IT'S TIME!

We are just ready to head for the airport! I can't believe we are finally starting for home! It's been a long furlough but definitely a blessed one and we are so thankful for what God has done in our lives on this trip. He has met our every need and far beyond! We've had some wonderful experiences and made so many new friends as well as renewing contact with some old friends. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel. We still have a long "road" ahead of us. We will be flying out of Charleston, SC today at 2:55 and arriving in LAX this evening at 7:36 (with a layover in Houston). We will be in California for nearly three weeks and are looking forward to our meetings there as well as seeing family and friends. On April 20th we will continue on toward Hawaii and then finally on the 28th will arrive on Pohnpei! Thank you for your prayers!

We are currently in NC for Ambassador Baptist College's Bible Conference. Rickson spoke yesterday morning in the chapel service and did a great job. The Lord really blessed! Today we will be driving to Covington, VA for a missions conference at Calvary Baptist Church there and then back to Charleston on Friday to TRY to get the rest of our packing done. We have a LOT to do still before we fly out on Tuesday! And Rickson will be driving up to the Raleigh area on Saturday for a meeting on Sunday!

I've had many people asking about when our flight is so I finally got around to checking. We are scheduled to fly out of Charleston at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, March 31st. Please keep us in your prayers as we start this next "chapter" of our journey. We're looking forward to our meetings in CA, spending time with family there, and just having some good quality family time with our children.

Have a great day in the Lord!

Susan's Top Ten

These are in no particular order.

Top Ten Things I Will Miss About the USA

1. High Speed Internet connection
2. Starbucks
3. Northside church services (I'll especially miss hearing sermons in English)
4. Walmart!
5. My family
6. Fresh produce any time I want
7. Downtown historic Charleston
8. Malls
9. Traveling (yes, at some point in the future I will miss this again – just not for awhile!)
10. Good places to take long walks without dogs chasing you or drunks trying to pick you up

Top Ten Things I Have Missed In Pohnpei

1. Our church and especially the people
2. Our house
3. Having children on my porch every hour of the day!
4. My Sunday school kids
5. The Peppermill Restaurant
6. Fresh hot coconut biscuits from Kanichy’s
7. Our beautiful front porch view of the ocean
8. Sunrise walks by the water
9. Hosting Sunday dinner for our extended family
10. Fresh tuna any time I want

ONLY 43 DAYS TILL WE ARE HOME!!!! Actually only 42 since we lose a day crossing the date line!

Rickson is on his way home now from Raleigh. He said the missions conference there was a great few days of meetings. I was so sad to have had to miss it! Katrianne and I both have come down with this nasty sickness. I haven't had the fever or vomiting that the kids had though so I'm hoping I can kick this thing quickly! Meanwhile, I'm trying to get packing done and things mailed on to Pohnpei.

Good morning!

Well, I (Susan) will not be able to go on this next trip with Rickson after all. Kyler and Kestra both have Influenza! That explains the fever always coming back. The doctor said the type they have is resistant to any medication too so there isn't much we can do for them other than give them Motrin, Tylenol, and a lot of love. So Rickson will be leaving alone this morning around 6:30 for Raleigh, NC for the missions conference at Neuse Baptist Church. I have to admit I was really disappointed to not be able to go on this trip as it was our last full missions conference before we head back to Pohnpei. But I know God has a reason for this. Please pray that the kids get to feeling better (Katy is also doing a lot of coughing - Kaleo is the only healthy one at the moment!).

We are thoroughly enjoying some warm weather! It's in the 80s today! We've been fighting the flu bug in this house for the past couple of days and that has certainly put a damper on our last full weekend here in Charleston (the next couple of weekends we will be traveling). Kyler is the only one now still having a fever and hopefully he'll be back to normal (what is that anyway?) by tomorrow so we can leave Wednesday morning for Raleigh as planned.

We have a HUGE praise! A pastor called us last night to let us know his church had voted to take us on for support! This is the first "new" church to take us on this furlough! Also, two of our supporting churches raised our support! This puts us now at 89% of our needed support!!! When we arrived here in the States in August, we were only at about 73% of our support level; we are truly thankful for how God has provided!

Ministry Update

We've had some great meetings recently! We were in Richmond Hill, GA last week for a missions conference at Bethel Baptist Church. We were sure sorry to only be able to be at the first night of the conference as that meeting was such a blessing! We then headed up in the mountains to Blairsville, GA for a missions conference at Shining Light Baptist Church. The girls were thrilled when it snowed on Sunday! We passed through Greenville on our way back to Charleston and found quite a bit more snow there! Due to the icy conditions we ended up staying over in Greenville (which also gave the girls some more time to play in the snow!) and we were also able to spend some time with Katie and John Pobuk at BJU. Katie and John are from Pohnpei but have grown up in Hawaii and are now attending BJU. For the first six years we lived on Pohnpei, we rented their house there.

Last night we presented our ministry at Westview Baptist Church here in Charleston. We had a great time of fellowship there as well.

Well, Kyler survived the ordeal at the dentist! He did really well! We were so proud of him for being so brave! He is now a "toothless" little man. You can see from the pictures that his mouth is a bit swollen but other than that, he is doing just fine. We had a bit of an emotional moment this afternoon when he realized that his teeth were gone! He was insisting we take him back and make the dentist put his teeth back in!

Thank you for your prayers!

Kyler will be going in at 8:00 this morning to have his teeth removed that were damaged in his fall. Please keep him in your prayers today as this could be a bit of a rough day for him (and probably for us all!). Thank you and I will update you later as to how he is recovering.