Just stuff and a little life.

Today is Wednesday and as I sit here this morning thinking (I sometimes do that) I can't believe how fast our lives move. I'm sure this can't be healthy.

We are in N. Carolina staying with some dear friends, The Brantley Family. We met the Brantley Family back several years ago when they made a survey trip to Croatia. Bro. Brantley was making sure he would surrender to God if He were to ask him to go to the mission field. He answered yes but God called him on to another field here in N. Carolina. Bro. Shane has the sweetest wife Teresa and 6 adorable blond kids. They have been a huge blessing to us allowing us to stay with them a few times over the years. We're thankful for our hosts and they part they play in God's plan here in N.C.

So, we've been here for over a week it seems and we'll be headed out tomorrow to make our way to Ohio. Josh will be loading up and hooking up our utility trailer since Johnny is in California on a business trip, literally. He'll be back tomorrow and I can't wait. I'm such a baby when in comes to Johnny, I can only do without him for so long and yesterday about 5 hours after he flew out was my "only so long". I miss him already and can't wait for him to make it "home" (where ever we are is home) tomorrow. We'll pick him up at the Raleigh airport and then head north and sleep somewhere in West Virginia. The next day we'll make our way to Ohio and get ready to start a conference.

We've officially been on this trip for a whole month but it seems like so much longer. We've been in meetings in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and N. Carolina so far and we still have Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and then back in to Texas for another conference. We have had some wonderful fellowship along the way and been in some great churches. We have been visiting mainly supporting churches and I think we have had maybe 4 new churches this furlough. There are some churches that we haven't been to for 12 years but due to scheduling problems on both sides we haven't made it their way. Anyhow, the South East Coast  was our goal for this furlough and then maybe next furlough we'll make it to the West Coast, maybe.

We're busy doing school. this year we have Joshua in 11th grade and Hannah is a freshman. I can't even believe that not only do I have a son starting college next month but I have two others in high school. Are you kidding me? How did we get here and who are these children? What happened to my little ones who would actually eat happy meals (those were the days, the cheap days)? When I stop and think that in less than 5 years I'll be a long distance Mom, it amazes me and scares me.

Our son Cody is getting ready to start Bible college in a few weeks. He's doing very well getting used to life in America. god gave him a job that would work with him. He decided that he wouldn't work on Sundays or Wednesdays and he knew God would honor that and He did. Cody found a job that lets him have Wednesdays, Saturday mornings and Sundays off. He's able to be in all services and go soul-winning on Saturday. I'm proud of Cody for making a stand and knowing God would honor it. He's doing great with out us and that's a sign on some measure of success on our part. Thank GOD!

Oh yea we finally got all the money we needed to pay for the container to ship the Bibles to Croatia. Praise the Lord. Grace Baptist Church in N. Carolina is a supporting church of ours. We weren't suppose to be with them at all this time around but we did have an oped date (the only open date) on Sunday morning so we dropped in. the pastor was so nice and let Johnny get up and give  a little report and then God did something great through Grace Baptist Church. We still needed $1500 to ship the container to Croatia and they decided that morning to give us $1000. Then after the service Bro. Bailey told us that they would bump it up to $1500. They didn't know but Johnny misspoke and we actually needed exactly $1500 for the rest of the shipping. Praise the Lord! The container will be filled with 10,000 New Testaments with the Psalms in Croatian, a donated pulpit and communion table along with tons of toys and church stuff. We're tickled to be able to take a container and along with all the goodies for the work we are able to put stuff in there for us and some of the missionaries in Croatia. When we went to Croatia we took 2 suitcases a piece and a carry on, that was it. Everything we have in Croatia is from there so to be able to take some things from the states is a wonderful blessing. Things are all that important but they sure make home feel a bit homier.

The work and churches in Croatia are doing wonderful. This furlough has been completely different than any of the previous ones. We now have a whole team of workers in Croatia so we are blessed to know that the work is in good hands and not only being kept on course, they are going full throttle for the Lord. Great things are happening there and we are dying to get back.

Since I started this post we are already gone from N. Carolina and in Eaton, OH. Life moves almost too fast to blog it!