Two Weddings, One Champion, and Two Roadtrips

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for us! We've been to Miami, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and back--and lived to tell about it! :)

The first thing on our calendar for July was my (Kimberly's) cousin's wedding. My cousinChase McCallister married his bride Lauren on July 10th. Their wedding was at the beautiful Botanical Gardens at the Riverbanks Zoo at sunset. The ceremony was gorgeous, and we all had such a blast at the reception--even my Oma got up with her walker and danced on the dance floor!

My cousin Chase and I

My new cousin Lauren and I

The next day was the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010. The cup was down to two teams--Spain and the Netherlands. Obviously, we were rooting for Spain to win! After all, it is about to become our new home! Since my cousin's wedding was the night before, many of my cousins were still in town and were able to watch the final game with us. A few of them actually grew up in Spain, so it was great to be able to feed off of their passion for the team. In the end, after a tense roller coaster, we were finally able to celebrate that Spain holds the title for the 2010 World Cup Champions!! This is the first time Spain has EVER won the world cup, and it is also the first time a team has won the world cup after losing their first group match. Needless to say, we were pretty excited! The only sad note is that we weren't able to be in Spain for the actual celebration!!! What a joyous day. :)

Celebrating Spain's win with my cousins

Right after the game was over...like RIGHT after...we left for West Palm Beach, FL.We stopped in Jacksonville, FL for the night to break up the trip. Thankfully, we have wonderful friends in Jacksonville who offered their house to us both on the way to and from Southern Florida. Monday morning after breakfast with our friends, we drove down to West Palm Beach to stay with our good friends the Smythe family. We spent our time in West Palm Beach visiting my old church, having a wonderful reunion with old friends, sharing about our internship in Spain, and of course going to the beach for one morning! We had such a wonderful time there. In between all of these events, we travelled down to Miami, FL to apply for our visas at the Spanish consulate. Yes, you heard me right, we had to go PERSONALLY to the consulate to apply. We miraculously (literally) got an appointment for the week we would be down there so that our documents wouldn't expire. Everything seemed to go without a hitch--Praise God! The only thing we are waiting on now is for one last document to be translated and mailed to the consulate--then they can begin processing it. They say it should take anywhere between 1 and 3 months to process our visa. Then we will be free to leave for Spain!! Hooray!

Us with the Smythe family who hosted us while in West Palm Beach

The Church I attended while living in FL, Wellington Presbyterian Church

Then it was back to Columbia for another friend's wedding on Saturday, July 17th. Daniel and Rebekah Hodges both went to CIU with us, and Micah lived on the same hall in the dorm as Daniel. Side note: I actually attended Ben Lippen School with Daniel in the 8th grade! They had a lovely ceremony and reception, and we were able to get caught up with several college friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time!

Micah with Daniel

After a one-day rest on Sunday, we headed to Knoxville, TN on Monday, the 19th. We stayed with Jon and Rae Farra and their sweet little almost one-year old girl named Rosalee. Jon was the interim youth pastor at our church for a year in 2005-2006. They both teach at a Christian school in Knoxville. We were able to share a little bit with their small group and visit several churches in the area to share about our internship. On Thursday of that week, we headed down to Chattanooga, TN to visit with Micah's best friend from childhood (and through to adulthood) Stephen Humphries and his wife Taryn. We had such a great time hanging out with them since we don't get to see them too often! They opened our eyes to a wonderful used book store called McKay's (sadly only in Tennessee)! We were also able to give our information to some churches while in the area as well.

Us with Jon, Rae, and Rosalee

Us with Stephen and Taryn

The next Sunday we returned home--all travelled out. We then packed up and moved all of our stuff to Micah's parent's home, in which we will be making our home until we leave for Spain. Now we are [almost] settled in to our room, and are looking forward to being in Columbia for the better part of the month. God has taught us so much about flexibility and kindness throughout our travels thus far, and I know He's got much more in store for us.

Another HUGE news item! It is with GREAT thanks to our Lord that I can say that He has brought us to 72% of our total funds! We are thrilled with His provision so far, and He is only proving Himself to be trustworthy. Thanks for bearing with this lengthy post! Looking forward to sharing what God will do next!

Drowning in all that is Visa...

Visa, visa, visa! I feel like that word has come out of my mouth more than just about anything these days! I mean, I knew that getting visas were complicated, but now we can join the ranks of those who actually know how complicated it truly is. Just to give you a taste...we have several documents we need to present in order to apply for our visa--in person--in Miami. The most interesting thing we have had to come up with is a certificate of good conduct from the FBI that required us to get fingerprinted! Now whenever people in CSI and Law and Order look through the fingerprint databases, ours will be among the ranks searched! HA! But seriously, we have to come up with several documents, then we have to get them legalized with the Apostille--who has EVER heard of an apostille?!? Well, now we have! Then, if all that wasn't enough, we have to have ALL of our documents translated into Spanish! (side note--the Miami consulate--who has jurisdiction over SC residents--is one of the only consulates that requires that you translate your documents into Spanish) Needless to say, we are definitely looking forward to the day when we have applied for the visa and just have to wait for it to come in.

In other news, we had a fantastic garage sale in which we sold over half of our stuff! God has used this time to remind us that we don't belong in this world and what's truly eternal. I am so grateful that God impressed upon our hearts the desire to go to Spain before we even got married. All of our possessions we have been able to hold lightly knowing that we were just going to turn around and get rid of them very soon. Anyways, it's been a huge relief not to have to keep up with all of our "stuff" anymore! It's all taken care of for the year we're gone!

Also, God is continuing to provide for our financial needs. We're currently at 43%! That means that we have about $22,500 left to raise. God has been so faithful to provide for us so far, and we know that he will be faithful to provide the rest. We have a few support trips coming up. We're going to Savannah, GA and also to Jacksonville, FL this week to visit with family and share about God's work in Spain. Also, as soon as our paperwork comes in, we will be travelling to Miami to apply for our visa and to visit a few other cities in Southern Florida. We're also hoping to travel to a few other places in the Southeast within the next month or two. So our basic timeline is once our paperwork comes in to go to Miami to apply for our visa, wait until our visa comes in (3-4 months), then go to Spain!

Thank you guys so much for praying for us! Here are a few things you can keep on praying for:

--Pray that God will continue to provide our finances, and praise Him for providing what we have so far.

--Pray that God will open our eyes to opportunities for ministry where we are right now. There are already ways that we see God working to the people we're coming in contact with.

--Pray that God will strengthen our marriage during this stressful time.

--Pray for the people to whom we will be ministering to in Spain and for Mark Johnson, a TEAM missionary who will be our supervisor.

Looking forward to sharing what God is doing!!! Thanks for joining us in the journey!

On the Road Again

Ok, cheesy title I know...but it seriously has been what our lives have consisted of for the last couple weeks! On May 16th, we drove almost 14 hours from Columbia, SC to Peoria, IL to visit my (Kimberly's) Grandma. It was so good to see her as I haven't been able to visit her since I was 14 or 15!

Me with my Grandma

From Peoria we drove up to Wheaton, IL to begin training with TEAM on May 18th. From that Tuesday through Friday we had all day intensive training sessions to help prepare us for our year in Spain. It was so refreshing to be there, to meet new people, and to learn (and be reminded of) so much! We had a great time there, and feel better prepared for ministry.

All the TEAMServers

We were able to leave early enough on that Friday to make it back to Columbia, SC late that night (or should I say early Saturday!). We had been planning to split up the trip into two days, staying with a good friend in Tennessee, but we were able to leave earlier than expected and made it back in one day! :) And, boy were we glad we made it back that night! The next day around noon, we get a text letting us know that we were about to have a new baby in the family! Micah's brother Nate blessed our family with our first nephew! (We had only girls before that) Skye Logan was born May 22, and he is a beautiful, healthy baby. We love him so much!

Skye Logan

We then were able to speak at Covenant Community Church in Lexington, SC (Red Bank area) the next day, May 23rd. We have a friend from college, Kent Suits, that works at this church, and he connected us with the people there. We were able to share during the Sunday School hour and had the privilege of leading worship for the church service. We had a blast sharing what God has done and is doing in Spain! We were even able to play with an old friend that we didn't know attended Covenant! Mike had gone to our church, Faith, a while ago, and it was so fun to play on a worship team with him again! And many memories were brought back to us as we played with Kent because we had both been on CIU's chapel team with Kent for a year.

We also had the opportunity to travel to Augusta, GA this week. We had meetings with two churches, and we also dropped off some information packets at a few other churches in the area. We then were able to visit with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time! Tim and Emma Strong moved out of the Columbia area several years ago and have since had a baby girl named Elena! We got to meet her for the first time--and she's definitely not a baby anymore! Elena is 20 months old, and she is hilarious--just like her parents. :)

Please pray for us as the next week will be spent on three main things:

1. Packing! We still have more packing to be done at our old house! Next Saturday (June 5) we will be having a HUGE garage sale. If you've had a garage sale before, you know we need prayer to organize and get things done!
2. Planning for various support trips. Some trips that we are trying to get together for the nearer future are to Charlotte, NC and Chattanooga, TN.
3. Visa preparations. We have to have several documents officially translated into Spanish, wait for certain documents to arrive from the Spanish government, and also try to plan a support trip around this trip to Miami. Please pray for us--it's very complicated to work everything out just right!

Thank you guys so much for praying for us, and we look forward to what God will do! Like Hudson Taylor has said, "God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply." We're still at 30% support, and we trust that God will provide!

Jobless, Not-So-Homeless, and Support

Things are a bit of a whirlwind here with us! As of yesterday, we are both officially jobless! While this sounds like a scary thing (and actually is a little!), it is actually quite freeing for us. It has been really difficult for us to juggle jobs with support raising. Now our full-time job IS support raising and preparation for Spain. And, I'll be the first to say that it is certainly a full-time job! We've got a bunch of trips lined up to visit with friends, and also friends of friends to share what God is doing in Spain. You can actually pray for us as we leave tomorrow to go on a two-day trip to Augusta, GA to meet with a few churches (hopefully more!). Please pray that we would be able to finish up some last minute details and be able to get in contact with the right people. We also will have the opportunity to meet up with some friends we haven't seen in a while--Tim and Emma Strong. They used to go to our church, but have since moved to Augusta and we haven't really seen them much since, so it'll be good to see them and to meet their 1 year old little girl, Elena.

We have also moved out of our house! But God has provided above and beyond for us. A family in our church, the Sweazy's, have graciously let us stay with them for these last few months to save money on expenses now that we're jobless. The Sweazy's live on the lake in a gorgeous house that has a kind of garage apartment--now I say garage apartment, but it is fantastic. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc. It truly is like an apartment. The Sweazy's have been so kind to us, and I know God will bless them for their generosity. We do have until the end of May to get all of our stuff out of our old house, so the name of the game is sorting and packing. Memorial Day weekend we will be having a garage sale to sell the stuff we don't want to store. Many people have been generous to donate stuff they have been wanting to get rid of for us to sell to help give to our ministry. It has been such a blessing!

Good news on the support front! Within the last few weeks, our support has jumped from 15% to 30%!! We have been blown away by the support that God has provided for us! Praise God with us! And also please pray that a good bit more of support will come in enough time for us to apply for our visa. We are confident that God will provide in Him timing. Pray that we will be diligent stewards of our time and resources in this time.

Not So Baby Steps

Right now is transition time for us! Our support is coming in (praise God!), but is coming in a lot slower than anticipated (trust God!), so we had some big decisions to make. We simply don't have time to raise support full-time because we are working, so the necessary steps needed to make toward support raising simply aren't getting done because of the limited hours in the day to use. So, we prayed and sought counsel and have finally come to some decisions, and HUGE transitions are in process as a result! Here's a quick summary of all that's happening in the next few months.

--In 3 weeks, we will both be leaving our jobs to embark on full-time support raising.
--In 2 to 3 weeks we will be moving out of our house. God has blessed us with a wonderful family who has extended their "in-law suite" (which is really like a fully furnished apartment) for us to stay in for these next months as their support, so we won't have to pay rent or utilities now that we won't have jobs
--In the month of May we will be traveling to several cities in the Southeast (more details to follow)
--Also in the month of May, we will attend our week long training for TEAM
--In June we will be making several support trips as well as making a trip to Miami, FL to apply for our visa
--In July, we will tentatively be attending a 3 week long intensive training in CO with MTI (Missions Training International). This trip depends on how much support we have.
--In August, we will hopefully leave for Spain in the middle of the month.

So, you may be asking, how will we be able to quit our jobs and still eat?! God has blessed us greatly with a generous tax refund, the sale of a car, and few other odds and ends provisions, which should hold us over for the next few months. Praise God for His provision!!

We'll be giving more details about our trips and training soon, but for now, our life pretty much consists of packing and planning! Thank you for praying for us!

15%

Great News! Since the last time we posted about how much support we had raised, the number has risen by 10%! God is working! We praise Him for the amount of support He has brought in so far!



Would you pray with us that God would bring in the remaining support? If you know of anyone who might be interested in what God is doing in Spain, please let us know! We'd love to share with them!

Snow!!

Well, as most of you know, we live in SC. As in SOUTH Carolina. We hardly get any snow. In fact, I don't think it snowed last year at all if my memory serves. Anyways, we have had a wonderful time of snow this year!! First in February it snowed quite a bit! 8 inches officially recorded at the airport! Then, just this week, it snowed again! We couldn't believe it! It wasn't much. The snow was really wet, and it melted the next day, but still! Here are some pictures of the first snow, and a video about the second snow. Enjoy!

Our little snowman we built before the snow accumulated much.

Micah trying to look like Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as she stands by the lamp post in Narnia for the first time :)

A present that was left by someone who lives in our neighborhood! A big snowman! :)

Our house!

Beautiful snow on the trees