The March Gang

It has been a while since we have posted anything, because we have been waiting on internet.  This country is very laid back.  We called for phone service on September 29th, and we were suppose to get service on October 16th.  They then called and moved it back to October 22nd.  Hopefully they won’t move it back again.  Every time we get to use the internet we have been trying to catch up on e-mails.

Thank you God we finally got a car on Wednesday.  We have been depending on David & Farrah to take us everywhere.  They have been really great and we appreciate their help, but when you have two families of five each depending on one car that seats five it can be difficult.  I know it has only been three weeks without one, but it seems like longer when you have to walk.  We got a seven seater Vauxhall Zafira Comfort.  The vehicles over here are mostly standards.  It has been over 7 years since we have had a standard, so on top of getting used to that again, we also have to get used to driving opposite of what we are used to.  I haven’t drove yet, but Riley is having fun and making some of us (including Bro. Mac & David) nervous.  We will try to post some pictures soon of the car.  It is like a little mini-van.

I also got a washing machine on Monday.  Our laundry was piling up and they do not have laundry mats over her, so I am very thankful.  The laundry was getting so bad that we (me and the kids) started washing clothes in the bath tub.  They thought it was a lot of fun, so I tried not to spoil that illusion for them.  We do not have a dryer, but most people don’t.  We hang laundry out on the line when it is not raining, which is maybe 1 day a week, for about 30 minutes.  We then hang them inside on the radiators, which makes good dryers.  The washer is so small, I can get 5 towels or 4 pairs of jeans at a time.  It then takes 1 hour 50 minutes (I timed it) to wash.  So, by the time the washer is done the clothes are dry.  It is not that bad, just time consuming.  It is however, much better than the bath tub.

We got a kitchen table and 6 chairs made from Mexican pine, from a charity shop.  They match my cabinets perfect.  It was so nice to get something to set on. For a while we were eating on the dining room floor.  It was like having a picnic every meal.  We have a beautiful home, but no furniture.  We are trying to find some cheap, but nice furniture at the charity shops, while being on a tight AIMers budget.  They have a lot of these shops over here, but they are much nicer than our Goodwill’s.  Ethen & Lori, you would love them.  We find a lot of good deals.

We have been having some great services at church.  A couple Wednesday nights ago, we had an awesome move of God.  I was out in the foyer e-mailing some people before church started, when I felt an awesome power of God sweep over me.  I went inside and we all just started praying.  We ended up having an 1 1/2 payer meeting.  I really felt God birthing somethings in us.  We had a girl receive the Holy Ghost that night.  Every service we have, God meets us in such a special way.  Riley preached a couple weeks ago on Sunday and then did bible study Wednesday night.  He did a great job both times.

Riley has been busy helping Bro. Mac working on their house.  We they got back from deputation they discovered a bad water leak that has ruined several rooms in their home.  Riley has been using his years of experience in the construction field.  He didn’t realize how much he actually knew, until he was put to the test.  He did learn a lot from his father.  However, Riley says that ripping out floors in not rocket science.

Riley attended his first traditional Irish funeral on Thursday.  There are no funeral homes , like in the States, in this country so the body stays at the home.  The funeral begins at the home, select family and friends rotate carrying the casket while walking towards the church.  Once all the family and friends who wanted to carry or was asked to carry their loved one, the casket is then put in the hearse.  They then get in their cars and drive the remaining distance to the church.  In some cases they walk the entire way.  Bro. Kyle (a man from our church) played the bagpipes and wore the traditional Irish dress(kilt and his family tartan).  He was the son-in-law to the man who passed away.  He played the bagpipes at church for our anniversary service and he was great.  He played with such anointing.  Every time Riley hears him play Amazing Grace he starts to cry.  He is a professional bagpipe player.

We live in the village of Donacloney(Donna-clone-e).  From our house to the village is about 1/2 mile.  We walk there quite a bit(especially since we didn’t have a car).  It is a nice little place.  We have a Surgery, which is the Doctors Office, a Chemist, which is the Pharmacy, a Butcher shop, a Chinese Take-away, a take away Fish & Chips, a beauty shop, and a grocery store, which is really a gas station.  We have tried the Chinese take away, and it was really good.  We have been to the Surgery already.  Peyton got bite by something and got a really bad infection on her knee.  There are many spiders here, but they say no poisonous ones, I think Peyton found the only one here.  It got so bad she couldn’t walk without it hurting.  She had 2 different spots on her knee.  The Doctor was really nice and we like him a lot.  He said the he had never seen anything like that.  She is doing much better now.  Over here anyone under 16 gets free medical help, so that was really a blessing.  We didn’t have to pay for her Dr. visit or her medication,  even though I gave them all our insurance information.  Riley says that Obama would love it over here.

Well, I think I now have you caught up in our lives.  We love you all and miss you greatly.  Please keep us in your prayers.

Well we are at the Bunches tonight.  Farrah cooked us all some gumbo and it was good.  REAL GOOD!  Well we are still hit and miss on the times we are able to check email and make post.  It is taking the phone company 20 days to install us phone and Internet service.  CRAZY!   Sorry to be so short but we have to go.  Talk to you all soon.  We have a lot of picutres to share and stories we just don’t have time right now.

Hey everyone we just wanted to let you all know that we are still alive and well.  We moved into our house on Sunday night and are now waiting for our phone and Internet to be hooked up.  I am at David Bunches house using his Internet.  We have found that the Irish don’t get in a hurry as far as services go. Once you get them up and running they are great, but it’s the wait.  They however would say us Americans are just impatient and that is more than likely the case.   They also all do quarterly billing.  So not only are they not in a hurry to get my phone turned on, they are not in a big hurry to get my money either.  So I guess I can wait.  So we are going to have one really big blog once we get things lined out.  We have a lot of pics we want to get posted for you all to see.  I want to thank all of you for your comments on the blog.  Tara especially has enjoyed them.  We are going to do our best to personally respond to each of you, but like I said it is hard without Internet.  Most of you who know me realize that I am about to go crazy.  I havent’ been this disconnected since I don’t know when.  How do third world country’s do it?   Anyway thank you for your prayers and support.   We will make another update as soon as we can!

Today we started helping around the church to get ready for this weekend.  We are having a 10 year anniversary celebration this weekend.  Saturday night we will be having a banquet. Then Sunday we will have a special service.  Today we were finishing up cleaning the church and the lawn.  The lawn mower is not very good so we were having to rake up the grass and haul it away.  Simeon and Dawson were helping us pick up the piles of grass and loading it.  They were actually a big help.  The girls helped too, until they got tired.

Thank you everyone who is leaving posts.  We love hearing from you.  I had to sit down this morning and have a cry after reading them.  I love you all and I miss you.  I know this is where God wants us, but it is also a little sad to know we won’t see you for a while.

We are suffering from jet lag a little.  It is not a bad as I thought it would be.  Simeon is having the hardest time.  He been playing and working real hard, so he is taking naps, which he never does.  He however,  has a great friend with Dawson.  After 15 minutes of playing he said “Dawson, you’re my best friend”, those of you who know him, know that everyone is his best friend.  Dawson and him are getting along great so that helped me out a lot.

We went and looked at a house today, and we sign lease papers tomorrow.  I am very excited about it.  It has 4 bedrooms.  The kids all picked out their bedroom today.  Simeon picked out the master suite, which he is not getting, but it was a nice try on his part.  It has a huge kitchen with (Thank you Jesus) a dishwasher. YEAH!!!!!!   It has a big nice stove, bigger than my old one.  They are going to provide us a washing machine.  Over here they hang out their clothes instead of using a dryer, so I will try this for a while.

Please keep us in your prayers.  We love you all so much.  We will be praying for you.  I will get off now.  I have to sit outside to post because the wireless signal does not go through the walls of the AIM Flat.  I can see my breathe, and my fingers are starting to freeze it is 42 degrees tonight.

We are here! Our flight only took six hours thanks to an 110mph tail wind. We actually almost missed the flight due to a gate change, early boarding by Continental and us eating dinner. If it wasn’t for a airport employee and his “super sonic” golf cart we wouldn’t have made it. It is 9:43pm right now and we are getting ready to hit the hay. We felt pretty good when we arrived but it is catching up with us. We will post a little later when we can think straight.

Love ya all and thanks for the prayers!

Well I am currently sitting in a Pear Tree Inn across the highway from the St Louis airport.  We are leaving for Ireland in the morning at 10:00am.  We have a couple lay overs and we should be arriving in Belfast around 9:00am on Tuesday. We have a 4hr layover in Pittsburgh and a 3hr one in Newark NJ.  Then it is an all night ride to Belfast.  I just sent David and Bro. Mac an email telling them that they may need to bring a semi-truck to haul all the luggage back to Gilford. With three women in the party you can imagine the things we had to pack.  Before Tara gets on to me Simeon and me have a few things packed as well.  Ok maybe a little more than a few.  It is amazing what it takes to move a family of five half way around the world.

We are so excited about what is getting ready to happen in our lives.  Keep us in your prayers, and we will make an update to the blog as soon as we can.

You can track our flights in real-time if you would like…
STL to Pittsburgh
Pittsburg to Newark
Newark to Belfast

Sunday night we had an awesome church service.  We had two altar services.  Bro. Bobby Gentry, preached on “Faith”.  You could feel faith rising up in our mists.  Bro. Chuck brought up many people to the platform at the second altar service to tell what God was doing in their lives.  He did this to build even more faith.  Well, I have had my faith built up.  I know God is going to do marvelous things in Doniphan and Ireland.  I can’t wait to hear the reports of miracles that God has performed.

As most of you know Riley has MS.  He was diagnosed with this December 26th 2002.  He had been having problems in the summer before that, but he didn’t go to the Doctor until then.  He has had numerous problems as a result it.  His hands and feet always feel like they are asleep.  He has problems with his legs, eyes, thinking process, and generally everything on his body aches.  He has always kept a very positive attitude, and has provided for his family by working even when he felt awful.  We have always believed that God would heal him.  Even on his worst days Riley believed.

Well, Sunday night during one of the altar services(Riley can’t remember which one.)   A man from our church, Bro. Kenny Hall, came up to Riley and told him that the Lord had been wanting him to tell Riley something, and he finally got up the nerve.  He said “The Lord told me to tell you, that because of your dedication, the anointing He has placed on your life, and because of your willingness to go when you step on that plane God is going to heal you.  You wont have to worry about the symptoms anymore, because He will take care of those too.”

You can imagine what we have been feeling.  God is so faithful to us.  We booked tickets for September 22nd.  We can’t wait to step on that plane.  This has been a long journey for us, especially Riley, but God has been with us the whole way.   I love you God!!!  You are great!!!!!

I feel like I need to tell this testimony to everyone.

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything.  Tara has really gotten the hang of this blogging thing and She has been doing a great job.   I have some great news to share with you and Tara told me I had better get it posted.   So here it goes and it’s a long one…

It looks like we are going to be leaving the end of September.  We got a call Wednesday night before church that has changed the dynamics of our time line.  We have someone that is sending us a $10,000 check.  This is  from a couple that used to attend our church here in Doniphan, and are in South Dakota getting ready to plant a church and reach out to the local Indian reservation.   These folks are not rich by any means, and we know this was a sacrifice.  They were blessed themselves and told me they wanted to share the blessing with us.  They said that they were looking forward to what God was getting ready to do in Ireland.  Words can’t express what they have done for us.  I know that not only is God getting ready to do wonderful things in Ireland I also know he is getting ready to do wonderful things in South Dakota.

Tuesday of last week we loaded up pretty much all our possessions and took them to the shipping container in Effingham IL.  Maybe I should clarify that all the possessions we were going to be able to take with us.  Which due to space and practicality wasn’t much.   That’s ok though.  We had a full day and I have a few pictures to share.  We spent about 9 hours organizing all the personal effects and items of our, the Bunch’s and McFarland’s stuff.  We have a 40ft container, but with the building material that is being sent over for the new sanctuary space is limited.  Bro. Dan Dollan, who is over seeing the loading and the purchasing of the building material has this thing figured down the very inch of space.  He drew a line on the floor of the container and said “you can’t go past this line with this stuff.”   Well we accomplished the task after several packs and repacks.  Tara and I had my Dad and our Youth Pastor, Kevin Raposo, helping us out.  My Dad proved to be quite the packer as did Kevin.  I think these guys could move a family of six accross country in nothing but a Ford Pinto.

Sis. McFarland if you are reading this I have a picture of one of your trees.  We set it outside and I guess the worms got to it or something.   Just kidding! We took the limbs off so they woudn’t get smashed.

That is all for now.  Keep us in your prayers.

Last Friday Kirsten and Connor(her best friend) were playing outside.  When suddenly Connor came running in the house and said “come fast, Kirsten got hurt”.  Well, when you hear these things you never know if you should run as fast as you can or just get there eventually.  Riley & I went ahead and went outside.  Kirsten is walking towards us without her glasses and is holding her finger.   After we finally got the story.  Kirsten was standing to close to Connor while he was golfing.  He swung back while she was scratching her temple and smacked her so hard that her glasses went flying off.  The ear piece was sticking straight out.  She couldn’t move her finger and her eyebrow had a big knot.  I decided to take her to the E.R., becasue she has such a high tolerance to pain, I thought her finger might be broken.  Thank God that it was just bruised.   The Docotr did say it was a good thing her finger was at her temple or she probably would have split her head open.  She however, was not to upset about her glasses because she had been wanting new ones.  So here we go again to spend more money.  All five of us wear glasses and I wear contacts.  We have all had to get new glasses this year, so you can imgaine the cost of that.    Here is some pictures of Kirsten’s new look.

Old glasses:

New glasses: