Our New Home

It has been 2 weeks since we arrived at Big Woods. We have been enjoying the community life of praying, eating, working, serving and studying together.

Our family was put in the St. Michael's house (the same house we were in for our Come & See weekend).

The girls really enjoy the space and the bunk-beds in their room.

Their bathroom sits off the dining room.

The living room is spacious and shares space with the dining room. 

In the center of the dining room is the door that leads upstairs to the 2nd floor where the Martin family is living. They have two precious little girls (18 months & 3 months old).

 There is a loft above our bed that is being used for storage.

In the master bedroom we have a spacious room with a king size bed and our own bathroom. 

We have a full kitchen with washer & dryer.

The house has lots of character with wooden plank walls, tile and wooden floors (creaks and all). I wish I could have you all over for a big family style diner!

Check out photos from the rest of the property on a fellow missionary family's blog HERE

Our Adventure to Big Woods - Part 2

A few items from Part 1 I forgot to post:

As we left Wichita on Saturday Grace held up the beautiful sunflowers from Catherine Wurts.
A reminder of our friendship and of our home state Kansas!

We carry you with us in our hearts!

Here are some pictures we took at a gas station (I think in Oklahoma) on Saturday evening. The girls LOVE horses and wanted to ride on it.
Silly gooses!

 Sweet Felicity!

Helping big sis!

Whoa Nelly!

Picking up from Part 1:
So Saturday night we headed out of Dallas and closer to Louisiana. Donovan wanted to keep driving. The girls feel asleep and I was getting very tired. It seemed like every 20 minutes I would pop my head up and ask Donovan if he was tired and if he was doing ok. He always said he was good and kept driving. Well I am getting really tired at this point and I doze off again. All of the sudden I hear the tires hit the rumble strip and I jump up in my seat. I start yelling (cause I am really startled/scared) "What happened!? What happened!?" Donovan had ALSO fallen asleep and started to drive into the shoulder. The noise of the tires hitting the grooves woke him up (thank God)! The girls also woke up (because I had been freaking out). At this point Donovan realized just how tired he was and we both decided to pull over soon. We had no idea where we were and said a quick prayer to St. Anthony to find us a place to stay. We passed one turn off and then saw a sign that said lodging ahead and had several hotels listed. We pulled off at the next stop and drove to the first decent looking hotel. They only had a few rooms left and we were able to get a king with a pull-out sleeper for the girls. It ended up being a very nice hotel and we all really enjoyed the sleep that we all needed! We went to bed about 2 am and didn't get up until 8 am. We grabbed some breakfast and headed back on the road. We had an uneventful drive (for a change) and made it to Big Woods a bit earlier than planned. On the way we made a stop at McDonald's (not to eat, but to go potty and play of course!)  I thought it was funny that none of the girls asked for anything to eat. They knew we were just there to stretch our legs and use the bathroom.They wanted to take some pictures with Ronald McDonald (I love that Felicity didn't know who that was).

 Shortly after our stop we made it to Big Woods. We were thankful to be safely arriving at our new home. As we pulled up to what would be our new house for the next 3 months the girls began screaming and getting very excited. Check out the video at a post I made earlier of our arrival.

Join us at the Proclaim Conference 2013!

Coming up very soon is Family Missions Company's Proclaim Conference 2013. We will be there and would love to see you there too! Get a 20% discount until October 1st! (with promo code ProclaimJesus)

When: World Mission Sunday weekend, October 18th, 19th, and 20th 2013
Where: Holiday Inn Convention Center in Lafayette, LA.
              2032 Northeast Evangeline Thruway
              Lafayette, LA 70501
              (337) 233-6815
Why: To support missions and see some really awesome speakers (and see us of course)

For more info. or to register:

Facebook Proclaim Conference 2013

Proclaim Conference 2013 Website

On the News

We celebrated Cajun Fun Day as part of our Intake Retreat last week. The news came and interviewed Donovan about the 37 people from all over the country who were here in Louisiana to be foreign missionaries. Click on the link below to see the footage that played on the local news.

FMC Cajun Fun Day Footage

We all had a fun day visiting with each other. The girls got to play in the water and Hannah & Catherine got to go canoeing in the lake. It was a typical humid Louisiana day (much more humid than what we are used to in Kansas).

Arriving at Big Woods

Here is a quick video of the girls as we pulled into Big Woods last Sunday!

Photo Shoot

Friday evening, before we left for Louisiana, my friend Katie Gordon (Flash Gordon photography) came by and offered to take some photos of our family. At FMC we end our prayers with "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen! Alleluia! Glory!" So we took this photo in front of our house and shouted the last part! Thank you Katie for the unexpected photo shoot!

Our Adventure to Big Woods - Part 1

Here is a little about the trip from Kansas to Big Woods. We left Wichita and headed for Dallas with the intention to stay the night there. When we got to Dallas we had a hard time finding the hotel where we were going to stay with our friend's sister. The hotel was in downtown Dallas, it was after 11 pm and it was Saturday night. I think we saw at least 3 drunk drivers before reaching the hotel (one was driving the wrong way on a one way road towards us)! We got to the hotel and saw that the only hotel parking was in a parking structure. We pulled into the driveway to the parking entrance and asked the guy who worked at the hotel if this was the only parking available. He asked how long we would be staying and we said overnight. He said to park there. We drove down the driveway into the structure and took a ticket to lift the gate arm. We pulled in and suddenly there was a loud (no a HUGE) banging noise. We both suddenly realized that we had a van topper on the roof of the van. So I got out to try and direct Donovan while he attempted to back out the way we came in (hitting the signs again and making a huge clanging noise). The gate arm wouldn't lift so I walked back up to find someone. The guy who had been there was gone and another man came by with a walkie talkie. He couldn't do anything because he didn't know the channel to call. Soon after two more employees came walking down and they tried using the call buttons but apparently the phone system had just gone down. They left and we got back into the car to wait. Luckily Donovan noticed the gate lift (it must have been a remote access). I walked up the drive and watched as he backed out. He drove slowly out and the van hit the height sign (6 foot 5)! It swung back and forth wildly and I can't imagine why the guy who had been standing there never said a thing to us (maybe he was laughing). When we had pulled in the first time we couldn't see the height sign. So we pull out and drive to the front entrance to ask the valet parking attendant. He said we could park across the street and pointed to a lot that was used for utility vehicles. Neither of us felt comfortable leaving the van out in the middle of downtown all night with the topper on it. We decided to get out of Dallas and keep driving. We pulled out and prayed that we would find a McDonald's nearby to use the free wi-fi for directions on our i-pad. We found one right up the road and were able to get directions. The building was closed and the girls needed to go potty so we pulled into a gas station next door. I got out with Grace & Felicity and Donovan began pumping gas. A car parked behind us was blaring music and I saw two guys who you might think were in a gang. Suddenly I felt very uncomfortable being at this gas station (which we realized was in a very bad part of town). As I was walking with the girls to the bathroom one of the men walked over to Donovan while he was pumping gas. I suddenly had the feeling that Donovan was going to be robbed or shot or both while I was in the bathroom. I didn't know what to do but keep walking and pray. When we got into the bathroom I had both girls praying to our guardian angels and I was praying Hail Marys over and over again. I kept walking over to the window to look out and the man had his back to me. He was still talking to Donovan. When the girls finished I told them to walk very quickly with me and get into the van fast. They asked why and I just said that I didn't feel very safe here and it was time to go. We got into the van fast and buckled up. Donovan was still talking to the man. He finally finished and got in. I was ready to get out of Dallas and we headed out on the freeway. Donovan said that when the guy walked up to him he was also scared and thought he might get robbed or shot so he started praying. The guy was probably drunk or high and came over to ask Donovan for money to buy a beer. Donovan said he didn't have any change (he was asking for 40 cents). He also told the guy he didn't drink so he wouldn't buy alcohol for someone else. The guy asked why he didn't drink and Donovan shared how he had made a decision when he was young not to drink. He responded by saying, "I wish I had done that." He ended up telling Donovan he had a really hard day and Donovan offered to pray for him. He agreed and said, "I'm not gonna close my eyes or anything." Donovan prayed over him and then he got back in the car. Who knows what was going to happen when he approached Donovan, but God had a plan in all of it. Donovan was able to witness to a stranger and God used that moment. Our missions had already begun.

We made it to Big Woods! UPDATED

We arrived Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day eating, unpacking, and going to mass. We will be making posts on Sundays only from now on (MORE IF TIME PERMITS). That is also when we will make phone calls and respond to your e-mails (THAT WILL BE SUNDAYS ONLY). I tried to post a video of how excited the girls were when we arrived. I will have to try again later. We are having a great time and will post on Sunday more about our drive here and some of the amazing things God has done to get us here. We love you and miss you! Keep us in your prayers!

The Hardest Part

Friday morning, after about 5 hours of sleep, we woke up at Donovan's parents house to go back to our house and finish clearing the last boxes and items out. It was hard to say goodbye to the house we have lived in for the last 7 years. We built this house, made it a home and have many wonderful memories here.  It is hard to believe that exactly four weeks ago we arrived at Family Missions Company "Come and See" weekend. Since that time we have sold or given away most of our things, found an amazing family to rent our house, quit my job, and raised over half of our training expenses. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our family and friends. It truly was the hardest part of our journey so far. We have been blessed by so many amazing people in our lives and feel so loved knowing how many people we will miss and how many will be missing us. It isn't until you have to leave a place you love that you realize HOW MUCH you love about it. As we were driving away I asked the girls how they were doing. Grace (our 5 year old) said, "I'm sad, and I'm hungry and I'm happy." "Why are you sad." I asked. "Because of the friends we have to leave." "Why are you happy?" "Because of the new friends we will make!" "And why are you hungry?" Donovan asked. "Because I am. I want to eat!"

Big Woods

While at Intake (training) in Louisiana we will be staying at Big Woods. There are houses on the property of FMC and a main community house where we cook, eat, pray & study together. When we visited the Come & See Weekend in August we took some photos of the house we stayed at. All the houses have everything in them you would need like furniture and linens. It is a home away from home for missionaries in training and also missionaries in between mission posts. Here are some pictures from our Come & See to give you an idea of what it it is like there.

The girls bedroom. They loved the bunk beds!

The living room/dining room in the house we stayed in.

Donovan standing in the doorway to the bathroom. 

He hit his head several times that weekend!

Community meals in the community house dining room

The playground 

(notice the house on stilts, all the houses are up on stilts because of hurricane weather)

Making friends already!

Falling into place

Everything is falling into place. It feels like God is making the path before us. It is amazing what He can accomplish in such a short amount of time. We are looking forward to Intake 2013 in just 8 days! Saturday was the last day of our 3rd garage sale. We would like to donate what is left and are hoping to find a few volunteers to load their vans or trucks to deliver donations (if anyone would like to help with this please call my cell phone 993-6382). A few things will be put into storage and then its on to packing our bags for training. The house where we will stay at Big Woods (FMC "home base") has everything in it we would need (furniture, linens, food, etc.). We just need to bring some clothes, books and the basic toiletries. We will eat, pray and work together as a community. We look forward to all that God has planned for us!

Matthew 4: 18

The Call of the First Disciples.^* 

18^l As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. 19 He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20^* At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

Donations

We have had some questions about making donations. I wanted to explain more about this so here goes.

Currently we have raised 1/2 of Intake fees and 10% of our monthly pledge goal!

As missionaries we rely solely on the generous donations of others. We are currently raising funds for:
- Intake (3 month training in Louisiana, including room & board, food, & short term mission trip to Mexico)
- Passport fees for the family
- Travel expenses (gas for driving & flights)
- Monthly Living Expenses while in mission (house, food, clothing, $ to serve the poor)

2 types of financial donations:
1) 1 time donation (great for Intake, passports & travel expenses)
2)  monthly pledge (great for Monthly Living Expenses)

Family Missions Company is a 501(c)3, which means your gift is 100% tax deductible. When you donate directly to FMC please put Bailey Family in the comments box (online) or on the memo line of your check (by mail). These funds will be deposited into our Bailey Family Mission Fund. If you give donations directly to us it is NOT tax deductible, but will still go into our family mission fund.

MAKE A DONATION:
* To donate online click here
* You can also mail checks to FMC at this address (remember to put Bailey Family on the memo line):
   To send donations please make checks payable to Family Missions Company

Family Missions Company
12624 Everglade Road
Abbeville, LA 70510

Fax: (337) 893-6177
Telephone: (337) 893-6111

Progress!

We have had 2 very successful garage sales!  We have cleared out many of our large furniture pieces. The living room is now a make shift bedroom for the girls while we have their bedroom walls painted. Here they are sleeping peacefully last night :)

 

Then this morning we had a fun family breakfast (prepared by the girls) on our dining room floor. Everyone was all smiles :)