Giving Thanks

We are so thankful for all God has done in the last few months of our lives.  We have seen amazing things happen:
We have a wonderful family that wants to rent our house.
We are close to our goal for financing due to some amazing friends and family.
We have most of the animals new homes (Doodle still needs a great home).
We have our tickets to Colorado Springs for training.
We are close to buying our tickets to Nairobi.  (I need to make sure we are within 12 months of returning to meet the requirements).  We plan on coming home for Christmas next year.

I just wanted to let you all know, that it looks like we will be here till Jan 10th.  Then we will fly out of Detroit on the 12th to go to Colorado Springs.  We will be back in Flint on the 22nd, celebrate Timothy's 10th birthday on the 23rd and fly to Nairobi on the 25th. So, details are coming together!   Please pray as we get closer!  There are still so many things to sort out.

Thanks to you all.  I know there are so many things to be thankful for in all of your lives.  This is the time of year that we really focus on thankfulness, but just look at your life everday.  There are things that you can be thankful for all the time!
LOL
Jullie T.

This is a picture of us at the football game in Evart watching Trevor play in the Band

I am thankful for my amazing Family!

(Sallie, Me, Timothy, Mom, Angie, George (significant other!)) I guess Jim took the picture!

11 November 2010, Seven Weeks and Counting

GOD continues to show his grace and blessings as we move forward.  We have had so many wonderful people support us both in prayer and in finances it is amazing.  We are now at 85% funding and only have about 800/month to raise to be fully funded for the first year and 1/3 into the second year.  We trust GOD is going to finish what he has started so we are now comfortable with purchasing our plane tickets to Nairobi for the end of January knowing that we won't have to change the flight dates.  We still have a family interested in renting the house to we are praying that the rental works out.  A couple weeks ago we spoke at Ainsworth Baptist Church about our mission and needs, and found a potential home for Doodle.  We will do a trial run at this home in a couple weeks. 
As Jullie and I are reading books on long term mission trips and crossing cultures into the African Culture, we are learning that we have a lot to learn.  This is so far beyond what he have experienced living in La Maddalena Italy and Stuttgart Germany.  We spend at least one night a week in "Kenya Family Meeting Night".  This is when we discuss, as a family, the cultural differences in how we do things in day-to-day living and how the people of Africa do them.   We are all excited at the prospect of being with the local Kenyans and other missionaries there in Kijabe and doing GOD's work.  We know that there will be difficult times and joyous times.  We are learning the importance to embrace the culture and not shy away from it.  The kids are learning Swahili every day.  Jullie is a wonderful teacher.  I on the other hand still have a problem with foreign languages. In fact, English is a second language to me (or so Jullie states). 

A friend, Alicia Ventura who was part of the EMI team on our design trip to Kijabe Hospital in May, made this video.  It is very warming and gives you a bit of the sense of what Jullie and I experienced on our two weeks in Kijabe.  Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07koJ5-L6ZU