Pictures say a thousand words....so here you go......

Muscles so big they block out the sun

Best bed time story teller ever - Ben-David Armstrong

Yes! Rock jumped into super cold glacier water

Climbing up Twin Falls in Glacier Nat. Park

Mom-mom and Poppy on Big Mountain

Service day with Habitat for Humanity

Team building with Colin and Dylan who are going to El Salvador with us

Jaymi, Chris, Noah, Kayla, and Karen all getting ready for El Salvador with Pizza

Colin, Jaymi, and Chris - desserts at our house

What doesn't Whitefish, MT have?

Class time up at Potter's Field with Pastor Don McClure

Here fishy fishy....here fishy fishy....

There is a little too much weight in the back...

Home, sweet Montana, home!

  Thank you, Lord, for bringing us through 2850 miles of our beautiful country! While I was prepared to "grin and bear it", this 10 day car trip actually brought our family closer together and was generally quite enjoyable.  Randy was an amazing "father driver"; he got us where we needed to go, and recognized the need to learn and have fun along the way.  They say a picture tells a thousand words...I won't clutter this entry with too many of mine ;)
   Another praise...two hours before we rolled into Whitefish, we learned that our 2 bedroom apartment wasn't ready yet. Our incredibly kind property manager responded by leading us a few driveways down to a 3 bedroom house (for the same monthly rent.) Amazing to me, but a small order for our great God.
   And one more...20 hours after pulling into Whitefish, our alternator went out.  Not in Wisconsin, nor Minnesota, nor the Badlands of South Dakota, but only 1/4 mile from a very friendly Napa Auto Parts store. Randy replaced it for a fraction of a mechanic's price. Like my magnet says, "the more I pray, the more coincidences happen!"

Big Chicago and little Ben

The Monaco Motel...Chevy Chase, eat your heart out!

The 'Top Secret' experience in Wisconsin Dells, WI

60' Jolly Green Giant? Thank you Blue Earth, Minnesota.

Thousands of ears of corn decorate this South Dakota institution.

Thank you, Wall Drug, for the Jackalope. (Wall, SD)

Panning for gold in "them thar hills!" (Custer Nat'l Park, SD)

Which ones led our nation, and which ones drove across it?

Look kids! It's Teddy Roosevelt, and...Teddy Roosevelt.

Had a 'blast' on the 4th of July at Crazy Horse Monument

On our way!!!!

   Hello all,  this is Randy writing from the wonderful city of Chicago.  We finally hit the road on Monday, June 27th after packing up whatever stuff was left.  It was a crazy run to the finish line, but we know that God in Heaven loves us and takes care of us; especially in the way He sent an army to help us out.  Thank you so much to everyone who helped to pack, paint, fold stuff, clean, and just ask "what can I do to help".  So many of you sacrificed time, effort, and in some cases money, for a meal or an all important caffeine run.  THANK YOU!!!!!

   So, we hit the road late on Monday and made it to Pittsburgh.  In between the boring stretches of miles in the car, we managed to have a few adventures. We stopped at Heinz field where the Steelers play, as that is Noah's favorite football team.  We pushed on the next day to South Bend, Indiana, home of the University of Notre Dame. We befriended one of the new assistant coaches for the football team at Chik-Fil-A as our kids all ran through the playground.  Wednesday, we made it all the way to Deerfield, Illinois and took in a Cubs game with my Uncle Dave, Aunt Karen, and cousins Brad, Amanda, Lizzy, and Emmy.  During the game, somehow we got our hands on a few tickets that were four rows behind the San Fran dugout and ended up sitting next to the drummer from Maroon 5.

   We're going into the city of Chicago today, and will get back on the road tomorrow (Friday).  It will be hard to say good-bye to this beautiful city full of wonderful people. Thanks for hosting us Dave and Karen.

Let's go Steelers!

Pulling into Chicago

Cubs Game!!!!

It's like I'm flying!

103 floors up and still smilin'!

Now that's what I call a Starbucks Run!

We're working on getting a few more pics to attach.  Stay tuned.

The Final Push

Well, we are in the final stretch of packing, storing, giving, selling, and burning our stuff and are about to embark on the craziest thing of our lives.  Over the past few months, we have continued to marvel at God's miracles and how He pulls everything together.  He has raised a beautifully diverse group of support partners, while connecting us to a couple with the know-how & desire to ship our stuff down to El Salvador. God has lined up a great family to rent our house while we are gone, brought hard-working friends with the gift of organization to help us pack up, found a family to buy one of our cars (but not until we are ready to leave), provided neighboring friends as property managers...and the list goes on.

We have received occasional, and understandable, questions about the dangers of taking our young family to El Salvador.  We aren't spiritual giants, but one thing we know without a shadow of a doubt, is that God wants us to partner with Potter's Field in El Salvador.  We know this is the center of His will for us.  The interesting thing is, we fully believe that if we don't obey and go, then we would not be doing what God wants us to be doing.  Basically, that we would be outside of His will, which to us, is the most dangerous place in the world to be.

On Monday, June 27th we'll start driving across the country.  After many hours in the car, and a few, short visits to Chicago, Milwaukee, and Mount Rushmore (homeschoolers field trip!), we will be in Montana with Potter's Field.  Their Missions Training School starts on July 11th and goes through September, and then we're off to El Salvador in early October.  Hopefully we can post photos along the way!


Speaking of photos, here are a few from the Spring as we wrapped up our time on the East Coast:

Service Weekend at YMCA Camp Tockwogh

Quick trip to Florida to visit Great Grand-mom

 

Guess where we're headed?

    There have been a lot of good questions coming our way, and the most common one is, "When are you leaving?"  Right now, our time-line is directly linked to one thing: raising support. It is the only thing holding us up from the final push of renting out our home, packing, and heading out.

For those of you that don't know what this is, we'll do our best to explain.  Since we won't really be "employed" and have a "normal" income while we are in El Salvador, we will need to be supported.    This can come in many different forms, but it's usually from churches, families, and individuals.  Our monthly budget is based on current living expenses in San Salvador, and includes rent, utilities, groceries, and the ever sky-rocketing fuel prices (over $4/gallon and rising.) Health insurance, moving fees, and cost of visas are also factored in.  We have been asking people to commit to donations for us on a one-time or monthly basis so we can do what we feel called to do 100% of the time we are there.  As of today, we are at 71% of our needed support.  Praise God! It has been amazing to see how He has  been raising up an army that will commit to supporting us not only financially, but prayerfully as well.  It is totally God raising the support for us.  We know we have a responsibility to get the word out to people, but He keeps on nudging and directing people to support us.  It's amazing to watch and be a part of this miracle.

Some of you reading this have committed to supporting us, so a big thank you.  If you would like to support us, please let us know, we still have 29% to go :) We'd love to get together to visit and answer any questions you may have in person; just contact us through our e-mail address at the right.

So, all this to say, as soon as it's here...we're gone! 

Also, pictures do a lot more talking, so here are a few recent pics of our family.

Please don't grow up.

Arrgh!

Happy Presidents Day!

We participated in an International Fair at our local college.

Valley Forge, the Revolutionary War hasn't ended

Red Coats are easy targets!