Homesick Missionary!

Well, in her words, "given the chance to come home today, I'd be on my way"...Danielle. She's quite the "home-body" and she misses her cat, Beau. She misses her bed and her "baby brother", Jordan. To put things in perspective, she called this afternoon, and when I answered the phone I heard, "Can I please speak to Jordan"? No, "hi Mom", no "how are you", JUST "can I speak to Jordan"? Humph! It's okay. Today, is actually their last day of work. Tomorrow is white water rafting (that should be fun to hear about since none of us have ever done this before). Friday is another free-day (insert eyeball roll). Okay, I need to put this in here for any of you reading this - in Costa Rica we don't do mission trips like this! We attempt to get as much work out of you as possible! Bwahahahaha! Alright, we do some sightseeing! Heather sounded good too! Keep 'em in your prayers, please.

Missions at Home

Danielle called home at lunch today and she and Heather got to Tennesee safely with the rest of the youth group for which we are most thankful! They were on their "lunch break" and had built a shed. After lunch they planned on returning to the construction site to paint the shed. They seemed in good spirits. This is Heather's first missions trip and she was really talkative about "missions" and building things, and a sense of feeling like she was helping someone else in some way. I miss my girls!

Phone calls, Preparations and Projects - Costa Rica

We have brought the ambulance to our home and now the fun begins! We've been on the phone with Global Outreach and emailing back and forth information to Dr. Wilson on the make, model, VIN, etc. so that beginning preparations can be made to get it to Costa Rica and for him to receive it. We are still waiting on the Title and need to gather the donated medical supplies and get them packed in the ambulance. I think we will miss the ambulance when it is time to ship it out! In some way it allows us to feel "connected" to the ministries and our team down in Costa Rica while we wait here to be able to go. For the record, don't think we haven't thought about just packing ourselves! ::evil grin:: We have an upcoming presentation to do to a small-group and so we begin the preparations for that. Then there's the list of "projects" around the house, big and small, that need to be tended too. God is continuing to open doors for us to share about our ministry and so we need to begin some preparations on the homefront to go to Costa Rica! It would be suicidal for us to leave everything to do until the last minute. Besides, if we get started on some of them now, we will get to enjoy them before we leave! For example, the ditch that lines our property. It is filled with standing water and we dug it out two years ago by hand with shovels. Excellent preparation for the mission field, I might add, as it took for ever! You could say, "It was done on Tico time". Parts of the ditch are always wet, it always has to be weed whacked and it is a long ditch and unsightly. Next weekend we will have a Bob-Cat and stone delivered to begin cleaning out the ditch. Last summer we bought outdoor paint to paint the handrails, spokes of our porches and also around our vinyl replacement windows. Like every other "busy" family we never got to lift a paintbrush, but I will begin that next weekend. When the trim around the windows is done being painted Ken will wrap the windows in vinyl. We've also been doing some much needed cleaning of closets in bedrooms and I now have a "mound" of "Mom, these don't fit" clothes on my livingroom floor folded neatly in front of the loveseat. I need to go through these and pack them in boxes to cart off to Good Will tomorrow (clothes didn't sell well at our fall garage sale even though they had been washed and we only had items in excellent condition for sale). But before any of this work begins, this weekend Greg Laurie is in Raleigh and tonight he kicks off "The Harvest Crusade". We'll attend the the pre-crusade concerts; tonight Andre Crouch and The David Crowder Band! Tomorrow night, Toby Mac (you read it here first folks, Ken LOVES him some Toby) and Sunday Third Day. We'll be there as a family and we'll be praying Greg through as he brings the message of Jesus Christ to our city! Our prayer is that many will come to know Him as their personal Lord and Savior this weekend!

The blessing of an ambulance

It's been a long week and in my excitement over how much money was raised, I totally forgot to post a picture of the ambulance! By the way, this is the first thing on this blog that I have figured out all by myself! How to post a picture, that is. Where there's a will, there's a two-hour period of frustration and a way! But, I thought it was that important for ya'll to see what God did this week through our church family!

Ministering to Costa Rica

The final amount of money raised this week was $2,729.74! "God ALWAYS pays for what He orders" is what my friend, Jeff Burns reminded me of in an email today! We are grateful to all who participated in donating funds/supplies for the ambulance. This ambulance will go a very long way in meeting the physical/spiritual needs of the people of Costa Rica. Thank you so much!

Overwhelmed!

I can't share with you yet the total amounts of what the kids brought in with a little help from some "friends" for the ambulance because that will all be revealed tomorrow night and the kids don't know yet. I can tell you that it is amazing! I can't tell you who brought in more money (the boys or the girls) because I wasn't told, but what I was told is that it is very close! Tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. I have an interview at the church with the newspaper regarding the shipment of the ambulance to Costa Rica. The article along with a picture of the ambulance in front of the church should be in the Benson News in Review next week! It has been a really exciting week. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow evening!

Ministry and it's blessings!

I don't even hardly know where to begin. I'll start at the top. We needed to raise $600.00 for the shipping costs of the ambulance to Costa Rica. Last night, after three nights of VBS, the kids (along with some "kids at heart") have raised over $800.00. We have surpassed our goal! Dr. Wilson and Global Outreach Mission on the other hand, have to raise $2,500.00 for Dr. Wilson to be able to "receive" the ambulance at port in Costa Rica for taxes and customs, etc. Anything that is brought in now will help to off-set the amount of money they need to raise! On the first night of VBS someone donated a motorized wheelchair to be packed in the ambulance! Last night a paramedic in the church confirmed that he got a hold of his medical supply company and donations of gauze, bandages, etc. are on their way to be put in the cupboards of the ambulance. We prayed over prayer bears, hand stuffed by children for another child in Costa Rica with a small slip of paper tucked in it's pocket. I read one of the slips last night, "To my friend, from your friend, Anna. Jesus Loves You". Simple words from a child, but a life-saving message! I was able to share with the kids last night about Dr. Wilson and show them some slides of his ministry. I was reminded again of how much we have here in the U.S. The ability to call 9-1-1 and have an ambulance respond to your emergency with trained workers. The ease with which an ambulance can rush us off to a local hospital in an emergency and we can receive treatment whether we have medical insurance or not. I was overcome by emotion, but so were some other adults. We are so blessed here in the United States! I am blessed to be "allowed" to have a part in this project. Blessed with so much more than I deserve!

Ministry Weaving!

I am sorry about the lack of posts as of late. I did fall victim to the stomach bug over the Memorial Day weekend along with every other member of our family. We had it bad here for about four days! We are all better now, but then I was unable to sign on to our blog this past week as I guess they were having some technical difficulties. Actually, we also had a banner across the top of our blog for "objectionable material" (insert eyeball roll here and me rolling on the floor laughing). I guess they have now worked out their quirks! Beware: This will probably be a long post!

It is amazing to us how God often times "weaves" ministries together for His purposes! We have had the opportunity the last couple of weeks to get to know a little more about Jeff Burns and his ministry, The "JAMES" project. Yesterday, Ken finally got the opportunity to meet Jeff in person (much to my disappointment that I had to stay home) when he drove outside of Ashville to pick up the refurbished ambulance. The James Project stands for JESUS Ambulance & Medical Equipment Service. This ministry was founded by Jeff and Faith Fellowship Church of Newdale, NC. The "JAMES" project mission is to provide EMS and rescue equipment and training to communities mainly, not limited to third world countries and developing nations. Currently, there are ambulances in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and 34 other places because of this ministry. They have been working on five ambulances simultaneously for Global Outreach-Team Costa Rica, Nicaragua, India, Thailand & The Congo. If you would like to read more about Jeff and his ministry, please go to his web site at www.thejamesproject.info. Thank you Jeff Burns and Faith Fellowship Church for helping Dr. Wilson and Global Outreach Mission continue to help meet the medical needs of the people of Costa Rica! We appreciate you partnering with us!

Well, the ambulance is now over at our home church, Hickory Grove, and our Vacation Bible School Program begins this evening. Hickory Grove is partnering with Global Outreach Mission through it's Vacation Bible School offering to raise the necessary funds to ship the ambulance to Costa Rica! We also have some paramedics and EMT's in our church looking into finding donations for medical supplies, i.e. gauze, medical tape, bandages and the like to fill the cupboards of the ambulance. The children will be sewing Prayer Bears, one for themselves and one for a child at the Camp in Costa Rica that will be packed on the ambulance to get to Nathan & Amber for distribution. The Youth, not to be outdone by the children, will be making fleece throws, to be packed in the ambulance for Youth who come to the Camp. For Ken & I and our family it is very humbling to see a church body, children, youth and adults alike, get excited about something that is so near and dear to our hearts! Most importantly, it is exciting to be a part of a church body who is concerned about the "nations". Please keep this project in your prayers!

Well, some of you have been asking in person or sending emails regarding our monthly support. I called Global's office in Buffalo on Thursday to find out how things are progressing. Right now, the office has not received any new supporters, but it is important to note that the last presentations that we did were just over the Mother's Day weekend in May. It may take some more time for people to respond. So we currently remain at 33% pledged of our monthly support. We want you to know that in the last two weeks there has been a "movement" so to speak, of some of our regular supporters to put together some small-group presentations for us in their homes inviting their friends and family. This is an answer to prayer! On a side note, we need to raise $25,000.00 in outgoing expenses (airline tickets, health insurance, rent in Costa Rica, household goods, etc.) Our report did show that we have already raised half of that amount and it is sitting in our account. Praise the Lord! In my devotional time, God has reminded me that sometimes we are asked to go through tests of our faith. Our prayer in all of this is that we will remain faithful. Faithful to trust, faithful to patience.

With traveling up north and then coming home and getting sickl, I totally missed getting our May newsletter completed. So, our newsletter will be a May-June combo and I hope to complete that this week. Look for that in your email box or snail mailbox soon!

Thank you to all of those who check in our blog even when we have no new posts. There are many who return every couple of days to see if there is an update. Thank you for praying for our family, for our calling and for those who support us financially we thank you in joining with us, partnering and becoming part of our team in serving the country of Costa Rica!

God bless, Sherri