And the Winner is...

If there is one word that people use often when describing my family, I think it would be competitive. We hadn't been back at my parents house from our trip for five minutes when my brother called. Andy told us to get ready becuase they would be there soon for a "Pumpk-off". I knew this was serious...they were coming over with two pumkins, one for each couple, and we were having a pumpkin carving contest.

We have written in previous blogs about Andy and Abby, my borhter and his wife, and how much they mean to us. They are so intentional about spending time with us before we leave. We often pray together and they are so ecouraging to us. We will miss them, but we are thankful for how much time we have had to spend with them recently.

Though we love them, we didn't think we should let them win! Both couples got to work right away and below are the results, you can be the judge!



Bonus Points: Does anyone (who isn't on our NZ team) know what Joe and I carved on our pumpkin?

See You in New Zealand!

This week we were able to spend time with our team one last time before we all leave for New Zealand. The week began with all of us traveling from our respective homes with anything and everything that we hope to see again in New Zealand to pack it into a crate in Indiana. We have been very blessed through our teammates, Nate and Whitney, in getting a crate. They are supported by a company that ships crates internationally, including to New Zealand. This company, Wood-Mizer, was able to double the size of the crate we had planned on getting, and cut the cost in half. Our team was able to share this crate with plenty of extra room!



After a rainy day of packing, we were blessed to go to dinner with John and Katy Pierce. John is a member of our sending organization, South Pacific Christian Fellowship. They treated us to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory in Indianapolis. After dinner they took us back into a private room to give us a send off. John and Katy had prepared a devotion to share with us about being sent out. Included with this devotion was prayer, a song that they sang, and a time of commissioning. As a reminder of why we are going to New Zealand, John and Katy had brought International Harvester hats to give each of us. It was very meaningful and very encouraging to know that they have so much faith in our team and the journey we are embarking on.

We spent Tuesday through Thursday meeting family! We were able to spend two nights on the Vance farm in Ohio. The Vance's are Molly's family and we were looking forward to learn about life on the farm, but unfortunately, the rain from Monday came even harder on Tuesday and Wednesday! We enjoyed our time inside with playing games and enjoying a great home-cooked meal with Molly's family.

After spending two days with Molly's family, we went to Columbus to meet Whitney's family. Unfortunately, her mom was ill and her dad needed to stay home to take care of her so we did not get to meet Mr. and Mrs. Maige. We did, however, enjoy getting to know the rest of Whitney's family over dinner and games that evening.

We ended the week Thursday morning making plans for being picked up from the airport in New Zealand! We had a long time of prayer and hugs. During prayer, Nate used an analogy that I feel like resembles how we all feel right now. His prayer was, "God, I feel like we are standing on the edge of a cliff, about to jump off, we are waiting for you to catch us!" We take such encouragement in knowing that God will not only catch us, but guide us until we land!

The goodbye to our team was not sad, but exciting! This is what we have been working for. We have been able to meet most of the team's family members throughout the last six months. Though we all love our families, and will miss them dearly, we feel as though our team is like a family. We love them and know that we have a long, exciting, and unknown road in front of us. We will work through things like a family, hold each other up like a family, and be there for each other like a family. We continually thank God for the blessing of our team in our lives.

It's Not That Anything is Going Wrong...

So Joe and I typically like to have order in our lives. We are the type of people that plan. I am the type of person that plans not only for the given event, but for all possible events that could occur while said event is going on. I am also the type of person that is completely thrown off when something happens that doesn't fit into the plan, or any of the possible plans that have been made. In the past week, I have been thrown off a lot…things haven't been going according to any plan, it's not that anything is going wrong, it just isn't in the plan!

When we were in Colorado at Missions Training International for three weeks at the beginning of the summer, we were given a stress test. We were sitting in a room with over 40 other missionaries who were taking the same test. This stress test had events listed in one column and point values listed in the other. The point of the test was to check the events that were happening in your life, and then add up the points. There were different values, 200-300 moderate stress, you should take a break; 300-400 high stress, you are on the verge of a breakdown; over 400 meant you should be hospitalized. The events listed were things like "made a move in the last year", "switched jobs in the last year", "graduated college", "traveled away for home", "had to say goodbye to loved ones", and the list went on with about fifty events. Needless to say, Joe and I scored over 1000 points, and we were some of the lowest out of all of the missionaries. The point of this test was to show us that things were not normal for us and that even if we said we were fine, we had all these stressers in our lives. This meant that often times it would be the small things that cause us to get upset.

All of this to say, as our time in the states winds down, our stressers are at an all time high, and it’s the small things, like when something doesn't go according to plan, that have been hardest for us to take in. I have learned so much during this phase of my life, that sometimes my plans don't happen because God has another one, one which is always better. I find myself realizing that I don't stop to thank God enough for having such a perfect plan for my life. Have you noticed in the Bible that when someone is petitioning God for something, we often read one or two verses about their request. When that prayer is answered, we can find whole chapters of thanksgiving to God for what he has done for them and how he has answered their prayers. I have seen God answer more prayers and take care of us more than ever in this phase of our lives, yet my prayer life isn't as full of thanksgiving as the people I read about in the Bible. I find that when God answers a prayer the way that we think it should be answered, there can be an attitude of expectation or like it's something we deserve-it's like we think God answers prayers based on who we are, not on who He is. I have been learning that when things don't go according to plan, I need to stop and pray for patience, and then thank God, knowing that He is taking care of me according to His plan.

Joe and I have tried to make more of an effort lately to stop and thank God for all of the things that He has done for us and really pouring our hearts out to Him with the joy that we have for the many, many ways that He has taken care of us. Please know that we have been thanking God for you and your prayers and encouragement. Maybe we should stop trying to plan and just roll with what comes our way in flammertime.

Leaving New York

We just got done with a 4 week trip to the East Coast. As you can read in our last blog, we did quite a bit of traveling in that time. Our trusty Volvo (a.k.a. The Panther) has made it to the 140,000 mile mark and is just as strong as ever. We are going to miss our wonderful Panther as we begin driving on the opposite side of the road.

Since our last blog, Amy and I have said goodbye to our New York family. It was a difficult time, but we were able to say healthy goodbyes to everyone. Everyone, that is, except for our 4-year-old nephew Brett, who ran away and refused to acknowledge that we were leaving. We would appreciate it if you all could throw up a prayer for us and our families and we deal with this separation. Below is a picture of me and my nephews, Cody and Brett. The other picture is a picture of me and my mom.






While in New York I was also able to preach at 2 churches. We spoke at a church in Queens, NY, and Riverhead, NY. The church in Queens is pastored by a man who I have known since I was a kid, in fact, his daughter was my first official girl-friend (Don't worry, Amy, we only dated for 20 hours back in 1995, and I think I am finally over her). We loved being in worship with people from so many different ethnic backgrounds and even cultural backgrounds.

Riverhead was a whole different experience. This church (North Shore Christian Church) is only 2 years old and my mom, 2 sisters and my brother are all members there and active in the ministry. In addition to that, many people who I grew up going to church with are in leadership at this church plant and were part of the original church plant team. Amy and I got together with Jerry (the pastor) and Kristin (his wife who is also on staff) on Thursday for lunch and to discuss the plan for service on the following Sunday. They have been in alot of the same situations that we find ourselves in with church planting and were able to speak wisdom and encouragement into our lives. They also asked how they could help us besides monthly support, partnership in prayer, and sending over teams. They had already began a drive for office supplies which they started a month ago and provided us with 4 boxes of various supplies. They realized that we would be moving into a house and had no furniture - so they took us out and bought us an awesome bedroom furniture set. We were completely overwhelmed by this kind of generosity. While we were in the store it took us about 25 minutes to realize what they were doing for us. When we get to New Zealand it will be an awesome visual reminder, not only of that church, but of all the people who are sacrificially partnering with us. This also reminded us of God's perfect timing. Had we been offered this furniture earlier this summer, we would not have had room to take it. Our team has been blessed by a company who is helping to ship our stuff, they offered us a crate that was twice the size that we had planned on for half the price we had planned on. On Monday morning Jerry and a man from the church named John helped us load up our new furniture to be shipped.

Right after we packed up the furniture on Monday morning (and getting extremely lost in the process) we headed out of NY to drive back to Illinois. I fell asleep and Amy took the wrong road for about a half hour, we got stuck on the George Washington Bridge and were about 3 hours behind schedule, but we eventually made it back to the good ole' Mid-West.

The reality is hitting us that our time here is winding down. We can't believe that we only have 3 1/2 weeks left here in the USA. There is still alot to do, but we have felt for several months that we have been in a kind of no mans land. We don't really belong here, but we aren't in New Zealand yet. When we run into acquaintances, they often say, "I thought you moved to Australia or something." We can't wait to get to New Zealand and begin to start life there. Thank you for all being friends and encouragements to us in this time of so much change. We have needed your friendship and your prayers. Without you this would have been a very difficult time. But you have all helped it to become an awesome FlammerTime.