Ministry stuff

Random update and thoughts

By Jen | August 9, 2009 |

Because I haven’t written in forever, I’m going to give a quick update of our life. -I am now 24 weeks pregnant (which is about 5 1/2 months) with a little boy! -We’ve been waiting for Maisie’s visa to be approved so we can leave for Spain (a little later than our original thoughts of being there the end of July). -While we wait we are staying with my sister and her husband and two kids in their living room on air mattress and couch. -My roots are beginning to show like crazy and I am looking pretty whiskey tango (an important to me topic). -I have no idea where I will give birth in Spain and this brings a little bit of anxiety to the mix. -Maisie is supposed to start school in Barcelona in September, but we might have to hold off on that so she isn’t dealing…

Missing home and not even gone yet

By Jen | May 21, 2009 |

I value honestly and authenticity and I know that can be dangerous, especially if I decide to be those things on my blog, but oh well, it’s who I am, so therefore, I have to be honest. I have to think that other people in ministry go through the same things as I do and so I will write about what I am dealing with these days. I’ve been REALLY struggling with the idea of going back to Europe this time. It isn’t that I don’t love Europe or don’t see the need to be in Europe or that I feel like God hasn’t done amazing things to get us to Europe. It is just that I am terribly afraid of loneliness in Europe. I am also feeling anxiety about having this baby in Europe (yes, I am 12 weeks pregnant!). Every time Justin and I (and Maisie too) have…

Fish Eyeballs and Other Stuff

By Jen | March 12, 2009 |

Who ever knew I would actually be okay eating a fish eyeball? Certainly not me! I did it tonight for the first time in Barcelona. I don’t know the name (and at the moment I am too lazy to try and find out what it’s called), but it was a plate full of teeny little whole fried fish. Crazy!!! The funny thing is that Maisie LOVED them! She was eating them like they were candy! She was totally into them until about the fifth one. That’s when an eyeball got stuck on her front tooth and I laughed about it and pointed it out to the table, where there was gagging and gnashing of teeth. Well, not the gnashing of teeth, but there was gagging. After that, she didn’t want anymore. She went on to eat shrimp. I swear this kid is a better eater while in Europe than in…

Packing… the story of my life

By Jen | December 5, 2008 |

It’s sort of sad when you travel and move around so often, that you just keep your child’s toys in a suitcase. Really, there was nowhere else to put it. I guess we could have bought some sort of toy bin or basket, but we would just be packing it up to move again at some point in the near future. The time has come where we are packing up again and let me tell you, it plain sucks. I hate it. I despise it. Not because I hate packing or organizing or whatever, but because I hate what it does to Maisie. It is so hard for her to see her toys be zipped up, not to be seen for who knows how long. This may sound ridiculous to some of you as I get that there are kids who don’t even have toys, or kids who don’t have…

Coming back to the states!

By Jen | December 4, 2008 |

Justin and I bought our tickets to return to the US for a couple months! We leave in exactly ONE week, which is really crazy as I am sitting at home right now with some sort of stomach flu with NO packing done. Ugh!!!! We are getting to be pros at packing, so I am sure it will all go fine! We will be coming back to begin recruiting people for the new project in Barcelona, Spain! YAY! If you know anyone who might be interested in having their life changed forever, let us know as we are open to meeting with new people who may have a passion for Europe! We are also coming back to continue to raise funds and build our support, so again, if you know of a church or a small group that may be interested in partnering with a new project in Barcelona, let…

Refugee Hair

By Jen | November 9, 2008 |

This last weekend we were in Brussels to learn more about a big service project called Serve The City. Justin and I know that this is something we definitely want to do in whatever city we end up in. This weekend was a great time of learning and connecting with fellow CAI-ers. On Saturday we actually did do a day of service. Justin took photographs and my project was to cut hair for refugees at a refugee center. Thank the Lord I had a professional hair stylist with me, who taught me all sorts of things that I didn’t know about hair cutting. I have so much to learn and really would love to be able to do some sort of official training!!! Anyways, enough rambling on about that!!! If I am honest with myself, part of me was thinking of how cool it would be to be able to…

Our trip to Spain

By Jen | September 16, 2008 |

So I realized that I actually took WAY more videos than pictures while in Barcelona. Pooey. But here are a few pictures from our time in Barcelona and Valencia. I am in the process of uploading videos from the trip, so I will have to post those to my blog in the near future for all to see who want to see! Overall it was a great trip to Spain! In Valencia we found a pub called Portland! It is owned by two Americans (one of them is actually Spanish, but grew up in America)! We stayed up the last night there and chatted with them till past midnight! We had a really great time in both cities for different reasons. Videos to come! Ok, ok, I will post ONE video right now. Here it is! The first day in Barcelona as Maisie waited for Justin to bring ice cream!