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?