Preparing to Leave

THE PREPARATION
Many of you know that we are returning to Salerno on August 28th. So in about 2 months we will hopefully have raised all of our financial support and packed up our house. Financially we have seen the Lord do amazing things! We have been blown away by the generosity of people and it only continues to confirm that this is definitely the Lord's will even if it seems crazy to everyone else (and even us at times). We have seen 90% of our monthly goal come in and hope to finish it up in the next few weeks. Our one time need is still pretty large. Only at 20% on that so please pray. I have no doubt that God will finish what He has started though. Turner is asking everyday when we are going to Itawee. He saw a suitcase of his favorite toys leave our house and is now ready to play with them again. He doesn't care if it will be far away. Collins and Ivey are just along for the ride... poor babies.

I think God has really used this time to take me to the end of myself. My natural reaction is to whine and complain about how hard it is. I tell the Lord that he has me confused with someone else if He thinks I can handle a new baby, packing a house, raising support, finding an apartment, a husband who is required to travel a good bit, a 26 hour trip with 3 kids 3 and under...and I'm sure there is more I'm not thinking of. But he has been showing me that I am an Israelite at heart. He is leading us through a wilderness time but we are going to the promised land. We WILL make it there! We can do it joyfully or kicking and screaming and asking to go back to where we were. The latter didn't turn out well for the Israelites and it probably wont for me either if I continue in that mindset. So I am praying for a change of heart and to daily just trust the Lord and his provision for that day. That is extra challenging on little sleep and a lot of crying babies in the mix. Just another way I need Him all the more!

THE APARTMENT
Jim just got back from Italy a week ago and man did the Lord do amazing things on that trip. It is a challenge to find an apartment in Italy... especially one to meet the needs of a family of 5 with 3 little kids. And 2 families at that. It isn't like America with an abundance of apartments to choose from. Plus the landlords are very very picky about renters since Italian laws protect renters and not landlords. They are skeptical of foreigners and our job is very weird to them. "People give you money to come here and tell people about Jesus?" You can see why it doesn't seem legit to them.

With all of the odds stacked against us, Jim saw our apartment on the very first day! It is a 3 min walk from the Valiquettes (family planting the church), right across the street from a park, it is spacious for the kids to play and run, and is nicer than we expected and costs less than we planned. The landlords... an elderly Italian couple.... live next door. The wife grew up in these apartments and lived through WWII. They immediately loved Jim and by day 4 the contract was signed. On day 2 Jim and Kevin found the Shoemaker family an apartment as well. They are a 2 min walk from us. Jim and Kevin saw tons of apartments but those were the only 2 that would work at all and they were perfect. It was the Lord just handing us what we needed and much more. We are soooo excited!

Keep checking back and we will be updating the blog as we get closer to leaving.