I'm making lists. I'm making lists about what to do before I leave, what to pack for clothes, what to pack for entertainment for me, what to pack for entertainment for Olivia....and apparently I'm making lists about what lists I'm making. I made a list of things to clean and take care of here at the house before I go and I got partially through that, but luckily I have a husband that knows how to do dishes, and he also likes to make sure things are in order for me when I return from somewhere, so I'm not worried about the house. At all. Hear that, honey? :) (positive reinforcement works well for him)
I wanted to share some specific prayer requests tonight, because this will be the last post I make before we go. A friend is keeping the littles (Emma and Rebekah) for me in the morning so that I can get stuff done, and I will likely not find time to do anything but prepare tomorrow.
Olivia is so excited she can hardly stand it. She is talking about it all the time, parroting information that I've given her.
I'm a mixture of excitement and apprehension. Excitement about returning to the place I've missed for 8 years, and the girls I've longed to see, and apprehension about the same, because I know it will be different - but I'm not quite sure I can put my finger on how. Apprehension about bringing my 5 year old daughter on our first trip - to a third world foreign country for that. Dread about the LONG travel days. Our flight leaves at 6am Thursday and when we return we fly in at 11pm on the following Thursday. Early mornings, late nights with a small child.
I feel awe that I am pioneering the Steinmetz family vision of doing mission trips with our children instead of Disney World.
I feel pressured and nervous about all the packing. I'm concerned about something happening to my family while I am gone. I am comforted by the capable hands we are leaving our girls in during the days when Peter will be busy. I am sad to be missing Olivia's gymnastics show. So many, many things.
So, with all that in mind, here is my prayer list in no particular order:
Please pray that -
1 - I will be organized and efficient in packing.
2 - Our travel will be smooth.
3 - My Spanish will be sufficient (its marginal at best).
4 - For emotional energy to parent at the same time that I attempt to minister.
5 - That Olivia and I will convey Gospel truth and love to the children at all times.
6 - That God will be glorified in it all.
7 - That I will have clarity on the two Bible studies that I am required to prepare (all the people are being asked to do this).
8 - The peace of God would guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus throughout the week.
I think that pretty much covers it. I cannot express enough my gratitude to you for joining us in this adventure. :) Next time you hear from me it will be with pictures of the completed trip. Yikes!
Check out that beautiful thermometer! :) Over the last couple of days donations have come in that have completely met our goal! I have been praying, refusing to get worried but choosing to trust God as we came within two weeks of this trip with our goal not met. And God came through (as He always does!).
There are some anonymous donors, and I have to assume you are reading this blog...I want to thank you! God has used your gifts to encourage and strengthen my faith, and will use your gift to encourage and strengthen the faith of the children we are going to minister to, and I am grateful beyond words to your partnership with us in the gospel. Thank you!
If we get any extra funds, I plan to take the money to Honduras with us and spend it on the kids while we are there, or in the community, such as purchasing from street vendors or from local vendors (there are women who sell corn tortillas from their homes).
Thank you again, to all who have supported us. The journey is about to begin!
Hey ya'll, it's me (Peter) finally,
As you can see, the ladies were hard at work selling the donated yard sale items at the second (and much smaller) sale that was piggy-backed onto one that Michelle's friend was having. Olivia did good, eating and picking out her favorite items to try and take back home.
I know you know that I'm really excited to see Olivia go on her first mission trip, since I am, sort of..
It was really hard for me to accept that I was not going to be with her out there- way out there. It's hard for me just to know I wont be with her on her first jet plane take off (which is always my favorite part of any such trip). There's just something about her little self being buckled into her window seat, chewing her gum and chattering (probably the whole way) about everything she can think of while sitting in the belly of a big aluminum bird that soars her over the cloud tops to a far away land where she will take in all of the sights, sounds and smells of place that just might change her life forever.
There was a fateful day a very long time ago in another far away land that determined the fate of all the world which was all about a father and his boy. It seems to be the story that parents like to use as the ultimate example of trusting God, since perhaps it is. We like to show our kids that God never intended to let Abraham sacrifice Isaac- He was both testing Abraham and validating his faith in God, since he supposed in his heart that God could raise him from the dead. "See kids, we need to trust God with everything, even if it means..."
"Follow me." This is not just a command from the King, it's an invitation to be led by the Shepherd. Obeying God can be easy after a while- you stay away from the harmful 'don'ts' while pursuing the joyful 'do's', but trusting God is a whole 'nother way of life. Obeying God has visible boundaries while trusting God is boundless, and that can make us really suck in our breath. So the question is, have we really given everything and everyone in our lives over to the absolute Lordship of our Savior to do whatever HE wishes, while trusting in His goodness as we remember that all of creation was made for the purpose of His death on our behalf through the cross?
Now I'm getting excited again. Jesus knows what it's like to have sadness from separation infinitely more than I ever will but He still understands what I struggled with. But He is also well pleased to see His Spirit at work in me to remove any bitterness or disappointment and I follow His plan for my family, which is really, and always, His family that I have been entrusted with.
So after all of our prayers for the last bit of money and of safety for the trip are finished and that bird lifts off and the wheels tuck themselves into that belly where two of the people that I love the most in the world are buckled in and chewing gum, I know that it's not my will, but in His will, that I will eventually have the most joy.
For His glory and name to all the nations!
Thanks to generous donations by friends, we had a yard sale Saturday at our church. We had about six tables of stuff (my brother and his wife joined us to make it even bigger!) and some furniture and other things. We started the day pretty slow but it was steady until we finally closed down at around 4:30. We just decided to keep going as long as people were coming, and we did it donation only (no prices) and people loved the idea of what they were buying benefiting missions. Big success. Thanks for all who were involved, either in donating or storing stuff or helping the day off.
Olivia and I got our shots completed on Friday. That was an unexpected $300. Added to the $200 we already paid, it was about $500 to get us the immunizations that I felt we needed to be safe to travel and be in close quarters with the orphans. I know some people don't do immunizations for travel, but some of the kids we'll be working with could be pretty fresh off the streets and I just feel that its wise to be prepared when you can.
That brings us to my next point...if you'll look at the thermometer that is tracking our donations, you'll see that we met my original goal, and I have moved up the goal amount. The reason for that is that when I did the first goal, I failed to factor in the shots, passports, parking, etc. The cost just for the trip is $1650 for Olivia and I, and then all the other expenses added up much much faster than I anticipated. All that to say that I am changing the goal to $2200 and we have $335 to raise to get to that goal. I'm going to look at the good side of that and realize that I am $335 away from meeting my goal!!! YAY!
Finally, we leave in EXACTLY 4 weeks! Its really hard to believe its this close to actually happening...its on our calendar at home now.
I have childcare lined up for Emma and Rebekah, and I am starting to think ahead about how to best prepare her for the transition. That one kind of bends my brain because she's still nursing and I don't necessarily want to stop nursing her, so I'm not going to wean her. She's going to have a hard time, I know, and that's the hardest thing about this whole trip for me.
The detail-y type stuff is what I have to take care of now...entertainment and food for Olivia on the plane, treats to bring for the kids at the orphanage, copies of passports, what to pack, what type of bug repellent to use, that type of stuff. But that is the small stuff! And...I'll probably wait until my uber organized sister visits around Thanksgiving and put her in charge of all that stuff! She was a whiz at my wedding! :)
PS - If you are wondering about that post from Peter, it's coming. He hasn't had time to do it yet.
I mentioned to Peter the other day that I needed to write a blog post, but since we are sort of in a holding pattern as far as things go, I didn't really know what to write. He suggested I go through the blog I kept during the time I lived at the orphanage and see if I could post any part of it over here, just to give a sense of that trip to this new group of friends. I spent a couple of days revisiting my first journey to Orphanage Emmanuel. That trip was so challenging. Those of you who walked with me during that time will recall the challenges, although some I did not even recall until I read my record of them on the blog. The part I chose to post over here was from after I got home.
I had been home 10 days. What I found when I returned was that I missed the kids like an amputation, and I had such a hard time readjusting to normal life once I came back. I had spent 8 months in full time ministry, four of those months out of the country, and I had to come back and start working almost immediately. Also, I was sick. I have a dust allergy that surfaced while I was in Honduras (remind me to get Allegr.a for my trip), and it took me 7 months of being home to get well from the immune shock my system went into to.
But back to this blog entry. I was reflecting on my time there, still wondering what it all meant (truth be told, I still wonder what it all meant), and this is what I came up with:
As this season ends and the next begins, I look for one thing as the constant in it all, Jesus Christ. My circumstances will change, but He never does. And I thank God for that. People have been telling me that I will continue to see the effects of this time for the rest of my life. I
know I have seen fruit already from my time there, from the deepening
of relationships that occurred while I was there to the reduction of the
power of want in my life, and I will continue to see fruit in the
months and years to come. Something life changing, eternal occurred there. And it was worth all the lice, all the exhaustion, all the frustration, everything. I
recall the day I arrived there, and was standing in front of the
airport, God gave me a sense of peace, an assurance that I was right
where I was supposed to be, and I still have that sense of peace about
it. I know that I went there out of obedience and I fulfilled the task that God put in front of me. I didn’t do it perfectly, but I did it, and He will honor that. That’s all I can possibly ask. I don’t regret a minute of it, and I feel as though I know God better for having gone.
If you are so inclined, you can read the entire entry by clicking HERE.
I'm thrilled to be bringing my daughter to the same place that meant so much to me then and means so much to me now, to be introducing her to the world of loving others in the name of Christ on foreign soil.
We have bit more to raise, we are having a yard sale at our church on Saturday and a few people have asked how much more we still need, and I am fully confident of God's provision for the rest of the trip. Blessings, blessings, blessings. :)
The next post I am going to ask Peter to write, about sending his precious wife and daughter to the mission field without him. It'll be a good one.
Oooh she was pleased as punch to get it, too! She looked at every page, scratched the inside covers and I eventually had to take it away from her to keep it safe. She just wanted to carry it everywhere. And, in classic form, when I asked her to give it to me so I could put it up, she said, "But its mine!" She did NOT want to part with it. :) Much sooner than I expected it to come, it's here...and that is one thing marked off of my list. Yay!
I just called Olivia into the room and asked her to tell me about our Honduras trip, and she said to me: "We are going to Honduras. We're gonna bless the mission trip and we're gonna bless the orphanage and we're gonna pack food for the plane. We're taking two planes. Honduras has special mosquitoes, if they bite you you'll have a virus."
We went to the foreign travel immunization clinic at the Alachua County Health Department the other day. Thankfully (praise be to God) Jared and Celia were gracious enough to keep the littles so Olivia and I could go alone. The woman we had the consultation with spoke to us for an hour (!) about things ranging from benzo (something or other) wipes to buy, anti-malarial medicine, and vaccinations. I am currently having to decide if I should get my 2nd Hepatitis A shot (I got my first before I went but never returned for the booster - those are expensive shots!). We got Olivia's Hepatitis A but have to go back for one more for both her and I (I can't remember what it is and I'd have to actually get up to go find it. ha!). I'd have taken a picture of her getting her shot but I was too busy restraining her. Literally, full body restraining. Can we say traumatic??? There is no convincing her that it will be just a moment of pain. She starts stressing about the shot as soon as she figures out she's getting one.
On a happier note, I did (finally) get the passports sent off last week. I was waiting on having the funds to do so, it was quite expensive to do. We took some pictures of us getting pictures, the ones of me, Olivia took. :) She's a natural, as you can see.
Did you happen to notice the red line on the thermometer? It has literally JUMPED since my last update. We have gotten about $700 donated in the last two weeks. We are SO close to meeting goal...and still have a yard sale to do! God has been so good to us in providing so quickly, and I feel so blessed, and Olivia does too.
If you are praying, please pray for the following:
- That all of our funding would be provided, ours and the other people going on the trip. I am only one of 70 people raising funds for this.
- That our hearts would be prepared for the trip in all the ways God knows they need to be.
- That God would prepare specific people for us to connect with and bless during our time there.
Thank you, again, for journeying with us. :)
