Weary Travelers

I remember the summer after my freshman year of college when I informed my parents that I would like to attend the National Student Conference in Evansville, Indiana with my campus ministry group. I had just gotten back from a spring break mission project to New Orleans helping with Hurricane Katrina relief, and now I was planning on going to Indiana for a week. Not to mention I was already going to school 'out of state' in Missouri. For this Iowa farm girl, that was a lot of traveling for one year. I recall my dad referring to me as a 'world traveler'. Little did we know at the time, just how much traveling I really would end up doing.

Just in the month of August I've been out of the country and back, boarded six different planes, and spent between 20 and 30 hours traveling by car. Instead of rolling my eyes at the idea of parents worried about their grown daughter, I was the mother worried about the health of her unborn child with hours of planes and cars, unsteady eating patterns, and an irregular schedule.

All the chaos and exhaustion was well worth the joy we had at seeing the people we got to see during this time. (especially after my doctor said all was good at my post travel check-up).

PANAMA:

My first international trip certainly was a blast. After the initial plane difficulties we had getting over there that is. Plane difficulties included: a long time sitting at the gate and tarmac, switching planes, lost baggage and only three hours of sleep for our first day.

After arriving we enjoyed five days of serving our missionaries by providing child care while they were in conferences with the other Americas missionaries. We were told over and over again how much the service was appreciated. We also had time to enjoy meals with several of our missionaries we've met during their training or hadn't gotten a chance to meet yet at all. Our excursion day saw the two of us along with 20 or so other missionaries swimming in waterfalls in the Panamanian rain forest. By the way, did you know the Panama Canal was full of FRESH water, and Panama can support that much fresh water use because their rainy season is 9 months out of the year? We had pretty knowledgeable tour guides. All in all it was a great trip!

Missouri/Iowa:

Six days after arriving back in Ft. Myers from Panama, we boarded yet another plane to head to Kansas City. This was a trip to do some support raising while visiting friends and family since we hadn't seen any of them since February or longer. It was interesting having to rely on God to put a burden on the hearts of our friends and family to provide us with transportation the entire 2 1/2 weeks we were up. Several friends were great at giving us rides from one location to another, and my parents were gracious enough to loan us their car for the middle portion of our trip.

From Kansas City, we traveled back and forth between Iowa and Missouri a couple times, making several visits as we went. During that time, we were also able to present at a new church, Rosendale Christian Church, attend a wedding, and celebrate with my parents their 25th wedding anniversary.

It was a whirlwind trip that had us sleeping in more than 10 different beds, seeing around 50 people/families, and putting a lot of fuel in gas tanks.

Back in Ft. Myers:

Arriving back in Ft. Myers was both a relief and a bummer. It was hard to leave our family, friends, and Midwest landscape and weather. (Let's face it, Florida is hot and flat. I need more variety.) But it was also a relief to be back to our house, schedule, work, Florida friends, and our own bed.

So for this Iowa farm girl who never set foot on a plane until she was 22; I feel pretty well traveled at this point. But then I think, boarding 8 planes in 7 months is nothing compared to some of the people I work with. Two to three hour plane rides is nothing compared to the regular occurrence of eighteen hour, even 23 hour flights some of these amazing missionaries go through. And 20-30 total hours in a car across a 2 1/2 week span is laughable compared to three days in a 'bus', packed to bursting with locals, driving across the country 'roads' of Africa.

Next time you want to complain about the traveling you do, think of these amazing missionaries who do it all with a smile on their faces because they know that at the end of their journey is a village hungry for the Word and example of Christ they are bringing.

Panama Bound!

Hello all!

Things are going well here. Work is flowing and keeping us busy, my morning sickness is backing down (not beaten but waning), and the Americas Regional Conference in Panama begins this weekend!

NMSI very strongly values our missionaries on the field and their needs. Every four years we have Regional Conferences. This is where each Region (Asia, Europe, America, and Africa) has a large gathering for all the NMSI missionaries in that region to come together, rejuvenate, and share ministry ideas. Then every four years we have our world wide conference where all NMSI missionaries around the world come to one location for the same purpose. These two conferences overlap like the summer and winter Olympics so there is a conference every two years.

We are pretty excited to be attending this conference even though our role is as working staff. Joe and I were offered to have our way paid for if we wouldn't mind being in charge of kid care during the conference times. Though we will be working the conference, we are still going to have plenty of time to enjoy getting to know our missionaries in the Americas and enjoy Panama.

This is my first trip outside of the United States and only my second plane flight so I am SUPER STOKED!

We will be leaving from Miami on Saturday the 31st and getting back Friday August 6th.

During that time we will have no phone service and probably no internet as it costs extra. But we will be staying at the DeCameron Golf Resort if anyone NEEDS to get a hold of us for any reason. Hopefully that will not be the case.

We are very excited and look forward to telling you all about it. Some of you in person as we will be traveling through Missouri and Iowa August 12-31. See you all when we return!

"There really is something in there!"

Today Joe and I had our first prenatal checkup exam. While it was a LOT of waiting, we did get to see some pictures and hear the heart beat. The ultrasound showed that I am at 8 weeks and 3 days and my due date should be around February 20^th.

It helped us realize “Hey! There really is something in there!” We only got print outs of the ultrasound pictures but we have the awesome privilege of having a media department just down the hall who let me scan them so I can add them here and on my Facebook. It is a joy to now really know for sure that there is a little baby Lohman on the way. Though I wish the “morning” sickness would end sooner rather than later.

Please be praying for our health and finances. Obviously health is very important right now for both me and the baby and finances will be tight as we have several upcoming appointments. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes! We greatly appreciate them!

Normalcy

Life around here seemed to be in a whirlwind there for a bit. Lot's of death, sickness, and disaster. Now it seems things have gotten back into a rhythm of normalcy. We've even celebrated the wedding of friends and seen the joy of a new engagement (this one also having an only 2 month engagement).

There for a while it seemed as if there was nothing positive in the world. In this blog I petitioned you for prayer as it seemed we were being attacked by satan. Now, I ask you to please continue your prayers. Right now things are going good and we praise God for it. But we don't want to let our guard down either.

A member of our senior leadership team mentioned last week that this is indeed a year that God can do mighty things in and through the world of missions. There are going to be three large conferences this year to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Edinburgh convention. This was a convention held in Edinburgh, Scotland where 1,200 missionaries around the world met together to discuss the field of missions and how it could be changed, improved, and unified. This year there will be three similar conventions. The first is occurring right now in Tokyo, Japan where our own Lowell Hunefield is a representative. Two more of these will be held this summer in Edinburgh, Scotland and this fall in Cape Town, South Africa. We have also heard from many who say they feel 2010 is going to be a big year for missions.

For this I fervently ask for your continued prayers. Prayer is the backbone of all missions and those on the field can not do what they do without the prayer you lift up on their behalf. If 2010 is truly a big year for change and glory for God's kingdom, then we know satan will do what he can to kill, steal, and destroy. Please join us in this battle. In all things, praise our LORD.

Community

I have blogged before about the Community here at NMSI. Well, this weekend was one of the best examples of community I've ever seen demonstrated.

Two months ago, two members of our office staff surprised us with the announcement that they had gotten engaged. Ok, the engagement wasn't a surprise. The surprise came when they told us that, after looking at their calendars for the year, they had decided to get married in April. Only two months to plan a wedding! But the kicker came next; they were going to be in Africa for nearly a month of that time!

Before they left, the bride (Kristy) had a meeting of several of the ladies here in our Ft. Myers office. There, she gave her vision of what she desired and we divided the tasks among ourselves. While they were gone, Adam and Kristy did not need to worry about any of their wedding planning because they knew it was being taken care of. When Kristy returned, she just dove right in and got caught up on what was finished and what still needed working. But she did not take those tasks back upon herself. While she was the overseer, the tasks stayed in the the capable hands of the women and men who volunteered to help.

This last Saturday was the big day for Adam and Kristy. They had a beautiful wedding at the beach on Sannibel Island and a roaring good time at the reception. The wedding was small and private; for immediate family only. But Adam and Kristy asked all who helped to attend as well so we could continue to share in their special day.

And it truly was a special day to all of us who were blessed enough to help them with this awesome undertaking.

Only in real community would a bride trust her neighbors to plan her wedding for her.

Even our photographers are NMSI staff--this one above is actually going through our COAT training program right now!

Skillet and Toby Mac-Awake Tonight Tour

On Friday, Joe and I had the chance to go with some co-workers to the Skillet and Toby Mac Awake Tonight tour concert at Germain Arena here in Ft. Myers. We got seats for free by helping a local christian radio station hang up promo posters. I took a couple of pictures and a lot of video. Instead of telling you just how AWESOME this concert was, I thought I'd share a tiny little glimpse into it. The quality of these videos isn't the greatest but this is as good as I could get it. It's better than nothing. So make some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy!

The opening act was a band called House of Heroes. They weren't bad but Joe and I thought it could have been better.

Skillet opened with the first song on their latest album, Hero.

Once those flames shot up in the air the crowd went nuts! I don't think I will ever be able to hear that song without thinking of huge columns of flame!

Of course we couldn't pass up the chance to share Monster with you.

And what's Monster without the growl?

Toby shocked the audience by starting out on a small stage at the opposite end of the arena. This is his opening song as he sang back and forth with John Cooper from Skillet.

At one point Toby let the audience take over.

This video goes out to my friends Rachel and Jeremy. It's Toby with 'Made to Love'

I just loved the 'living room' set.

Then Toby just had to do a rendition of 'Pants on the Ground'. I only got the last couple of seconds.

It was a great evening!

Grief

Hello all,

It is with a very heavy heart that I type to you today. Over the last week we have lost two members of our NMSI family that worked here in the CGO. I don't really know what to say except that, while we grieve for the loss of friends we will not see again during this life, we rejoice that they are in the presence of the King filled with joy and worship for our God. Because I am at a loss for words, I will direct you to two locations where people have been able to explain the two situations.

http://www.nmsi.org

http://abbyatyourfeet.blogspot.com/2010/03/loss.html

These difficult times come right on top of several events to hit the NMSI family. Many members have been getting sick on and off and several have recently lost close family members. It's enough to make me feel that we as a family are being attacked. It makes me wonder if something big is on the way that Satan doesn't want us to be a part of and is trying to deter us or discourage us from continuing on our walk with the Lord. It could be just us at NMSI but in light of all the natural disasters and violence going on around the world it could be world wide. All I know is that we need to pray. I'm not even sure what for specifically but we need the Lord.