I wrote the last blog on a Monday, Tuesday we spent preparing for our guests who arrived that evening around 5:30. There were 4 of them and we had supper and sat at the table and talked and prayed together for a couple hours. It was their first time in the country and they had a lot of questions about ministry and the area so we got to share a lot with them. The next morning they left. Bright and early around 5 am. It was a really strange situation that we'll have to share in person, I don't know how else to explain! So after all the work we had done to get ready for them, we found ourselves with a few days off, which was nice.
We got to go to Witzoo finally, we've been wanting to go since we moved to Belize. They rehab animals, particularly quash and parrots. This is where Jessi will be released in August! We met Alan, the owner, last Thanksgiving and he invited us. We needed to drop off some keys with him anyways so we went on Friday. We had stopped at Marks and Joel ended up working there for awhile so we got there too late for the quash feeding, but we got to have a tour of their property, it's a really neat place! They have so many different fruit trees and hardwood trees, it's amazing. And everything is centered around the animals. They showed us trail cam photos of jaguars, puma's, pecary, and tapir, sooo cool.
View of their house from the pond (that has crocodiles in it!)
View from their deck:
Saturday the watchman moved in and Joel was busy showing him around. Sunday was our last church service and then a pool party/bbq at Marks! Mark invited us and Jay and his family, so there were a lot of us ;)
Myrtle and her sisters got to use the fireplace for the first time! I can still smell it.....
They cooked up an amazing meal of 4 kinds of fish, pecary, chicken, rice and beans, and mango coleslaw.
That was a super fun day, we were all tired after that!
Monday we spent the day packing all our stuff. Then that evening we went to Jay and Myrtle's to say goodbye. Myrtle had tons of food waiting for us - food to bring home with us! Good thing we had some extra room in our suitcases! It was extremely sad to say goodbye, so I won't talk about it :(
In the morning we got up early, had breakfast, and were on our way by 7:30. And there at the end of the driveway were Jay and Myrtle! They wanted to give us some gifts and say goodbye again, and they even brought Sage her favorite puppy so she could say goodbye. Man I miss them already.
Kenny drove us to the airport and dropped us off. We had an uneventful trip, Sage had fun on the airplanes :)
We only had 2 flights with a layover in Atlanta so it worked out perfect, we got to Green Bay around 9. Sage was so excited she couldn't even sleep and by the time we got there she was a bit loopy, but it was funny. It was so cool to see my parents waiting for us!
So we're staying at my parents now, it's been a week already! Last week we were busy visiting family and friends. It's strange to be here yet normal you know? The weather however, that's a different story. I can't remember being so cold! Sage is so happy to be here, she's having a blast going through all her toys and playing with everyone.
Joel is working now starting this week and plans to until we move to Flint. We don't have a time frame really, it's nice that he can work to save up some money to move and furnish our house.
I'm thinking now that we're back you might be having questions about support. Here's our plan as far as that:
As we said before we're planning to move to Flint, MI (near Detroit) so Joel can disciple under Dave Pompo for pastoral ministry. We don't know how long this will be, we'd like to say for sure a year (we'll have to sign a lease) but more likely 2. Joel would like to find a part time job not only for money but to meet people in the community so he can continue discipling people, perhaps starting a house church to edify the church we will be going to and bring people in and get them involved. He wants to do part time so he will have time to spend with Dave and with the people around us as well as with the church. We have learned in a lot of cases it means more to share your time with someone than your money or resources. So we are still asking for help financially. We would love to talk with you about this in person if you'd like, and once we come up with a more exact budget we'll let you know much we feel we need.
We know it might be easier and seem more effective to support overseas missionaries. But really we will be doing the same thing wherever we are, whether it's Flint or another country. And we can promise you that you will not see us living extravagantly. We have learned a LOT about wants vs needs in Belize and we will putting that into practice the rest of our lives. You won't see us eating out, spending money on entertainment, buying nice things, etc. We will be living as frugally as we possibly can, we plan to rent a super small house to save on utilities, have one car (we bought one before we came back actually), and be creative and encourage others to do the same, to live more simply. Maybe once we get our own place I can start sharing some of the things we come up with to save money and we'd love to hear your ideas too!
We'd love to meet with any of you in person if you want to and share about our experiences and what we've learned, and to catch up on the last 9 months of your lives as well! We don't have phones yet, probably by next week we will so for now facebook or email (jdirish@ymail.com) is the best way to get ahold of us. We'd also like to visit all our supporting churches so let us know what works for you!
We appreciate each and every one of you so much, everyone who has supported us and continues to support us in any way.
I don't think I'll update every week, maybe more like every other or to let you know when we're speaking at a church or something. Speaking of which, this Saturday is barn church at Rob and Sheena Wenzels, Joel will be speaking there and it's a great night of worship and testimonies, we'd love to see you there!
