One week down, four and a half months to go!

Wow, the first week of our training is over, but it seems like we've been at it a lot longer than a week! Not that it's bad (it's actually very good), it's just the transition to a new house, career, and schedule that I think is exhausting. We're happy for the weekend to be here, but learned so much this week. We realize we have a lot of improvement to make on our deputation service, so we're somewhat thankful that we have some time to change things around before our next one. Always something to do!

Jake is handling the transition to being in day care well, he really enjoys playing with the other kids (he's the youngest of the eight MKs). What he really seems to like most is the older girls being big sisters to him all day long. We can tell that he wants/needs a sibling! :)

We are also enjoying getting to know the other families that we're her with, they are great people. Not even a bad egg in the bunch (unless maybe it's us!). :) We're so thankful that we have the opportunity to get to know these people, and working with them as well as being neighbors provides a good opportunity for close relationships. It's definitely a different situation than we're used to. For you Motorola people reading this, can you imagine if we had all lived on the same block as well as working together?! Pretty funny, huh? It's cool though, we're all enjoying it.

This weekend we hope to get some things accomplished and relax at the same time. Since we're not traveling this weekend, they want us to have a "cross-cultural" worship experience. So we're going to the predominantly African-American church right down the block from our house. We're expecting to enjoy some high-energy worship like we do at Spanish Church, it should be a lot of fun!

Please keep us in your prayers, especially regarding deputation and adjustment to our new environment. Classes also start in a few short weeks, so you can pray for us in that way also. We're praying for you all and will keep you updated. Later!

First Day of Training

Well, today was our first "official" day as missionaries, we had training from 9:00am to noon (nice warm-up, huh?!). It was definitely a day of firsts for us.

Just as it was our first day of missionary training, it was Jake's first day of "school" as well. Basically, he's just in day care with all of the other MKs (missionary kids), but it was his first day of being left with someone other than family, so it was a pretty big deal for us all. We got him a Thomas the Train lunchbox to take with him and was he ever proud of that thing. At about 8:20am, he was standing at the front door with his new lunchbox in his hand and turned around and asked us when the bus was coming! We have no idea who told him about school buses, but after we got done marveling at our little genius, we had to explain to him that he was walking to school instead of taking the bus.

So, training today was just a short introduction to the schedule, etc. that we will have for the next few months, and it looks like we will be pretty busy. We also met the rest of the missionaries that we will be going through training with, which was fun. Overall, it was an easy day, but we've got a full day tomorrow, and from then on.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

A New Chapter

Well, it's been a while since we've posted an update, I promise we'll be better about that it the future. Our plan is to provide a weekly update, but things have just been VERY busy, as you can imagine. The month of July was extremely hectic, as Jeremy was in school four nights a week and also preparing for his transition away from Motorola, which kept him away from home for about 90 hours a week. Meanwhile, Tricia was left to prepare the house for selling, sell what items we couldn't take in a gigantic garage sale, and do the vast majority of packing for our move. Oh yeah, all of that while also taking care of a very active two-year-old! Needless to say, the blog kind of took a back seat.

Wednesday, August 10th was Jeremy's last day at Motorola, so he can now focus his attention on the preparations that the entire family is making. In addition to unpacking and getting things situated at the house, there are a lot of other things to take care of with changing jobs and preparing to move to another country in five months. We are also trying to get deputation services scheduled at various Nazarene churches around the country for the fall. If anyone attends a Nazarene church that we are not visiting, please contact your NMI president and pass along our e-mail address: tjjohnson98@yahoo.com

A couple of you that do not attend the Church of the Nazarene have inquired about how you might contribute to our deputation fund, which supports needs such as health care, transportation, schooling for Jake, and other expenses that our family will encounter. I have found out that you can contribute by making checks payable to "General Treasurer" and marking them for "Jeremy & Tricia Johnson Deputation Fund" in the notes field on your check. Then, send the check to the following address:

General Treasurer
Church of the Nazarene
6401 The Paseo
Kansas City, MO 64131

You will receive a receipt for your giving that can be deducted for tax purposes at the end of the year.

While your financial support is certainly not expected, it is greatly appreciated. However, more important is the prayer support that you can give us. We thank you all for your prayers.

If you would like to pray for specific needs that we currently have, you may pray for the following:

- Scheduling of deputation services
- God's presence and blessing upon those services
- Jake's transition to being in day care for the first time
- Jeremy & Tricia's "pre-field" training
- Safe travels to and from deputation services

Thank you so much for your prayers and support, and for just visiting this website. Feel free to drop us an e-mail at any time, we'd love to hear from you!

Love,

Jeremy, Tricia & Jake