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Hi all,
     This has been a time of hustling and bustling! From Monday, September 5th, when we left ICC in Waxhaw, NC, through Friday, September 23rd, we made our way back to Kansas with stops in Highpoint, NC; Hadden Heights, NJ; Warrington, PA; Cortland, NYk; Alto, MI; Chicago, IL; Macon, MO; and finally we've stopped for a few days to catch our breath and spend time with our kids here in Lawrence.
     We continue to raise our funding for France. The gift of the mobile home in Santa Cruz is now supplying our income. We have it listed as a vacation home on www.VRBO.com. It has been doing well.
     Russell has been preaching/speaking more and new opportunities continue to come in. Our hope is to go to Arkansas in October or November for Russell to speak down there.
     With the monthly gifts that have been committed and a shift to a renewable "mid-termer" instead of full-time career (which we will explain in detail in the next blog entry), and a portion of our income we bring to the table, we are now at 68% of our goal. We have others who have committed to supporting us but have not decided on a figure yet. It is very encouraging. All of this could bring us to 75% or higher.
    We met with Sister Carter and Sister Sherman in Philadelphia. Sister Carter attended the Paris Prayer Conference this past April. She wants Russell to design some greeting cards and tracts for her that she can sell for missions. She is writing the text. We enjoyed our time with them.
    Our home team in PA has told us they want us to be in France as soon as possible to begin working with the French team and we will be there in December or early January for a possible 5 month stretch, as a dry run. We are waiting to hear what duties will be. If it's language school for a shorter time first then we will do that followed by working on projects with the team. We will learn about each other, the culture and soak up the language. Russell and I have been practicing French quite a bit and will beef it up even more with our Rosetta Stone program, French movies, French news, & meetups with French people, etc.
     Yesterday, at Olathe Bible Church, our sending church in Olathe, KS, we were blessed to hear from James Hudson Taylor IV - great, great grandson of the very special person, Hudson Taylor and all their organization's work in East Asia. Very exciting to get first hand stories. Part of the heritage of our organization comes from the original Hudson's work and friendship with H. Grattan Guinness. Guinness wanted to go with Hudson to China in the 1800s but was asked by his dear friend to start a training school for those who want to go out. He did, and the school is still open today in London. But Guinness also started several missions sending agencies from the late 1800s and beyond.
     Isaiah 6:8 has been coming up a lot. "Then I heard the voice of the One saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "here am I, Send me!"  Isaiah 6:8
     The following writing comes out of this verse and the follow up verses: I just read this from a letter from a friend and his wife working in Amsterdam. It's from Frederick Buechner, Isaiah in Peculiar Treasures, a ... Who's Who.
     "Then one of the winged things touched his mouth with fire and said. 'There, it will be all right now,' and the Mystery Itself said, 'Who will it be?' and with charred lips he said, 'Me,' and Mystery said 'Go'. Mystery said, 'Go give the deaf hell till you're blue in the face and go show the blind heaven till you drop in your tracks because they'd sooner eat ground glass than swallow the bitter pill that puts roses in the cheeks and a gleam in the eye. Go do it.'"
     Wow.....Carol