3.4 ounces

Well, we are here in the Charlotte Douglas Int. Airport, with about an hour until we board.  Everything went smoothly today!  A big thanks to Joey Smith (and his new friend Cookie) for driving to Concord this morning to pick up our passports.  We subsequently owe him a kilt.  Also, a big thanks to Shelley Whitley for driving us up to the airport.  The only hold-up was Jenn’s bag getting a closer inspection.  She had to take out some liquids that were a little over 3.4 oz.  If that was the only problem we encounter from here out, we’re golden.  See you in Scotland!  Everybody says hello! 

-Phil

Scotland Bound!

God is so faithful!  Especially when we are not!  Just about 2 hours ago we found out that the 3 passports we were waiting on have been completed and shipped!  They will arrive via Fed Ex at the Charlotte airport early in the morning.  We won’t have to change one ounce of our original plans!

Many many thanks to everyone who has been praying so hard for us.  And many many thanks to Elizabeth at Congressman Robin Hayes’ office.  She has worked day and night for us on this issue. 

We head to the airport at 7 in the morning, and fly out at 11:10.  Please keep praying for us!  We will update you all soon!  Thanks for your constant support!

Flight Itenerary:

June 15th

Leave Charlotte on US Air flight 1766 departing at 11:10am

Arrive in Newark, NJ at 1pm

Leave Newark on Continental flight 36 departing 7:55pm

Arrive Edinburgh at 8am on June 16th (3 am your time)

June 25th

Leave Edinburgh on Continental flight 37 departing 9:20am (about 4 am your time)

Arrive at Newark around 12 noon

Leave Newark on US Air flight 1895 departing at 6:25pm

Arrive at Charlotte at 8:30pm

 

saga de passport

got in touch with the passport folks.  all 3 are in new orleans.  thats about all i could get out of them.  they sent a message with our travel dates, just in case the people with our applications missed that part that told when we were leaving…

everybody pray we get them in time.  i dont feel like going to scotland without my wife*.  no offense james.

*(Jennifer Baucom, the most beautiful woman in the world)

Scotty Update II

So we leave out next Friday (15th) for Scotland, but are still in need of 3 passports.  I am trying to contact the powers that be about it, but the call always goes something like this:

“All representivtives are currently on the line; please hold.”

“Your call is important to us, please remain on the line.”

“All lines are still busy, and we cannot take your call. Sorry.”

“We hope you fall down a flight of stairs and break both ankles.”

Ok, so maybe I made up that last one, but I am hearing the first 3 lines in my sleep I have called so much!  I already had a passport, and James got his last week, but the other 2 girls plus my wife have nada.  They applied about 13 weeks ago!  Anyways, God didn’t give us all the money we needed only to not handle a few passports.

We will drive up to Charlotte on the morning of Friday the 15th, and will fly up to Newark, NJ.  We have a juicy 7 hour layover there, so I plan on catching up on some reading.  Then it is off to Scotland, where we will arrive at like 8:00 AM, their time, and start the day. 

Our 3 main forms of ministry while there are:

• Street Ministry-we will be giving things out to the people in the community in the host church’s name.  This will also be where we advertise for the big ultimate tourney, since we will be around a lot of schools.

• Ultimate Frisbee Tournament-this is the major draw for the week, and is how the church gets the middle and high school kids to come out.  It is a huge week-long event, and our job is to work with the kids that come out, building relationships with them, and spiking their interest about what Christianity is all about.

• “God Talks”-This is like a huge youth meeting each night, that we will be working on getting the scottish youth to come out to.  It will be super high energy, with lots going on, and it will peak the very last night. 

 So, our basic duties are going to be building relationships with kids, and just being available to them.  Our prayer is that God would use this week to show these people (who are 95% atheist) what real followers of Jesus look like, and what our whole faith is about. 

Please keep praying that God would use us in whatever way He chooses while we are over there.  We are excited and game for anything!

Scotty Update

Sunday we got more than enough money to cover the financial needs for our mission trip to Scotland.  We knew all along that God would provide for us everything and He sure did in an awesome way!  We went over our goal and we have enough left to buy some books to give out to the kids we come in contact with.  A very big THANKS to everyone inside and outside of our Pleasant Grove family who has given financially to make this possible!

We are so stinkin excited about this trip!  The opportunities to do ministry are going to be so unique.  Our team came over to the house Sunday and spent the night.  We spent all Sunday afternoon studying and praying and talking about questions that will probably arise in Scotland.  We are trying to be as prepared as possible to meet anything we face.  We also all worked on our testimonies as Christians, which we will probably all get the chance to share with Scottish students. 

We ended our loooooooooong study session with the drive-in.  We treated everybody to a couple movies (Pirate of the Caribbean 3, and Spiderman 3)  and stayed up way to late.  By the way, not real happy with Spiderman 3.  It was like a completely different team produced this movie compared to the first 2.  The whole black-suited spidey was pretty sweet though. 

Anyways, thanks again for everybody’s support!  You are all so very appeciated!  Please keep praying for us now and while we are there.  We are expecting God to do some awesome things.  When our trip starts, we will be updating daily with information and pictures, and stories from everybody on the team, so check back often!