The whirlwind of furlough has swept us away over 5,000 miles and into 11 states thus far. Buckle up as we take you through the past couple months.
AUGUST
Long story short, we did not have the charter service in August as planned but will plan to do so after we return from furlough.
The second week in August, we left town for several days for our annual team retreat. I felt that the time away together was good for our team and profitable for the ministry. We now have a year planned ahead and have positive changes to work on implementing.
The last full week involved packing, cleaning, preparing everything needed for those who would be covering for us while in the States, and building a roof over the well right outside our property in order to keep my promise to the mayor. I would not recommend a construction project right before furlough, but my friend who helped me did not have time off work until then.
We flew out on Tuesday morning, August 28th as planned. Due to our second flight (Istanbul to Toronto) being delayed by 3 hours, we missed the connecting flight to Memphis, TN. We spent the night in Toronto and had the blessing of having a repeat of our previous furlough when we went through homeland security. Once again, we were pulled aside and interrogated, adding an extra 45 minutes before we reached our gate for our last flight.
Due to insurance changes during our furlough, we had dentist appointments for our children the day after we arrived in America. What we thought would be a routine cleaning and just a couple fillings ended up being major work on three of them and a couple fillings for the other two. The pediatric dentist we went to was such a blessing to us. During some difficulty with the work on one of our children, the dentist even called me back and we prayed together. The Lord blessed us with some great care through the dentist and his staff.
SEPTEMBER
What a blessing it was to be with our sending church and my pastor again. We were welcomed by old friends and also some new faces. In addition to reporting to our sending church, we reported to three other supporting churches during our first couple weeks.
Before starting our long-distance traveling, Caleb and I had to rent a car and drive to Garden City, MO to pick up the rental van from Baptist Missionary Transportation Ministries. The monthly rate includes rent and insurance, plus BMTM covers all major repairs. We used BMTM last furlough and greatly appreciated having a good vehicle to use on furlough. The man who runs this ministry works a full-time job and works hard to keep the large fleet of vehicles up and running. If you are interested in supporting regularly or sending a one-time gift, you can find further info at www.bmtm.org
We were in six different churches the month of September, most of them an easy drive from Memphis, TN. I also had the privilege of being the keynote speaker for the first time at a missions conference in America. The church was amazing, with tender, responsive hearts to God’s Word. What a joy it has been to meet several young men at different churches that the Lord is leading to become pastors or missionaries.
OCTOBER
The month of October had us traveling through AR, KA, MO, IL, IN, MI, OH, PA, and MD. We were able to see a number of friends and family during our traveling to different churches. It was good to see my dad, grandfather, and other family members after five years of being away.
While at my mom’s church, a lady told us that her new neighbors just moved there from Romania. The next morning, Stephanie, this lady, and myself visited the lady from Romania. We had a great visit with her, and she heard the Gospel preached to her in her own language. Pray for this new family to come to true salvation and to build a friendship with their believing neighbor who has offered her friendship.
I ran into a glitch with burning our furlough DVDs and thus have not been able to finish them and send them to our supporting churches that we will not be personally reporting to this furlough. Once we get back to Memphis the week of Thanksgiving, I hope to resolve this issue.
One of the hardest things our children have faced is making friends at the different churches and then having to leave. To those of you who have befriended our children, thank you. It has meant a lot to them.
Thank you all for praying for God’s grace as we travel. Please pray for the Lord to refresh us, to be a blessing to churches we visit, to preach the Gospel faithfully wherever we go, and for God to strengthen the ministries in Moldova during our absence.