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 :)