A new day is dawning. Yesterday, we received our household goods from our container we shipped here from Haiti. We backed up a Penske truck to the back of the container and moved all of our things to the moving truck in one hour. Everything seemed to be in good condition. We praise the Lord for that.
Today we are headed north. We will overnight in Jacksonville, Forida. Wednesday, we will enjoy the day at the beach with the children and on Thursday, we will head on to Kentucky.
As much as I am trying to enjoy this adventure, I am tired of living out of a suitcase. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything. If this is what the Lord has for us, then I am going to do my best to enjoy it. We have been blessed to stay with friends while in Miami and although they have continued to extend their home to us, I am sure they will be glad when the six of us are not sleeping in their living room.
Thanks Robert, Nancy, Courtney, and Cory!
Anyway, keep us in your prayers as we travel, pray, and discern the Lord's direction for our family.
Many blessings to each of you.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
In Miami, Florida
So, we are now in Miami, Florida. Let me try to recap the last few weeks...
We decided about eight weeks ago to return to the United States (see last post if you haven't already.) We looked into shipping our household items back to the US. We made a few phone calls and sent a few emails. Then we called our broker in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to check on our paperwork. This was on March 18th at about 1:30 p.m. To our surprise, she said our container to pack our items in would be in TiTanyen on Saturday morning, March 19th. Now at this point, all we had packed were books. Granted there were 20 boxes of books, but none the less, that was all that was packed.
We began to pack. Mme Lesrome was at our house and she began to empty things in the kitchen and wash them. We packed till late that evening and then began again the next morning. Our container did not arrive till around 3 p.m. (or maybe it was a bit earlier), but we needed the extra time. Once it was situated, we began to pack the container.
Now, we had a friend visiting us from France. He, Romain, had been with us in Haiti for about a week. He is the packing king. We took boxes to him and he strategically placed each item. We got our whole household stuffed into a 20 foot container. Praise the Lord! Thanks Romain. The shipping company picked up the container Tuesday morning. One more small feat accomplished.
So, when would our stuff leave Haiti? We were thinking several weeks. Why? Well, we were thinking they would need to wait for enough stuff/containers, then they would ship them all. Nope. It was scheduled to leave the next Saturday or the following Tuesday. That put it leaving Haiti on March 26th or 28th. After that, three days of ocean travel until it arrives in Miami, FL. Wow, we're not waiting time here.
Thoughts that ran through our heads: Are we ready for the next step in ministry? Are we ready to leave Haiti? Are we ready for the newness of different ministry opportunities? Are we ready to leave the friends that we have come to love dearly and venture out to make new ones and see old ones? Sometimes the answers were yes, sometimes they we no, and still other times they were maybe. But, regardless of our emotions at the time, we knew we were/are still in the will of God. That peace that is upon us is definitely from the Lord. So we hang on to that.
With our belongings in route to Miami, we found out we need to be there to receive our stuff and work it through customs on the US side. So, we bought tickets. We flew to Fort Lauderdale, FL on April 1st. One husband, one wife, four children, one dog, eight checked pieces of luggage, and six carry on pieces of luggage - and we are off. Mr. David driving this motley crew to the airport. Everything went wonderfully. We couldn't have asked for a smoother transition.
The Global Outreach Haiti team was wonderful during this transition time. They encouraged us, prayed for us, prayed with us, and assisted whenever needed.We thank you for your support and friendships - you are all a blessing to us.
We are currently staying with friends in Miami. We should have our household items on Monday. It should all be loaded in a moving truck and ready for the next destination. We don't know the final destination on this side of Heaven, but we are headed to the Pineville, Kentucky area, for now.
We are planning to make a tour around the U.S. to thank everyone on our walk in ministering in Haiti. We would like to encourage all in their walk and encourage the support of Global missions. We will keep you posted as to the area we will be and what the Lord is doing in our lives. We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Please keep praying for our family and for the ministry the Lord has for us to join Him in. We are excited.
We decided about eight weeks ago to return to the United States (see last post if you haven't already.) We looked into shipping our household items back to the US. We made a few phone calls and sent a few emails. Then we called our broker in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to check on our paperwork. This was on March 18th at about 1:30 p.m. To our surprise, she said our container to pack our items in would be in TiTanyen on Saturday morning, March 19th. Now at this point, all we had packed were books. Granted there were 20 boxes of books, but none the less, that was all that was packed.
We began to pack. Mme Lesrome was at our house and she began to empty things in the kitchen and wash them. We packed till late that evening and then began again the next morning. Our container did not arrive till around 3 p.m. (or maybe it was a bit earlier), but we needed the extra time. Once it was situated, we began to pack the container.
Now, we had a friend visiting us from France. He, Romain, had been with us in Haiti for about a week. He is the packing king. We took boxes to him and he strategically placed each item. We got our whole household stuffed into a 20 foot container. Praise the Lord! Thanks Romain. The shipping company picked up the container Tuesday morning. One more small feat accomplished.
So, when would our stuff leave Haiti? We were thinking several weeks. Why? Well, we were thinking they would need to wait for enough stuff/containers, then they would ship them all. Nope. It was scheduled to leave the next Saturday or the following Tuesday. That put it leaving Haiti on March 26th or 28th. After that, three days of ocean travel until it arrives in Miami, FL. Wow, we're not waiting time here.
Thoughts that ran through our heads: Are we ready for the next step in ministry? Are we ready to leave Haiti? Are we ready for the newness of different ministry opportunities? Are we ready to leave the friends that we have come to love dearly and venture out to make new ones and see old ones? Sometimes the answers were yes, sometimes they we no, and still other times they were maybe. But, regardless of our emotions at the time, we knew we were/are still in the will of God. That peace that is upon us is definitely from the Lord. So we hang on to that.
With our belongings in route to Miami, we found out we need to be there to receive our stuff and work it through customs on the US side. So, we bought tickets. We flew to Fort Lauderdale, FL on April 1st. One husband, one wife, four children, one dog, eight checked pieces of luggage, and six carry on pieces of luggage - and we are off. Mr. David driving this motley crew to the airport. Everything went wonderfully. We couldn't have asked for a smoother transition.
The Global Outreach Haiti team was wonderful during this transition time. They encouraged us, prayed for us, prayed with us, and assisted whenever needed.We thank you for your support and friendships - you are all a blessing to us.
We are currently staying with friends in Miami. We should have our household items on Monday. It should all be loaded in a moving truck and ready for the next destination. We don't know the final destination on this side of Heaven, but we are headed to the Pineville, Kentucky area, for now.
We are planning to make a tour around the U.S. to thank everyone on our walk in ministering in Haiti. We would like to encourage all in their walk and encourage the support of Global missions. We will keep you posted as to the area we will be and what the Lord is doing in our lives. We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Please keep praying for our family and for the ministry the Lord has for us to join Him in. We are excited.
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