Christmas and Ghana

Well there are only a few days left until Christmas and then it is off to Ghana. I almost feel bad, but I can't seem to get excited about Christmas. I am just too excited about the mission trip.

Please keep praying for me. Most of you know by now that we are expecting a second child. We found out when we got blood work before we got shots. So, the wife is not going after all. Just me and others from the church. I am going to miss her, and wish she could go. Oh well, God has a plan for everything.

We are still about $700 short of our financial goal for the trip, so if God lays something on your heart, we would love to hear from you.

Pray for those of us going, the people we will work with and minister to, and pray for a great harvest of soul.

On Mission To Ghana, West Africa

If you are finding our family blog for the first time, then you probable just received a letter about out upcoming mission trip to the country of Ghana. Yes, we are going to Africa. As a child in Sunday School, I thought all missionaries were in Africa and thought it a place I would never go. As I got older, I learned that there are missionaries everywhere, not just Africa. But here we are planning a 7-day mission experience to work in the villages and tribes of Ghana, AFRICA!

We will be there during the African Cup. That is the qualifying tournament for the World Cup Soccer Tournament. Soccer, or "football," as it is know outside the US is VERY popular. We will be using a soccer ball that is specially designed with colors that will allow us to share the gospel with the people we meet. To see a sample of the ball I am talking about you can visit Kingdom Sports Products online. They have donated 1000 balls and we will be the first group to introduce them into Africa. They founder is even going with us.

We will also be working with Seed Ministries in the northern part of Ghana. They work diligently to train local Ghanaians as pastors and ministers. We are blessed to get the chance to work with them.

We also hope to get to met and work with the one Southern Baptist (IMB) Missionary working in the entire country. He actually lives and works in the capital city, Accra. That is where we will fly in and out of. We may also spend a couple days working here, as some of the games will be played here.

We hope that you will pray for us every day as we are preparing to go. We are currently meeting as a team each month to train. After Thanksgiving we will begin to meet weekly for prayer and Bible study.

I would be a liar if I said we were not nervous. I have never been on an airplane before and this first experience will be almost 12 in the air. Out precious son will stay behind here in the states with grandparents and we hate the idea of leaving him. On top of all that, the expense is mind-boggling. For the two of us it will be about $5,000 to go. We do not have the kind of money, so we are just trusting that the Lord will provide. And He will!!!! If God has put an amount on your heart that you could contribute and help us with our expenses, please email me.

We are happy that you found our blog. Visit often as we try to update it a couple times a month with new messages and pictures. Scroll down and you will be able to read past entries and see lots of great pictures of the family. You may have noticed that we try not to uses names, that is an internet safety thing.

Bookmark this page, and lease keep in touch and let us know you are praying for us. This is also where we will post stories and pictures of Africa when we return.

Fun Times in St. Louis

We had a great time in St. Louis with friends a couple weeks ago. We had a change to swim and on Saturday morning we wend to the St. Louis Magic House.

The Magic House is awesome for kids and adults. We had a great time, but as you can see from the pictures the kids had a blast.

Fire dancers, ducks and Dogs!

Well, we just returned from a short, but very relaxing trip to America's hometown...sans the dogs...which makes for a much more enjoyable time. The kid is getting to that age where he can really start to enjoy the shows with lots of action, lights, sounds and animals. So, that pretty much determined what we chose to see.

We started off at the Grand Country Jubilee and enjoyed that. My favorite part is the Elvis part, though not a big Elvis fan, it's a cute bit. On Friday, we rode the Ozark Mountain Ducks and the we one got his first experience driving a boat.

Next show was the Island Fire Dance show.
He sat glued to this show! If his diaper had not leaked...on mom...he would have never moved an inch for the whole two hours! We thought it was really neat!

Saturday, we woke up, returned to the Grand Country Buffet for breakfast and then rolled ourselves over to the Amazing Pet show. It was very fun, but poor boy wanted to see more of the cats. They have a very funny sketch with a money, but he really loves cats. When, the moment of truth came, he was getting very antsy. We were seated next to a little nine-year-old boy who got to go up on stage and do a bit with the Sean Paul (the host of the show). That kid was pretty pumped about being on stage! I thought that was fun.

We ate lunch at the Japanese restaurant. It was great, and after feeling the heat of the flames, our little egg hog devoured all of the fried eggs out of my fried rice and crashed. Hubby and I enjoyed the rest of our dinner.

We finished our day with two of my favorite things to do. IMAX and movies.
We saw the Deep Sea, and baby liked it except for one slightly scary part with some sort of killer squid. He really didn't flinch, but I thought it was. And then we saw "Underdog. "

That was probably a mistake, but he loved those advertisements. But after taking off shoes, discus flying the top to his cheerios three aisles in front of us and answering the kid on the movie (drawing laughs from the crowd) I clued in that this was probably too much to expect from him. Ah well, we tried! The last movie we saw was in May - SHREK 3, and he did sleep during the most of it.

Well it was a great time! Everyone should get away at least once a month to keep themselves sane...if you can!

The best part...we were on a time share visit - $150 reward. So...it is possible to get away for next to nothing!

There would be pictures here...but I can't do anything without Heath hovering over me. So...sorry, you'll have to wait for him to fix what I've done.

Back To The Blog!

I have received several emails and calls to find out when I would be posting new content, but especially pictures of the "most cute one."

Well one would think that for a teacher, summer would be a slower time. For me, that does not seem to be the case. I just cannot seem to find any time to sit at the computer. We spent a week in St. Louis, one in Arkansas, two solid weeks of outside housework removing a fence and cleaning up the year. Also a little time in Illinois and, week preparing for VBS, a week in VBS and that brings me to today. I am still not at home, I am only able to make an entry because of some down time I have at a PLC conference for school.

So here I am at the Lake of the Ozarks in a room at the Holiday Inn with the principal of my building as a roommate. That is awkward.

I still have a ton of writing to do for www.bransonandbeyond.com but I though I would make a short entry and put up a couple pictures. I hope these will satisfy the grandparents for a little while.

Live From St. Louis

Well I am at the St. Louis Science Center. Been without the net for more than a week. We are having a great time on vacation. Wish I had a way to post some pictures, but I can't even get to the tower on this machine. It was a very pleasant surprise to find this FREE net station at the museum. Will have tons of pictures to post when we get back.

The week has passed toooooo quickly. Seems like we only arrived a couple days ago, but tomorrow will be 7 days and we will be back home. Sad!!!!!!

We have had the chance to do everything we wanted and planned, PLUS! So far, Grant's Farm was the funnest thing for the little one. He had so much fun. Look for more and pics in the next week or so. Also, you will find full reviews and pictures of everything we did at www.BransonAndBeyond.com.

School is Out

It is finally Friday, but more importantly it is the last day of school. The kids left yesterday, but we had to come one more day for all that exciting last day stuff. We had an insurance meeting again this morning. Of course we, the teachers, lost. To keep the same coverage that we have this year, we have to pay over $100 per month. The district will still offer full coverage, but our out of pocket will significantly increase for every medical treatment. This is the real kicker. If I want to cover my wife and child on the plan, it will be almost $1,100.00 per month. My check is less than $2,000.00 per month right now. That would be over half. You just have to scratch your head.

Oh well, I am not going to let that get to me. Summer break is upon us and I am so excited. I am already planning to have a yard sale next Friday to raise money for summer vacation, which is also very soon. Yea! I know that we will have a great time.

Enjoy the free pic of the day of the cutest rabid baby in the world.