More December Happenings

Merry Christmas to all of you. What a wonderful weekend we had. We sold a lot of our furniture and now we are down to just a few more pieces to sell. We still need to sell our house and our Buick Rendezvous but God has been faithful and we praise him for that. Can you believe Christmas is next week? Where did the time go. It has just turned cold here in SW Florida, o.k. so it's only in the 60's. Yesterday we were in the 80's. We are very spoiled weather wise here. I have a feeling we are going to freeze in Virginia. You should have seen my kids this morning going to school you would have thought there was a snow storm outside. But it's nothing that a cup of hot chocolate can't fix.

This weekend we let the dog go to his new home with David's parents. The dog is so happy there. But the children are sad. Please pray for our children. This selling of everything and giving away their dog is really hard on them. I've never had to move much so this is difficult for me too. I can't imagine what it is like for them. They really only have about 2 weeks left of school. Please pray for them as they go through this week and especially the week of January 7th.

David has just finished another seminary course so he gets some time off from studying. I am so proud of him. January 2nd is his last day of work. He will be taking next week off for the holidays. Speaking of holidays we will be going to Orlando for Christmas. Please pray for travel mercies. This will be our last Christmas in Florida for a while. It doesn't seem real. On one hand I am so excited to go but on the other hand it is hard to say goodbye to family and friends and the life we have known here.

I want to thank you all for your prayers and support. Please keep praying! I pray that all of you have a very Christ filled Christmas.

December is here

It has only been 4 days in December and we have been so blessed. This past Sunday our Sunday School class held a going away breakfast for us. We knew that the class was going to pray over us but we didn't know that they had collected a love offering. I can't tell you how blessed we were by this. If you are one of those people that gave thank you so much. If that wasn't enough I think I shared a couple of blogs ago that Micah was sad because we didn't have a Christmas tree. Well first a couple in our Sunday School class brought us a small tree to use. Micah loved it. Then yesterday someone donated a brand new 7 ft. pre-lit tree to our missions pastor for us to use. Micah could hardly wait for me to put it up. If you are the person who donated that tree you made one little boy very happy. He gets mad every time I have to turn the lights off. He thinks they should be on all of the time. Tonight we will decorate it with all of our family ornaments. So let me just say we have wonderful friends and that you have blessed our socks off. It's hard to express the love we feel right now. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I know that you have been praying about David's job situation. Well yesterday he turned in his resignation and everything went very well. He will be working until January 2nd and then we will be packing. Also, the furniture has been selling. Our couch and dining room table are gone so we have a pretty empty house. David said from now on our word is flexible. If you know David this is very difficult to do. Please pray that we can all be flexible. As always keep praying for our house to sell. People have been coming to see it but so far no contracts. It only takes one. To tell you the truth I am just tired of cleaning my house. It is very difficult to keep a house clean with 3 children. So pray for me. Again I just want to say thank you for your love and support. We are blessed.

Things for sale

It occured to me that I had not posted our stuff that is for sale. So here it goes.

House: 3/2 in Three Oaks. You can go to http://www.chadwicksaunders.com/ for more info.

Car: Buick Rendevous 2002. Seats 7 Blue exterior/gray interior. $9100


That is about it. I will update this list as things get sold. Please call me if you are interested in anything and I can e-mail you a picture of it. Thanks.

End of November

I pray you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to Orlando to visit with my family and then drove to Sarasota to visit with David's parents and we met some new friends that live in the states that are from South Africa. It was fun to meet them and ask questions.

Only two more months and we will be leaving Ft. Myers. I know I've said it before but it just doesn't seem real. The crating company is coming on Wednesday to see how much we will be crating. Wow, I better start making my lists. We have started to sell the furniture. Thankfully it is to people in the church. They are letting us use it as long as we need it. We still have not found a buyer for the house but a friend reminded me that God is seldom early but never late. We have sped through the process and this is a road bump to us but it isn't to God. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for our house to sell. Please keep praying.

Please pray for this transition period for our children. Micah asked me yesterday when we would putting up the Christmas tree. My answer was "we don't have a tree anymore." (I am allergic to real Christmas trees so that is not an option) Then he saw our neighbors putting up lights and he wanted to know when we would be putting up our lights. You guessed it we no longer have Christmas lights. He was so sad. We did put out some decorations that we are keeping and some people from our Sunday School class have generously offered trees for us to put up. But please keep praying for the children.

Also, David has 4 more business days until he tells his boss about all of this. We are not sure how his boss will take this. Please pray December 3rd that David will be able to keep his job for the month. We need to keep the insurance until we leave.

Thank you so much for your support, friendship and prayers. We could not do this without you.

Appointment Week

We are back! We had a great week in Springfield. There were 82 IMB missionaries being appointed. We went to lots of meetings on everything from crating to saying goodbye. We met our regional leaders for the first time. We also got to meet 3 other couples that are in our region (CESA - Central, Eastern & Southern Africa) that will be going with us to orientation in February and to 40/40 in Zambia when we first arrive in Africa. We met Trustees that are in our region. What a wonderful time we had with them. Each couple shared their testimony and then they laid hands on us and prayed for us. It was such a sweet time. We also got to hang out with friends that we met at candidate conference in August. Our senior pastor, Richard Powell was there to cheer us on. He is on the Board of Trustees for the IMB. It was awesome to have him there with us.

On Wednesday afternoon we had a run through of the evenings program. Each of the missionaries had to do a testibyte. This is a very small snippet of your testimony. When we looked at the program David and I learned that we would be going first. Nothing like starting out with a bang. That night we were led out in front of the Illinois State Baptist Convention. It was such an awesome experience. It is very humbling to think that God has called me. I am so unworthy and yet He still calls. So I obey. In the service they sang I Surrender All. It was so awesome to sit on a stage with 80 other people that really get that. It really is hard to put into words.

Please keep praying for our family. Our house still needs to sell. We also have two cars to sell and most of our furniture. David is very busy at work and at school. Pray for a smooth transition for the children. They are already having a hard time with leaving family. Pray that we would be able to minister to our unsaved friends that don't really understand why on earth we would give up this life for a life in Africa. Please pray for us and our family as we say goodbye. That is the hardest part. As always we thank you so much for your prayers.

November

I can hardly believe it is already November. I wanted to give you the latest update on the Delac Family adventure. Tomorrow (Fri. Nov. 2nd) David and I will be flying to Springfield, IL for appointment week. Throughout the week we will be going to meetings and having conferences with the Board of Trustees for our region. I am told the whole Board of Trustees will vote again on us and then on Wednesday, Nov. 7th (my dad's B-day) we will be appointed. The children are going to David's parents house for the weekend and then Pop's (Michael) will be staying with them during the week so that they don't miss to much school. Please pray for travel mercies for all of us and for a hedge of protection over our family while we are apart from each other.

The house still has not sold. We thought we were going to get a contract last week but it just never happened. I know God had a hand in that and that he has a buyer for us in His perfect timing. Please continue to pray for this.

I will write more next week after appointment and let you know how it went.

We Are In!

Yesterday the IMB Board of Trustees voted on us and they want us. So we have gone through another part of the process. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for us. We still need to sell our house so please keep praying. Also, we will be having an estate sale October 20th. We will open our house up the night before for a preview. We had a couple more questions after the last posting so here are the answers.

Q. How will we notify our prayer partners when we need prayer or when we have written a new entry.

A. I have e-mail addresses for most of you. If you would like to get an e-mail from us please leave our e-mail address under comments or e-mail me at tracy_delac@yahoo.com. Eventually we will start an electronic newsletter. However, I have to figure out how to do one first. I will also e-mail you when I have written a new entry on the blog.

Q. Since we do not need financial support would money that was donated to the IMB in our name go directly to us.

A. No, money can be donated to the IMB but it would go to projects happening in our region not necesarily to us. Gifts can be given to us directly but it would not be considered a tax write off.

As always we thank you for your prayer and support.

October Is Here

I can't believe it is already October. We will be leaving Ft. Myers in only 31/2 months. Here is an update on how things are going. We have not sold our house yet. We are praying whether to list it with a realtor or keep trying to sell it ourselves. We know that God has all of the answers so we will look to Him to guide us.

I wanted to answer some frequently asked questions:
Q. When will you leave?
A. We leave for orientation in January. We will start orientation February 4, 2008. We will leave for Joburg in April 2008.

Q. Will the children go with you?
A. Yes, they are coming with us to both orientation in Virginia and to Joburg.

Q. Where will they go to school?
A. In Virginia they will go to school with all of the other Missionary Kids (MK's). In Joburg they will most likely go to a private school. School there is year long. They probably will not be able to start until June because we will go to an orientation in Zambia for a month when we get there.

Q. What will you be doing in Joburg?
A. David will be the Treasurer for the region and my job is called home and outreach. I will be doing the things that I do here. I will use the gifts and talents God gave me to minister to my family and others I come in contact with.

Q. How long will you be there?
A. We will be there for 3 years for our apprenticeship. Then we will come home for our stateside assignment for 6 months.

Q. Are you scared to be going there?
A. That is where the Lord has called us to go. I would rather be in the will of God there than out of the will of God here.

Q. Do you need to raise support?
A. The only support we need to raise is prayer support. The International Mission Board covers our salary, a place to live and our insurance. All of the IMB missionaries are paid from the Lottie Moon offering that is taken every Christmas in Southern Baptist Churches.

Q. How can we pray for you?
A. Right now we need to sell our house. Also, that David will have a smooth transition out of his job and that the children will adapt well in Virgina and Joburg. Please pray for a hedge of protection around our family.

You can leave comments on this blog. If you have additional questions we would be happy to answer them. Thank you for your support.

David & Tracy

more of the journey

It is now September. It is hard to believe that we will be leaving Ft. Myers our home of 13 years in January. It seems like orientation is such a long way off yet it is only about 5 months away. When I think about it that way I know that there is so much to do. We have already started selling our furniture. The piano was the first thing to go. I was told this was a really hard market to sell a piano in. However, God saw a need and I know that the piano went to people that will really take care of it and use it. I'm sure our house will go the same way. We have not had anyone call about the house yet but it has only been on the market for a little over a week and we still need a place to live in until January. On Sunday we got the privilege of going to a Sunday School class that we had previously been a part of. I have to tell you they blessed us so much. If you are one of them thank you. Things that we need prayer for this week are the sale of our house, David having time to do his job and school work. He has gone back to school for his seminary degree and for all of us not to lose our minds about how much there really is to do in such a short period of time. As always thank you for your prayers.

David and Tracy

happenings

Hello Friends and Family,
Well we are now almost through August and we have put the For Sale sign in the front yard. It is a tough market to sell your house right now but we believe that God will sell it so we are not worried. Please be in prayer for us as we try to sell the house the cars and everything else. The children started school last week so it has been pretty quiet around the house. I have been able to get a lot of things accomplished. Going to the grocery store by myself was great. We have been in contact with other missionaries in Joburg and they are giving us a lot of good information. We want to thank you so much for your prayers. You all are so wonderful.

Blessings,
David and Tracy

Our Missionary Journey

August 23rd
We started our journey in February. Our church, McGregor Baptist Church in Ft. Myers, FL hosted the Global Impact Conference for the 3rd year in a row. This year our Sunday School class hosted Ron and Lisa Jones,missionaries in Reunion Island. They told us about when they had left the states with their children and then later in the discussion that all missionaries were not seminary graduates or ministers but that they could also be a treasurer, a teacher or in music. David and I looked at each other across the room wondering if we had heard the same thing. From there we talked to the Jones' more and after much prayer realized that God was calling us to the mission field. That Sunday night we had a guest pastor and he asked if anyone was feeling called by God into full time missions we should come to the front of the church. I was in choir and and David was in the pew with the girls and we all went to the front of the church together. It was a very emotional night. I have to say I had no idea where God was taking us and to be honest I was a bit apprehensive. The next day David sent in an information card to the IMB (International Mission Board). On President's Day David and I were at home watching Facing The Giants. I don't know if you have seen this movie but I highly recommend it. Anyway there is a part in the movie where the coach says "Is anything impossible with God?" He says this to 3 of his players. Right after the coach says it for the third time the phone rang. It was the IMB calling us for the first time. God is so good.

April 3rd, David and I drove up to Orlando to meet with our candidate consultant. It was a great meeting and we were told that we could move on to the next step, lots of paperwork. David and I filled out medical forms (25 pgs. long) for us and the kids. We did personality profiles, wrote our autobiographies and our Christian Beliefs. This all took several months. In June, we had an interview with our candidate consultant in Tampa. The interview lasted about 2 hours and we were told to tweak our statement of beliefs and our life sketches. We were then sent several job requests from around the world. David and I separately chose Johannesburg, South Africa as where God wanted us to go. David will be the Treasurer for the region. We were then invited to the Candidate Conference at the IMB in Richmond, VA.

The conference was a couple of weeks ago. We had medical tests on Tuesday morning, met more people going through the process, had group and private meetings with candidate consultants. We met with our regional director, our region is the CESA (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa) region. On Friday we were told that we would be moving forward in the process.

Right now we are in the process of handing out references, getting the children's medical screenings done and getting passports for the children. We need to put the house on the market and start selling our things. We first need to find out what we need to bring and about other things such as where the children will go to school. October 11th the Board of Trustees will vote and then we will be appointed in November in Springfield, IL. Our family will move to Richmond, VA February 4th for 7 weeks. We will go through orientation there then fly to Johannesburg in April. A week after we get there we will fly to Zambia for a month of training.

We are so excited about what God has called us to do. Please pray for our family as we are going through this process.