NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

My mom and I with the boys in front of the castle

We have been planning a trip to Florida to visit one of our churches there for a quite a while.  But, we were not planning on our entire family being seriously sick for that trip.  It was the longest drive of my life with Ephraim crying to lay down and go to sleep and all of us running fevers and coughing uncontrollably.  There was no way we could reschedule the trip with just a few weeks left in the states, so we just had to go anyways.  After what seemed like an eternity we finally arrived in Florida and prepared to speak with the church.  We were both afraid that we wouldn’t be able to speak more than a few words without breaking into a coughing fit, but God really got us through it.  We really enjoyed meeting people down there and seeing first hand the great church that is standing behind us as we leave again for Guinea.  We were able to share about our ministry and hopefully gave people a vision for what we are wanting to see happen there.

We have a bunch of family down there as well – most of them with the church that we visited – so it was a great chance to visit with them as well.  We hadn’t seen some of them in years and it was a great time to catch up and thank them for being a part of what we’re doing.  It seemed like family time went quickly and we were on the road again.  We headed up to Orlando for a couple days of fun with the kids.  I wish they all would have been at 100% for a visit to Disney, but they were doing much better than I had anticipated.  We spent one day at Magic Kingdom and it seemed like the boys were the perfect ages for everything – they loved all the rides.  There is nothing that they are afraid of!  They didn’t care even when it started raining – they didn’t think that should stop any of the rides.  So, we got some ponchos and headed back to Thunder Mountain which was their favorite.  I loved seeing the look of awe on their faces with things.  We spent another day at Seaworld – it was a freezing day – less than 50 degrees, but we still had a good time.  The boys loved feeding the mantarays, watching the dolphins, sharks and penguins.  We went to a couple of shows – a very funny sea lion show and the Shamu show.  Malachi was chosen from the audience to be a volunteer and he loved it.  He got to go up in front of everyone and talk with the trainers – it was all on the big screens so he felt like a celebrity.  It was a busy couple of days and then it was back on the road.  We were able to stay with friends on the way back – so glad for the chance to visit before we leave for another couple of years.  I think I learned that I don’t want to drive to Florida anytime soon, but it was some great memories with the kids.

Malachi was chosen to be the volunteer for the Shamu show

Ephraim absolutely loved the Jungle Safari ride