Back and Forth

As I wrote the last update, we were making our way from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Today, we’re reversing that trip and making our way from Ohio to Pennsylvania. It has been a jam-packed couple of weeks, and I don’t mind telling you we’re exhausted.

During our first week in Ohio, we attended an eight-day mission conference, which mainly included evening meetings (though there were a couple of morning meetings as well), meals, visitation activities, and even a bit of shopping. Since there was so much going on, I was asked to help with the piano during the week, so I played for most preludes and offertories. I was a little concerned about this since I haven’t even owned a piano or keyboard since last February when mine was destroyed in our motorhome accident. But the Lord really helped, and I made out okay.

We had the chance to present our ministry and enjoy some incredible singing and preaching throughout the week. On the last day of the meeting, some of the church staff and the visiting missionaries and speakers joined together for an excellent buffet lunch and some fun shopping at The Dutch antique shops. I always love looking through antique shops because you never know what you’ll find. We walked away with a few books and a couple of Christmas gifts, but I can’t tell you how long we were in the store. It was a while. The establishment even had a petting zoo, which I enjoyed as well.

After that meeting, we traveled to another part of Ohio to begin a three-day mission conference. The meeting began Friday evening with dinner on the grounds and a fantastic service with special speaker, Dr. Shumpert. Saturday was very different but a lot of fun. We began the day with a church brunch. The food was outstanding! At the end of the brunch, the pastor called all the missionaries (three families) to the front of the room and handed us microphones. The next hour or so was a casual Q&A where the pastor asked us questions about our call, our field, our deputation journey, and so on. Then, the people of the church asked some questions. It was a great time to share details about the journey we’ve been on. The only bad part was the moment I first sat down in my chair at the front. I went to set my cup of hot tea on the floor, and suddenly, a dozen or more small black beads fell from my hand, hitting the flooring and bouncing and rolling all over the place. It was noisy! My beaded bracelet had chosen that moment to fall apart, and boy, was it embarrassing. After the Q&A, people all over the room were coming to hand me beads. Good grief! At least I’m memorable.  LOL

Sunday brought about services as usual, and Jason had the opportunity to present our ministry and show our video on Sunday night. Dinner on the grounds followed each meal, and the food was so delicious. It was a joy to be with these precious people at Tri-State Baptist and enjoy the fabulous meeting.

After resting a bit Monday morning, we went into town to get some laundry done. Since we’re in a borrowed motorhome currently, we don’t have access to a washer/dryer, so we’ve been visiting laundromats along the way. Fortunately, this laundromat was just down the road from shopping areas, so while our clothes were washing and drying, we were able to get some Christmas shopping done.

Tuesday was another busy day as we chatted with the Downeys in Wales, worked on our sponsorship paperwork, spoke with the repair shop that has our RV (that’s a LONG story), and then drove to yet another part of Ohio for a mid-week meeting.

While in this new location, we had both a Wednesday and Thursday-night meeting, each in a different church. Both meetings were great, and we really enjoyed the services and the fellowship. One of the churches took us on for support, while the other indicated they would likely be taking us on soon.

We have finished up all our sponsorship paperwork (we think) and are waiting to receive our sponsorship number to begin our visa process. Amid all the meetings and traveling, we’ve been doing our best to get everything in order for our departure, but as you can imagine, it’s tough to find the time (and brainpower) to get everything done. Still, the Lord is blessing and helping us in more ways than we can explain.

We have meetings in Pennsylvania on Sunday and then a mission conference Wednesday through Sunday. We’re hoping to have some time to visit Gettysburg and Philadelphia while we’re in the area, but we’ll see how that pans out.  

We still don’t have any leads on a house in Wales, but the Downeys are in the process of looking. Please help us pray for a home and also that everything will time out well with our sponsorship and visa process so we can leave on our scheduled date of January 18th (that’s 66 days from now!).

I think that’s all for now.  Thank you so much for all your love, prayer, support and your precious emails and comments.  They are such a blessing to us!