Time Flies When Your Having Fun

It's hard to believe that another year has just about come and gone. It seems like yesterday that we were filling out forms with the idea of going overseas. In just one week, "if the Lord wills," we will be on a plane headed east. To all of our friends, we are grateful that you have been there by our side through this process. We do not walk this road alone. "We walk by faith, and not by sight." We are certrainly NOT alone in this journey, for HE is with us, guiding us each step of the way.

Merry Christmas

"We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." God is so good. To think that he was willing to send his only son into the world as a child, knowing how He would be treated. All because He loved you and me more than life itself. It is that joy and Good News that we want to share with the people of Portugal.

We have enjoyed our time with Andy's family and will be spending the next week with my family. We even got to see a few unexpected friends on Wednesday. What joy!!! (We love our Alabama friends.) Please pray for us as we travel because Andy has aggravated his back again. The many beds that we have slept in the last few months and the long hours driving have really reeked havoc on him. We even had to call in a favor from our favorite PT - THANKS ASHLEIGH!!! Please pray that it will clear itself up before we fly out because a bad back and long flight will not mix well.

I have attached some pictures from our last few days.

Happy Birthday to Andy. Since we were not going to be with his family on his birthday, his brother decided to celebrate at lunch Sunday. The waiter stuck his face in the whipped creme.

We were able to meet up with part of the R clan. This is our version of an Eli sandwich.

A shout out to our favorite PT. THANKS ASHLEIGH!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

The boys both got PSP games for Christmas. They have no idea if they got anything else!

(Michelle)

We Forgot

This is a special post for the West African POPE and his wife. We learned God loves even Steelers and we do too. We can now say we know the Pope personally and he is not all bad. To the Pope's wife, we will pray for you daily!!!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We have completed our orientation time time in VA and we are on the road again. It was sad to say goodbyes because we have made so many new friends. To the 3Hs, the5Gs and the 4Bs - we love you guys and we will be praying for you daily. You all made our time in Va so much sweeter. And to our special Jorneygirls and guys, you guys have been a blast. SM, JM, EC, JH, SG and Pepe. We love you guys and can't wait ot see how God uses you all.

I was talking with a dear friend last night and she reminded me that almost 1 year ago, I had shared about our calling with her. It is overwhelming to think where God has taken us in the last year. Evey step, though not always easy, has been so confirming. God has been with us every step of the way. Thank you all for being apart of our journey - THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!!

Pocket Full of Seeds

We can hardly believe our time is almost done. One month from now we will be in Portugal!!! The time has seemed so far away, but now it is almost here. As we reflect back on our orientation time, we realize that God has taught us so much.

I am reminded of 2 verses that have greatly impacted me during this time.

Isaiah 42:6 - I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose, and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles.

Wow, what a promise! God has called each of us for a purpose and He promises to hold our hand all the way. What a verse to cling to!

Ezekiel 37:3-5 - And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live again?" So I answered, "O Lord God you know." Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones hear the word of the Lord!' Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I shall cause breath to enter into you and you shall live."

As we learn about the people of Portugal and Western Europe we see "dry bones". So much of our Christian heritage and culture comes from this area of the world and now we are going back to share Jesus with them. Our prayer is that they will "hear the word of the Lord" and the breath of the Holy Spirit will bring them to life again in Christ.

The decline of the church in Western Europe today is giving way to Postmodernism and the belief that whatever you believe is fine and good for you, but maybe not so much for me. There are more people in church each week in China than in all of Western Europe. That fact alone is staggering. However, the good news is that people are searching for truth for themselves. This opens doors to share the truth of Christ, not just religion.

I will leave you with one thought. There is a song that has really impacted me in the last few weeks. It talks about how we sit in our pews and pray for God's word to be spread while all around "there's a famine in the land, and we've got a pocket full of seeds." We pray as we goo that we will share our seeds with the lost souls of Portugal.

What will you do with your pocketful of seeds?

Catching Up

The song by Mark Shultz that says "I'm running just to catch myself" has become a reality over the past week. In order to catch everyone up, this entry will probably ramble a bit. I hope to insert enough pictures to break up the over abundance of information.

As we celebrated Thanksgiving last week, we were sad to be away from family. However, we were served a wonderful lunch with all the trimmings and then we had all the Western Europe Team over to our apartment for dinner and Christmas movies. Andy & Micah even got in a little football with a few guys.

After dinner some of our Journey girls had to haul Ethan to bed. You can tell he hated every moment. He is eating up all the attention.

Later in the weekend all the kids decorated Christmas cookies with icing and sprinkles. We have 7 kids in our group - ages 2 - 12.

Now comes the rambling. The day after Thanksgiving our whole crew (300+) went to Washington, DC.

This is the Roman Catholic Basilica that we visited.


This is Nando's, the Portuguese-African restaurant where we ate lunch. We were told it is like the McDonald's of Africa, but it was soooo much better than that.

We then prayer walked around the White House and Union Station.
This is our new friend who will be going to Portugal with us. We all spent the day together in Washington.

Here are some random pictures that we have taken over the last few weeks.

These are the guys in our quad.

Double rainbow over part of the campus. Isn't that cool!

This was after the first shot day. We have now survived 2 shot days and have one more to go.

This is an aerial view of the campus. It is a picture of a picture, but at least it gives you an idea of how big it is. If you click on the photo, it should expand so that you can see the building that I have marked. This is your Co-operative Program dollars at work. THANK YOU!!!