Our Shipping Container has left San Angelo

Today was one of those days. Let me say that if you haven't read the last post you need to scroll down and read it first. Our sea crate was due to arrive at the local warehouse at 9 am this morning. We went to get the church van and trailer so we would be able to load up the furniture that wouldn't fit by the time the container was full. We arrived at the warehouse at 9 am and the container wasn't there yet but the workers were busy getting our crates from storage. We settled in the van and waited.

As we were waiting our realtor called to see where we were at because he wanted to bring something to us. We weren't sure what it could be since we had already closed on our house and thought we had taken care of everything. He showed up within 5 minutes and began to tell us why he came. He said a few weeks ago he was telling a man about our family and the man told our realtor that if he sold his house for him in less than 30 days he would make a donation to our family for the move. Well he just came from the closing and did sell it within 30 days. He said that he didn't want to remind the man of what he had promised, he would just wait and see what God did. Well after the closing he was given $1,000 to give to us. He came right away and handed us the check. Amazing!!! We are so thankful for the amazing ways God continues to show us this is HIS will for our family.

Well by 9:45 we started wondering where our container was so Mark called the shipping dispatch to find out. The lady did some checking and said that it had arrived at 9 am. Mark told her that we were at the warehouse and it wasn't there. She did some checking and called us back to tell us the container arrived on time but it was sitting at our old house. They called the trucker and explained that we sold the house and our belongings were not there. They gave him directions to the warehouse.

Here is how the day went ... The container arrived to the warehouse at 10 and they were finished by 2:30. We knew that we were going to have too much stuff so we told them the packers several times from the start of the day that there were certain pieces of furniture that we did not want to take. That the boxes were more important to us. As the day went on they were busy unpacking crates and trying to fit everything in the container. Let me say that these guys were very hard and did a good job overall. The only problem was that even though we told them we didn't need an armories and dresser it was packed anyway. By the time they got to the last few feet there were still several boxes that needed to go as well as our bed. Well it was too late to get to the dresser etc. Long story short they got all the boxes in and when they shut the container doors we were left with my bike and Mark's bike, 2 tool benches, our King size headboard, mattress and box spring, (the king bed frame was packed), a shop vac and a jewelry box (one that has several drawers and side doors etc. I never really had much to fill it with so that was fine to stay behind).

Let me say we were a little frustrated but when it was all said and done we have to acknowledge the fact that we prayed that the Lord would allow what needed to go to get packed. It didn't turn out quite the way we thought it would but it is DONE and on its way!!! We spent the afternoon finding a new home for the bikes and shop vac and then we were able to sell our mattress, box spring, headboard and jewelry box to a used furniture store that has been so helpful over the last few weeks buying a few odd things from us. So tonight we sit and we feel so much better having our container on the way. The Lord has shown us over the last several months that stuff can just get in the way and cause so many distractions. Our container is full of stuff that will be nice to have but the bottom line it is just STUFF! Stuff that causes stress, stuff that creates mess, stuff that steals time away from us. Yes, it will be nice to have, fun to unpack, but the Lord has really shown us that we don't need so much! Anyway, just part of the process.

We are so thankful for all God has shown us along the way! We are looking forward to what the rest of the journey holds. Please continue to pray for our family. We fly out in 12 days. Pray for our health. We have been so blessed with our health and we are continuing to ask the Lord to grant us health as we travel. Please pray for our finances. We only need 100 more families to commit to giving $25 per month and we will be fully funded. That is just like giving up one meal out to eat a month to support a missionary family. Please join us in praying for rest of our financial support to come in.