Preparations

The feelings of being overwhelmed seem to come and go these days.
There is so much to do that it is easy to feel overwhelmed. The verse, "Each day has enough trouble of its own" has been said so many times over the past couple of months, and weeks. I was even just rereading that section in Matthew recently and was encouraged by it.

Since we got back from our New England trip, I have been trying to schedule all the last doctor and dentists appointments, as well as the time to go down to the International Travel Clinic for the last round of shots. My calender is filling up and I am trying to stay ontop of those types of things. One thing that has been helpful is having the Outlook Express on my computer with the calender. So anytime on am on my email my calender is right there and it reminds me of the things to do.

We have been in the process of waiting to see if and how we are shipping some of our items over to Zambia. One of our deacons and another man in our church that works in logistics, have figured it out, and we went today and got alot of boxes for books.

We are shipping pallets that will get put into a container and be shipped by sea.The expected time in transit is 2 months. (so I am adding 2 or 3 months to that) The majority of the pallets we will ship will be of books. That is one thing lacking over there, so James is bringing his books for the men to use and we will probably have 2 pallets of household things.

One of the challenges is to determine what to pack on those and what to bring in the duffel bags. I don't want to pack essentials in case they don't show up for many months after we are there, but then I really don't want to wait and pack everything in a duffle bag at the last minute. So I think some basic kitchen items, kids toys and games, clothes that they will be growing into, linens ( sheets, towels, comforters) a small box of cooking items, such as big jars of spices from Sam's Club, medicines and some small home decorating items.

It has been a great blessing to have 3 different women over there now with children that I have emailed asking many of these questions. Especially in regards to what they brought, what they can't buy there, what is really expensive, or cheaply made, and what did you wish you brought but didn't. What do you stock up on when you come back to the states... All helpful things, but as James has reminded me, when I am stressed about what if I don't pack something or plan it exactly right,-- that if the people we are going over there to live among and minister to don't have something than we can do without it to.

So I currently have about 8 different groupings of things around the house now in various stages.

Items to ship
Items to pack and take on the plane
Items to take to my parents at Thanksgiving
Items to take to James parents at Christmas
Items to store here in KY (possibly to get later)
Items we are giving away
Items we are selling
Items to take to goodwill

No wonder why the house feels in a bit of a disarray.

We have someone coming to look at the house tomorrow so if you think of us, please pray for it to sell, and that we would hear of an offer.

So, back to the section in the book of Matthew. The context of the verse "each day has enough trouble of its own, is in the same section where Jesus talks about not worrying about what we should wear. About not laying up treasure on earth, about not loving money... The chapter ends with "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things."

Very good things to think about.