Johnstein!

Today was a very emotional day...good emotions, for sure, but emotional nonetheless. Today we were introduced, in detail, to the concept of a Third Culture Kid (TCK). This was a very eye opening experience for me (Michael) as I truly realized who I am...I have always celebrated my uniqueness as a missionary's kid (MK) but I don't think I gave my experience enough value. I always compared my experience to that of my sisters...they spent the vast majority of their childhood years in Venezuela; they made friends, grew up as spanish speakers, and definitely experienced the reality of living in and being part of a different culture. I on the other hand was "just" born there. I didn't really make any lasting friendships, I no longer speak spanish, and my connection to the culture of Venezuela is more of a vicarious one through the experience of my family. The problem is...I never really felt like I belonged when we moved back to the states. So, even though I didn'...

So...I didn't update the blog last night. I was going to. But I fell asleep before I got around to doing it. Yesterday was great! First full day of sessions, focused primarily on who WE are (to later be compared to the THEY - and then broken down to how We become They - within the context of our transition to the mission field). We had a great devotional focusing on our attitudes within the transition, and God's role in leading us. It was especially comforting to reflect on God's parting of the Red Sea vs His parting of the Jordan River. Sometimes, He requires us to dip a foot in the water before he will clear the way. I think that this PFO experience will be a lot like that. We also analyzed the personality inventories that we had taken prior to attending this week. Both Rebecca and I had taken these before, but we had never done a debriefing session together about what each others' personality meant...very entertaining, and enlightening. So much rain today...our l...

We had a fantastic day today...even though we really haven't started with any of our sessions, the last few hours have been extremely encouraging. Its great to be able to hang out and spend time with other families who are in essentially the same position as we are...we are facing many of the same challenges, carrying many of the same burdens, and processing many of the same changes to our lives. We started out the day with breakfast with the Overby family...the are also heading to serve in Vienna, and it has been a great joy to get to know Joe, Channon, and their three kids Nathan, Bethany, and Caylah...Nathan and Justin are the same age and will be in the same class at ICSV. We have also made new friends in the the Basnett family; Dan, Missy, Dalton, and Gracen...Dalton, their son, is also Justin's age. They will be serving in Taiwan. We have also spent time with Amanda Howard, another teacher heading to Vienna, and had some time to talk with Katie, a teacher who spent th...

We arrived safely in Buffalo, New York at about 10:30 local time. The last couple of days have been crazy, but its been amazing to see God working in the last week. A family to rent our home was found and began moving in within hours of us moving everything out. It's amazing with the specificity of our prayers and how God has answered them. Our prayer throughout these last few weeks was that a renter would be found by the day we would have to leave for the PFO...which is exactly what happened. Our tenants signed the paperwork and began to move in on Friday...GOD IS GOOD! Here are some pictures of us in the airport waiting for the rest of the participants and the bus...

We've spent the last couple of days volunteering at VBS at Apple Valley Baptist, going to Justin's All-Star games, and doing the last bit of preparing for leaving the desert and going to Buffalo for our pre-field orientation. We REALLY need your prayers...we are approaching the 30% support level. This leaves 70% of our support (roughly $3,500) to go. Obviously this is quite a bit that we have yet to raise. We would love to share with you what God is calling us to do in the next couple of years serving in Europe. Also, our house is close to be rented, but details are starting to get "iffy". Please keep this in your prayers so we can have this figured out before we leave on Friday... Keep praying and let us know if you have a group or bible study that we can share with.

We’ve had a pretty busy, event-filled couple of weeks. The school year is over, AAE seniors have graduated, we are officially unemployed, Justin has been practicing with his All-Star team, we volunteered at Fish Fest, we had our long anticipated Applebee’s fundraiser, we shipped 6 boxes to Chicago for placement on a shipping container to Vienna, and we have reduced the belongings in our house to our clothes and the few pieces of furniture that we have yet to sell... ...and in all this, we are still hanging on to the promise that He will provide the funding for this mission. We are currently sitting at 27% of our required support...obviously we have quite a ways to go before we leave on July 31st.  It has been interesting over the last weeks as we prepare for our move to Europe. We definitely have taken many steps to prepare yet there is one hurdle that we CANNOT get over on our own. We'd love to hear from you if you could support us financially. We are in huge need of supporter...