We have tickets!

It is snowing again in Indiana! Not as much as our friends in Quebec are getting, but enough! We have so much to be thankful for this month. God is good all the time…even when our son is hospitalized for dehydration or just trying to cut off the tip of his pinky finger. The month of February has been everything but what we had planned. Of course as we get ready to head off to Niger, Jayson has been in and out of the hospital. But, that is when our life verse becomes even more real to us….For I know the plans that I have for you, plans not to harm you, but to prosper you, plans to give you a hope and a future. We are so thankful that those two experiences happened on this side of the pond.
As we get ready to go, we are also thankful for all of you, people who lift us up before the Lord in prayer. Without the faithful prayers of all of you, we are convinced that we would not be in the position we are in today…ready to depart for the Niger. We are also thankful for all of our faithful supporters financially. Because of your faithfulness, we have enough to be able to leave. We have been busy getting all of our doctor’s appointments, shots taken, visas bought, etc. We just finished our first round of shots and have applied for our visas. We also just got new prayer cards ordered with Jayson on them so we will send those out to our churches before we go. When you get ready to move across the ocean, you just have in the back of your mind that you are forgetting something very important. Please pray that we remember the super important things so we aren’t running around like chickens without heads at the last minute!
God has been good to us by providing all kinds of things through people in our church. From food showers when we first arrived, to watching our kids while we pack or do other things. February has been fairly eventful for us. Our plan was to sort through all of our stuff in storage and get rid of much of it. That didn’t get accomplished for three reasons. First, we were always on the road. Although it was wonderful to get reacquainted with our supporting churches and meet new churches, the travel took its toll on us, especially the kids. Mikaylah would go into a home and the first question was, “Where is my room?”
Second, Jayson became very sick at the first of the month and had to be hospitalized for dehydration for 24 hours. Then a couple weeks later, he decided to go pinch his pinky finger in a door and had to have minor surgery to reattach the mostly severed tip. Thirdly, I counted on weather in Indiana to cooperate with us and warm up a little so I wouldn’t freeze up at the storage shed. It seemed to snow almost every day that I planned to go up and work. That ended up being good though because it left more time to get all the shots we needed, do the paperwork, write emails, and play with the kids before the rush hits. Well, the rush is now here. We are busy trying to sort, pack, throw away, and pack some more. We thank you for all of your prayers that we would be organized through all of this.
I hope you are still reading! Lord willing, we will be flying out of Indianapolis April 3rd and arriving in Niamey Saturday, April 5th. Our church is commissioning us at a service on the 30th of March at 5 pm at Bible Baptist Church www.bbcministries.org Our goal is to be all packed by then, so we can say our good-byes and leave by the 3rd. If any of you would like to attend that service, you are more than welcome! We will have lots of family in town that weekend to wish us good bye.
We do thank each and every one of you who have, through prayers and finances partnered with us in loving and modeling for the next generation.