Gratefulness

In less than 3 days we begin our journey to the Philippines. To say things are “flying around here” would be an understatement. Honestly, during the past couple weeks it has been hard to even catch our breath. We have been packing, shipping boxes, notarizing documents, and coordinating what feels like a thousand other details. In the midst of this flurry of activity, I have been trying to take some time to think back upon the last 20 months to see how God has encouraged, protected, and guided us along the way. As I look back on these many months, my only response is gratefulness. One thing I am amazed at is how God gave us different “seasons” within this time span, and how everything perfectly fit together. Now, this is not to say that everything was perfect. We faced our fair share of struggle and hardship, yet even those fit perfectly in God’s plan.

So, I thought it would be fun to give some stats about our travels, and what we did over the past 20 months. Our period of raising support ranged from September 2017 through January 2019 (15 months). Here are a couple of stats from that period:

Miles Traveled: 22,500
Accidents: 0
Tickets: 0 (I’m chalking that one up as a miracle 🙂

We raised support primarily in North Central PA from September – November 2017. When then relocated to my parents house for about a month, spending December with them in 2017 before settling in to the Missions House (the Haven of Rest) of our sending church, Lighthouse Baptist Church. We spent the first half of 2018 raising support within a couple hour radius of our sending church. Our little bundle of joy, Noemi Grace, arrived on my birthday (and Mother’s day), and we took a number of weeks off from traveling. About a month after Emi’s birth, we began presenting our ministry once again before making preparations to head out West. In the middle of August we left for the West, first stopping in Michigan, then Wisconsin, Missouri and then Colorado. After spending a short time with Sarah’s family, we left for the far West, first visiting Utah, Nevada, then Oregon. We made it back to Colorado in the middle of October 2018 where we spent the rest of the year presenting our ministry in churches in the surrounding area. This was a wonderful time with Sarah’s family, and we were grateful for the months we could spend with them. This also provided me the chance to spend time working on course material for our first semester.

Soon after the start of 2019, we made our way back East (first making stops at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter) before arriving back at the Haven of Rest. From the end of January I continued working on course material, as well as making preparations for our move (i.e. applying for visas, figuring out how to get our 2 cats to the Philippines, purchasing luggage, shipping boxes etc.). Since we reached our support goal by the end of January, we only had a very few meetings scheduled, so this allowed us to get involved in the ministries at our home church.

Looking back, at this adventure, I am extremely grateful for the grace God has given to our family, and for the opportunity we have had to serve Him. We look forward to the adventure continuing as we leave for the Philippines on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. And of course, a special thank you to all those who have prayed for us, supported up, and encouraged us along the way.