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Our last major road trip

I've officially left Boise behind... for a long while. We drove over the weekend to Blackfoot, ID and presented at a church there. It is a church pastored by Justin, a fellow BMW missionary, supported by his wife, Heather. We stayed with the family of Lesli, a friend of Hought and Gretch from Bible school. They were super hospitable and it was great getting to know them. Sunday evening we got to Bozeman to stay with lovely Lindsey again (our faithful friend at just the right point on I94). We got to see friends Josh and Lisa as well, always a treat! :) From there, we took off for Miles City and spent 2 day unpacking and repacking, filing paperwork from the last 3 months of being away, and preparing to be away another month. We also got to hang out with my parents. Three cheers for my AMAZING mom who fixed us all our meals for those 2 days so we didn't have to buy groceries or spend time cooking. You're awesome, mom! :)



We figured on 2 days being plenty to do everything, but it was quite crazy to make the turn-around so fast. We packed up the car Thursday morning (May 1) for our last major road trip, Lord-willing. Please check the schedule to the right to see where we are when, but this trip includes stops in: Fargo, North Dakota; Minneapolis, Minnesota (to see aunts, uncles, grandma, and some friends); Waukesha, Wisconsin (to see friends of Hought and Gretch who are instructors with New Tribes Mission); Lansing, Michigan (to hang out with teammates Amber and Brad and their kids Zoe and Piper, do some planning and team-building for about 3 weeks, then go to a wedding with friends of Houghton and Gretchen). On the way back we'll be stopping at my friend Jodi's in Goshen, Indiana (a roommate from Grace College in Indiana where I got my undergrad degree). We'll go from there to Mount Vernon, Iowa to see Aunt Kathy, Uncle Dave, and 3 cousins (and their families). Then back to Minneapolis for a night and over to Bismark, North Dakota to stay with family friends Ralph and Shari. Finally, we'll be back in Miles City as of the 29th, Lord-willing. As we stop and see people, I'll post pictures here in this post. Sorry it's boring words for now, but I promise I'll add pics when I have a chance. :) I'm not sure what our internet will be from here on out, so be patient. I hope to be getting out my newsletter in the next week or so too so watch for that. Thanks for praying for us as we travel with 3 kids now - for safety, patience, grace, rest, and opportunities to share our faith and ministry. Much love to you all!

Itinerary update

Well, it looks like we are switching things up again in our itinerary (the lizard is supposed to stand for change...I know, kind of random). This will make for a bit of a cheaper trip for me, which is awesome, but a bummer to leave out some parts of the trip too. Here is the proposed change:

Thurs-Fri, March 22-23 Stay in Vila with SIL

Sat., March 24 Fly to Espiritu Santo island (to the town of Luganville) NOT going to Malakula island in between. Stay on Santo until Sunday, April 1 when we fly back to Port Vila on Efate island. The reason there isn't a stop now in Malakula is that accommodations weren't firming up and having a 2 year old, a baby, 2 women, and an old guy with a bad leg :) (that would be my dad) was making this very remote area not the greatest place to show up with iffy accommodations, possible transportation lack, and greater cultural differences. The guys are hoping to fly over for a few days at some point when the rest of us stay on Santo so it may still work out for them, but it most likely won't be a whole-team effort. There will be plenty of opportunities for further survey on Malakula if the Lord allows us all back to live in the country next year and begin ministry based out of Luganville.

Sunday, April 1 Fly back to Vila and take care of visa "stuff".

Tuesday, April 3 Fly to Fiji and then on to Los Angeles, to arrive back home that night!

So in a week or two, I'll be eating breadfruit, flying fox, taro, and noni fruit. Here are the pictures of those things. Just kidding, I have no idea what I'll be eating, but these are all eaten there so who knows...

Thanks to all of you who have supported me. I only have a few hundred more I need to cover things and then the trip will be totally paid, praise God! Please pray for God's wisdom and direction about my ministry in Vanuatu, for connections with officials and opportunities to begin relationships with the people (the Ni-Vanuatu) there, for health and safety, and especially for calm and happy kids (the 2 year old and 6 month old nephew and niece of mine who are coming). Thanks so much!! I hope to keep updates coming on here during the trip but I don't know what my access to internet will be once in Vanuatu. If nothing else, I can meet with all of you and show you pictures after the trip, Lord willing!

Tentative Itinerary

I finally have an update; how exciting is that! Here is what we are looking at now for my team's trip, Lord-willing. Things have changed around a bit from what we were looking at originally (spending most of our time in Luganville on Santo island) to now spending some time all together on Malakula, the island where 1/2 our team is praying about doing bush ministry. (To the right is a picture of a witch doctor who followed a short-term missions group around in Vanuatu last year. Most of the tribes are animistic or demon-worshiping overall.)


One other big change happened as a result of me counting too much on what Air Pacific was saying would happen with our departure dates, so that was stinky. We purchased tickets to LA first only to find out a few weeks later that flights out of LA had changed due to "scheduled maintenance" that was obviously not scheduled very far in advance (since I had called just before purchasing tickets to LA to make sure our departure dates and prices weren't subject to change). Fortunately, because of the maintenance, they had some other departure days other than their traditional "Sunday" only. Therefore, we (the majority of my team) now all have tickets to LA for Sunday, March 18 around noon. We then fly out Tuesday, March 20 at 11:30PM to arrive in Fiji at 5:15AM Thursday, March 22 (10.45 hours flight, 17 hours time difference). We don't fly out to Port Vila in Vanuatu until 9:30 at night to arrive at 10PM (1 1/2 hours flight, one hour time difference). That puts us hanging out in Fiji for a day, which won't be all bad! Gretchen and Houghton have some friends in LA who will be housing us for the 2 days there as well. However, the whole deal loses us three days in Vanuatu that we originally planned on having. Bummer!

Here are the dates and plans we have made so far:

March 22(Thurs) - overnight in Vila on Efate island with accommodations very cheaply rented from SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics http://www.sil.org/, similar to Wycliffe Bible translators http://www.wycliffe.org/)

March 23 (Fri) - fly to Malakula http://www.vanuatutourism.com/vanuatu/cms/en/islands/malekula.html (meet some tribes and do some team planning); working on accommodations

March 26/27(Mon/Tues) - fly to Santo to Luganville (meet missionary Phil who may be helping us apply for visas at the end of the trip, check out cost of living, possibly visit a church, record some Bislama to practice language while back in the States) with accommodations provided by Phil

April 2 (Mon) - fly back to Vila early AM (apply for visas, meet government officials, check in with SIL about literacy, language, and education contacts for me), stay again with SIL

April 3 (Tues) - finish visa paperwork, fly out to Fiji at 4:05PM to arrive 8:30PM, depart Fiji 10PM and arrive in LA at 1:20PM the same day. We then fly United back home to arrive at 6:55PM that evening. Is that all crazy that it's all the same day or what? My family will drive back to Montana probably the next morning or so, whenever their brains are with it again to drive the 12 non-stop hours back. I go back to work on Thursday. Praise God for my graduate practicum student I'm supervising- Melinda - who, Lord-willing, will feel comfortable to cover for me those days I'll have to take off work! She suggested that perhaps when I return on Thursday that I can be there more in body than anything else and she can take my teaching schedule and my counseling kids for the day. That would be a huge blessing!

There are some other possible changes and updates in the works, but this is what I know so far. Please pray that the Lord grants favor with the visa application process and that we are all able to bring all the necessary paperwork. The Lord is slowly providing for this trip, praise Him! Thanks go to all of you who have expressed interest in helping financially and for the investment in prayer many of you have made already as well. You refresh me!

Soon to survey

The next part of this journey in following as God leads toward missions in Vanuatu is a survey trip. I heard one missionary call such a trip a "Joshua trip" because the purpose is to go "spy out the land" and the people. The trip is scheduled for March 18-April 3, 2007, which is really soon. Lord willing, my family will be driving to my place and we'll all fly out from here to LAX airport. Air Pacific will be getting some great business then from all of us (including my dad, who is very excited to join us for this trip) and also Brad Jones as we fly out at 11:30PM Sunday night from LAX to Fiji, Fiji to Port Vila, Vanuatu (the capital). We arrive in Port Vila Tuesday morning at 9:10. The flight from LA to Nadi, Fiji is 10 hours, 40 minutes and from Nadi to Vila is 1 hour 40 minutes. We lose 18 hours going so that's part of the leaving Sunday arriving Tuesday thing. Of course, it is a long trip too. Gretchen (my sister) is planning to bring both 2 year old Jesiah and 6 month (then) Gwenyth so be praying for them in advance that they'll be able to handle all the travel and changes. I'll type more about our specific itinerary when it's more set later, but the overall purpose is to pray over the country, the people, get some great pictures, and come back with a vision for what the Lord would have us do and how. Also, I'm hoping to check out more specifics on how much it will cost to live in Vanuatu for sure and get a good feel for what it really entails to live there.

We'll also be putting in our visa applications with the local authorities (which is $500 for visa and $300 for work permit...per year). All of this trip is obviously quite costly so should the Lord move you to help out financially and in prayer, please let me know. My overall estimate for the trip is $3,500. If you are interested in the breakdown of that, let me know and I can send it to you. I'm looking for people to partner with me in this trek toward Vanuatu so if that's you, send me an e-mail. Please pray with me too that the Lord would give great wisdom and confirmation about serving in missions in Vanuatu.