Receive a ridiculous amount of immunizations    (check)
Get passports updated with current, (but still awkward looking) photos   (check)
Practice spelling Burkina Faso’s capital city (O-u-g-a-d-o-u-g-o-u)  (check)
Speak french while alone in the car  (check)

……………………….

Oh boy, there are a thousand of other things on our checklist that we still haven’t gotten to before our missions trip, but at least we are on our way!! After sending out all our prayer letters we have been in the process of working out the agreement between SIM and Power to Change, and informing our Church about the impending trip.  Our pastor, wanting to renew our Church’s mission, was excited (praise the Lord) to have us preach at Church about missions. Pray it goes well!!!  We’re excited to share what we learned at the Perspectives course we took and inspire others to the call of missions.  We’ve been reading some books too such as “Jesus Says Go” sent to us by SIM and preparing for our orientation in the end of August. There are a lot of other books on our “to read” list for this trip including “Let the Nations be Glad” by Piper, “The Book that Transforms Nations” by Loren Cunningham and a book on the life of William Carey.  We’re not sure if we should save these intense reads for our trip or read them before- we’ll see how much time we get!!!

Needless to say- we have wills to write, support to raise, a house to pack, a car to lend out, and many other little details that will no doubt consume our lives until we leave in late October (Lord willing).

Please continue to pray for us that…

–each of these steps will go smoothly

–that my surgery (Shannon) in early September will go very well.

–that in this last month of  my work I will be more courageous and bold to share Christ with my co-workers and patients!

We will continue to update this blog and send e-mail updates to those who would like them as well as written updates as time goes on.

With love
Shannon & Jason