Visa or Mastercard?

Hey!

We’re in AZ now…  We have definitely made memories on the road and with friends along the way.  But—all stories for another time.

For now though, we just heard from the Visa agency and wanted to share with you that our Visas are all processed and have just been shipped!  Yay!!!  That’s the last “big” thing that needed to get done before we leave on the 27th.  We have about a million and a half “little” things to do still though.  Thanks for praying for our Visas to come thru!

K, all for now :)

Much love,

Jocelyn<><

On the Road Again

Hello peoples :)

So we’re starting a road trip today.  We’ve been planning for the last six months or so to spend some time with Brian’s family before we head off to Brasil.  We’ll see them in Arizona, as well as friends and family on the way in Oregon, California and Texas.

Since we’re only driving down to the Portland area today, we don’t have to leave until just after noon.  And we’re not moving us and all our stuff on this road trip (something we’ve done on almost every other road trip), so it’s been WEIRD only packing for 2 weeks (instead of 2 months or 2 years).

This morning, we had the pleasure of having a good friend of ours over for breakfast—  Lucas and Naomi Lorenz from Montana are with NTM and headed to the Philippines the day before we are taking off for Brasil.  Lucas is the the neighborhood for a couple days shipping stuff from Seattle to the Philippines, and it worked out for him and Ross and Ian (2 guys traveling with him) to come over and have breakfast with us :)  So fun to visit with them and be both excited and nervous-ish with Lucas about us all leaving the country soon!

In other news, Brian’s sister Mary is getting married TODAY!  Congrats to her and Kyle!  They are getting married in a small, civil ceremony in Ohio and we are looking forward to meeting Kyle next week :)  Mary is home from Kosova and Kyle is home from Finland (they are missionaries with Greater Europe Mission) and they’re wedding day is today!  Next summer when they are home again, they are planning more of a wedding/reception/family celebration, but we will totally enjoy seeing them next week :)

Speaking of weddings, here’s a picture of the newlyweds…  My sister Jessica and  her husband Kenneth :)  Lovely, gorgeous, amazing couple… wedding… day….everything.  I’m sure we’ll eventually be posting more pictures.

And Merry Christmas!  This is us on Christmas morning—I had just opened up the gift that Brian made for me—a lovely cedar box with a hinged picture frame lid!  It’s a HILARIOUS story of how he made it with me around (he’d go work on it in Mae and Robert’s bathroom while I was in the shower, etc…)  Anyway.  It made me cry.  Good times…

    

So anyway, here we go again!  Our last road trip before we sell our car in Texas (total answer to prayer!).  We’re looking forward to seeing family and friends we haven’t seen in a long time, and probably won’t see in another long time….  Spend some good time together in the car and who knows what kind of adventures on the side! 

Hopefully we’ll be posting here while we’re on our trip—share some California sun with you :)

Love y’all!

Jocelyn<><

Packing and weddings and road trips, oh my!

So what have we been up to these days?  Glad you asked :) 

• Jocelyn is done with work!  Okay, so there’s tons of work to do still before we leave, but as far as paychecks/W-2’s go, it’s nice to be done with that now :)
• Jessica and Kenneth are getting married on Saturday!  Fun stuff—we’ve been around to help eat—I mean help make little chocolate wedding favor things and do other little projects that help weddings go smoother.
• We’re planning a road trip!  We’re leaving a couple days before New Year’s and will be gone for about 2 weeks visiting friends and family in OR, CA, AZ and TX. 
• Our Visas should be in process this week!  We turned in all the paperwork and stuff for them the week before Thanksgiving, and our dates for them jumping thru all the hoops they need to pass thru have gotten pushed back a couple times, but they should be coming back to us shortly :)
• We bought our trunks!  We haven’t totally decided if we’re just taking 4 or if we should get another one or two (and just pay for the extra baggage since it will be cheaper than trying to ship stuff).  Still trying to decide what we absolutely can’t live without.  Jocelyn has too many books.  Brian has too many things that plug in.  The good news is that our clothes shouldn’t take up too much space (as we will not be packing any coats or heavy winter layers). 

What should we take with us?

These aren’t heavy!  (yet…)

Not exactly a first-class seat!

Happy Anniversarweek

So if you’re reading this, you probably know us.  And you probably know that we’re always counting up or down to something.  This past week we celebrated 3/12 years married, 4 years engaged and 5 years dating :)  I love this post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas personal holiday— going out on a date to celebrate our anniversarweek, getting the tree decorated, reading e-mails from just before we started dating and just after we got engaged, and looking at pictures :)  Speaking of….

This is our first picture together 5 years ago.  We went to a friend’s wedding just a couple days before we officially started dating and part of signing the guestbook was also having a picture taken.  When the photographer asked if we wanted our picture taken together, I awkwardly agreed.  Not exactly a photo for an 8x10 on the wall!

And this is us at a Christmas party this last week.  Much better!!! 

*sigh* <3  <3  <3 

What’s next for us you might ask?

Countdown to Brazil—50 days!  Yep, you knew we were gonna say that!  But before then my sister is getting married in 12 days, and Christmas is in 18!  Hold on tight!

Anyway.  I have lots of schemes and dreams for many Brazil/LIA related posts.  But alas, they have yet to materialize in cyberspace!  Better a short blog posted than a substantial one intended :)  Stay tuned…

F.A.Q. #17

Where will we live when we move to Brazil?

We will be living just outside the city of Natal in North East Brazil. "Natal" literally means "Christmas" and was founded on Christmas Day 1599. More about Natal at this website.

So we won't actually be living in the city, but on our teams property. It's kind of a lot of things as it's part farm, coconut grove, film set, LIA HQ and home. There are sheep, chickens, monkeys, tarantulas and snakes to welcome us. There are coconut, banana and avocado trees waiting for us to enjoy them. Not to mention tons of work to do, and people that we love. It is the place God has led us to call our earthly "home" for the next indefinite while.

Because of the biblically appropriate climate and rural location, it is an ideal place to film. And so a couple on our team, Joel and Stefanie, are building (with help of course) a Jewish/first century style rock house for both filming and living in!


See the stairs going up to the roof? Cool, eh? :) They are going to leave one of the doorways as rustic/authentic looking as possible while all the others are finished out and convenient/functional. Their family is growing-- Sarina just turned 2 and baby Caleb is due to be born in early March. This is a pretty big project and they're working hard to finish-- trying to get as much done before we come and the baby is born. After Joel and Stef's family move into the rock house, we will be moving into their apartment area in the main house. Here's just a little bit of what the main house looks like. As well as space for us, there's an office/editing/animation/computer area, kitchen, living area and another "apartment" for another couple on the team, and a lovely wrap-around porch area where our team has lunch together almost every day!


There are a lot of things that will be huge changes for us when we move to Brazil... and not just major obvious things like the weather and the language and food. It's kind of a stretch for me to think that I will be spending so much time in a place I've never been before-- scary and exciting all at once. We'll have to update you on our new home when we've actually moved there and can share with you first hand and not just with pictures we got from Joel and Stef's facebook page! One more picture though. This is our driveway!

Oh darn ;) But yes, we do have snakes and tarantulas. Maybe they will be another post for another time :) For now, I'd like to finish off with a pleasant image on my screen :) Happy Sunday!

New Trailer!

Hey, you got a minute? Or three minutes actually... Click on this link here and then click on the "movie trailer" button right there underneath the "In the Beginning" title. This is the newest trailer (only about a week old), so if you can, take 3 and check it out :)

Did you see our neato countdown 'till Brazil thingy here on the side? ---->
Cool beans, eh?

Alrighty. Better a short blog posted than a long one intended. I think I'll quit this time while I'm ahead. Boa Noite!

11 weeks and 6 days...

So do you know what is even more amazing than us blogging twice in the same week?

WE BOUGHT OUR TICKETS TO BRAZIL TODAY!!! Yes friends, and we are SO EXCITED!!! (just a slight understatement). We're really going!

And this is how it all went down...
We've been looking at tickets for ages (weeks actually), and trying to figure out all the nitty gritty details of getting a good deal, leaving at a good time, flying into the right airport in Brazil, who's going to pick us up, and not getting a ticket where you have to change airports (some tickets we've looked at want you to not just change planes, but airports, and pay for a shuttle and transfer from Newark to JFK in New York! With all our stuff! No thanks.) This is not quite as simple as buying a ticket thru Southwest from SeaTac to Kansas City. Whew!

So I came home from work today and Brian said "guess what I bought today?" And I said "our tickets to Brazil?!?!!!" And he said "yep!" And I hugged him and jumped up and down all over the kitchen. That's how it happened :) I'm mentally checking "buy tickets" off our big fat "To Do" list!

So now here're the details: We are leaving on January 27th, on a domestic flight from SeaTac to JFK (thru LAX!) Then we get on our international flight and after one stop, we'll finally land in Fortaleza Brazil at 2:00am on January 29th. Then we'll still have about 8 hours of road trip before we get to our new home in Natal...

Thanks so much for praying for us as we take baby steps of faith, and occasionally a little hop out of our comfort zones. It's totally amazing how God's been providing $$$ for our tickets and a great deal online where we were able to get both our tickets for a total of less than $1800! Keep praying for us as we

• Try to choose which 280 pounds of our possessions to take with us.
• Apply for our visas.
• Prepare, both emotionally and spiritually to live in a foreign and unknown culture to us.
• Continue to trust the LORD, our Jehovah-Jireh to provide for us.
  
• Still have 1,000,001 details to be distracted and caught up with before we leave...

Thanks friends!
Love,
Jocelyn (and Brian)

Honey, were home!!!

Again...For 3 more months.

So we've been in Oklahoma for two months, arrived home on Monday, and have spent the week working on wedding invitations, linguistic write-ups, unpacking, settling back in to Washington life and doing Light in Action stuff. Next week, I start working at Ben Franklin part time, and Brian's final linguistic assignment is due on Friday. Pretty much, he's working on a 50 (+/-) page summary of what he learned about the Cherokee language (phonemic and grammatically speaking). Um wow. I think he has a way harder job than I do!

Anyway. This is our first Fall season home in Washington in 3 years! And we are just continually pointing out the window and picking up leaves (Jocelyn) and taking pictures (Brian) and totally enjoying it. Yes, Oklahoma (and Missouri) also have fall, but not like here. What, the peak of the season is over already? Oh well. We're still enjoying it. No spoiling our fun :)

I'm in a list mode... I have lists of things to do tomorrow, get done this week, things to buy, things to do before we go to Brazil in January, etc... So here's a list :)

Things That Brought Me Joy This Week:

• Fall! And colors, as always.
  
• Squash for 50 cents from grocery outlet (Brian does not necessarily share my excitement in this list, but especially not in this item ;)
  
• Getting up early in the morning after going to bed the night before on time!
• Listening to my 2 year old "niece" talking
• Getting a book in the mail from paperbackswap.com
• Having an eternal perspective and hope for friends we said goodbye to
• Coming home and seeing family and friends again
  
• Retractable gel pens
• Newsboys and Paperboys music
• Just being with Brian
  
• My friend starting to drive again after not being able to for three years.
  
• Laptop batteries that work
• Reading a hilarious blog after which I laughed until I cried
  
• Pancakes with blueberries
• And a not-so-random extra hour tonight (oh look, I'm finally blogging!)

Anyway. There you have it. No photos, nothing exceptionally clever, spiritual, missional, informative or narrative. But then again...

Jesus, thanks for being my Source of Joy and also the Giver of Joy. God, You are a Good Father who knows how to give good gifts to his kids... Let my mind me fixed on You and what You have done and not all caught up with me and all the things I need to do. Thanks for the grace you continue to give us for all our daily needs, and all the "little" things that you give us even though we don't "need" them. Thanks that you love us...

Jocelyn<><

Digging to the Depths

This summer was interesting to say the least.  I couldn’t find a job, and I wanted to hang out with my bro’s before we run off to Brazil, so Schuyler and I dug a big hole in their yard.  The purpose was not particularly well lined out to begin with, but it became more apparent as we went.  Basically we didn’t want to have to fill it back in when we were done.  Here is a picture of the site before we started digging:

At first, we started with a hole about 4 1/2’ square.  After getting down about 6 feet, we out grew the size because it is hard to pick in that small of an area.

 

Eventually, even that was too small, so we expanded it to 6’x6’ square.

Finally when we made it to 13’ down, we stopped digging and started building.  We put in two floors, so counting the bottom of the hole, there are three levels to stand on.

It took a lot of work.  It was especially tiring when we realized that the thing wasn’t really as square as we had thought, and it took no small amount of work to fix it.  All in all though, it was a good time.

This world is not my home...

Dear Readers,
We're moving again soon! We've each moved 5 times in the last 6 years (or I think 8 total combined?) And no, we aren't secretly in the military or the witness protection program. This is great training for missions though! Here are some things I've learned that I'm trying to actually apply to this move...

• Home is where the heart is-- not where our pictures are on the wall. Whether that be a tent, an apartment, a house or a guestroom. I can choose to be content, or I can choose to be all unsettled waiting for the next time and place that we will finally be "unpacked".
• Purge "stuff" early!
  
• Freely we have received, freely give... When we came here, we "inherited" an air conditioner, a microwave and some other "expensive" essentials from some students who had moved on. God provided for us thru them. We want to be used in the same way.
  
• Take less stuff. We probably won't miss it when it's gone anyway.
  
• Live in the moment. It is so easy for me to get depressed about leaving friends or look forward to going back home to friends that all friendships get kind of put on hold or over analyzed (grasped to tightly or held too loosely). I am a planner and generally live more in the future than in the past. Carpe Diem. Or something like that ;)
• Make sure the tabs on our car license plate are current. Done! Last year we drove 2000 + miles with them expired! We never got pulled over, but we definitely had a guilt complex whenever a police car was behind us!
  

So what's with the picture of the tent? That was us camping last summer in South Dakota on our way home from school :) We were just a couple miles up the road from Mt. Rushmore and it was so gorgeous! It was also the first time either of us had been to Mt. Rushmore. Anyway, I just felt like putting a picture of a house in this blog about houses/moving, but this was way prettier than any houses we've lived in. And there's a picture of our house a couple of posts ago.


So moving again... Here's what the next few months for us looks like (Lord willing ;)

May 20th-- Last day of school. Pack, leave, stop in Colorado and visit family on the way to WA
June, July, August-- Home in Washington
September, October-- Go to Oklahoma for a linguistics language practicum
November, December, January-- Back to Washington
February 2010-- Move to Brazil!!!?!

We are leaving here in about 6 weeks and are choosing to actively trust God for

• a place to live
• jobs
• grace for starting to raise support!

Three pretty huge things...
But I'm especially enjoying Matthew 6 right now...

Verse 27-- "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
(or who of us by worrying can get a job, a place to live and money to live on?)

Verse 33-34 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own"

What does this have to do with you? Do you or do you know anyone who

• Needs house-sitting done
  
• Has an inexpensive place to rent (on a month to month basis)
• Has a guest-room or basement that would welcome occupants
• Or more than one of the above during June, July, August in the greater Monroe area?

Let us know?
Please keep praying for us....

• not that we would get a place to live and jobs lined up right away,
  
• but that we would wait and trust expectantly for how God's going to follow thru and provide for us.
  
• That we would learn what He has to teach us in yet another time of transition.
• That we would hold our possessions loosely.
• And that we would continue to choose to actively trust God.

Thanks so much for caring about us and praying...
Love,
Jocelyn<><