didn't mention an extension typed on another page to me. So I didn't know about it. Now I know that on page 21 is a passport extension. We thought we were going to have to pay another $65 for a new passport again, but everything is all taken care of. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

More Blessings

Today I had a blessing. Someone dropped off some clothes at BIMI. I was bringing up some things to the main office from our trailer and Mrs. Moody (who does housekeeping here) told me to take a look at what was given and take anything I wanted. It is so wonderful how God orchestrates things. Almost all of the things that were left were my size. I have been looking for a black dress skirt for a while and have not been able to find anything that fits my waist and my other problem areas. Normally I can only find clothes that fit my problem areas or they fit my waist. They had a skirt that is a long straight black skirt that fits my waist and everywhere else! Praise the Lord for his provision. I also found a bunch of sweaters for the winter time. God is so good to give us just what we need.

I have two prayer requests tonight. My brother Dan's boy, Aaron, who is 3 months today is in the hospital with viral meningitis. They expect him to be there for at least 5 or 6 more days. Also the pastor of the church where we went tonight is being attacked through his health and his family's. Please keep the pastor of Welcome Hill Baptist Church in Dalton, GA in your prayers.

In Chattanooga

We have not had a lot of time to be on the internet lately and as I don't have a lot of time today this will be brief.

At this moment we are in Chattanooga at BIMI's home office. We met with our director yesterday and it was great to see Bro. Terry Jones again who is now our director, but was a great help to us in Costa Rica.

While we were in Mississippi and until we arrived in Tennessee we hit a bad rain storm. We had some leaking areas on the trailer, but hadn't had the time to find a camping store to buy more rubber roof caulking. Since we had hardly been in any rain it wasn't a huge problem. The worst leaking occurred on Sunday when the rain was pouring in our kitchen window. I cleaned it all up and then put a bath towel under the leak. The bath towel was soaked by the time it was done raining. Jason has plans to recaulk the windows today. Yesterday Jason caulked the roof and replaced some rusted screws. It has been good to get a few days to get things done on the trailer.

We were surprised when we arrived at BIMI to find out that the Jackson family, fellow missionaries and friends from Honduras, were here. They lived in Chattanooga for three years while attending Bible College and have really helped us find things here. Audrey, Jordan, and Joey have really enjoyed seeing Jenny (their 15 year old daughter and our babysitter) again. Yesterday, instead of school, I let the kids play all day with Jenny. Because of this, today I have a lot to catch up on, but I don't regret it as they kids really miss Jenny and the past two week have been full of driving for them.

Tomorrow or Friday we will be leaving Chattanooga for Jacksonville, FL. We are going to be attending a BIMI Central American Field Conference. Please pray for travel safety. We will be in Florida for the next few weeks.

Pecan Rolls Recipe

Here is a really great recipe for Pecan Rolls given to me by Mrs. Debbie Lane

Ingredients:
Package of frozen yeast rolls
1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans
1 pkg of Jello Cook and Serve Butterscotch pudding (not instant)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (melted)

Directions
Place pecans in bottom of bundt pan and place frozen rolls over pecans.
Sprinkle dry pudding mix over rolls
Mix melted butter and brown sugar and pour over everything.
Cover and let rise overnight.
Remove cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
Invert immediately onto serving dish. (careful as butter will drip and can burn you)

Weekend at Grandma house

Isn't it strange how no matter if both grandparents are living or not, their house is always Grandma's house.

This weekend was spent with my Grandma and Grandpa at their house in Yuma, AZ. We had a great time with them. Saturday we went to a BBQ at their church which is just down the road. Sunday we took them with us to Heritage Baptist Church. We had a great time with them.

I had wanted to talk to my Grandpa about his salvation. I finally got an opportunity to on Sunday night. He said he has been saved and wanted to know why I thought he wasn't. He couldn't tell me when it happened or the circumstances around it. I then shared with him when I had asked Jesus to come into my heart and forgive me of my sins. I don't want to offend him, but I wanted assurance that he had indeed made that decision.

This weekend I gave my grandma a homework assignment. She is to write down one recipe a week for me. She is such a good cook. I had forgotten about how good she can cook. Just being here and eating with them has brought back memories of being a kid and staying over at her house. The only thing that didn't happen is, she didn't give me any small jobs like dusting and cleaning out under the sink. The only problem is with this is she used to pay very well for those jobs. :-) I used to get $20.00 for cleaning out under the sink when I stayed with her. What fun it is to remember those times.

Labor Day and Sunday

Sunday we had a special treat. We met some missionaries that went to Honduras in the 60's. They were in the town of La Esperanza and had to leave in the early to mid 70's for health related reasons. They are so sweet and it was a great pleasure to be able to talk with them at church and then be able to go out to lunch with them afterward.

Labor day was fun and full for us. We had the opportunity to go shopping (without kids) with the youth Pastor and his wife, David and Charity. We had a great time with them and wished we had more time to stay out with them, but we also had a dinner planned with Daniel and Abigail Jacobo, missionaries to Honduras, who are on deputation. We had fun talking about Honduras and letting them know a little about what it is like there. We gave them some counsel about where to go and what opportunities are available in Honduras at this time.

After dinner we went to Charity and David's house so I could do some sewing and mending that I had to get done. It was late, but Jason and David didn't mind as they spent the time discussing and playing Play Station 2 games. I was able to get some lace sewn onto a skirt for Audrey (she is growing to fast), a blanket, and I started sewing a new skirt for Audrey.

We came home after that and I planned and pulled out papers for Audrey's school week. Needless to say I didn't get to bed until about 1 am. It was worth it thought. I had a great Labor Day.

Yuba City

Once again we are online. Yeah!! This has been a busy week for us.

Audrey has entered her second week of school and the newness is wearing off. She still enjoys it, but keeps asking why she has to do so much work. When I tell her it is because she is in First grade and tells me she wishes she was in Kindergarten again. Today we are in Yuba City. We got to sing in chapel this morning at 8:00 am. Audrey did good, but Joey and Jordan didn't want to sing. Jordan finally did for the final chorus, but Joey never opened his mouth. He came back to the trailer and laid down the rest of the morning.

Joey has had cold symptoms for the past week so today we took him in to an Urgent Care Center. I have a five day rule. If they are sick longer than five days I try to take them in to be seen. I found the information online and since they are on the same street as we are parked, I got the great idea to walk. It was a beautiful morning and it only took us an hour to walk there. The doctor said that he did not have an infection, but to keep an eye on him and bring him back if he doesn't get better in a few days. We walked back and all wanted a nap after that long time out in the sun. Unfortunately, Audrey and I don't get one as we have school to do still.

One great thing about this year is that she has a good deal of seatwork to do. I love seatwork time as it allows me to get a few things done while she is working. Normally I clean the trailer during this time, but today I am typing my blog.

Next week we are off to Rancho Cucamonga, CA and then on to Yuma, AZ. We are starting our drive east. We will be out the western states until just before Christmas. We are looking forward to our time in the east. We just hope the gas prices don't break our bank before we get there. :-) Actually it will be a lot cheaper after we leave California. I remember our short trip to Arizona a few weeks ago. The gas was almost 30 cents cheaper out of Arizona.

Seatwork time is done for today so I am too.