Almost 2 weeks on the road...

We are still in South Carolina. It's really beautiful here.

This is a picture Robin took one morning from Robin's parents house.

On Wednesday, our friend Cole came to visit us during lunch. He just moved away from Florida about 2 1/2 weeks ago. He is on his way to New York City. It was good to see him again. The kids loved seeing him, too

Liam is as cute as he can be...

We had to get a group photo before Cole left. He only got to stay for a couple of hours.

That night, we shared at Calvary Chapel Lexington.

I was really blessed to get to lead the worship. I really love doing worship. It's a special thing for me. Then, we showed the slideshow about Peru, and Robin got to do the teaching.

Thanks, Calvary Lexington for letting us share with you guys!

On Thursday, we drove about 40 minutes away to meet up with the pastor of Calvary Chapel Aiken. We had lunch with pastor Bob Laube and his wife. It was great to just sit and talk for about an hour about how we ended up being called to go to Peru.

Pastor Bob Laube and Robin. We didn't think of pulling out the camera until after his wife had already left. Thanks for being so welcoming.

Calvary Chapel Aiken

After lunch on Thursday, we headed back over to Calvary Lexington to pick up some things. While we were there, we got a picture of one of the skateboards that has the overall story of the Bible on it. I don't really know what all the symbols stand for, but I thought it was a really cool idea.

We also needed to make a template of some of the skate ramps for another church in Kentucky that we are going to be visiting. All we could find was some wrapping paper to make the template with... merry christmas!

They have a really awesome skate park behind where the youth meets. It's a great outreach tool.
This is our friend, Daniel, that we met from Calvary Lexington... just kidding. He was out when we went to make the templates, so we had to find something goofy in his office to take his place, since we never got a picture of him. Then, we found this picture of Daniel and his wife, Sarah. We just couldn't resist taking a picture with them. Yes, if you don't know already, we are pretty silly sometimes...



This is a beautiful tree that is blooming all over the area here. It's some kind of a pear tree. But, pears don't grow on it. It's really pretty, anyways.

On Thursday it was my birthday. I turned 30. The kids "secretly" made me a cake. It was awesome, with it's big old crooked smile.

Tomorrow is Saturday. We will have been on the road for 2 weeks. We are leaving and heading to North Carolina. We are going to be staying with a few different friends. We'll be there for about the next 2 weeks. Please pray for us. Our house in Florida needs to sell, and very few people are looking to buy in Florida right now. Pray with us that this weekend will have some lookers.

Thank you for keeping updated with us. If you want to be emailed when I update the blog, just email me at trshelley@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog with your email address.

Lexington South Carolina

We have been in Lexington, South Carolina since last Friday, staying with Robin's parents. Lexington is just outside of Columbia. It has been nice to be able to rest a little bit and see family. Last week was pretty busy for us, so we really needed a little bit of down time.

Kilaine took this shot. She loves taking pictures!

This is where Calvary Lexington meeets. I've never had church in a dome before! We went there on Sunday and got to meet some of the people we've talked to on the phone. This church feels very much like our own church in Boynton. We really felt at home. On Sunday night, we went to there youth group meeting. They met together with 3 youth groups from other Calvarys in the Columbia area. It was fun. After the teaching, we made smores at a bonfire in the field. In the back of their cafe/youth room, they have a pretty big skate park set up. It's pretty cool. We talked to one guy that had drawn out most of the Bible in pictures on the back of his skateboard. I forgot to take pictures (silly me!) It was really cool. On Wednesday, we are coming back to this church, to do some worship and some speaking. We are really excited.

The kids are having a lot of fun at Granny and Papa's! Kilaine is blowing kisses, and Liam is, of course, doing kung fu. You should have heard his sound effects!!!

The end of 1 week!

Wednesday night we sat with Pastor Charles Nestor from Calvary Chapel Orlando to talk to him about our calling to Peru. Afterwards, we stayed for their service. It was cool because the teaching had a lot to do with faith. He talked about Joshua and Caleb giving a good report about the promised land. They believed that God would give them the land like He said he would. The other 10 spies that Moses had sent to spy out the land came back to say that there was no way they could go into the land. What are we facing in our lives that we can walk out in faith with God, or look at it with man's understanding like the 10? The teaching was great because right now, we are stepping out in faith to begin living as missionaries. And we can never believe that God can't, or won't do what He says He's going to do. We are trusting Him a lot, and seeking to follow Him closely. Sometimes we just have to accept that things don't always go exactly like we think they will, or like we try to make them go. Anyways, it was really cool. After the service, everyone prayed together in small groups, then Pastor Charles had us come up to the front and everyone came up to lay hands on us and pray for us. That was the best part. It was as if these people, who we had never met before, knew us intimately and knew exactly what we needed prayer for. The spirit was moving and we were blessed.

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The next day (thursday), we said goodbye to the Wilburn family. It was awesome to get to stay with them for 2 days. For one thing, it was a relief to be in one place for 2 days straight. And for another thing, we really love them. I can't wait to work along side them in Peru.

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So, we were on our way back to Merritt Island for an assistant pastor's day luncheon that Robin was able to attend.

The kids have been really good in the car. Praise the Lord!!!

While Robin was at the luncheon, I went back and hung out at Jerry and Karen Sheldon's house. Then, I took the kids over to the church and had a little lunch back behind the church on the other side of the parking lot. The kids got to go play on the playground. It was really beautiful the way the trees shaded everything. The Lord's creation really is amazing.

After lunch, we got back on the road and headed up to Jacksonville. We were speaking that night at Calvary Chapel Jacksonville for a couple of minutes. We showed the slide show and I played along. This time I gave the translation of the song beforehand, which was nice. Then Robin spoke about our calling and the need in Peru. We were a little nervous because our friend, Trip (the missions pastor there), was going to critique our sharing time. He was a missionary in the Phillipines for 16 years. We were so grateful to have him give us some pointers on how to share what we are doing. It was great to meet some more brothers and sisters in the Lord there, too. It was a little strange, though... we saw everyone pitching in to clean the church after the service... and it wasn't us doing the cleaning!! Ha ha!

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That night we stayed with a couple that lived in this amazing neighborhood. It was like driving through a national park, or a campground or something, the way the trees covered the whole area. It was really cool. The couple was nice that we stayed with. We spent half the next day (friday) talking with them and hearing many great stories. Thanks, Ponch and Wilma.

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Friday afternoon (whew! has only one day gone by!!) we hit the road again on our way to South Carolina to stay with Robin's parents.

driving, driving, driving...

This was an awesome shot. It really captures the feel of our trip. It is all about the Lord.

We made it to Robin's parents house. It is really good to be here. We are going to stay here for about a week, I think. Tomorrow we are attending Calvary Chapel Lexington, where we are scheduled to share at the Wednesday night service this coming week. Yay!

And the sun sets on another day.

The journey continues...

On Monday we left Merritt Island and headed to Orlando to continue our journey. Our first stop was with Dee and Mark Googin. They are a couple from Calvary South Orlando that invited us to have dinner (and stay for a night). We had a nice time of fellowship. Hope to see them again in Peru.

The next morning we risked the crazy traffic of Orlando to meet with our friends, Dominick, Kelly, Kaulana, & Erin for breakfast. It was nice for the kids to have some familiarity for a couple of hours.

I just noticed that in almost every picture I have of Kaulana, she has her hand in front of her face. Interesting...

Having a good ol' time.


Thanks guys for having us over! We love you bushels!!!!!

We got to stay in their condo for a couple of hours after they left, til checkout, which was a nice little break for our family to have some quiet time.


Then, we were on our way to visit some friends on the other side of Orlando. Here's some goofy pictures that Kilaine wanted to take for Liam. He likes big trucks...

and cows, apparantly...

Since yesterday afternoon, we've been staying with Jack and Susan Wilburn. They are also preparing to go to Peru full time. They have 5 kids, 1 doesn't live at the house. So, that makes 10 of us in the house, and it's awesome!

Their kids love our kids, which is really cool. Here is Liam sitting with Isabel, their youngest (10) watching a movie. It's great that they all get along so well, since we will someday be working together in Peru. Looking forward to that.

Tonight we are meeting with the pastor at Calvary Chapel South Orlando. At this time, we are not scheduled to speak during the service tonight. Thanks for all your prayers.

Leaving for the Road

Since we left our house two weeks ago, we have been staying with Greg, Ann Marie, and Zach Russell (we don't have pics of them). We have felt so at home in their house. God is so good to us as He has given us such an awesome family of believers who love us so much.
Thank you Russell's.

The pictures below are our last day at the Russell's when some of our friends came by to say goodbye. It was hard to say goodbye, but we know we will see them again in six weeks. (Joe Clancy came by, too, but we didn't get a picture of him.)

Kelly and Kaulana lovin' on each other and Liam.

Stormy and Cassy Rosa

Kelly (with Liam, who was wild that day), Kaulana, Erin,
Kilaine (who is being shy), Me (Robin) and Dominick

We were leaving that day (last Saturday) to begin our journey visiting churches to raise support before going to Peru. After saying goodbye to our friends, we hit the road...

Here's a cool car we saw. It said "peaches and cream" on the trunk.

We stopped at gas station and goofed around for a little while. Here's a shirt we found that made us think of our friend, Tim Bartlett. He's really competitive. We were going to buy it for him, but now we're "poor missionaries," so we decided to take a picture of it for him, instead. Happy Birthday, Tim!

The kids had fun at the gas station, too. When there's no playground in sight, we can always count on the kids to get a little creative...

We made it to our first place, Calvary Chapel Palm Coast. We stayed the night, Saturday night, at Andy and Sherie Hitz's house, the pastor's house. We had a nice time talking with them. At about 10:00 that night, Andy decided to let Robin teach the next morning. What a blessing!

After the worship, I played along to our slideshow. I played a worship song that I learned on one of our short term trips to Peru called Solo Tu.

Then, Robin taught the message. It was really nice visiting the church. They made us feel very welcome. After the service we went out to lunch with about 20 of the people from the church. Thanks everybody.

After lunch on Sunday, we drove down to Merritt Island to stay the night with some friends of ours, Jerry and Karen Sheldon. They moved away from our church a couple of years ago. They made us feel really welcome years ago (about 8) at Calvary Boynton, when we were just starting to date each other. It's awesome to see them again. It's as if no time has passed at all.

This is what we saw when we woke up in the morning (that's Jerry). It's a sight that could get anyone up out of bed! You guys are awesome!

Later today, we are heading off to Orlando to continue our journey...

Our almost empty house

Here it is. Our house. I just have a few more days of cleaning up and sorting through the little that remains. It is good to clean out. Each time I go through things, I am able to let go of more and more. All we really need is the Lord. He will provide everything else.

1 Cor. 15:58 "Therefore, me beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

1 Cor. 16:13 "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love."

We are entering into a life that will truly be lived by faith. I am excited to depend on the Lord for all our needs. He always meets them in amazing ways. It is good to be content in Him.

Prayer meeting

We had a small group meet together last night to pray for us. It was good to get the monthly meeting started before we went on the road.

Yard sale pictures

We had our last and final yard sale at Bob and Lourdes' house last Saturday. Whew! I'm glad it was the last one!

Cole came. Yay!

Believe it or not, it was really cold that day. At this point, it had warmed up considerably.

I was freezing at 6:00 in the morning. I had a hat, 2 shirts, and 2 sweatshirts on. I'm going to freeze my butt off in Peru! Ha!

The couch didn't sell. It went to the big trash. Bummer. It was a good Bible study couch.

Update

Well, I did my last Wednesday service leading the worship last week. It was kind of a bummer because I was pretty sick and almost couldn't sing. But, the Lord strengthened my voice to get through 4 songs for him! Thanks everybody, you've been a great team!

On Saturday, we had a big yard sale and sold just about everything left that we are not taking with us to Peru. It's kind of crazy selling your acumilated life away for a quarter... but it's all good. So, our house is almost completely empty. No furniture, no dishes, just some random things laying around that need to be delt with. I never realized how much stuff we had. Not anymore! Yay!

So, since our house isn't the easiest place to live with 2 kids and nothing to do, we moved out today. We are staying, for the next 2 weeks, with our friends from church, Greg and Ann Marie Russell. Then, March 3rd, we are heading out on the road to begin our support raising journey. We are excited to see how the Lord is going to work everything out.

My last practice

Well, last night was my last worship practice. Next Wednesday will be my last night to lead worship at the church. So, right after practice we had some cake and they all prayed for me. That was pretty nice.

Hahaha, this is what I saw as I came in to practice.

Kelly & Chris got the cake. The bakery ladies let them go behind the counter at Publix to draw the guitar on there. Pretty cool, guys.

Here's the team plus a few: back, from left: Matt, Ravick, Zach, Corey, Chris, Allie, Marianne. front, from left: Hilary, Kelly, Tyler, Erin, me, and Joy

And the goofy version...

love you, guys. Thanks.

Today, at church, a man came to talk to me. Robin knew him already, but I had only met him about a week ago, or so. He had been at the men's breakfast on Saturday, and Kelly had said something about giving up something that you love. Well, last night he had a dream and the Lord spoke to him telling him to give me his guitar. Not just any guitar, it's a Taylor! Holy macarel! The Lord has really blessed us in our preparation for the mission field. This is just one of the many ways He is providing for us. I can't wait to see how He's going to use this guitar in Peru for His glory.