This email is a compilation of a couple months worth of thoughts. So read it at your leisure.
August 7th - #1 Dear Friends and Family, All of you have played some sort of role in our lives - as family and friends - so we wanted to let you know about some HUGE changes going on in our lives. We're very excited and want to share them with everyone but we're also very nervous so we're asking for your prayers as well. As some of you might have known, Jon and I have been trying to buy a new house for about 9 months now. Each time we think we've found "the one", for one reason or another, we come to find out otherwise. In the midst of these times we've been anxious and feeling that there's something coming we're supposed to be doing - so we kept trying to do it - buy a house, start a family, make some career moves, etc. But none of our plans were working. Every so often one of us would throw out the "let's just sell and move to Guatemala" line. But then Jon would go onto pittsburghmoves.com once again and find our next dream house.
So to make a very long story short - we're "selling and going to Guatemala". Not just Guatemala - but that is part of the plan. Jon and I are working to set up a couple different "internships" as he's calling it to spend some time with various missionaries and organizations to see what's out there and where we fit in. While we are firm believers in meeting human physical needs, we believe that good works are just that without the Gospel. So we go with the goal of sharing the Gospel - how, when and where - I don't really know. And for those who really know me - that might be the hardest part. I like to know the details. We resigned our positions at Hefren-Tillotson this past Wendesday to be effective August 31st. Leading up to that date, we will be moving our stuff to Jon's parents' basement in Ohio and then setting off on our adventure. We plan to be in touch via email and be back every so often between internships. After the internships - again - I don't know.
At this point I feel I'm supposed to type "we covet your prayers" but I've always been weirded out by that phrase because the 10 Commandments say "thou shall not covet". So I'll go with a different one. We need your prayers - I won't even make it optional. Many of you were at our wedding and you promised to support our marriage - so here's a chance. We are firm believers in spiritual warfare - and within hours of us stepping out on faith into - "ok, God - here we are - now what?" - the flaming arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16) started to fly. As this all becomes more official / organized, we will be sending out updates, etc. If you're interested in being on that email list, let us know. In the meantime we're getting ready. Feel free to call whenever - we'd love to talk to you about this. Also, feel free to forward this email on to others. Love, Jon & Jessica Jon cell - 412-600-6116Jessica's cell - 412-849-6128
October 22nd - #2 So it's now about two months later. Some things happened as expected. Some are different. And I never sent out the first email. But I didn't want to not send it - because some of you need the whole story. Since we resigned our positions, we have had many confirmations from God that it was the right step - not the easy one - but right. At the same time, we are struggling because we don't have many more answers than two months ago. We spent most of September traveling and spending time with Drew and Lindsay Hall, friends from our church who are in French language school in preparation of moving to Guinea, Africa to be medical missionaries. We were planning to go to Guatemala on October 13th with a short-term team from our church, and we had applied with the missionaries there to stay an extra two months after the team came back to the US.
In the end, our first expected "internship" ended up being just one week. We arrived back in the US this past Sunday. It was very hard at first when the answer was "no" because I thought that was pretty much a shoe-in for our first project. But as we spent time there last week, it became clearer that God was right (duh) and that the answer was supposed to be "no". But as for what's next, that's still to be determined.
November 26th - #3
The past month has sort of flown by - with highlights and a lot of down time.
As our Guatemala trip was coming to an end, one of the team members asked us if we had felt a calling towards Guatemala during the trip. Honestly the answer was "no". We had a wonderful time, Jon finally got to experience it, and we had really enjoyed getting to know our team members. However, there really wasn't a calling. But as we landed back in Atlanta, we believe our calling for that period of time showed itself. As "luck" would have it, one of our team members switched seats to an aisle row for that flight, leaving Jon and I in an aisle by ourselves. Across the aisle sat a mother and two kids. The father then asked Jon if he minded if he sat next to him to be beside his family. Jon lost his extra leg space but obviously didn't say no. Not until we landed in Atlanta did we end up actually talking to the man, but in the amount of time it took to unload the plan, we learned he and his family were on their way to the US for treatment for his four-year-old daughter, Madelena, who has leukemia. They had never flown before, didn't speak a word of English, and only had a piece of paper with their destination name to show to a taxi cab driver once they landed in Baltimore. With my broken Spanish and help from other team members on our team, we realized we needed to help them get through the airport. For those of you who haven't flown through Atlanta, the airport is nice - but huge and crowded and the lines are tortuous - and that's for someone who has flown many times and can read English. So after a very stressful hour and a half, we got them on their flight to Baltimore. It really was not short of a miracle. We prayed for Madelena and her family and sent them on their way praying they would make it to their destination.
The past month has sort of flown by - with highlights and a lot of down time.
As our Guatemala trip was coming to an end, one of the team members asked us if we had felt a calling towards Guatemala during the trip. Honestly the answer was "no". We had a wonderful time, Jon finally got to experience it, and we had really enjoyed getting to know our team members. However, there really wasn't a calling. But as we landed back in Atlanta, we believe our calling for that period of time showed itself. As "luck" would have it, one of our team members switched seats to an aisle row for that flight, leaving Jon and I in an aisle by ourselves. Across the aisle sat a mother and two kids. The father then asked Jon if he minded if he sat next to him to be beside his family. Jon lost his extra leg space but obviously didn't say no. Not until we landed in Atlanta did we end up actually talking to the man, but in the amount of time it took to unload the plan, we learned he and his family were on their way to the US for treatment for his four-year-old daughter, Madelena, who has leukemia. They had never flown before, didn't speak a word of English, and only had a piece of paper with their destination name to show to a taxi cab driver once they landed in Baltimore. With my broken Spanish and help from other team members on our team, we realized we needed to help them get through the airport. For those of you who haven't flown through Atlanta, the airport is nice - but huge and crowded and the lines are tortuous - and that's for someone who has flown many times and can read English. So after a very stressful hour and a half, we got them on their flight to Baltimore. It really was not short of a miracle. We prayed for Madelena and her family and sent them on their way praying they would make it to their destination.
We planned to go to Baltimore the next weekend to meet them and see how they were doing. They were here for up to a year and a half - with two suitcases for the four of them. We didn't know how we could help but at least knew we could buy some warm clothes for them to make it through the winter. One of our team members worked on locating their social worker at Johns Hopkins. It came down to Friday afternoon as we were already on the road to Baltimore. The social worker called me at her wits end. "They don't exist - at least not in the Johns Hopkins system". After a long pause, she said that there was one other place she could think of - but it's not part of JH, so she didn't know how they had gotten the JH name. The National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, MD has a pediatric cancer center - and Madelena could be there. It just so happened that Jon and I were staying in Bethesda that night at a friend's apartment. I researched The Children's Inn at NIH that night and knew it was the right place. So we went Saturday morning, knowing that any success would depend on (God and) the lady at the front desk.
The receptionist was beyond overly helpful. She wanted us to find them. However, they had arrived the previous Sunday and then checked out Monday. What!?! She then offered to all their social worker who could set something up for Monday. We told her we were leaving on Sunday. She told us that when families arrive and the kids are sick, they tend quarantine them and to send them to a hotel for a few days until everyone is healthy. That's what had happened. Then she proceeded to tell us she couldn't tell me at what hotel they were staying, but she gave me a list of the three hotels they use. Then she gave me a copy of yellow pages. Then she said we could just use their computer lab instead. So within five minutes we were back outside with the names, numbers and addresses of three hotels within half a mile. On my second attempt, we had them on the phone. They were overjoyed to hear from us, had been trying to contact us all week, and couldn't believe that we showed up to visit them. We spent the afternoon together, rode the Metro, went shopping, and had dinner. Our goal was to do whatever they needed. And what they needed was for someone to let them know they weren't forgotten.
The feeling of doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing in that moment is amazing. I guess that's the definition of "calling".
Since then we've talked on the phone a few times with David and Julia, Madelena's parents, and we plan to go visit again in mid-December. Unfortunately David is scheduled to return to Guatemala later this week. That might be slightly delayed due to an emergency appendectomy last week - but we'll see. At this point, they need prayer and support through all of this. They're eagerly trying to learn English and I'm going to help them establish an email account when we go in December. Once David has to leave, Julia will be alone with the two children - ages four and five. If anyone knows anyone in the Washington DC area who speaks Spanish who would be interested in contacting them, let me know.
In addition to Madelena's family, God has consistently been giving us one step at at time - again very hard for me being that I love long and detailed plans. The week after going to Baltimore we were baby-sitting for three kids from church. During that weekend we heard from Costa Rica. We had applied to work for two months at an orphanage there. A few days earlier, we finally came to the point of saying "Ok, nothing is working. We're going to have to get a job again". The answer came about five weeks later than we were expecting, but then Costa Rica said "yes - please come." So we're pretty excited to be going. We will be leaving January 9th and returning March 5th. Please keep Jon in mind incase the Steelers are in another AFC Championship and Super Bowl game. He will be out of the country. =)
After we got the confirmation from Costa Rica, we then had two more very positive leads. After church one Saturday night in Pittsburgh, we had a very encouraging talk with the pastor of our church who had heard of our plans and goals. He offered to get us in contact with the head of missions placement for the C&MA denomination, which is located in Colorado Springs. It just so happened that we were leaving for Colorado Springs just a couple days later. So the meeting is set for this coming Sunday. Who knows what will come of it - but even just the conversation with Pastor Rock was a huge blessing in and of itself.
And then right after that, we received another email from another director of C&MA based in New Jersey. He had received and email from a hospital in Mali which we had contacted a while ago about. They are extremely understaffed on the business / administrative side.
So as usual - it's really one step at a time. The future is unknown but God is faithful.
As of right now we're in Montana visiting my family. Then we'll be back in Colorado Springs for the meeting and then back east again for a few weeks before Christmas. After that we'll be packing for Costa Rica and praying for whatever is after that. The past few months have been weird. Being a guest is not easy though our hosts have been overwhelmingly gracious. We miss our friends and our life in Pittsburgh and get ancy every so often. But we're confident that God has lead us this far and will not let us down.
Talk to you soon -
Love,Jon & Jessica
