Well, we actually did it…we bought our tickets for the Philippines! That was exciting and scary all at the same time because it means that we’re really going! We leave on August 11th and arrive in the Philippines about 24 hours later on August 12th.
This means that we need to kick it into high gear because there is MUCH to do before we depart. All of our belongings need about 5 weeks to ship so if we’d like to have them when we arrive, we need to ship them about 3 weeks from now! We have hardly even begun going through all our things to decide what we’d like to keep and what we will store for when we come home 4 years from now.
We also have lots of shots to get before we can go, along with lots of paperwork that must be signed by us and the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. Not to mention all the people we must say good bye to, and other various tasks. Aside from the packing, nothing is a big job by itself, but with it all piled up it is a bit overwhelming.
We have sure appreciated all the people who have helped us get ready to go, both logistically and financially. We couldn’t be doing what we are doing if it wasn’t for our team standing behind us in so many ways. It makes it easy to go, and hard at the same time. We like our team so much that we don’t want to say goodbye. In the end, we know we’ll see everyone again, but it will be a long time, and Maycie will be almost ready to start school when most people see her again! That really puts it in perspective for us!
But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?
You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us. 2 Cor. 2:14-17
We are still just as convinced as we have ever been that God is leading our adventure, but it isn’t always easy. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare these final steps and go through a lot of emotional, and technical difficulties. If we didn’t believe in the end goal of reaching tribal people with the hope we have found in Jesus, we would be total idiots for attempting this!
Praise God for the grace he gives us, and the opportunity we have to be part of His end goal, seeing people from every tribe, people and nation represented as trophies of His amazing grace and mercy!