Pray for Us

Here is a picture of the bunch who'll be heading away from our home in Michigan, in that big brown bus behind us, to journey to distant lands and places...well, it's actually just to Central America, but we will be logging over 3,000 miles in traveling alone! 

Our plans are to travel through Mexico and into Belize, where we will be spending our first month(ish), not quite sure doing what, but helping wherever the need is at locations Dad visited a year ago. From Belize, we will go to to Guatemala for a few weeks over the Christmas season to help a native pastor and his church ministries/outreaches in a city we have only spent a few days at prior to this. (I'll let you know what the actual name of the city is when I remember!) From January on, most of our time will be spent in Chichi (pronounced chee-chee), which is actually a shortened version of the actual name, Chichicastenango (try getting your tongue around that word :). We are also hoping to spend some time in the village that has become very near and dear to our hearts, Chijoj/Canilla' (pronounced chee-ho'h (long 'o')/cah-nee-ya'h. (Chijoj is a village within walking distance from the town Canilla') Four winters in a row were spent, as a family of 10, living in this village and town, and the place has become like a second home to us. 

Before we leave the States, however, we will first take a 'slight' detour to visit our two married sisters and their families in North Dakota; from there, we'll start for Texas and the Mexican border. We'll make a few stops in TX to visit friends we haven't seen in a while, including our two married brothers and their families. Needless to say, we are super excited to be able to see almost our whole family before leaving! With 11 kids it's no small feat to see the "big sibs" and their little munchkins in such a short span of time :) 

We leave on October 27th. Ahh!! so much to do! We haven't really started packing yet; what am I doing on here?? There's work to be done :) 

Please keep us in your prayers these following weeks and months. Pray that we will be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ wherever we are. Pray for wisdom, open doors, and God's favor and grace in our journeys.

And check back for updates! I'm hoping to get some pictures up of the packing process - maybe next week sometime.