I keep feeling like I'm neglecting the blog, I guess because I am. Does it help if I've been busy with other things? Well, I'll not offer a bunch of excuses but I will update you on what's happening.
Right now I am working on our presentation for furlough! That's right, furlough! Can you believe it? I can't! Granted, that's because our first furlough is 10 mos earlier than originally planned. It was a necessity. As we began praying and planning furlough with the original dates, we realized that several of our cedulas (residency cards) would need renewal while we were gone! We were told by a lady in immigration that if we were not here to renew the cards we very likely would lose our residency status.
So we began looking at dates and our choices were to stay here until we could renew our cards before leaving, or go, and return, before we needed to renew our cards. Several things were considered in making our final decision.
First, Brandon will be starting college in the fall of 2010. We would really like to be in the States with him when he starts school at Ambassador.
Second, we would like to start a new church plant sooner rather than later. We could start one once the Perez family returns from their furlough but then that would mean we would have to leave it shortly after it was planted. Not a good idea.
Finally, our residency, which has already been mentioned.
One of the drawbacks to going home on furlough sooner was that we were lacking in funds for passage back to the States. Though we have been putting money into our passage account since arriving on the field, our first furlough was originally thought to be after 4 years on the field, thus the amount we had budgeted came up short because we were short a year.
We took all of this before our home-church pastor and his advice was to take an early furlough and make our supporting churches aware of the additional need for passage funds. Thankfully, our travel agent was able to find round trip tickets that were good for a year. This actually cut the cost of our tickets nearly in half. Within a few days the Lord has met the additional need for funds and we should be able to buy the tickets Monday.
Once Scott knew that he could purchase the tickets, which was this week, he began making phone calls to our supporting churches to book meetings. It has really been a blessing to him to make these phone calls. He has told me that the secretaries and pastors he has spoken with have been a tremendous encouragement. They have told him they were expecting his phone call. And many have asked about my health.
I know our missionary friends will probably disagree with us, because I'm sure they feel the same way, but we have the BEST supporting churches! Each one has involved themselves in our lives in so many different ways. Visits, packages, cards, notes, letters and phone calls are all among the ways that God has blessed us through our supporters. We are REALLY looking forward to being back with all of them and sharing what God has done in our lives during our first term. And sharing the future we believe God has planned for us here in Uruguay.
I know this has been a lengthy post, but I would like to close with some prayer requests:
~That God would use us to burden hearts for missions and that we could have supporting church visit us here in Uruguay with missions teams.
~We need someone to stay in our house while we are gone.
~Brandon is finishing up high school.
~For us to be in every supporting church.
~To have new churches to present our ministry in.
~For the planning of furlough meetings.
~Brandon and Kaitlin will be applying for the CIT training at the Wilds for next summer.
~For our trip to California to be with family for Christmas, our first Christmas with family in 4 years.
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