Celebrating and saying goodbye!

On Saturday we held an open house for John, for all his friends to come and say goodbye. We had tons of food (thank you to all who brought some!) and a great time of fellowship with friends and family! I have so many pictures and very few words so just enjoy the images and I will continue to try to keep you posted as we hear from John.

Oh and Praise the Lord! From all the "ble$$ings" that he received we were able to go out that night and get him a digital camera!!! I am greatly relieved as I could not stand the thought of him not having instant pictures as he was only going to be taking disposables! So I hope to be able to get him to send me some photos of his surroundings and things that he sees as the days go by!

Thats not even half of it all!

Pleasant surprises from Downriver friends!

"Tiny" and Christianna

Josh made a map of S. Korea to show where John would be going.

Josh and Shawn playing with their food!

Aunts and Uncles came too.

Local friends

John and dad talking with Todd Courser (he is running for State Rep.)

The Fultz and Ostrander family with John!

Church friends

Boy and his dog

The photographer and her "little" brother

(thank you Theresa for taking the pictures!)

Mr. Walker and little Esther.

John and Uncle Tim

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Sunday was a little bitter-sweet as we drove John down to the airport and waited around till he had to go through security.

checking the flights

last minute phone call from Aunty Carmen!

Are you ready?

Last goodbyes and off he goes.

We praise God for this great opportunity that He has given John and pray that God will bless and guide him on his way and that John will find strength in his Lord through all the difficulties and differences and that he will return even closer to his Savior and filled with knowledge and wisdom for the road ahead!

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16:11

We love you John and miss you greatly!

~Grace

Joshua's Birthday!

Before I go on to more stuff about John I must put a post on for Joshua...his 18th birthday was Friday! The day started out with Josh going to work (Praise God he was blessed with a job working for one of our friends) and then went out to eat lunch with dad. In the afternoon most of us went to a nature/pond sanctuary and the boys tried their hands at fishing again (nothing was caught) but we enjoyed the warm weather and walking the trails.









The only things they caught were "fish sticks"!

On our way back to the van Josh caught this large snake!

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When we got home we had Josh open his gifts, then we ate dinner, watched a video and ate his cake and ice cream.



This is the awesome shirt that Faith MADE for Josh!

Any idea what his interests are??



We are so blessed to have Joshua in our lives. We praise God for the gifts that He has given Josh and pray that God will continue to bless him and lead him in Truth and Righteousness!
Happy birthday Joshua!

Back up and running...

Due to failure of Internet connections yesterday I am behind on posts, but thankfully we are back up today so keep checking back as I have a lot to put on! We took John to the airport on Sunday and even though we could not watch his flight come in yesterday, he called us around 11am (midnight over there) and then talked to us later in the evening. He is doing ok, though I just talked to him (yahoo IM) and he said that the language barrier is hard. God is good though and we are praising Him for His mercy and grace and protection over John through his long flight to South Korea!

~Grace