On Sunday, March 31, we had one of our busiest days thus far in deputation. We were invited to Calvary Baptist Church in Statham, GA. While there, Jason taught Sunday School, preached the morning message, and preached and presented our burden in the evening service. I also sang in the evening service. It was a crazy busy day, but we considered it an honor that the pastor trusted us enough to turn over all three services to us.

The people of Calvary were very welcoming and so precious, and the pastor and his wife went above and beyond to make us feel at home and at ease. Besides taking us out to eat (twice), they offered us their lovely home for the afternoon so we could rest and recover before the evening service. We had such a wonderful time chatting with them and getting to know them better. We bonded over our mutual love of animals and our many crazy pet tales. It was such a fabulous day, and the church was more than generous with their love offering as well.

The one downside of the day is the source of the title of this post and another first in our deputation journey. As we made our way down the busy interstate in the early morning hours, we came upon a bird in the road. It waited and waited and then finally decided to take off, but it was too late. There was a sickening thud and a flurry of feathers as our car collided with the procrastinating bird, which Jason later told me was a dove. Never a dull moment!

We are counting down the days until Jason goes full-time on deputation. His last day is scheduled for April 26th. We’re excited and anxious! Being full-time will be much easier on us both and will provide Jason more time for making phone calls and setting up meetings. On the flip side, walking away from a steady paycheck is a scary prospect, especially when it doesn’t look like there’s enough money coming in to meet our needs. But, we’re doing this in faith and trusting God to provide. We believe it is time to take this step, and we covet your prayers throughout this process.

On a sad note, we found out last week that Barnabas (our sweet dog) will not be allowed to go with us to Wales because he is on the banned breed list. This means we’re now faced with a difficult decision of when and how to find him another home. This is probably the toughest obstacle we’ve faced thus far in our deputation, but we know the Lord will give us the strength and wisdom to proceed. We would greatly appreciate your prayers about this situation.

Thank you, once again, for your love and support. We still have a lot of empty dates on our calendar for the coming months, so if you know of a church who would like for us to come by and share our burden, please feel free to contact us. We’d love to fellowship with you!