The Boy's Visit

Thursday afternoon I found it difficult to stay focused.  Why?  I knew that my sweet little bundles of energy were on their way to visit!  Oh, how I missed these amazing blessing from God.  I was ready to be smothered with kisses and hugs.  I was ready for our family night time routine, and sweet cuddles in the mornings.

The boys had a wonderful visit, and made friends with all the children.  Matthew kept asking if each of the people he met were going to be on the Africa Mercy, and he got excited every time I said yes.  We spent time playing in the pool, hiking on the nature trail, and just enjoying the company of our children.  This time it was really difficult to say goodbye.  Jacob wanted to stay with us, but he also knew there would be lots of fun in store this week with his grandparents.  Only five days 'til I see my sweet boys again!

Two weeks of Training

Wow!  It is hard to believe that we have been at training for two weeks.  We have met so many amazing people, and heard so many stories of God's faithfulness.  The first week we spent learning about the Foundations of Mercy Ship followed by a support raising seminar.  So much that we learned just helped confirm for us that we are exactly where God wants us to be, and that he has been preparing us for this time.  The Bible study on whether support raising is Biblical was really helpful, and I am a little less nervous about raising support.

Speaking of support raising, we received our first donation on Saturday from two incredibly sweet little boys.  They raided their piggy banks to help send us to the Africa Mercy.

Saturday was also the day we finished moving out of our house and cleaned it for the new tenants.  We could not have done it without the help of my parents, Shawn Bitner, and his daughter Tori.

They were and awesome help, and we just finished unloading the trailer in Abilene before it started to rain.  We still had all our suitcases in the back of the truck so when we pulled up to Granny & Poppy's house we got soaked throwing the suitcases into the garage.

The boys heard us and came running out of their bedroom to give us sweet hugs and kisses. We missed them so much during the week, but after hearing the stories of everything they had done which included vacation bible school and a Dr. Seuss festival I knew that they had been exactly where they need to be for the week.  Sunday flew by too quickly, and Mark and I had to head back to the IOC.  This time knowing my parents would bring the kids for a visit in just four days.  This knowledge made leaving just a little easier on my heart.

This weeks we have been studying Faith Foundations which includes The God We Serve, Communicating with God, Prayer, Kingdom Principles, and a Silent Retreat. 

Mark at the Tyler State Park during the Silent Retreat.

Driving in My Brothers Truck

It's symbolic in so many ways, driving to training for Mercy Ships in my brothers truck.  Inside and out it needs a lot of work.  It's been used hard.  It is a piece of my brothers life, and it holds memories.  Some good, some bad, and some heart wrenching.  My brother was selfless before I understood what that meant.  He taught me a lot about love, dedication, and perseverance.

Eight years ago something happened that rocked my world...on March 31, 2004 my brother 1st Lt. Doyle Hufstedler III was killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) in Iraq.  He was a month shy of is 25th birthday.  I was changed in so many way through the loss of my brother.  Initially the changes did not look good.  I was angry & depressed, but most of all I felt abandoned & defeated.  I had prayed EVERY day when he left for Iraq that he would return safely.  The God I trusted and prayed to didn't answer yes.  My brother and I would not be able to raise our kids together, family holidays were forever changed, and I had to watch my parents suffer with no way to help.  It was a difficult time, but through it all I was held.  It took a year for me to realize that God had never left me.  That he had always been there waiting for me to be ready to be comforted.  Most importantly I learned that God cried every time I prayed, because he knew the answer from the very first time.

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I  am so thankful to God for this promise.  I have seen his hand in my life, working tragedy into JOY.  In losing my brother I gained a Savior.  I learned that God was not Santa Claus or someone to be bargained with.  I learned what it meant to trust authentically.  I understand that the answer will not always be "yes" and I know that sometime I will hurt.  I know that through it all I have an amazing, loving, forgiving God who will comfort me if I let him.  Praise God!

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

Sometimes God Uses Nails

So, last week Mark was driving from Graham to Breckenridge to meet me and some of our most awesome friends for dinner and family worship when he hit a NAIL.  The tire did not fair well.  Mark put the spare on and continued on to Breckenridge.  Normally we would just take the tire to Firestone and have it patched, but since this was our NEW car we had a warranty.   I decided to take the tire to be fixed at the dealership Arrow Ford in Abilene.

While I was waiting Tara, a high school friend of my sister,  saw me sitting in the waiting area.  She had read my blog because she is my dad's friend on Facebook.  She brought over Cynthia who had sold us the car only a month earlier, and I shared with her about Mercy Ships and the upcoming mission.  I jokingly mentioned having her buy back the car, and to my shock she said she thought the dealership might be able to do that for us.  I was surprised and didn't really think that the numbers would work out for it to make financial since to sell the car back. 

I had to come back the next morning for the tire, and the appraiser was able to look at the car and they made us an Awesome offer.  I walked out of the dealership with a check, and no more car to worry about.  God is truly Amazing!