Airport Post

Well - the day is finally here! We arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport at 4:00 this morning, thanks to our chauffeurs Jessie and Jason. It was pretty hard watching them leave! The reality is (sort of) starting to sink in.

I figured while I'm sitting here in the airport I would do a quick post of photos because by the time we arrive in Haiti it will all seem like old news in the midst of all of the NEW. :)

Above are all of the ladies who attended cross training (minus Lonnie!), and below are all of the men (minus James!). The pictures were taken Friday morning right before we were all officially commissioned into One Mission Society.

We left immediately after the ceremony, and as soon as we got in the van to make the drive from Indiana to Florida, it started snowing! We were hit by quite a bit of snow, heavy rain and spent a cumulative of at least an hour at a stand still during traffic jams. But, alas - we made it to Plant City, FL on Saturday morning at 4 am. We then picked Jessie and Jason up at the airport at noon the next day and spent the last day and a half being treated to some sunny beaches, yummy food, and most importantly, some last minute quality time with these two gems of friends!

And now is where the plethora of beach photos begins. :)

The first day at the Gulf was pretty CHILLY and windy! But still beautiful :)

 Above is the last photo from the Gulf and we got to walk along a neat pier that warned us of manatees, which we unfortunately didn't get to see that day!

Then on Sunday we spent the day at Vero Beach, which was much warmer and more enjoyable. :)

Ryan was thoroughly convinced that his sunscreen was rubbed in PLENTY enough. Whatever floats his boat :)

The guys dived head first into the waves and had a lot of tiring fun even though the water was really cold!

Aw, I'm married to such a handsome fella :)

Jason and Jessie make Cat Castles... Macey and Kaden would be so proud of their parents :)

Haha, I had to post these two; they were too funny. I think that these guys could go into modeling, don't you?

^^Big Red! This bad boy got us all the way from Kansas to Indiana to Florida filled to the brim and now (hoping) that it makes it back to Kansas.

And, lastly - here's our departure photo. Bittersweet! Looking forward to what God has in store for us in the next days, weeks, months, years.. Our lives are in His hands!

As I'm typing, Ryan is pretty excited to be speaking Creole to all of the Haitians surrounding us at the airport. Maybe I should join!

We love you all. Thank you so much for being a part of this amazing journey! Pray that we will do good for the Kingdom and that we will remember the reason we are there every minute of every day.

Cross Training

Hi, all!

Here’s a very quick update:

We are in our final week of cross training and will be on our way to Florida on Friday (Valentine’s Day)! We look forward to spending the weekend with Jessie and Jason (and hopefully we’ll get to spend some time at the beach:) and then we fly out on Monday. Can you believe it? WE ARE EXCITED!

Cross training has been pretty great. It has blown my expectations out of the water, to say the least. :) We have covered a lot of important cross-cultural topics in the past two weeks, but I have to say that my favorite part is getting to know the other missionaries here! And this training has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone in many different levels, which has been good for my wellbeing, even if there have been a few uncomfortable moments for as timid of a person as I am. Including (but not limited to) speaking in chapel on Tuesday. Which by the way, I survived - in case anyone is wondering. :)

It’s been a long, exciting three weeks of busyness filled with training activities, dinners, interviews and quite a bit of paperwork! But Friday morning we get commissioned as missionaries by OMS and then Ryan and I are hopping in the van and heading to Florida immediately after!

If you’d like to pray with us, there are a few different prayers we could use right now! Please pray for our health! Unfortunately, there have been a lot of sicknesses (cold and flu) going around during this cross training (pray for health of the other missionary families as well!) and I believe it has finally hit the Weaver household.
We leave in less than two days and this is not a very good time to be getting the flu!

Also, please pray for safe travels. We have been told there is a big storm that we might hit on our way to Florida so I hope that we get there safely! And then we will be flying to Haiti on Monday, Lord willing.

The day is finally here. It’s really, really here! It doesn’t feel real yet, but we are excited and praying that the transition will go smoothly.

We have been so blessed by all of the hard working guys at the seminary and all of the teams of people who have flown in just to work on the apartment we will be living in. Thank you – to all who have worked on what will become our home, and to all who have helped support and send many there! It has been no easy feat to turn a section of the dorm rooms into an apartment, but they have done such a wonderful, beautiful job. I cannot wait to move in soon after we arrive!

Here are a couple of not-so-lovely pictures of some really-very-amazing missionaries that we’ve gotten to know in the past three weeks!

Here is a very blurry picture of the ladies who are in cross training (minus Lonnie!):

And here is a photo of the entire cross training team (sadly, it’s the best one we got of the group!):

Wow... the day is nearing! In five days we'll go from freezing and snowy to high 80's and sunny. :) Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us daily, weekly, monthly. We love you!

SURPRISE!

On Friday (Jan 24^th), after a long week of “goodbyes,” we went to Jessie and Jason’s house to spend our last evening with them, Karly and Bryan. We ordered pizza and then the guys decided they wanted to go play ping-pong, so we headed to the church. (‘Cause, you know, that’s where all of the late-night underground ping-pong tournaments are usually held.. :)

We pulled into the dark parking lot where there was only one empty van waiting and ready to transport a group of men to Wichita the next day. Nothing unusual! However, as Ryan and I pulled into the parking lot, he had called both of his parents and both sisters to see where they were and tell them to meet at the church to pick up our car. No one answered, so we were both getting a little nervous that something bad had happened to them!

Then, still feeling a little uneasy about his family, we all went inside the dark building and headed down the hall on our way downstairs to play ping-pong. On our way there, Jason mentioned that someone had put up a new 6-foot TV in the fellowship hall and wanted to show it to us all.

Okay, sure. It sounds big!

 We proceeded to open the doors of the big, dark, empty room. Wait a minute - it wasn’t empty! When our eyes adjusted to the darkness we caught a glimpse of the silhouettes of some people who appeared to be standing in a circle.

A few seconds later, the lights flicked on and the room was filled in loud unison with: “SURPRISE!!!!!”

The next 30 seconds happened so quickly! I didn’t know it was possible for so much to happen in just a matter of a few seconds. Recalling that moment from both the perspectives of Ryan and myself is quite funny.

Our very first instinct was, “OH NO!” – my jaws dropped and I could tell that I had a look of pure shock on my face. We both pretty instantly backed up and tried running out of there.

Within those few seconds, we were so confused and didn’t know what to do. We both absolutely sure that we had just completely ruined a surprise party for someone’s birthday or some other big event, and one of my first thoughts was that I felt so horrible because these people were going to have to do it all over again when the guest of honor arrived!

We seriously couldn’t get out of the room fast enough! We had a crowd of Jessie, Jason, Bryan and Karly standing behind us, holding the door open, and they didn’t seem to get the drift that we needed to MOVE! Then, with myself still having that look of complete shock on my face (you know – eyes about to pop out of my head and my jaw down to the floor), I finally took a good look around the room FULL of people.

I picked out a few familiar, yet very out-of-place faces in the crowd. One by one, I started picking a few people out that I recognized. I noticed one of my best friends who I haven’t seen in YEARS (Ky’Lee!), and then I noticed a cousin who lives far away that I don’t see very often (Marv!), and then another of my best friends (Liz!). And then, there was Ryan’s family! Thank God, THEY WERE OKAY! In fact, oddly enough, they made it to the church before we even told them to meet us there.

And then, again, I just kind of stood there – frozen! Within these 30 seconds of  complete CRAZY, it finally dawned on me; we weren’t at the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a surprise party for US!

Wait a minute, WHAT?! What are these people thinking?! Why are they here?! I’m seeing all of these faces that I haven’t seen in way too long and I know that they must have driven from hundreds of miles away – why did they drive all this way?!

What were they THINKING?!

And then, after a few more seconds of disarray, I calmed down. Instead of worrying about how far these people must have had to drive just to see us, I realized something pretty special and profound:

These people came all this way to throw a surprise party for us, to say their goodbyes, because they LOVE us.

I didn’t need to feel guilty because I realized that I hadn’t invited them; I hadn’t made them feel obligated to come. In fact, that is quite far from the truth! In fact, I had NO IDEA these people were coming! Oh my – God knows that I sincerely thought we were coming to NorthRidge to play PING PONG! (I mean seriously - I would have, at the very LEAST, not worn jeans and white socks with black sandals!)

They came because they love us.

They came to let us know that we are important to them and that they are going to miss us.

And after I realized all of that, you can just imagine…. I got just a *little bit* emotional!

After those moments of complete shock and confusion, I found myself feeling so BLESSED and so THANKFUL. I was overwhelmed at the thought of how much love was surrounding us in that moment, and all I could think to do was just go around the room and hug everyone and thank them for being there, thank them for being people who have made such a huge impact on our lives.

It was amazing. Extraordinary. Humbling. Exciting.

In those moments, I realized the importance of knowing just how many people truly support us. In those moments, I realized how much love surrounds us and how many people there are that we care so much about.

Inevitably, I cried. How could I possibly hold those tears back? At such an emotional time with this big transition in our lives, I was crying tears of pure joy and happiness, as well as tears of sadness. Inside of this enormous room, I was able to clearly see just how much we are leaving behind.

However, I truly saw much more than just how much we are leaving behind. I also saw how much support we have behind us in this exciting, scary journey. 

That evening, I felt so intensely the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was undeniable that this room full of God-loving people was completely filled with the Spirit.

I know the words don’t do any justice, but I am just so incredibly thankful for that evening. I’m so thankful for everyone who came, and for everyone who did all the hard work to prepare for such a beautiful party. I’m so blessed to have such thoughtful, caring friends.

I’m so blessed by Jessie and Karly – who were the masterminds behind all of this. Those girls worked so diligently to plan the entire party and they definitely struggled to have to keep it all a secret! (Which, by the way, I am SO impressed that everyone was able to keep it a secret from Ryan and me! You guys are so sneaky!:) Not to mention, HAD I known about even an inkling of this plan, they surely knew that I would veto it in a second because I wouldn’t want to feel like coming to say goodbye to us was some sort of burden that people had to do.

Which is why the entire surprise party was so humbling for me. I knew that every single person that was there chose to be there simply because they love us. An area in my life where I seem to allow Satan to continually creep in is when he tells me that I’m not good enough, or I don’t deserve this; I’m not worthy.

But, I am a child of God. And perhaps in these finals moments of “goodbyes,” God knew how much I needed to be reassured of the love that really does surround me (and Ryan). God is clearly aware of my needs, and he used my closest friends and family to give me that reassurance that we are not in this alone.

Jessie and Karly

It was an unforgettable evening that I continue to replay in my mind, smiling over and over again about all the memories made.

Thank you, to everyone who came and to everyone who wanted to be there but wasn’t able to make it. We love you all so dearly and you all are by far the hardest to leave behind.

Ky'Lee, Karly and Bailey

Karly

Duane and Amanda

Ryan's family: Todd, Pam, Cheyanne and Chelsey

Jessie, Jason, Macey and Kaden

You all continue to bless our lives each day, and we love you so much.

Thank You.

After having a few days to think about things, I’ve realized that my three-part story morphed into something a little different than I intended it to. It was a lot harsher and more negative, maybe.

I was trying to be brief for my readers’ sake, so I only highlighted the things I thought would be helpful to show a bit of my background. However, I realized how negative sounding it all came out and that I left out much of the very positive foundation of how I became the lady that I am today.

I am incredibly afraid that I broadcasted myself sounding as though I was regretful that I was brought up in a nonreligious home and that I made it seem like that was a detrimental aspect of my life.

I want to say very clearly: It wasn’t.

What I did intend to show by stating those things was that when I did come to know Christ, I just didn’t have considerate knowledge of Him prior to that. While I did grow up in a nonreligious home, my parents were never against me coming into contact with any type of religion. I did attend VBS most summers of my childhood, and I went to a few church services throughout the years with my grandma.

And also I feel like it is important to share that my parents did not really raise us (my brothers and me) to follow any certain views on life, whether that would be creation, evolution, “the big bang theory,” or any other views that are out there.

I’ve learned that what they did intend to do (successfully!) was teach us to discover our own thoughts and beliefs on how the world and its people were created. They did not want to force us to believe what they, or anyone else, believed. They wanted us to figure it out on our own, so that we could think independently about such an important matter that would shape who we are for the rest of our lives.

In all of my previous posts I have ceased to mention how thankful I am that my parents raised me like they did. I have mentioned that for many months I was skeptical of the whole creation story because of my background. I am SO thankful for that! Being skeptical meant that I was weary to just jump right in and believe the first real religious belief that I would encounter. I had the opportunity to dig deeper, open a bible, and really discover who God was before I ever committed my life to what I believe is the ultimate Truth of this universe.

Not only did my parents teach me how to think for myself, but also they are the ones who molded me into who I am today. They are the ones who taught me to have the morals that I have used to shape my life and they are the ones who taught me to live an honest life.

My parents are the ones who taught me what it meant to have a good work ethic and how to provide for myself by encouraging me to work for the things I wanted, rather than to just ask and receive. I am so thankful that I learned at a young age how to be financially responsible and how to work for what I need and want, rather than going into debt and living miserably because of it! They raised me to be independent, which, coming from a girl who got married right out of high school, I assure you has been very helpful in the transition out of high school and into college and the “real world.”

Like I said earlier, my parents gave me the morals that I have today. And while I did have some rebellious years, the ultimate reason that I changed my life at that point was because I couldn’t stand the hurt that I knew I was causing my mom, and I was tired of continuing to lose her trust.

They only ever wanted the best for me, and they knew that meant that I needed to stay out of trouble. At the time (middle school years), it angered me because that often kept me from hanging out with the people I wanted, but once I put those people behind me I realized exactly why my parents were trying to keep me from them. It was done with their best intentions, and who knows what I would be like today if they were careless about what I did or who I hung out with back then..

So ultimately, wanting to gain my mother’s trust back was what originally made me snap out of the inappropriate ways I was acting. It was then, in high school, that I found that great group of role models: Karly Heidemann, Ky’Lee Baumert and Bailey DeKoning. In my first post I didn’t mention their names, but I hold such high views of those amazing girls that I feel they deserve the acknowledgement for also morphing me into who I am. And then, as I mentioned in the second part of my story, after Ryan and I begun dating, we also pushed each other to be a better person.

I could continue on, but I think this is a decent place to end. I just really felt compelled to let everyone know that I am not only very blessed and thankful to have Christ dwelling inside of me now, but also I am so thankful for the way that I was raised. My parents were my main guidance for 18 years and without their love and support, I would not be the person I am today and I cannot even imagine how differently my life would have turned out.

So, mom and dad, THANK YOU. I love you both so much.