Yesterday marked ten days until departure.  The details are all falling into place.

I sent this e-mail out to those who have supported my trip, and to several friends who have encouraged me in taking Josh on this adventure: Continue Reading »

The details are starting to fall into place for our trip to Paraguay. I am learning more about the details of what we will do from chatting with others who will be on the trip. This is both building my excitement, but also helping to remove some of the unkown.

Today, Josh and I will go up to the health department in Gainesville. That is the closest place that we can get a yellow fever vaccination. I suspect that I will get one or two other shots as well. Josh should be mostly up to date.

I think that we have all the travel arrangements in place. We need to start gathering the things that we will need to pack. The real challenge will be to not pack too much.

I am sure that there are many more details that will need to be put into place in the next three weeks. (Wow that sounds soon!) The greater challenge will be to keep our priorities in place and focus on being prepared spiritually. I am trying to pray daily for the people that will on the trip with us, and the people that we will encounter and talk with once we are there.

Please keep us in your prayers.

We are 23 days from heading to Paraguay.  23 days from today, Josh and I will be on a plane over the Carribean Sea, on our way to Sao Paolo, Brazil, where we will catch a connecting flight to Paraguay.  The excitement is starting to build.  We spend some time tonight reviewing information about the country and about sharing our faith.  We also spent some time praying for the other folks we are traveling with and the people that we will be meeting.

Tonight, I also had the chance to chat online with one of the other guys going on the trip.  That really has built my excitement level.  I got to hear from someone who has been on similar trips in the past just how great the experience can be.  I am looking forward to being stretched in my faith and seeing God challenge and amaze me.

Please pray for the group, and for Josh and I in particular.  I will post a prayer calendar in a few days.

In signing up for this mission trip, we decided to step out in faith.  We did not have enough funds in our budget to just pay for the trips.  Instead we decide that we would pay for part of the trip, but would raise funds from our church, family and friends for the balance.  Our church was very generous and chipped in a major gift.  In addition, we have had several friends and family members make generous gifts.  Because this is two trips that we are doing, we are still around $1500 short of our goal.

I fully expect that the funds will come in.  Josh is just getting ready to send a few letters out.  In addition, I have still not heard back from several people to whom I sent letters.  While I don’t expect a 100% response, some of the people who I have not heard from are people that I expect will be willing to chip in.

Finally, on Sunday, I am scheduled to talk about the trip in front of the church.  The church will allow members who want to contribute to designate a gift toward the mission trip.

If anyone is reading and did not receive a letter, but would like to contribute, it is easy to do.  You can mail a check payable to Christ Community Church.  A couple of posts ago, I posted about the new church website.  You can get the address from there.

Please pray that all of the finances will be taken care of.  I hope that this experience will teach Josh and me about generosity, and about God’s provision.  Pray that there will be no stress about the cost of the trip.

Thanks for praying.

We are well into the planning phase for the missions trip to Paraguay.  Josh and I are working on raising funds, are we are making progress.  We still have some more funds to raise, so let me know if anyone is interested in helping out.

 We received our itinerary last week.

 On April 5th we have an overnight flight from Miami to Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Then we catch a flight into Paraguay.  We arrive in Asuncion pretty much 12 hours after we leave Miami.

We fly back on the afternoon of April 12th.  We again connect through Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The return trip will be about 13+ hours.  We return to Miami at 6am. 

 Josh and I need to decide how we get to Miami.  The last time I flew from Miami for a missions trip, we drove down as a group.  Is definitely less expensive to drive to Miami, but the 6 hour drive home at 6am after a 13+ hour trip will be really hard.  So, we may break down and buy some airplane tickets.  But, I also like the idea of having 12 hours with my son to talk in the car.

 Over the next few weeks look for a series of prayer requests for the trip.