Moving Soon!

Hello all!

We are excited to share with you all that we have bought plane tickets, and will moving to Romania, Lord willing, on August 3rd!  God has been so faithful during this past year!

We spent the first 3 weeks of June at a counseling retreat center for pastors and missionaries in Kalamazoo, MI, called Alongside (http://www.alongsidecares.net).  We really enjoyed our time there, processing how this past year of traveling around the States raising support has affected us.  We were able to walk with missionaries and pastors from around the globe and form deep and lasting friendships.  We learned healthy skills for better communication, self care, and ways to express ourselves.  It was a deeply enriching and sustaining time for us.

From there we went to Northwest Iowa for a time with my family.  During that time we were able to spend time over the Fourth of July (eating Tropical Sno!), have a goodbye party with my family, preach at Hope Reformed Church in George, and go to Worlds of Fun with the fam.  (Yes, we were the cool ones that used a Selfie-stick for this picture :)).

I would say one thing that was difficult was saying goodbye to family.  It was difficult to say goodbye to grandmas, to places, to aunts and uncles, to cousins whom we love dearly and will have to miss their weddings that will be great celebrations.  I had an especially difficult time saying goodbye to my Grandma Harberts who is physically healthy, but is forgetting things more frequently.  I was so grateful that we were able to say goodbye well together.  One thing that made these partings a bit easier was that my sister, Keshia, got engaged to Drew!  So we know we get to come back to see everyone in September 2016.

We have been in SW Michigan for a few days now, and were able to go to a RCA Global Mission Conference.  We were able to go to this last year, right at the very beginning of us being called to Romania.  Now we are leaving - these conferences have bookended our fundraising journey, and we praise God for the time we were able to spend with RCA Mission Personnel and Staff (these people...seriously...they are wonderful.)

One couple we greatly enjoyed spending time with was Al and Sue Schreuder.  They were missionaries in Chiapas, Mexico, for 35 years.  They are in the process of retiring in Pella.  We have been so blessed by them prior to spending the past couple of days with them, in that many of the churches that supported them during those 35 years are transferring their prayer and financial support to us.  We were blessed by Al and Sue through the stories they shared with us about these beloved congregations.  What wonderfully beautiful people!



The next two and a half weeks will be a whirlwind.  We are going to Illinois to speak with a supporting congregation, and then we begin the process of filling the 11 wonderful suitcases everyone has given us.  That's right...we are going to try and fit our entire life of possessions in 11 red, blue, and brown suitcases (there will be a hot pink one in there too :D).  Please be praying this process goes well.  I know we will get through it, but it could provide a bit of stress.  Another big decision we have recently come to is where we will be living in Lupeni once we get there.  More to come on this, as t's haven't been crossed on it yet, but we are excited to be moving forward on this decision.

Ways to pray:
* Please be praying for us as we continue to live in the paradox of being excited to be in Lupeni, and to living in the pain of saying goodbye to all we love.
* Pray for our parents as they say goodbye to us and Lorelei.
* Pray that our travels go well, and that we are able to transition well.  We will be starting language training the about 2 weeks after we get to Lupeni.

Thank you for reading and supporting!  Blessings to you all!  Grace and peace - Chelsea