Prayer Support :)

     Today was a wonderful day! It started with sunshine and a great morning at church. Our family went forward this morning so that the missions minister could announce our intentions for full term ministry to the congregation. It is a blessing to know that our church family will be praying for us as we continue on this journey! Poor Caeley had quite the case of stage fright during the 1st service and cried the entire time. Once the service was over, Adam walked and talked with her and she felt better prepared for 2nd service, realizing that it wasn't nearly as scary as she thought it would be. She did great during the 2nd service. I was so glad for her!
     We spent the afternoon with Adam's family, visiting, playing cards and eating. Adam's dad had cooked a cow tongue in the crockpot, amongst other food on the grill, so we all tried some. The kids ate more than Adam or I! It tasted fine, but the texture was....well.....mush. A little hard to deal with. But, we had a fun afternoon!
     Then, Adam headed to work and the kids and I headed back to church. I had been asked to speak to the group that Caeley is in. It is called, Girls of Prayer, and is for girls from grades 3-5. I brought activities from an interactive missions booth that I had put together for a church-wide missions event Saturday evening. We played a game, made cards and bookmarks to send to our church's missionaries, and had 5 snacks that I had made with recipes from countries that our missionaries serve in. Then Caeley and I had the opportunity to share with the girls about our steps into full time ministry. We took a map in and Caeley excitedly showed them where Ghana is, and Accra, and she showed them where our plane will fly to take us there. It was so very sweet to see and hear Caeley sharing this with her friends, her prayer group. They asked several questions and then I shared some prayer requests we have that they wrote in their prayer journals, and we sat in a circle and each sweet little girl prayed for us before we left. I was so happy and thankful for Caeley to have the opportunity to share with her friends and answer their questions. I am just in awe of the way that God has been at work in her!!!
     These are the prayer requests that I shared with the girls: 1) Prayer as we make decisions and work to follow God's will for our family, 2) Prayer as we prepare for the 1st of several garage sales. It is hard to part with things we love!, 3) That we would not be too anxious as we get our appointments for all of our shots lined up, and go to get them - ouch, 4) That God would already be at work in the hearts of the people in Ghana that He will have us working with, and that He would be preparing some wonderful friends for us there.
     Thank you so much, Mrs. Patty and Mrs. Debbie, for your hand in raising up some wonderful Girls of Prayer. I have no doubt that God will do AMAZING things with each of the little hearts that you are helping to mold!
     We have been busy lately, preparing for this missions weekend at GCC, doing school, and unfortunately for me - having migraines. I have gotten stuck in a terrible cycle again and have had almost daily migraines for 2 weeks. I started some new medication for them a week ago, but it takes weeks or even months to have an effect on migraines. In the meantime, it is supposed to make them worse for awhile. I will try to be patient, as I have tried EVERYTHING else. But, I would love to have these figured out/taken care of, before it's time for us to go.
     One last thing, and I will stop typing, or maybe 2 things.... I am hoping to take CHE training classes (Community Health Evangelism) in November. We will have a busy month in November! First, I will have CHE training for a week here in Indiana, then we will have meetings with the trustee's of ACMI in Illinois, then the third week, we are attending the National Missionary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. It rotates to different locations, and we have attended in Indianapolis, IN; Peoria, IL; and Lexington, KY. It is my favorite event of the year. It is just amazing and inspiring to see what the hands and feet of Jesus are doing ALL over the world!
     Ok, the last thing. For school 2 weeks ago, we made passports. We will stamp them as we "travel" around the world this year studying many countries from a missions perspective. As we started to make them, Ethan looked at me a bit funny. Once I noticed, he said, "Um, mom, isn't making your own passports illegal?" I laughed of course and told him, "Only if we try to use them to leave the country. Then I'd probably get arrested." Caeley added her spin on things, "Well, wouldn't that be ok mom? Then you could just tell people in jail about Jesus!"