Time to Leave

It's hard to believe, but this is the last blog posting I will write from the states! I (Julie) am leaving in two weeks, and Jim will follow at the end of May. All of the planning and preparation is nearly complete. The last thing to do is complete the paperwork for the final container shipment. I must say I will be extremely happy when the containers are all on their way. By the way, Jim's motorcycle made it into the 2nd container, and all of the items that were so generously donated to Hope of the Nations are in the containers! The final container will be packed and ready for shipping on Saturday.

For those who might not know, Jim's jaw surgery was on March 26th and our prayers for quick healing were answered! When we went back on Monday for the 1-week checkup, the doctor was amazed at the progress and said "I never do this, but if it's alright with you, I'll cut the wires off today!" Jim's orthodontist was equally surprised, and we're now praying they will be able to complete all the treatment before he leaves. I wrote on Facebook that Dr. Desai is a good surgeon, but we were under the care of the Great Physician, Jesus! Jim has moved from liquids only to soft foods, and should be able to "chew lightly" in early May.

What a great Sunday this will be -- celebrating the resurrection of Jesus! We are so happy to be able to celebrate our last Easter in California with our combined family at iF/SVCC. This will be the last opportunity for me to say goodbye to our SVCC friends, and then my last service at Incarnate Faith will be on the 15th. I hope to see many of you at church, but if not, we want to say how blessed we have been to learn and grow and serve together. One of the things we are so grateful for is that each of us grew up with pastors who are wonderful, godly men. I grew up learning under Wayne Thomas, and Jim under Bryce Jessup. Since we got married 35 years ago, God has continued to bless us with godly teachers, in Bryce, Don Hinkle, Eric Smith, Mike Zukowski and Isaac Serrano. We go out with boldness knowing God is faithful and will use all others have invested in our lives for His purposes! (so I just read over this and it sounds like an Academy Award speech, but we really wanted to honor publicly a few people who mean so much to us.)

PLEASE keep in touch with us. Home, family and friends will be far away, so we look forward to emails, letters, facebook, skype, etc. Thank you so much for the continued prayers. We are praying for you, too. Our adventure with God continues in Tanzania. We're looking forward to sharing our next post from our new home in Kigoma!

Email: jimjulh@gmail.com
Skype: jimjulh
Address: Box 841, Kigoma, Tanzania, East Africa