A Family Adventure

It’s February and I am realizing that the first half of this school year is already behind us!  Yikes!  I find the question “are we doing enough” (school wise) keeps rolling through my head.  I don’t like that.  I ask other homeschoolers and hear the same response.  “Oh yeah”, they say, “I ask myself that question all the time!”  Thankfully when I sat down with each of the kids individually, we looked at their subjects and ALL the PLO’s (Prescribed Learning Outcomes) laid out by the government and saw that we did indeed check off a lot of boxes!  Phew! 

Like wow mum that’s so great that your writing whatever this is!!! So hooray and stuff like that and also yahoo so you know yah. I love you!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 teehee toodles!!
LOVE JAMESA

Oh, thanks Jamesa…  This, our oldest daughter, has been the faithful blog writer thus far…

Anyway…I wanted to write to share with you what the next few weeks will entail.  When we felt it was clear to homeschool this year we also were hopeful that we would be able to pursue another dream.  We have talked over the past few years about going on some kind of missions trip as a family and the Lord has provided an opportunity!  I have learned something about trust and surrender in this process.  I had a plan in my head.  We would go in February for a month.  We started to talk with different organizations in November and quickly realized that this was not as simple as we thought it might be.  It wasn’t until I laid it down, surrendering my plans that the door opened up for us!  A friend wisely reminded me that this is sometimes how the Lord works.  He waits for us to fully give it to Him and then He hands it back to us as a gift.  J  This trip does feel like a gift.  We have hooked up with a couple that spent 8 years living in San Filipe, Mexico (a small fishing village) building a church there.  They too have 4 children that spent those 8 years with them.  Now with their children grown and out of the house Dave and Beth travel back to San Filipe twice a year to spend 2 weeks with the people they lived with and served.   When we spoke to Dave and Beth about our hopes, they fully embraced us and welcomed us to join them!  So here we are, just 3 weeks away from going.  We will spend the last 2 weeks of March in San Filipe with Dave and Beth as well as a team from England.  Dave and Beth have encouraged us not to have huge expectation of ourselves, but to see this as a scouting trip to see what the Lord has in store for us, and if more of these kinds of trips are in our future.  We pray as a family to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  That is the only expectation we have, and we are trusting that God will lead!

As we prepare to go we are asking for your prayers.  This is so very new to us.  The travelling outside the country is new, flying is new, the language is new, the people, scenery, lifestyle…it’s all new.   We are excited and nervous at the same time.  We are asking for specific prayer for the following:  safety – driving from San Diego into Mexico; health; opportunities to share the love of Jesus; space and time to connect with the people; time to reflect on God’s call on us as a family; boldness; and that we would honour God with our actions and words.  Oh yeah…and a super natural download of speaking Spanish would be GREAT!!! We would love it if you feel especially led, to let us know that you will commit to praying daily for us during the 2 weeks that we will spend in Mexico. (Mar 15-28)  Thank you!!

We are excited!  As much as we are not expecting anything in particular, we do have a few things we are hoping to do…Liam has asked his Soccer coach for soccer balls and jerseys and he has agreed to send some along with us.  We don’t know how or if we will have the opportunity to hand these out but are praying for God to create the space for that.  Jamesa and Dominique are working on some worship dances and we are bringing fabrics along to dance with and hopefully teach the kids some simple dances to songs about Jesus. (in Spanish!! J)  We also are taking down a Spanish puppet play that was created by a few people at our church that we hope to have the opportunity to share at a breakfast that the church puts on for the community each Saturday.   I hope to take as much crafting supplies down as I can and just be available to set up tables and love on the kids as they come by to do crafts.   We will see what the Lord does.  It’s so hard not to make plans isn’t it?  To just rest in Him and trust that He has a plan.  His hands and feet…that is what I keep reminding myself…just be His hands and feet. 

So that is where we are at these days…thank you for reading and for your thoughts and prayers over the next weeks.  We look forward to sharing stories with you when we return!  We’re stopping into Disneyland too on the way back.  I’m not sure what we’ll feel like, heading away from the village, but we’d love to be able to be ourselves there too, sharing the love right alongside Mickey and Goofy.

Till then,

Dios le bendice (God bless you!)

Duane, Trish

Jamesa, Liam, Dominique, and Evan