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Author: Jon

From Botswana

A Jon Post

Well we said all our goodbyes and left all of our friends and family in the USA and we got on an airplane Friday afternoon.
It was very hard. There were many tears.
We kept going.

It’s never easy to say goodbye. Especially to the people who deserve all the credit for what we are doing. But we did and we traveled and last night we arrived in Botswana where we will spend the next 1-2 weeks. We’ll get our truck tomorrow. I really miss that truck.

Angola visas? Naaaahh… We don’t have them. Is that a problem? Well I guess that depends on who you ask. If you ask me I’d say “Yes, a big one”, but if you ask God, He’d say “Nope. I’ve got it under control.”
I’m still asking Him to get us those visas soon. I’d like to ask all of the people who read this to do that too. Please ask God to get us those visas soon. If you have a second right now… please pray.

We miss and love you all. We are here. We are safe. We are loved.

November 9, 2009
Personal, Visas
14 comments

Website Updates and Making Memories

A Jon Post

The days keep counting down and it is really hard to imagine some times how committed to this thing we really are. Are we really going? Is the dream this big?

I’ve been able to meet new people here in Corpus Christi and it seems like I’m often telling people where Layne and I are going and what we’re doing. Part of it is because Pete (my father-in-law) always introduces me as “This is Jon my son-in-law, he and my daughter are moving to Africa for good in two weeks!” (thanks Pete haha). The more I tell people about our heart and dreams for Angola the more it is solidified in my head that we really are moving there. It’s not a small deal.

I updated our website to have a couple new pages. You can click on the “About Us” and “Support Us” tabs up on the top left there. I am pretty happy with the “Support Us” tab. You can now support what we are us in Angola with a credit or debit card! You can even set it to a certain amount monthly or quarterly or yearly or daily or however often you’d like and it’s all tax-deductible!  I know it sounds like I’m just asking for money here but I’m mostly just happy that I got all the php code working for the Paypal links and all (and I’m asking for money… we’re still working towards our goal of $2000/month). I have a bit of training in html code but this php stuff that powers our blog is ALL learning and new to me.

Anyway, we’re busy making memories here in Corpus with our family here. It’s so good to be so loved by so many people. We certainly don’t deserve it.

Please pray for us. We are getting closer and closer to our leaving date and we are still hoping and trusting hard that paperwork for Angola will come in soon. Layne and I get up every day and check our email hoping for good news and we will keep doing it.
God please, please, please, bring these plans to fruition. We need you so much. We need Your dramatic, over-the-top, no-other-explanation-but-from-You actions. We trust you. We trust you.

Pray with us. Partner with us. We love you all so much.

Memories

Memories

October 25, 2009
JonandLayne.com, Visas
3 comments

A Week of Lasts

A Jon Post

Well… we’re leaving Arizona on Monday. Here come the last times I’ll do some things… at least for the next 2-3 years. That gets hard some times.

Last time I see my brother Joseph. What a man he is. He got married on Sunday to a fantastic girl that he will love wildly for the rest of his life. What a man he is. I hugged him and cried as I let him go. He’s on his honeymoon now and I won’t see him before we go.

Last time I get together with all my brothers. This group of LionMen. This band of warriors. These poets of love, deed and their Christ. I love these men.

Last time I sit with my sister and dream of futures and of life. What an angel. Always taking the next step in love. Always encouraging, always such a model of the hand and love of Christ. What a missionary. What incredible love.

Last time I hug my mother. My mother… who loved… loves me for 27 years and beyond. Never wavering. I’ve never seen disappointment in her eyes. Always pride in her son. Always love. What a woman.

Last time I sit and listen to the wisdom of my father. Maybe… someday… I’ll be like that man. I can dream… I can dream.

Last time I see dear friends.  Last time I can sit and glean from all these wise men and women around me. All these shoulders that we stand on as Layne and I go boldly into the unknown. We don’t have to fear it. We go with you.

A week of lasts. What precious memories.

October 13, 2009
Personal
6 comments

Almost Gone…

A Jon Post

Well we’ve got only one week left and we’re outa here. Hard to imagine some times.

Still working on our visa for Angola, PLEASE keep praying for that.

Still learning Portuguese. We are happy with how far we’ve come.

We’ve been putting up huge walls of text recently so I’ll finish here. Here’s a bunch of pictures of a trip we took today. We went to a vineyard and picked the grapes, gathered the grapes, stomped the grapes, broke the thing that presses the grapes (oops, Jon’s fault) and had a great time.

Love you all! Where’s all the comments to let us know you read this thing? Click on the little bubble at the top right of this post and add a comment! Come on people!

Click on the pictures to see the full sizes! Oh, sorry about the strange captions. It’s been a long day and I couldn’t get this out of my head.

September 19, 2009
Personal, Portugal
12 comments

Harder Weeks

A Jon Post

Some weeks are harder than others. I guess this was one of those. It’s funny because there are actually so many things that should have made it a GREAT week.

We struggled a bit with Portuguese this week though we sent many emails to native speakers who told us we were speaking well.

We felt discouraged by the lack of progress with our Angolan visa though we actually made many good contacts, heard from some, have good friends here working hard to help us, and, in a practical sense, saw more progress this week than we have in a while.

So we keep pressing on. Some times our emotions don’t line up with reality and we just kinda deal with it.

We have only three weeks until we fly back to the United States. Some times that’s hard to believe.

Good news! Voices of The World (www.votwmissions.com) has officially received tax exempt status from the IRS. That is great news and a culmination of a lot of work from a lot of people.

To do our laundry we go to a local Laundromat a few bus stops away. It’s a bit expensive but then… everything is expensive for us because the US Dollar is so weak compared to the Euro. Also, it’s the only way to get clean clothes so we do what we have to. Usually we listen to a sermon podcast from a pastor in Dallas, Texas. We took a few pictures of our trip this weekend. Click on them below to see the full sizes.

I know we say it a lot but we really do love and need you all. Pray for us please.

September 6, 2009
Angola, Personal, Portugal
2 comments
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