How to Move to Africa

or how could we possibly make this more complicated?

BTW, today, there is only ONE more day 'til financial clearance which is "no/no go" day from our mission's decision guy. It means no/ no go for January 16, our planned departure date. We ARE going to Africa...if we don't make it for Jan. 16 it will be in July. We're rooting for Jan. 16 and so ask you to please pray today for God to complete this miracle he's been amazing us with this past month as friends, family, churches have made our jaws drop further than we thought possible...THANK YOU to you all for your generosity to our ministry through aviation in Africa!!!

Okay, back to the complicated move. Ever heard the logic problem about getting the farmer, his chicken and fox across the river in a boat that only holds two at a time? That's kind of how this feels.

Here's the dealio: We are in Indiana with a portion of our "stuff". We have our Land Cruiser, but it needs to be sold before we leave. Most of the "stuff" we had planned to take to Africa is in the basement of the house we were living in, in Minnesota.

We fly out for Africa from New York, where Africa Inland Mission's US headquarters are located. Some of our stuff will fly with us, but the rest will go via shipping container. So Jerry ( a former engineer, you'll recall) has been trying to find the cheapest/ most efficient (but mostly cheapest) way to get the stuff in Minnesota sorted, once again, and to New York.

Factor into this that we will be celebrating Christmas in West Virginia with Jerry's family and will be there until Jan. 1. We then have "time to kill" until Jan. 14 when we need to be in New York for debrief with the mission before Jan. 16 departure.

The plan we're set on, right now, is that Jerry and Olivia (since she wants to see her friends again) will drive in TLC (the Land Cruiser) to Minnesota this Friday and Jerry will sort the stuff (since we now have a clearer picture of what we want to take now that we know it will cost us $12/ cubic foot to ship it...) Meanwhile, Olivia will be partyin' with her pals.

Then, next week, Wednesday or Thursday, Jerry and Olivia will return with U-haul trailer packed, probably overnighting along the way since travel with a trailer is slower.

Once they arrive in back here in Indiana's at Bre's folks', Bre and Jerry will sort again the trailer stuff and other stuff already packed at mom and dad's. We then will pack ALL the stuff going to Africa in the trailer, and the kids in the car. We'll drive to New York and headquarters to drop off all the stuff going to Africa. Then we go back to West Virginia for Christmas with Jerry's side of the family. We'll be there until Jan. 1. We then spend our last two weeks back in Indiana with Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad have generously donated their frequent flier miles to us, which equal three tickets, so Breanna, Olivia and Grace will fly to New York. The boys will come on Amtrak, which is cheaper than flying and Isaiah will love it. We'll meet at headquarters, along with everyone else flying out to Africa with AIM at this time. We'll pow wow, get briefed, pray and learn whatever else last minute they want us to know and then FINALLY fly out Jan. 16. Whew!!!

Please pray for Jerry, who's had trouble getting to sleep at night, I think mostly his mind a-whirlin' with all the details he's got to figure out!!
-Breanna