Upcoming plans

I thought you might like to know what our plans are concerning the next couple of months with our preparations for going to Peru. Around the 3rd week of Feb. I will be stepping down from worship ministry at the church (boo...). Right after that, Robin & I will be handing over the transitions ministry (that's the young adult ministry at the church). We will be moving out of our house at the very end of Feb. Then, starting in March, Robin will no longer be working at the church, we officially begin living on support. We will start traveling early in March to raise support. We already have a couple of churches lined up. We will be going through Florida, stopping in Flagler Beach, Merritt Island, and Jacksonville. Then we head up towards South Carolina and North Carolina, through Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and back down through some more of Florida. April 22 we are going to Mexico for missions training til May 11. Then, we come back to Florida and visit the churches around in Florida. At the end of June is when we are planning on going to Peru. Whew! Pray for us, we will be exhausted! Also, please pray for our kids, Kilaine 5, and Liam 2 1/2. It is going to be difficult on them to travel so much. But, it will be great to see everyone before we go and to make new friends at many churches along the way. Also, please pray that our plan works out. We are still contacting the churches and lining up speaking arrangements. The Lord is good. He is faithful. We just want to go to where He leads the way. We are really looking for the people and the churches that have a heart for Peru, for what we are called to do. We need many people to back us, not only financially, but most importantly through prayer.

So, if you are not on our mailing list yet for our newsletters, you can email me your address at trshelley@gmail.com And if you want to get together with us before we go, let us know, the time is coming short... We love you all, and thank everyone for all the many ways you have helped us, encouraged us, served with us, and loved us and our kids.

The house is finally finished and ready to be sold. Tim finished up painting the outside. Jim and Vondale came to plant some plants in the front. Today it went on the market. Now, we pray and wait.

Liam is ready to go to Peru. We thought about packing him up in a box and shipping him on ahead, but he didn't quite fit...

The Pastor's Conference

We went to the Southeastern Pastor's Conference from Monday to Wednesday. It was an awesome time. Tons of great teachings. We met some new wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we were able to talk with a lot of different pastors that we had just sent our newsletter to.

Ann Marie, Zach, Robin, Pastor George, Kaulana, & Kelly

Jorge, Lisette, Joe, Lori, and poof!, Robin again

Kelly and Kaulana

These are the effects that ice cream has on Kilaine...

This is Frank and Stacia Hall. They were our host home during the conference in St. Pete. It was really cool how the Lord worked it out. They had been missionaries in Ghana for 2 years with their daughter. It was great hearing about God's faithfulness in their lives, and seeing their pictures from Ghana.

We felt very welcomed at the Hall's home. Liam made himself right at home, even helping himself to the juice boxes in the fridge!

We met Jack and Susan Wilburn at the conference. They are also going to move to Peru as full time missionaries. They will be going approximately the same time as us, sometime in June, to work with Brian and Betty. It was great to have lunch with them and get to know them a little bit. We are hoping to get to spend more time with them when we pass through Orlando in March.

This is Mike and Revae Lawrence with their 2 kids, Naomi (3) and Abigail (1 1/2). They shared at our Bible study a week ago. They are our good friends who now live in Jaco, Costa Rica. They are involved in a church plant there. They have been there for about a year and a half now. Pray for them and the work going on there in Jaco.

Naomi and Kilaine love seeing each other. They have been friends since Naomi was born. Kilaine says that she loves her "bigger than the world!" Boy, that's a lot of love!

Cindy Arnhold

Last Sunday night, we got to sit with a missionary from Albania, named Cindy Arnhold. She is involved in a ministry encouraging women missionaries, especially the mom ones. It just so happened that she was in town visiting a friend of hers down the street from where we live. It was a great blessing to talk with her over coffee and cookies. She gave us some great wisdom that I will share with you.

Never become more devoted to a cause than to the causer of all things.

I love that, because it's so easy to find ourselves in a position where any certain ministry we are involved in becomes priority to us. It can take precedence over other things that are more important.

Don't take on more than you can pray about.

Another good one. I definitely find myself at times too busy, too involved, "doing" too many things. There are always so many needs in the ministry and we can usually fill more than one of them, so we do. Then we find ourselves stressed out trying to keep up with everything, not fully able to give any one ministry the attention it deserves. Ultimately, our ministry should be people.

You can't add unless you subtract.

More goodness. Yes, we "add" all the time, and sometimes we don't realize what we are subtracting: time with our spouses, children, or most importantly, our time with the Lord. Those things must be protected.

It is always refreshing to talk to someone who has already been serving on the field, and the Lord has blessed us with a lot of these opportunities.

Fixing the plumbing

We had some major plumbing things with the house that needed to be fixed before we could sell it. Matt, Corey, and Paul came over to help us last Saturday. Thanks guys.

Painting day #2

We had some more people over last Thursday night to try to finish painting the inside of the house. We got a lot done, and we had a lot of fun doing it, as always.

Dominick stole my nice paint brush... Get him, Robin! I thought I told you and Erin that I loved you guys, but not enough to give you my brush! Ha Ha.
Very artistic, Erin.

Paint like you mean it, Maggie!

Robin, looking at himself...

Bible study

We had a lot of people at Bible study last night. I think there was about 18 of us all together. It was cool. Mike and Revae Lawrence came and shared with us about their ministry. They are missionaries from Costa Rica. It was cool seeing all the pictures and hearing about the needs there. Prostitution is a huge problem there. Pray for the young girls in Jaco. They aren't really taught any other way of life.

There's Jonathon with a big old grin on his face.
"Take a picture of me!" You're silly, Cole.

Painting day!

There were about 13 of us that were here yesterday to help us paint the whole house. Tim was in charge of all of us, the motley crew that we were. So many showed up that some had to work outside, mowing the lawn and trimming the bushes and doing all sorts of odd jobs. It was such a blessing to have everyone here. We got about halfway finished painting, because we ended up having to put 3 coats of paint on a lot of the walls and paint some ceilings that we hadn't planned on. But, we still got a lot done. It was so much fun! Dominick and Chris are working on some sort of thing in the kitchen, although I have no idea what they were doing...
Chris, are you sleeping on the job already?
This is our good friend Tim. He was a missionary in Russia for 2 years in the 90's, and had a big impact on us towards missions. He is a painter and helped us out a lot with our house. He was in charge of the day (well, we let him tell us what to do this one time, anyways... Ha ha ha) I think he looks a little bit like David Caplivski.
This is Mike. He's been to Peru, and last summer led a team to Costa Rica. He was a great encouragement. Chris always is, too. Erin, are those brush strokes I see?

Much laughter at lunch time.

Marianne is painting the kids' room. I had painted an awesome mural of a castle and clouds on the walls for them. It was sad to paint over it, but it's alright.
Erin actually did get the paint on her face by accident. And she did it with her own roller, too
Hi Alex!
Tim and Robin, not working... typical.
Hi Bud! Dominick, are you still in the kitchen? Robin and Tim... still not working. Get him, Tim!!!

Mow the grass, not the tree, Chris!

I'm not as cool as Erin, Alex put the paint on my face. We planned it all out.

Isn't this picture cool? Much cooler than the one where Jeff is sitting on the toilet while he is painting. Hee, hee...

At the end of the night, there were only 3 of us still painting: Tim, Jeff, and me. We started getting a little bit delirious.

Just 30 more minutes, Jeff!
Haven't I painted this corner before? And before that time, too?

Alright, what you are about to look at is pure unadulterated silliness. After hours and hours of painting and painting and painting, we went out for dinner, then we got a little silly. We finally ended up back at our house (Robin, Matt, Dominick, Erin, and me) and began to make yet another goofy movie. You can have a peek into the sillyness that occurs on a late night, when we are all a little bit tired, and should be going home, yet can't resist hanging out just a little bit longer. I only took pictures of 2 of the characters we invented and I decided to share them with you. I only wish I had pictures of Grandma (Matt) and aunt Gussy (me), too.


This is aunty Tu-Tu (Erin). She spent all of her money traveling the world, as you can see from her cultured attire. She lives in Grandma's hallway, or so she says. You see, the hallway really belongs to Uncle Bo, he actually rents it from Grandma, but he keeps finding aunty Tu-Tu in his chair. She makes me peanut butter cookies. And they're the best!

This is Uncle Bo (Robin). He lives in the hallway, but for some reason he isn't in his chair at the moment. He wears a bib because he drools. He is getting married to a sheep. She'll make a great aunt because she'll never pinch your cheeks. She talks to him in his ear and only occasionally gets earwax on her nose.

The end.

Fixin' to paint

Robin and Jim working on the house.

This is the finished bathroom. Well, the walls aren't finished yet.

Kilaine and Liam love to have their pictures taken.

Our friend Tim textured the walls before we paint. Tomorrow a bunch of people from the church are coming and we are going to try to paint the whole house in one day. We like to have lofty goals. Tim is going to lead the project. Hopefully my head won't be so much into paint that I forget to take pictures!