Mommy’s vacation week

This week is going to be a treat for me. We are in Kissimmee, FL at Bible Baptist Church. They have a Christian school of 600 kids and have invited Audrey to attend classes with them. It was so nice to day to get things done in the morning that normally have to wait until the end of the day.

Yesterday we went to Walt Disney World. We were taken to the park by a retired employee. Every time she gets inside, she can bring three people in free of charge. The church has several of those, so two families went together to help us get in. We had a blast! Upon entry in the Magic Kingdom we met Pluto and went to have him sign the kids' autograph books. Jordan went right up, but Joey wanted nothing to do with him. Next we went to Mickey's house to have him sign the kids' books. They waited in line for about 30 minutes, but when they were finally there it was worth it all. They take the kids one family or two at a time to another room where Mickey is and they can have pictures taken with him. Jordan and Joey were so excited. Jordan kept telling Mickey that he had him on his clothes. Joey wouldn't stop hugging him so we could take a picture. When we finally got him to turn around, we took the picture and started to leave. Joey ran back and kissed Mickey on the nose. It was so cute.

Audrey especially liked the Princess room. She got to meet Belle, Snow White and Cinderella at the same time. That was great. Afterward, we went on lots of rides. The kids' favorite ride was Splash Mountain. I was amazed that Jordan was tall enough to get on it. I was very nervous that he would scream the whole time, but he did great. In fact he wanted to get on again, but we didn't want to wait in line for over an hour just to ride it. Our first time on it we had fast boarding tickets. You can get one at a time for quick boarding at a set time of the day.

The kids got a special treat when we were leaving. They got to ride in the front of the monarail car with the driver. When they got off they received a "co-pilot" license for the monarail.

We saw the parade and Jason and I enjoyed seeing the kids' faces more than the parade. They were in awe of the whole thing. We are tired after the full day, but we have a lot of memories of a great day.

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)