The Southern Tour...Sort Of

Our time in the south didn't look quite like we thought it would...

We tried to cut some stops out and make other things shorter to get back to Indiana to be with Joanna's mom Nancy when she started Chemo on February 22.
That didn't happen though and we still aren't there...because we got some kind of tummy bug we can't seem to shake!
Even so, Jesus provided sweet love gifts along the way...

I only captured a few in pictures...

We stayed with Allspach's in Atlanta, GA and had a great time sharing with their church what Jesus is doing in Sudan and Uganda! Their neice Brittany gave Elsie Jayne her first hair cut! She even gave Billy and I cuts too! THANKS BRITTANY!

Elsie Jayne doesn't seem too pleased in this picture, but she did warm up to the idea!

Our dear friends the Ballards (and now Mayfields) provided a sweet respite along the way and we were able to have a family Sabbath day at their cabin outside of Opelika, AL!

Truly a love gift from Jesus!

In Oxford, MS we got to be with D. and Corrie Merricks!

How fun it was to see how Jesus has literally doubled our families since we were last together!!!

Daisy was a favorite for Elsie Jayne on the Southern Tour! :)

These two were inseperable while we were in the Diagle's home in Clinton, MS...whether Daisy liked it or not!

What a great gift from Jesus to be in the Ury home again!
It was so fun to take our children to see Uncle Bill and Aunt Diane, MerMer and Seth!
What a priveledge to have family in Jesus literally all over the world!

Ed and Pat Daigle have been prayer warriors and faithful supporters for the past three years. We put that to the test though bringing the flu with us into their lovely home!
They just kept loving us and caring for us! We have priceless friends in Mississippi!!!

THANK YOU!!!

From a Hotel Bathroom in Mississippi

It's amazing where you can get a wireless connection in America!!! I am updating our blog from the floor of a hotel bathroom in Oxford, MS tonight! Billy is speaking at the Wesley Foundation of Ole Miss University. Good friends of ours from Asbury College, D. and Corrie Merricks, are in leadership there now. It was great to share dinner with them and meet their two boys tonight.

Elsie Jayne and Lucy are asleep in the bedroom and I have found that the free wireless works even here...in the dimly lit bathroom. I have to laugh...there are SO MANY things that keep surprising me about America! I grew up here, this is "home", but still...free refills, wireless signals and REAL new clothes (not someone else's old new-clothes-to-me) are my marked shockers of this week! It's only Wednesday though! Jesus truly gives GOOD GIFTS!

Elsie Jayne keeps asking "where are the people in America mom?" As we drive down the road (in 30 degrees, no less) in America there are only buildings or other cars out Elsie Jayne's window. At home-home in Arua we are used to seeing PEOPLE...many many people riding bicycles, or motorcycles, or hanging on in the back of trucks or mostly just walking, but always, lots of people!

This week has quickly changed dynamics. We have learned my mom, Nancy will begin chemo treatments on Monday, February 22, so we are squeezing a lot into the next few days. We leave early in the morning for Jackson, MS where Billy will speak in chapel at Wesley Biblical Seminary. From there we have lots of friends to catch up with. Sunday Morning and Evening we have speaking engagements and then Monday we plan to drive all day to be in Indiana with my parents that night. Please pray Jesus speaks through us and in spite of us in every interaction...that we might be His Light even here in America!

Please pray for LUCY and for HEALTH for us all! Lucy has a virus and is running a fever. Jesus blessed us with a fabulous home for just the four of us in Opelika, AL thanks to our dear friends the Ballards...another precious Asbury connection. Amy, now Mayfield!, helped us find a dear pediatrician who would see us and this morning Lucy was diagnosed with no infections, just a virus. Great news! but tricky, because we can't treat that, but just wait...

The biggest reason we ask you to join us in prayer is that we can't be with my mom if we are sick...the chemo will kill her white blood cells and we need to be healthy to be around her. Will you pray Jesus heals Lucy and keeps all the rest of us healthy as we finish out this week and head back "home."

Thankful to Jesus tonight for friends He has blessed us with in Atlanta, Opelika, Oxford, and Jackson...and that is just the last four days!!! He truly gives more than we could ask or imagine!!! Ephesians 3:20-21