It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything so I thought I’d post some pictures of our excursions lately.  Right now, we are just outside of Orlando, FL.   Calvary Baptist in Winter Garden allowed us to stay here for a month.  Prior to coming here, we were at Temple Baptist in Athens, GA for a week.  Here are some pictures from GA and from FL:

Georgia Aquarium (the largest in the world)

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We watched the Shuttle, Atlantis, launch from Cape Canaveral.  That was pretty amazing!

Stay tuned for pictures from Disney World–early Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa.  We are going on Monday.

Here are some pictures of our week in Palmer, MA.

The group of missionaries in the conference.

 

The Quabbin Resevoir,

 

   

                                                                   and fish hatchery.

 

We had a great week at this wonderful church!!

If you use facebook, then please feel free to use this networking site to follow our deputation travels more closely.  For instance, if you were my friend on fb, then you would know that yesterday we were able to go to a petting farm here in Massachussetts.  More importantly, you would also know that Sarah asked Christ to be Savior this past week!

I will be sure to be active in my blog posts, but FB will give you a more of a day to day record of our travels.  Hope all is well.  We are staying in Palmer, Mass. for a few more days before we head south for the winter.  We will be suffering for the Lord down in Florida before too long.  Can’t wait.

Getting ready to see the farm animals

We have much better news to report this second try at going full-time.  Last week was a flurry of activity with getting our trailer, and moving.  We drove to Clifton Park on Tuesday to pick up our trailer and arrived back home pretty late.  Then, on Wednesday we began moving in and starting living in it while we spent the next couple of days moving out of our house.  On Saturday we headed back out.  We arrived safely in NH where we spent a couple of days.  Nathan went to a pastor’s fellowship in Nashua.  On Tuesday we left and drove a couple of hours to Palmer, MA.  That’s where we are now.  This is the first day of the mission’s conference here.  It will be a busy week, but already we have had such a sweet time of fellowship with the believers here.

Well, as I write this update we are traveling home from Syracuse in our Suburban!  A lot has happened since our last post, and I am thrilled to give a full update.  In my last post, I asked you to pray with us for the finding of a replacement trailer and for the sale of our home.  Also, in the last post I encouraged you to realize that your prayers do make a difference.  Once again, God has specifically and miraculously answered our prayers.

While we waited for the sale of our house, I began to search for a replacement trailer.  After several days of research, searching, and negotiating I was able to find the trailer that we liked and that would meet our needs.  We were kind of in a stand-still though.  Our finances are such right now that we could not go right back out and buy the trailer we wanted.

Karen and I stayed up late one night discussing this and trying to find a resolution.  God has lovingly led us and provided for us through all of this.  We were struggling understanding why God would still not provide a buyer for our house.  Knowing that God has been so carefully leading us to not only these past few weeks but also for so many years, we decided that we would wait on God.  We would not force the buying of a trailer without the sale of our house.

I will not lie.  I was scared and nervous.  We figured that if we didn’t have buyer by this past Saturday, than we could not close on the house in time to buy a trailer before we have meetings in the southeastern states.  We had felt led by God to use the trailer for deputation, but when that specific Saturday came and went we thought that God had closed that door.

The next day, I had the privilege to fill the pulpit for a wonderful supporting church in Vermont.  We came home for the afternoon and crashed for our sanctified Sunday afternoon nap.  Later that afternoon, someone came to us and offered to cosign a loan enabling us to buy the trailer!  What an amazing God we serve!

Fresh with the amazement of such a sovereign God, we continued to pray for the sale of our house.  Tuesday night our realtor called and told us that he received an offer for our house!  After a little bit of haggling, we signed papers Thursday morning accepting the offer.

So in five short days, God took a very improbable situation and changed it to what we see as His omnipotent hand guiding us back to the deputation trail.  I have not seen God work this miraculously in my life since His financial provision while I was in college.  God rewarded my faith then, and I feel that He is again responding to our faith to raise sponsorship to go to South Africa.  Living by faith is not easy, but wow is it wonderful to see God provide.

We are sobered and humbled to have the opportunity to serve God as missionaries.  To be His ambassadors to the Afrikaaners and Xhosa Africans in the Cape region is the calling of our lives.  We are excited for the chance to minister in the strength of the same God Who preserved our lives on I90 in Syracuse and who so clearly answered the prayers of God’s people.

Even though the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together, please do not stop praying for us.  We are at 16% of our needed support, and we will be traveling fulltime starting the second week of October to raise the rest.  We will put tens of thousands of miles on our vehicles, call thousands of pastor/secretaries, and visit hundreds of churches.  Your prayer and support is still very much needed!

I have asked you to pray for us, and I know that so many of you are.  I want to encourage you that your prayers DO make a difference.  I received word from the insurance company on Wednesday that our settlement check would be more than what we paid for the trailer last November!  God is so good.  We are still negotiating a final settlement, because of some additional equipment that was not included in the first “offer.”  We should be able to finalize all that  in the next few days.  What a tremendous blessing!

So now we are beginning to look for a replacement trailer.  Please pray that God would lead us to the right one.  Also, please keep praying for the sale of our house.  We have had at least five showings since our accident, and one person is coming back for a second look this coming Monday.  Our realtor said that they are bringing some relative to check the house’s integrity and construction.  That is certainly a good sign.  We are praying for someone who has their financing all together and someone who doesn’t need to sell something themselves first.

Finally, please pray with us that the sale of our house will happen soon enough so we are able to purchase another trailer.  Since I am now unemployed, I am sure that our bank would not loan us the money like they did when I was working.  Our initial plan is to sell the house, and to use the proceeds to pay off our car and buy a replacement trailer.  I try not to plan too much, because I can tell that God has already ordered our path before us.  His Spirit’s guiding hand is so evident to us, and we just want to be sure to follow His leadership.

Please continue to pray with us.  My goal is to be back out on the deputation trail by the second week in October where we will be at a conference in Massachusetts.  I was also able to tentatively book another meeting today.  Praise the Lord!

Here are pictures of the damage to the Suburban.

   

And, the trailer:

  

                                                                                    This is the slide that fell out.

 

This is all of our stuff in one big pile:

 

So, here is our latest update.  While waiting for the adjuster, a customer of the repair shop came over to look at our car.  When I recounted the story to him, He was amazed that we were all unharmed and that the car did not flip with the trailer.  I was reminded again of God’s great grace to us.  He also added that this repair shop was very reliable and professional.  It was good to get an unbiased opinion.

I met with Bill from Safeco ins. for about an hour.  He was an extremely nice man and very helpful.  He started all of the paper work on the car and said that I could meet him at the trailer.  I hurried to the hotel and checked to see if we could get a late checkout.  she said that we could have until 1:30 at no cost.  We raced around and were able to be checked out by 1:00.  We then went to Penske.  I had earlier yesterday morning researched prices for a one-way rental truck.  I went inside and was able to rent a 16′ truck.  The man working there gave me a 10% internet discount even though I didn’t finish the booking online.  I was able to get a 12% AAA discount as well.

We left Penske and went to get something for lunch.  After lunch, we went to the trailer to get our things.  Bill was still there and informed me that the trailer would be a total loss.  I think that was the best scenario for us at this time.  He asked a few more questions to be better able to determine the full value of the trailer.  From about 2: 30 until 5:00, we emptied the trailer – pretty sobering to handle everything you need to live in 2 1/2 hours.  Everything was a dis-sheveled mess, but praise the Lord we have only found one item broken our damaged.  One of our children’s My Little Pony bowls was broken, and that’s it!

We left the trailer to go back to the car to sign some paperwork so the repairs could begin today.  The total damage to the car is now estimated at $7,000.  Bill did say that because Safeco holds both our car and trailer policies we will only have to pay one deductible and the other is waived.  Praise the Lord!  That saves us $1,000.

From here, we went to get dinner at that great American fine dining establishment – McDonalds.  We for home at about 7:00 P.M.  We had a safe trip home, arriving in at 1:00 AM.  It was strange to feel like a stranger in my own home.  The whole place was completely empty.  We set up everyone with some air mattresses that we had arranged to be put in our garage.  By 1:45 all of the kids were in their old rooms falling asleep.

We will be unpacking the Penske later on today around 4 PM.  We have to wait until then, because we have two people coming to see the house today!  Maybe we will get an offer soon.  Please pray to that end.  I am not sure what our next few steps are.  Our car is supposed to take 1-2 weeks for repair.  Our rental car is only $5/day after insurance with unlimited miles, so we plan to keep it until the car is fixed.  At that point we will return the rental to Syracuse (we have to, they don’t do one way rentals), and pick up our Suburban.

We will be settling in today, and Monday I will use my time trying to fill a schedule for the rest of our deputation journeys.  I want to be sure to praise the name of my good God.  He has faithfully led us even through this tough time.  The family is doing well.  The kids have been tremendous.  They have been so understanding and flexible.  What a wonderful blessing to have four lively, healthy, and beautiful children.  Karen has been so strong through this.  Imagine leaving your home for a temporary home, and then having your temp. home fall apart before your eyes.  Her trust, our trust is still in God!  Our eyes are still on the mission field, on those hundreds and thousands of South Africans that we will have the opportunity to lead to Christ in the not-to-distant future.  If Satan’s opposition is this strong, than God must have great spiritual work for us to do both in South Africa and on the deputation trail.  Please keep praying for us, and I will do my bes to make future posts much shorter.

We left Trinity Tuesday morning for the start of full-time deputation.  Unfortunately,I have some bad news to report to everyone.  We were towing our travel trailer on I90 in Syracuse, NY, and got into an accident.  The good news is that everyone one of us was safe through it all.  We are staying in a hotel until we find out what the damage is.  I do not understand why God has allowed this to happen in our lives, but I am still trusting in God.  Please pray that God will give us wisdom for the important decisions that we need to make in the next few days.  Praise God for his preserving of our lives!

As we continue to deal with all of this, God has been so faithfully loving to us.  We were taken by the NY State Police to a nearby hotel.  When we went to check in the manager, who was just about to leave for the day, told us that we could have the room at a $30-40 discount.  As we have since found out, the entire hotel is booked except for this one two bedroom suite.  The hotel staff has been wonderful, even to the point of hand delivering crayons and coloring sheets printed off of the internet.  Less than 30 minutes ago, the manager notified us that she would be dropping our daily rate to $99, and that we can stay as long as we need to.  There is some major state fair going on in Syracuse right now, so I am sure that this comes at some sacrifice to the hotel.

So here is the details of the accident….

We were traveling west on I90 in Syracuse when we came up on a huge yacht/boat being towed.  They were traveling quite slow, so we moved into the passing lane to go by them.  When we came up on them, the car and trailer started swaying.  Some sway is normal when passing a large vehicle.  We were going about 60-62 mph at the time.  We were not able to correct the sway.  Our Suburban veered into the very rear of the boat on the drivers side.  The trailer “jack-knifed”, flipped onto the drivers side, and together our vehicle and the trailer slid to a stop.  God’s protection was amazing.  Not a single one of us has even a bruise.  All of the cars behind us were able to stop before hitting us (including a tractor trailer).  We didn’t even hit the guard rail, which hopefully would protect folks fromt the steep bank off of the side of the highway.

When everything came to a stop.  We were all o.k. - no cuts, bruises, or broken bones.  Everyone was alive and well, at lest physically.  The emotional and mental side of the accident still is very much with us.  Immediately after the accident, two uniformed soldiers came running to our aid.  When one of the men heard me telling the firechief about our deputation journey plans, he prayed with Karen and the children.  One of the men who was towing the boat grabbed pieces of debris and gave them to us to praise God for saving our lives!  Those who know me, know that I am not one to over-dramatize or exagerate a situation.  With that understanding I soberly and thankfully say, God preserved our lives yesterday in a miraculous fashion!  Why our vehicle did not go into a barrell roll is beyond explaining.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Where do we go from here?  Well, right now I am typing in a hotel room waiting for a call from our insurance adjuster.  Once they assess the vehicles, we will know what our next steps will be.  The trailer is most likely totaled.  That being said, we have not found a single thing yet that was broken or damaged in the accident!  That includes this computer I’m typing on, our tv, Karen’s and Kathryn’s American Girl dolls, the kids stuffed animals, Karen’s camera and our video recorder, a playstaytion, Karen’s new flute, our home school supplies, even our cologne and perfume, our glass blender, a stereo, our projector and display board things, and many other items.

Our suburban actually appears to have littel damage.  The front of the car is pushed in about 6 inches, and the back bumper was pulled up about a foot when the trailer jack-knifed.  We will see what our insurance company says.

Some closing thoughts.  After consulting with Godly men, I do not believe that this God closing the door.  Rather, I believe  that this is either Satan’s attack or God sending us a trial to refine us into what He wants us to be.  Everything we needed to live was in that trailer.  God gave both the car and the trailer to us; He can take them away if He chooses.  I will still echo Job, “Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

I have canceled my meeting with Pastor David Bousquet in Cranesville, PA and Pastor David Schindel in Franklin, TN.  Our next specific committment is to a conference near Boston, Masschusetts.  My initial plans are to fix the Suburban and to be in Mass. in October.  If we are facing this kind of opposition in our desire to plant churches along the Garden Route in South Africa, I can only imagine that God has important work for us to do there!  We need you to pray even more fervently for God’s leadership in our lives.  He has preserved our lives for a specific purpose, and we will obediently follow His call.  I cannot help but wonder how this accident will change our deputation process, and I am not only talking about delaying two or three meetings.  My message that I preach from James 1 about the attitude of joy, the attitude of knowledge, and the attitude of submission has a whole new meaning to us now!

I want to close with two thoughts from God’s Word.  God has promised that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.  Though we fall, we will not be utterly cast down.  For the Lord upholds us with His hand.  Secondly, Naked came we into this world, and naked we will return.  The Lord gave and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!!!

We just wanted to let you all know that we successfully moved from our house into our travel trailer.  We have a lot of unpacking to do, but the first night in the trailer went smoothly.  Pictures to follow soon.  Please continue to pray that our house would sell quickly.