Crating and Ending

Well, there you go. This is the essence of crating (for us).

The first picture just shows you what a 200 cubic foot crate looks like on the inside.










The second is us fully packed after 7 hours of figuring how it all fits.

The third is what it looks like before it is caulked, sealed, stenciled, and put on a boat.

The guys at Central Transportation Systems in San Antonio were great! They've helped lots of missionaries before, and it was evident they were experts at what they were doing. Here's hoping the boat arrives...

We haven't seen pictures of our house yet, but I've been told it's fixed up, painted, and ready to go. If the house isn't big enough to hold our stuff, I guess we can have a "garage sale" in Africa.

We also found out that we will not be going to our home to drop off our bags before going to Kenya for a home school conference. They will be left some place "safe" in the capital of Kampala while we make the trip.

That means, when we get to Africa, we will need to go through 13 of our 15 bags to find what we need to take to Kenya. We only packed little carry-ons for a couple of nights in Kampala. We would go through our bags now, but they are weighed and packed to the pound, and it would take A LOT of shifting and re-organizing to do it here.

I also just found out, we will be in Nairobi longer than we thought. We won't arrive in our town of Arua or at our new home until January 20th, so it will be awhile before I have pictures for you.

I read someone's blog who summarized their year in a series of numbers. I don't have the year down, but here are some stats:

4 moves this year (Yoakum to Katy to Yoakum to Virginia to Yoakum)
5 states in 2 months (Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia)
about 320 hours of class in Virginia
42 shots for the family (Doug 11, Kat 7, Kylie 7, Karis 8, Caleb 9)
15 suitcases weighing 50 pounds (that's 750 pounds!)
10 carry-ons
3 car seats
and one family ready to go

Please pray for my dad as he is working to sell our two vehicles. (Does anyone need a 2000 Honda Odyssey or a 2000 VW Bug - Silver?)

Please pray for our flight over to be a "quick" 24 hours, for connections to be made, and for us to walk in the Spirit as we go.

Please pray for our unsettled first month to be a good time of transition.

Please pray for encounters we have every day that could be life changing.

If I don't write again, I'll catch up with you in Africa!