Tickets!!!

Today we bought our tickets!
In two months and thirteen days, we will be on our way to see Tejan.

We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support for this trip - and amazed that God put so many people in our lives who have shared so generously in our story.

July 2nd we fly to Paris. Asia and I decided to take a three day layover there with the kids... partly to give our bodies time to acclimate to the time change before we get to Sierra Leone... partly to take advantage of the fact that this once in a lifetime trip gives us the ability to show our kids not only one of the poorest nations in the world, but also one of the most decadent cities... and partly because I really love crepes au chocolat.

July 5th we fly from Paris to Freetown. We'll arrive in the evening, spend the night in a hotel near the airport and then the next day drive to Banta. And Tejan.

We'll spend almost a full two weeks in Banta. We'll return to Freetown on the 20th. Then we'll be visiting our friend Jay who serves on the Africa Mercy Ship which is now docked in Freetown. We'll stay with him until the 24th, when we fly back to the States. We'll arrive back here on the 25th.

There are still lots of details to work out... immunizations to finish up, visas to obtain so we have permission to enter the country, ministry plans for while we're in-county...

But the big daddy... the tickets... are a done deal.

Thank you Jesus.

I get to see my boy again.

Bake Sale Number Two

We had another bake sale at our church on Sunday...

Savannah was a huge blessing to me over the past couple of weeks, baking a TON to help get ready. We had LOADS of yummies available for people to purchase.

Our bake sale philosophy is donation only... meaning we bake a ton of stuff and then let people pay what they want. And we encourage them to take lots... I LOVE to bake - so it makes me really happy to see people enjoying the stuff I've made. We just set out a donation can and let people give what they can afford.

Sunday we had $700 in bake sale donations.

We also received $350 in additional support from friends and sold the car that a friend gave us for the trip for $750.

It was a really encouraging weekend.

We still haven't purchased our tickets. Our travel agent (who works exclusively with mission organizations) had a house fire last week and has been out of commission. I'm constantly reminding myself to hold that part of the trip with an open heart - trusting that God is going to take care of it. It's the part of this whole experience that it's easiest for me to worry about. We've seen the prices for tickets fluctuate SO much... from $2200 to $3600 per ticket. That's a huge jump when you're talking about five tickets. I'm learning to trust, for sure. I will feel SO much better when we've been able to get that taken care of and the tickets are paid for.

We will be in Sierra Leone in less than three months.

Can you believe it?

Three years of planning and saving.

It's really going to happen. (Yikes!)

We're really going to see T. again.

Overwhelmed by grace.

What I really wanted to write for the title was simply "Overwhelmed."

I'm choosing to add 'by grace.'

Because I know God is faithful - and that He will come through and all the things that are feeling overwhelming right now will seem fine in retrospect.

But right now, I'm overwhelmed.

We're in the process of working with the travel agent to book our tickets. And nothing seems to be going as planned.

We were hoping/expecting to pay $2000 per ticket... we've been quoted anywhere from $2500 to $3600 per ticket. That's a HUGE difference when you're buying five tickets.

We've been planning all along to visit our friends in Northern Ireland on our way to Sierra Leone - dear, dear friends that we've mentored for years who recently had a baby girl... we even planned extra time off and extra savings so we could take a short jaunt over to visit them. But the details for that trip are looking impossible... adding an additional $2000 to $5000 dollars we simply cannot afford. Bummer.

We've also been planning to stay in Freetown (the capital of Sierra Leone) for a few extra days to visit our friend Jay who is on staff with the Africa Mercy Ship. It's also looking like that may not work out... since the airline we're flying on only leaves Freetown on Tuesdays and Sundays and we can't stay that many extra days.

I'm overwhelmed.

Frustrated.

Discouraged.

Add to these things the fact that my work schedule has been SUPER busy... (which is a GOOD thing, since God is using my amazing job to provide lots of the money we need for the trip) but it also means I don't feel like I've been managing all the other things that need to happen for the trip to be a success...

I spent Monday and Tuesday fasting and praying in the midst of my normal schedule... asking God for his perfect provision and timing and for the trip to bring Him glory... that I would recognize my dependance on Him to use the trip in the lives of our kids and in the lives of the people we're going to serve... and in Tejan's life.

And then today I feel completely wiped out and defeated.

It's frustrating.

I know God will show Himself.

I KNOW God will show Himself.

Will you pray with me?

Thank you, friends.

Fundraising card class offered!

See details here:

April Card Classes

Hope you can join me!

Fundraising

People have been asking lately: "How are things going for your trip?"

And we always answer "Good!"

Things are progressing... we have a team of potentially eleven people total... our family, two couples, and a single dad and his son.

We ordered the kids' passports last Friday.

The support letters went out about a month ago.

And there's a teeny bit of $$$ coming in.

And that's where I start to freak out.

It's mid-February.

And I believe, with all my heart, that God wants us to go to Sierra Leone.

But the response to the support letters has been, shall we say, little.

It's a weekly exercise in faith... trusting that this is God's bill, and not mine.

Asia and I have both been in full time ministry before - and raised support for our salaries... so we've been there, done that. But frankly, back in the day, I was only required to raise $12,000 for a year's salary. (Yes, I was a pauper missionary.) We've got to raise more than that (about $15,000) for this one trip. Crazy.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. But I am documenting the journey. With the support money that's come in and the money I've saved, we have about a third of what we need. It will be amazing and interesting to see how God provides. On my timeline, we're a little behind the ball. But I know - God's timeline is not my timeline.

We'll be scheduling another bake sale soon. And I've got a couple of card classes up my sleeve to raise money.

And if worse comes to worse, we'll borrow money. Because this trip is important. We need to see T. And he needs to know that he is still a huge part of our family... and that we love him enough to make this happen.

And that's how it's going.

All work and no play...

I sat down with my calendar this morning and discovered that I'm in the middle of a 32 day period where my only day off has been Thanksgiving day... and I was cooking dinner for 18 people that day...

I'm working six days a week right now. I've been putting in extra hours at my regular job and doing a few craft sales on weekends to earn money... all that adds up to a lot of work and not much in the way of days when I can relax. I really thrive on solitude and sabbath, so this has been challenging for me...

I'm tired. But also sort of invigorated in a way... God has been providing in amazing ways... at one of my craft sales I sold a wrought iron garden cart that I'd bought at a garage sale for $5 for the incredible mark-up of $100. That's totally God.

So far we have about $4000 saved/raised. $11,000 to go!

It feels huge sometimes... but it's so cool to see how God is taking care of us. Asia has been challenging me in the area of trust... that I can work a little less and trust God's provision. We have a dear friend who keeps saying "God's will, God's bill."

Why do I strive so hard? Honestly? Because I struggle to fully believe God will provide!

So I'm pondering that... perhaps part of His provision is through my work... or maybe I'm not trusting. It's difficult to find the balance.

We'll be sending out our formal support letter early next week... scary. It's really the big push in terms of support raising in most cases and I struggle with lacking faith... what if the letter doesn't work and we don't get the money we need?

See how tiny my faith is?

Already God is teaching me so much through this trip and it's still seven months away.

I feel quite vulnerable putting all this out there, but I've always strived for honesty in my blogging... so there it is.

I'm so thankful that God is so patient with me.

Bake Sale

We had the privilege of sharing with our church today... telling them about our plans to go see Tejan next summer and offering the opportunity for others to join us...

We also had a bake sale to begin our fundraising efforts.

I baked ALL week. A few friends brought over things they had baked, and we had oodles of cookies, breads, muffins, scones and even some fudge, caramel apples and my favorite, cinnamon bun popcorn for sale.

We had dinner with some friends Saturday night and they asked me how much money we were hoping to make. I told them I had no idea... I wasn't planning to price things, but planned to set out a donation jar and let people give whatever they felt like giving. In the back of my mind I was hoping for around $500.

The sharing went well. I was able to tell a bit of our history with Tejan, explain our desire for others to come with us, shared that we had sponsorship profiles if anyone wanted to support COTN that way. (Our church has a really fluid congregation, with about 80% college students, so most of our current congregation were not around back in 2007/2008 when T. lived with us.) I was thrilled to get two kids sponsored... who had both been waiting for quite awhile for sponsors, one of whom we personally know!

People came out between services, talked to us about the trip and bought treats... we sold almost everything. After the second service, we packed up, came home and gathered around on the living room floor to count the donations.

I opened the lid to my covered oatmeal cannister, again, hoping for several hundred dollars and trying not to get my hopes up too high... I have just the teensiest bit of faith... I want to believe God is going to provide, but I'm still learning.

I assigned different denominations of money to each person. Ethan gathered up the $20 bills, Savannah the tens, Kyler the fives, Asia the ones and I found all the checks. When we had split up all the money, we began to count. Ethan counted his twenties. When he got up to $800, I began to cry. We kept counting, adding everything up to the grand total of $1822.95.

I am blown away by God's provision.

Granted, we still need a lot more money before the trip becomes a reality.

But I really didn't expect to make anywhere near that amount by selling baked goodies in my church foyer.

Thank you, Jesus.

And thank you, New Community, for getting behind us so enthusiastically.

I am humbled and thrilled and SO excited.