Tour de West

Well, it's Monday in Norfolk and we know what that means!
It's time to reflect on the past 2 months and get ready for the next couple!
With coffee in hand (a gift of Starbucks coffee pressed in a stainless steel french press we wanted for the field and a supporter just happened to have in his closet), (speaking of which I haven't yet mailed back his key...) a to-do list is born!

With coffee in hand and a pen and pad at hand, I sit to reflect. Two months ago, we left Houston for a whirlwind of travel and partnership development. We had supporters and contacts ranging from Phoenix to Washington State and we left to visit them. It is, of course, our job to visit supporters and update them on our travels. But we hoped to turn contacts into supporters and find new supporters in the process.
We did a good job at that. Where we had supporters, we found more. Where we had contacts, The good Lord turned them into supporters.

Leaving Houston
Phoenix is a charming 18 hour jaunt from Houston, so we decided to break it up a little. We stopped at a friend's house in San Antonio and we're so glad we did! She gave my son a toy (which she thoughtfully screened for size and the length of the age of interest. Up to 3 years!), a toy which was pretty much a life saver on our very very long road trip. We stopped in El Paso, to visit childhood friends who happened to be there for a spell. And then we headed on to ....

Phoenix
We loved living in Phoenix. Phoenix begged the question, "If you had to settle in the States, where would you choose?" It's such a hard question because there are so many factors. We have so many friends at The Rising in Norfolk and love that church! We really liked living in Georgia (but I think that might be because we had our own house). Dallas is where all of our PBT friends are/pass through. But Jacob, who has no qualm with being landlocked, loves Phoenix for the sake of Phoenix. (And Christ's Church of the Valley seems pretty awesome!) The desert heat in February, the adobe architecture, the lack of grass lawns, all made Phoenix seem like a lovely place to make home.

Vegas

Norfolk, for me, Dallas, and oddly Vegas, all give us a feeling of coming home. I'm not sure what about Vegas invokes this feeling. Maybe it's the memorable Strip that allows us to look across the landscape and say, "I know this place." But in the midst of traveling, it's nice to feel that way!
We had really great people to visit with, old and new, and made a number of supporters!

San Diego
I didn't get to see my love, the sea, while in San Diego but I did feel it's proximity! We stayed with contacts who became supporters and their adorable children. I brought the boys outside one day and instructed them in the art of paper airplane making. I was a little anxious about having a boy, but playing with three of them has me feeling a bit better about it.

Portland
It was a three day trip up Pacific Coastal Highway 1. Gorgeous, winding trip by the shore and through the redwoods. We got to stay with my other mommy while in Portland and visit with Jacob's aunt and her church while there. Two new supporters and a slew of sight-seeing as my pseudo-mommy showed off her beloved home, including Maltnomah Falls. While it wasn't the first waterfall I've seen, it was the first time I've been to a waterfall. Like, we're in the same vicinity. And it was beautiful.

To Norfolk
We had five days of driving to take us across the country. Traveling through States I've never been through before, I've learned that there's nothing worth seeing off the coast! Lots of farmland both for plants and for animals but not a lot of anything else.... We had a day off of driving in Illinois where we got to visit our cat who we rehomed with some friends of ours. Our reception was disappointing. His love for us seemed mostly forgotten, but that might have been in part due to the tiny thrashing
oddly proportioned human (babies have big heads
and little arms!) we were toting and the fact that when I last saw Shadow I smelled different thanks to pregnancy.

We arrived in Norfolk and pulled up to my father's house. I called him from there and he asked where I was. So that was a fun little surprise. My sister came over shortly afterwards and a nice little family reunion ensued. And now here we are, getting settled and getting ready!

We're now 58% with others who are interested in committing but haven't yet giving a figure.
We need to be 90% in order to buy plane tickets and we're hoping to leave in September!

The States James has been to
(and also the territory we've covered since leaving for our PD trip in July 2014 (excluding Maryland and Pennsylvania) !)

September as the New Target Date!

This morning I got an email from the Director of the PNG branch of PBT, informing us that since we plan on being missionaries in a village setting that it would be best for us to attend the POC course in September. We are on the list of attendees in September!
But we will not be leaving in May.
POC is an orientation course to jungle life in Papua New Guinea, which will teach us skills and give us a chance to practice them before allocating to a village setting.
This change in departure time definitely has a silver lining in that, after we have our funds raised, we can have a bit of a break before departing for the field. Hopefully, this breath will allow us to come to terms with the whole leaving the States for two and a half years and the changes that will have on our lives. This will give us a chance to process that transition before it overwhelms us.
We have 55% of our funds raised presently and are hoping to reach our goal soon!
Please keep praying for us to meet our funding goals and for the people God has chosen for our support team!

The Numbers Game

Since our departure in July 2014 for our full time fundraising trip, there have been a couple of numbers floating around.

5000
8000
6500
4300
4600

See, originally, we thought we were going to go to a road allocation which would require less in monthly costs (5000) but more in one-time costs (36,000). Then we were asked to consider a helicopter allocation, which, I was last told, would bring our budget up significantly (8000). But then we found it was less than we had thought (6500)! Our one-time expenses were raised, enabling us to remove them from the funds we needed (4300). Excel hates me (4600).

 So, right now we're aiming to have $4,600/month raised. And we presently have *coming in* 54% of that! We believe that there is more that's working it's way through the pipelines now, but we try not to count our chickens until they hatch.

We need 90% of our budget to be raised before we can buy plane tickets. We're getting so close!
We're still shooting to leave in May, which is 6 weeks away!! We're planning on leaving in September. 

But we still have a little ways to go.
Please pray and see if God's got you in mind to join our support team!
A gift of $46/month will bring us up a whole percent!


As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”