Monday, December 21, 2009

Furlough 2009 - Day 3

Yesterday was a fantastic Lord's Day in Chillicothe, MO! This congregation is a light and encouragement to our family. Jeff did a wonderful job on the presentation and sermon. Jubilee was in a Christmas program. We had a potluck, roast at home with family and then back for the program and treats. In between Jeff, Jubilee and Pops went iceskating with the kids from church and a side trip to Wal-mart for passport pictures. Grami, Maley and I stayed home from the skating fun to start repacking our stuff. We are planning to leave this morning about 9 to meet Grandmother and Susie half-way so that they can take us to Rogers for the night. We will hug as much family as possible in Rogers and then tomorrow morning head out for Dallas. To God be the glory! Today we are praying for Johnathan Sandoval and his surgery. Please continue to pray with us! Love, Katie, Jeff, Jubilee and Malakai

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Furlough 2009 - Day 2

Yesterday was another wonderful day. We had a relaxing morning and then went out into the cold to run errands with Grami. We went to the post office, payless, wal-mart, stage, the dollar store and goodwill. The last five stops were to find shoes for Jubilee. She doesn't have her mommy's feet yet but we ended up with $2.50 boots from Goodwill that are so thight that will probably only fit for week. I am thankful for the options of places to look for her shoes. Then we came home and had roman noodles and hung out until it was time for the first xmas. Presents for the kids and strogenoff for the adults :) - we are growing by the minute - and I don't mean spiritually! It was wonderful! Then the kids went to sleep and the grownups watched Hallmark! God bless and hope you had a blessed day too! Enjoy the pictures! Love, Katie, Jeff, Jubile and Malakai

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Furlough 2009 - Day 1

We had a fabulous first day in Chillicothe, MO. Jubilee had a Pop's date at McDonald's and a date with Grami at an afterschool Christmas gift exchange. We, Jeff and I, made our first trip to Wal-mart. Always a double edge sword. Good for the spirit. Bad on the wallet. We also had a very nice dinner with the Blakely's at AppleBees and went to see the xmas lights of Chillicothe. Both kids were asleep by 8 and we stayed up talking with the Forbess' until Jeff and Rod were basically asleep in the chairs. Great day!

Today we are praying for Johnathan Sandoval who will have follow up back surgery on Monday. Please pray with us for his family, the doctors, his safety during surgery and a great recovery.

God bless you all!

Katie, Jeff, Jubilee and Malakai

Friday, December 18, 2009

Arrived safely!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived safely! No problems and the kids were A+ on the flights and during all the travel. Thank you for your prayers. God bless! We love you all! Katie, Jeff, Jubilee and Malakai

Friday, December 11, 2009

Prayer Request

Hello everyone. Hope this update finds you all well and getting ready to enjoy a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones. We are doing well but I wanted to relay a very important prayer request to everyone. I do believe in the power of prayer and we have witnessed the might hand of our Heavenly Father so many times while living in Bolivia, I know this time will be no different.

I need everyone to be praying that I will receive my passport in time to travel on Wednesday this week. Katie, Jubilee and Malakai all have the documents they need. Katie and Jubilee are working on their Bolivian ID cards today but they do have their passports and permanent visas. I on the other hand am still waiting for my visa and passport. On Wednesday I had gone to the immigration office here in Cochabamba to present a formal request to pull my passport out of the process in order to be able to leave the country. On that day the person I spoke to told me there would be no problem and that I could come back the next day on Thursday and get my passport. When I returned yesterday the person I gave my request to was not to be found and after much hemming and hawing the other secretary finally found my letter which had not been sent to La Paz which meant I was not getting my passport that day. When I went in to speak with the head honcho with whom I have had run ins in the past, he informed that these requests normally take two weeks. He told me later that I could maybe get it back in one week but that was still not really a guarantee. I retracted my formal request and now plan on traveling in person to the immigration office in La Paz on Monday. I am counting on all you prayer warriors out there for you to lift up a special prayer on my family´s behalf that I would get my passport back in time to travel on Wednesday.

Additionally, I am very overwhelmed today as I am trying to get all of my final projects done for the semester before I go out of town tomorrow to the countryside for a service project with some of my English students. It will be a good trip but that along with all my school work is adding major stress. Please pray for Katie and the kids as well as this is very stressful for all of us. Thanks to all of you. I can´t wait to update you on how God is going to work this out!!!

Jeff

Friday, December 04, 2009

Pictures say a thousand words - or more!


There are updated pictures of the Forbess family and activities on www.dropshots.com/forbessfamily including Jubilee birthday, my birthday, Thanksgiving with the English students, intermediate bible class, Thanksgiving with the team, Angela's chats with the single ladies, Renata's baptism, the last day of tennis for Jubilee, the last day of school for Jubilee and Malakai, and random cute pictures of the kids! Hope you enjoy them! - Katie

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friends & Family,

Hello everyone! Greetings from Cochabamba. Today is Turkey Day and in about an hour or so we will be celebrating with the Bulls and Sandovals and also Angela Myers who is visiting from Sucre. We have been smelling the delicious smells coming from Butch and Trish´s smoker upstairs and can´t wait!

Our family is doing well. Yesterday Jubilee and Malakai had their clausura at school which is their last day and accompanying pomp and circumstance. Malakai was a very sleepy little flower and Jubilee was a great "mama bear" in their rendition of Goldilocks. I wanted to take advantage of a spare moment and just mention some prayers of thanksgiving since after all that is what today is about.

Thank you God for:

Arrival of Katie and Jubilee´s permanent visas!!!!!!!!!
(Mine is still being processed in La Paz since I traveled to Brazil in October, please continue praying that mine comes in time for furlough.)

We rejoice with Gary and Laura Bull for the birth of Joshua. Everything went well with Laura and Joshua during the delivery and he is making his first visit to our house today. We are so happy and thankful for the Bulls and for their precious new baby.

We are supposed to sign the papers today on a lease for Wendy´s new apartment. She is one of the mothers who lost her daughter in the accident and we have been looking this whole time for a more permanent housing situation. Yesterday was literally the last day before she had to move. God led us to a great safe and clean place. Please pray that all continues to work out well in this instance.

Tomorrow Angela will be leading a special invitation-only charla (visit) for our single ladies and on Monday will do something similar for the teenage girls. Angela is a great encouragement to our ladies here and we are thankful for her presence and willingness to help out in this area. Please pray that both charlas go well.

Also, after a great deal of deliberation Katie and I finally were able to pin down dates for our furlough which is actually not very far away. We will begin contacting people personally if we have not already but our dates are going to be from December 19th to March 1st. Be looking in your inboxes the next couple of days for a complete list of dates and times when we will be in your area. We are thankful for an opportunity to visit friends, family and supporters and we are also extremely thankful to my grandmother Leyda T. who has volunteered her mini-van for our furlough road trip. Please pray for things such as visas, plane tickets (availability & affordability), scheduling, health and all the myriad things that go into taking two little children across 8 different states in 10 weeks.

As always we are also so thankful for all of you who read our blog and hold us up in prayer. This year has been difficult but with all of your prayers God has heard our pleas and not forgotten even the least of our needs. God is good all the time and to Him be all the glory, honor and praise.

Love,

La Familia Forbess