Moving Day & Break In

Saturday, June 2nd was the BIG moving day.   Our goal was a lofty one.  Move anything that had not sold to a storage unit, generously donated for our use by Mark's awesome brother Rob.  We sold many things, but we still had two trailer loads of things that had to be stored.  It was a long day, and thanks to our wonderful pastor, his family, and another church member of Dean Baptist, Danny, we got the trailers loaded and almost everything out of the house.  We have to go back another weekend to move the boy's bunk beds, and the last bit of garage stuff.

We took a picture of our caravan when we stopped off to drop of a bike rack to our friends Jimmy & Anna in Breckenridge.  This short stop turned into a wonderful few minutes of fellowship & prayer.  The pastor of Bethany Baptist, his wife, & daughter, Jimmy, Anna, their children, our children, and my parents stood in the street.  We talked about God, Mercy Ships, and Brother Don prayed for us before we headed off.  I am going to miss my sweet Breckenridge friends!

I mentioned Mark's awesome brother Rob earlier, one reason for his awesomeness is that he waited for us at the storage unit until 10:30pm.  Two hours later than we thought we would arrive.  Thank you Rob for waiting!  Just south of Abilene we were pulled over by the highway patrol and discovered a failed fuse had led to our running lights not working.  My dad drove the trailer the last 1/2 hour with the emergency flashers on, and no dash lights.  We made it safely, and Rob met us at the storage unit the next morning to unload.  It was good that he was fresh because Mark and I were running on the strength of Christ.

We left behind the TV, two safes, and about eight suitcases full of the things we had set aside to take with us on the African Mercy.  So we had to return to Wichita Falls Thursday night before we left for training.  When we came into the backyard I immediately noticed the screen on the ground and then that the backdoor to the house was wide open!  We entered the house cautiously and found all the drawers and cabinets opened.  Evidently, some robbers took our TV, but blessedly left behind the Mac Mini Computer that holds all of our priceless family pictures.

They didn't touch the leftover garage sale junk in the living room.  When we moved on to the bedroom we found they had unpacked all of the suitcases, taken a suitcase that contained all my jewelry, toiletries, and glasses.  They also took our largest most useful suitcase, but BLESSEDLY they left behind the children special stuffed animals that were in the suitcase.  Snowy, Scooby, & Pillow Pet would have been difficult to replace as the boys sold all other stuffed animals in the yard sale.  They also walked out with a fifty pound floor safe.  From the mission supplies they took Mark's surgical head lamp, electrical equipment, and a solar panel.

I have to say that having my home invaded and my things taken shook me up quite a bit, but our Lord is Good and he helped the process of reporting the burglary to the police and to the insurance agency go smoothly. We were only a little late leaving for training on Friday.  The truth is it was all just stuff, and God has been teaching us to let go of things that hold us back from serving Him.

I pray for the people who took our things that the circumstances that have brought them to this place in their lives will change, and that they will come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I am thankful to God that I have never been in circumstances where I felt the need to steal.

We are now getting settled in at the IOC.  We have met so many amazing people, heard wonderful stories, and are already learning so much.  Please continue to pray for our family as we embark on this journey.

God Bless,
Gretchen

From Mark:
I would like to add my additional thanks to Rob, Shawn, Shannon, Danny, the Bittner kids, Dean Baptist and anyone else that has been praying for us.  I can tell you that I can feel the power of God and I know he has heard your prayers.  I especially feel called to tell the folks at Dean Baptist that God has heard your prayers for us.  I will tell everybody about the little church in Dean that knows all about the Big love of God.

Your Brother in Christ,
Mark