As most of you already know, we have tickets to leave Boston November 20th. We will be in San Diego for a few days visiting our friends Doug and Miranda and then flying 13 hours on Air New Zealand to New Zealand and then 3 hours to our final destination: Tonga.
What is slightly different on this next trip is the duration and round trip ticket. I thought i was booking a 9 month trip but somehow (not on purpose) booked only 6 and half months out. SO this trip is much much shorter AND we know when we are leaving. What is similar is we will be staying in the same house we built and without 6 months of our expenses covered.
As we are readily learning, there are many miracles along the way that have brought us to this point. During our months here in the U.S. God has blessed us with people who have donated in various ways. And, we have been able to meet several people who's lives have been such an encouragement to us and we feel forever connected with. One blessing was the gift of tools for One Love Inc. And i mean tons of tools! What was crazy about the whole thing was Chris has been telling me for years about these tools and that he felt he should ask for them but never felt right about doing it. I had gotten tired hearing about it because it seemed impossible. When we came back the person who owned them unexpectedly pulled Chris aside and told Chris that God had told him to give them to Chris! We had never mentioned in the past couple of years that Chris had felt God wanted him to have them! This was such an encouragement to us as it reaffirmed we should keep moving forward with One Love Inc. plans. We now have the means of teaching carpentry, welding, and mechanics. We just will need teachers for welding and mechanics when the camp starts! A website for One Love is being made and will be ready soon.
One of the reasons why our trip is much shorter this time is to hopefully obtain land for the camp, apply for grants, and secure a safe place for the tools since we don't want to bring them this trip without that. We will ship a container from California on our next trip out. We will also be graced with the presence of Hayley from England for the first few months. Hayley will be a big help to us with managing applications and paperwork for grants as i spend most of my time losing my sanity with homeschooling.
Our friend Sam who came with us from Tonga will be staying in the US to train in the martial art of Wing Chun. One of the masters of Wing Chun is in California so Sam will be going in January for 6 months of intensive training so he can teach Wing Chun at One Love Inc. We will be opening a paypal account for anyone interested in helping sponsor Sam with the costs of schooling, food, and housing in California.
Please pray for us the next few months. Pray we have wisdom with the camp and flexibility. Pray we speak boldly when necessary and shut up when necessary. Pray we can love the people around us and be the people God has called us to be. Pray for our kids as they adjust again and that they will learn obedience to God and us.
We also want to thank everyone who's been beside us and those who haven't. There have been so many people we've met or been reacquainted with that been such an encouragement. Some financially, some of you with your words of hope, some with gifts. Some people have been faithful supporters from the very beginning. God has used you all and we are so happy to serve Jesus along side of you. We also want to say thank you to our families who are pretty awesome and help us even when they don't understand us all the time or don't want us to leave!
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| unloading tools for One Love Inc. |
