Staying Awake

We finished VBS this morning with our musical Outrigger Island. The kids really did a great job, but about half way it hit me. I had been so busy all morning making sure that everything was ready, I realized this was our last VBS at Alpha. I know the kids wondered what was wrong. As they were singing and following me for the motions, I had tears rolling down my face. It is these "last time" moments that really get me. We are still very excited about Portugal, but leaving behind the people and places that we call home won't be easy.

I you can see it is very late as I am writing this (11:30pm) and we are trying to stay awake. We leave at 1:30 for Orlando with 38 youth and adults. We are trying to stay awake now so that we will sleep on the bus later. After a week of VBS I don't think that will be a problem. We are taking our youth choir to a music conference and recording. Please pray for our safety and patience with teenagers this week. We have attended this conference for 4 yrs now and we look forward to it and the kids, but it will still be one of those "last time" moments. Pray we enjoy the time with the students and leave them and us great memories. Micah and his 6th grade friends get to go this year, so we hope it will be a memorable time for him as well.

Passports!!!!

The boys passports came back today. We were so suprised. It had been less than 2 weeks and we never dreamed they would come back so quickly. GOD IS GOOD! Ethan was so excited. He said, "Now I can go to Portugal!" Now if we could just get confirmation on our medical info, we would feel so much better. Please keep praying.

Praise the Lord

We finished our 4th day of VBS and had 10+ decisions for Christ, plus a few more in the Youth department. It is wonderful to see the Lord at work in such a mighty way.

Yesterday Andy and I had opportunity to attend a seminar on Prayer Walking. It was in preparation for our church's trip to Malta in August, but we thought it might be useful to us in Portugal as well. Wow, was it enlightening. We know that door - to door evangelism with be difficult in Portugal, but the concept of business-to -business may be much more effective. This is when we stop at area businesses and ask if we can pray for their store, restaurant, etc. , and is there anything specific that we can pray about for them or their community. In Catholic communities people will pay the priest to come and pray blessing over their business, home, family, etc. If we use that concept and offer it freely, God can really use it to open doors of communication and allow us to share in other ways as well. I always thought prayer walking was just walking through community streets and praying for the people, and it is, but it is so much more. You must be perceptive to those around you, their needs, and the opportunities that God will open through that.

Keep on Praying

Today we recieved our letters from the Dr. that did our physicals. He said Andy and I are both healthy. Now we pray that we get medical clearance from the International Mission Board. Also, we think there may be a family interested in the house. We continue to pray that God will lead the family He has in mind to the house and that both they and we will know it is right beyond a shadow of a doubt. We finally have all our paperwork in (for now) and are taking a few weeks off from sorting through stuff so we can concentrate on VBS and our youth choir trip to Orlando.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Bom Dia (good day)!! We have survived Middle School Team Basketball camp. Three days of running to Sevierville (hour drive) and playing 2 games each day has taken its toll and we are all ready for a day off. Tomorrow we go to get the boys passports started. Please pray that we have not forgotten anything and that we have everything filled out correctly.

Tuesday, June 17

Hello everyone. I'm going to try and begin a blogpage to keep everyone up to date on our family and our progress in our journey to Portugal. Most days I don't have time to sit down for 5 minutes, but I will try to keep it up to date.