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

Down TIme!

Sorry for the recent lapse in posts. We've been busy since we got back from our trip up North getting right back into school, work, EOG's and the beginning of end of school year kind of stuff. I'd have to say we've also just been feeling kind of drained physically lately. I've tried to sit down a couple of times over the past week and "do a post", and to write our May newsletter, but I've felt like my brain is fried. We even stayed home from our church camp gathering this long holiday weekend to get some rest. Most of all, we've been frustrated with the feeling like our family has been "scattered" over this past month. We all decided to stay home and "regroup". Now, half of us have the stomach bug. Ken and Kyle started throwing up at 3 a.m. this morning. Jordan was sick Thursday night into Saturday. There were some highlights to the weekend though, the silver lining. Ken got the kids a 5-man tent and they all slept outside on Saturday night after a family bon fire complete with smores and a game of hide-n-seek in the dark. I tell ya, Heather is hard to find. I finally got scared after looking for her a half an hour and told her she needed to come out. Who da' thought to look for her hiding standing up in the center of a Leland cyprus tree? Sunday we went to church and Ken's parents came over for steaks on the grill. The rest of Sunday was spent playing Parchessi (I won), fishing and the kids slept outside Sunday night. That's kind of a wrap up of the holiday weekend.

Many of you have asked how we felt our presentations went over the last two weeks. Our prayer is that we have brought honor and glory to God! It isn't about us, but about Him, and what He has done in our lives. We are most grateful for every time that we get to share! It will be weeks before we know if any more support has come in from these presentations. We continue to operate in "prayer mode". And the amazing thing is that we always seem to come away feeling like we've received more than we've given. The encouragement the last couple of weeks has been needed and so appreciated! Again and again, we thank you for partnering with us in our endeavor to get to Costa Rica. May God continue to bless you in return for blessing us!

God has no time for pity parties!

For a moment this morning I thought about Renee and how she would always call all of her family members and sing a special birthday song that we "expected" to hear every year. At her funeral we found out that almost every one that she knew was getting the same phone call every year on their birthdays too! It was said "if Renee met you once and she found out your birth date, you were guaranteed a song". Some family members have this song recorded on their cell phones and someone even recorded it off their cell phone into a Build-A-Bear for Renee's granddaughter on her first birthday in April. It is that priceless! Well, today is my birthday (Sherri). I didn't expect to hear anyone call and sing Happy Birthday to me today. I was wrong! Three people have already called today with three different renditions of the birthday song. A style all their own! Two, are priceless recordings on my answering machine. My God cared about a simple song. He knew it would bless me in a BIG way!

Ministry Blessings!

We arrived home safely last night at 10 p.m. Thank you to all of those who prayed for us during our whirlwind trip to Syracuse! I felt that we were "prepared" for the three presentations that we did, but we never seem to be prepared for the blessing that we receive in return. It's like that A LOT in missions work! We were surrounded Friday night in our small-group presentation by people that had "brought us up" in our home church, Youth leaders, Worship leaders, friends and family. It was heart warming to see them teary-eyed as we shared about our "passion" to serve God in Costa Rica. There were 15 in attendance. On Saturday we spent the day with Ken's younger sister and her family. We received a "surprise" visit from Ken's niece and her beautiful children. She is Renee's daughter (Renee is Ken's sister who just passed away in March) and it meant so much to us that she would travel an hour and a half to come see us with her small children. She is a real trooper and a blessing to us! On Sunday morning we went to my sister's church. We did a small-group presentation to 20+ people there during the Sunday School hour while Danielle did a simultaneous presentation to about 8 Youth. We then did a very short, about 15 minute presentation in the Worship Service. We were blessed by the warmth with which we were received at Scipio Center Community Church. We immediately felt like we were part of "their family". I know for sure that they share a kindred spirit for missions in their church and for reaching the lost with the Good News of Jesus Christ. I hope we can visit this church again. We left there excited, feeling as though the Lord was at work amongst them! Kind of like a feeling that you want to "stick around" because you feel like you're going to miss something exciting happen! On the way home yesterday we got to see Ken's older brother meeting up with him for lunch. That was a lot of fun! Well, today it's back to work, laundry, school, but also more preparation. This Sunday evening we have another small group presentation to do at 7 p.m. While we are tired from traveling, we are still excited! Excited to be able to share what the Lord is already doing in Costa Rica and how others might be involved in the ministry there. Keep us in your prayers! God bless you all!

I've been tagged!

Okay, I'm sitting here a little bleery-eyed this morning. I just woke up and checked my email because that's how my medical records come to me to transcribe. Low and behold, an email from my good buddy Nathan Babcock, name ring a bell with you? He's part of our missions team in Costa Rica. I had other emails, but his and Amber's always take priority! He has blog tagged me! So, here's the rules:

Each player starts with eight random facts or habits about him or herself.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
At the beginning of your blog, mention the person who tagged you. At the end of your post, choose eight people to tag, listing their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here's the eight gorey details!

1. I (Sherri) won Most Valuable Player my senior year of high school in soccer setting a school record as goalie for most shut-outs.
2. Our family's favorite card game is "Hearts" and one of our daughters, who is very competitive, wants to make sure Nathan knows how to play. Why...I asked? And I quote, "I want to clean his clock in Costa Rica". The name of this child shall remain a secret!
3. I can't stand, I mean, CANNOT STAND, to have my pillow fluffed. I'm neurotic about it and Ken does it just to irritate me sometimes! LOL!
4. I do not bite my fingernails, but I am obsessive-compulsive about cutting them. Okay, I type medical records for a living. I can type faster when my nails are short.
5. We all love Mexican food, but Jordan, who is 6, along with Ken, can eat it very spicy.
6. In my free time, which I don't have a whole lot of, but here and there I enjoy making homemade cards. Rubber stamps are my weapon!
7. Ken & I both graduated from Christian high schools, who are rivals! We never attend Homecoming because those two schools play against each other on that day (soccer). I mean, how do you explain that to your children? Mom on one side of the field, Dad on the other? Dirty looks, you know, the whole rivalry thing! It's ugly!
8. We've lived in N.C. for ten years this month, but have never really left our hometown sports team and adopted Duke or Carolina (much to Nathan's dismay) as our own. Long live the Syracuse Orangemen!

Okay, I know no one else who has a blog. So I now have no one to pass this tag game on too.

"Pumped" for ministry presentations!

We are SO PUMPED!! We get really excited when we have the opportunity to share about the ministries of El Jardin and how we believe God is calling us to serve in Costa Rica. In fact, minimal caffeine will be needed to keep us going this week! Friday night we will be at our home church in Syracuse, New York combining my brother's small-group with my sister's small-group and doing a presentation there. On Saturday, we will spend some time with Ken's sister and brother. Sunday, we will attend my brother-in-law's church and do a small-group presentation there in the morning during the Sunday School hour. Danielle will be doing a separate presentation from us to the Youth since she went to Costa Rica herself last summer. We will then do about a 15-minute presentation during the worship service. We will begin traveling home on Monday morning. I told our Youth Group last night at their meeting, "Here's your opportunity! If you have ever wanted us out of this church this would be a good time to pray us out"!! We all laughed. Seriously though, we can't emphasize how much we need YOUR PRAYERS during this week as we prepare, as we travel, as we speak! And don't forget to pray for Heather and Kyle as they stay home in N.C. with Grandma & Grandpa (course, Grandma & Grandpa might be the ones who really need the prayer, just kiddin'). In all that we say and do may God our Father receive honor and glory! We KNOW you've got our backs! Thank-you!

Presentation Update/Prayer Request

Our Saturday night presentation was cancelled for the second time with a closed door for rescheduling, and while we are disappointed we still believe that God is in control! I can't say that we fully understand what His plans are for us and there are days we sure wish we knew, but we do have peace! Peace that He knows what His purpose is for our family in all of this and peace that He knows what is best for El Jardin! We will travel up North in about a week and a half to do a church presentation (Sherri's first Mother's Day with her Mom in ten years! She's very excited) and a small group presentation, and then we have two more small group presentations to do down here in North Carolina, one in May, one in June. We don't know what we will do from there as we will be at the end of our contact list. So, just continue to keep us in your prayers as we wait and know that we put our trust in Him! We believe that He knows exactly who He would like to be involved in this ministry with us! Our only desire is to be obedient to His will for us! "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose". Rom. 8:28. Thanks for praying!

Worry looks around. Sorry looks back. Faith looks up!

Presentations!

We've got some presentations coming up and could really use everyone's prayers as we prepare! The first is 4/28. We have four coming up in May and then one in June (I'll post those dates when they get a little closer). That's six in total and we are most T*H*A*N*K*F*U*L!!!

Revive Me, Oh Lord!

"Someone had once asked the British evangelist Gipsy Smith how to start a revival. "He replied, If you want to start a revival, go home and get a piece of chalk. Go inside your closet and draw a circle on the floor. Kneel down in the middle of the circle and ask God to start a revival inside the chalk mark".

April Ministry Newsletter

We just completed the April Newsletter, so those of you who receive it my snail mail should be receving it this week. If you are not subscribed to our newsletter updates and would like to be, subscribe in the box to the right of these posts and we will be sure and it get to you!

The newsletter has our updated prayer requests, usually some personal thoughts on how God is working in our lives and news from the field of Costa Rica. It is always exciting to write about how God is at work down at the camp since Nathan & Amber have started ministering there. We really want to be down there working alongside them. Until then, we wait and we trust!

May God's blessings surround you!

Easter Services and it's tie-in to ministry

Easter Sunday service was, I don't know how to even describe it. It was just awesome! The music was top-notch! The message was exciting! Ironically, if anyone sat by me they probably thought, what in the world?!? But, just the word "death" or "funeral" gets me a little teary-eyed these days. However, when you add the word "Hope" in there I get really emotional and I almost had to leave the service yesterday. Phew...people next to me probably thought the flood was coming Again! A lot of thoughts crossed my mind during the service, like, How many will perish because they never heard? How do people in these times make it through their day and not know there is a Hope for this day, for tomorrow and for their future? It boggles my mind, really. It saddens me and wrenches at my heart. But at the same time it makes me want to shout in celebration! Our service ended in a round of applause to God, the Father who did send His Son, who rose again, so that we may have Hope of His coming again! I hope you were blessed too in the reminder that one day He will return!

Ministry Update - Prayer Requests

"Issues"! I apologize for not posting sooner this week, but I suppose that Blogger has been having some issues since I haven't been able to get into our account.

Ministry Update: Sadly, we did not pick up any new supporters in February or March. Our March small-group presentation had to be postponed until April 28th. We still have three presentations to do up North, but are thinking about doing that when we have to go up for Global's Missions Conference in June. With all the traveling that we recently did for Renee's illness/funeral we find ourselves somewhat depleted physically to feel like we can turn around and go right up there again at this time. Time to write a new support letter to go out through Global, but I have to be honest, I don't quite know what else to say in these letters. So...please keep us in your prayers as we continue to wait and seek for answers and direction. God bless!