We are booked!

I recently received my new passport as a Das which is going to come in very handy for our Colombia trip we scheduled for May! Woohoo! We are so excited to have concrete plans to check out Medellin, Colombia and a ministry opportunity there. With less than 2 months to go, we are trying to finalize our plans for the week there as there are tons of things we need to get done...

-meet with the board of directors for the ministry
-check out apartments to get an estimate of cost of living
-check out language schools for Aaron
-go to a soccer match for the ministry
-visit some UCU friends/attend an UCU Bible study
-take a tour of the city to get a good feel for it

Our desire is for this to be the "make or break it" trip as a last step before we can start support raising and finalizing plans for a 2011 move. Aaron and I would greatly appreciate your prayers as we seek His will for our future in missions.

Below are some pictures from Aaron's birthday dinner/trip to FL and a little zoe-home-maker-pie I made. :) Happy Spring y'all!

4:57

Its too early in the morning to be thinking about Colombia. Or is it? Couldn't sleep and woke up with Colombia on the mind. As we head full swing into it, I can't help but fear a few things. Mainly, that support won't get raised any time soon and we'll be stranded with only a dream and a never ending unknown departure date that is always slightly out of reach. Of course God is in control of this, but the economy is just about as bad as it could be for missionaries.

So as we begin to support raise and have written the first draft of what will be our May support letter, I can't help but toss and turn and pray that God will do a miracle. Somehow it'll get raised right? And how can I, in good conscious, ask struggling folks who have been out of work for a year+ to help send us to Colombia? These are ramblings, but they are the true happenings of a restless missionary's mind. So there ya have it folks...worry. Yes, we "super-spiritual-holy-missionary-people" can worry too! :)

Now to try and sleep at least one more hour until that alarm buzzez me to the bank...

Transparency

Along with the new design of my blog, I am putting a new twist into my posts. I'm trying to blog more, but about what? These days I just go to work, go to the gym, cook dinner, and then sleep for a few hours before doing it all over again. I'm NOT complaining, but the truth is that nobody wants to read about what's for dinner or how many checks I cashed at the bank today. And since this blog is supposed to be about "the ups and downs of a missionary" I figured I should write about what's going on with that.



In order to report on "life as a missionary", things are probably going to get a little more personal. We aren't there yet. We aren't serving in that capacity yet. But everything in me wants to be there already. Fully immersed into service, Spanish, and ministry. But that's not where God has us quite yet. So this blog will, from here on out, be about what I deal with personally as we prepare to go, support raise, and long for the day to arrive when we'll board that flight to the unknown.



I can't promise there won't be posts where its obvious that I'm frustrated. After all, how many of us wish at times God would work with OUR schedule instead of feeling like He's just "penciled us in" for some unknown date out yonder?! Whatever the case, I look forward to sharing my journey with you, as transparently as I dare. So, enjoy reading about diary of a missionary in the making! Hasta Luego!

Job Title: Missionary/wedding coordinator/teller/translator???

What DO I do?

Wedding Coordinator? I thought you were a missionary?! Oh you work at a bank? WHAT???

Yes Yes and Yes. I am an x-missionary/almost missionary again who currently works as a teller and translator and is building a small wedding business to make a little extra cash and do what I LOVE doing: organizing and planning weddings! So, until that miraculous day that Aaron and I get to head out to the field, if you know of any brides who need a little extra help with planning things I hope you'll send them to the website:
www.zoedasweddings.com

Wedding Bells and PTO

Currently, Aaron and I are completely wrapped up in two things: trying to plan our Paid Time Off (PTO) from work and figuring out how we are going to attend THREE weddings in THREE different states all within THREE months of each other. YIKES!

First up, a short trip to Sarasota, FL to visit some good friends and get a little R&R. Shortly after that is a trip to Colombia where we plan on visiting a possible future ministry site in Medellin. While that will be PTO, it won't be vacation. This is a serious exploritory trip for which we are very excited. Then its Felice's wedding for which I am a bridesmaid in her St. Augustine, FL wedding in June. Next up is Aaron's best friend's wedding in none other than New Mexico in July. We're trying to plan a vacation around that trip. Last but certainly NOT least is my sister's wedding in August. I'm her matron of honor and I'm so looking forward to helping her. Somewhere in there we'll celebrate our one year anniversary and start support raising. Wow, I'm getting tired just writing it. But, its all going to be so fun and eventful and full of new love as our dearest friends and family take the plunge!


So, as January wraps up and the rest begins to unfold, all I can say is: ¡Que tengan un buen año! (Have a great year!)