A Picture Tour!

We've settled into our routine and our room is feeling like our own space. It's not decorated or anything but it sure is nice to have a chair to sit and unwind in after 8 hours of class--something neither of us are used to! 

So I thought I would take you on a picture tour of the campus that we will call for the next month. 

Here's our room! Actually, every room is sort of a suite--so we actually have another little connecting room with a bunk bed and a single bed in it. 

This is the building we are staying in. In the front are the dorms--there are 12 of us living here. On the second story are offices and in the very back of the building is our classroom. 

Looking out from our dorm--it's a really gorgeous campus! I guess I've been stereotypical in my view of Texas; I had no idea we would see this much GREEN! 

 Inside the dorm--the living room, where we hang out to to eat breakfast, do homework, computer stuff, watch TV, have worship, etc. 

Dorm kitchen:

We eat breakfast in our dorm but have lunch in dinner in a cafeteria. The food has been great! 

Cafeteria:

And here's our classroom--the international lounge. We spend a lot of time sitting in here. But we are learning a lot! :) How Mercy Ships was started, its vision, its core values, what its like to live on board, etc. The speakers have been fantastic and are always available for questions. 

BUT... as excited as we are to be a part of the Mercy Ships crew in the near future, we are WAAAY more excited to call ourselves UNCLE JORDAN AND AUNT KATIE!!! :) Congratulations Josh and Jenni!!!!!! 

Texas!

We are safely in Texas!! 

Just a quick update on what our last week was like and what we're up to now. Our last week in Ohio was a whirlwind. 

In one week: 

We sold our car;

Radar went to his new home;

Katie had her wisdom teeth taken out;

We packed our entire house and garage into boxes;

Everything was moved into storage;

We packed our new life into 4 duffel bags; and

We did an interview for our local TV! 

A lot of that has to do with packing and there is no way we could have done it without help. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday packing up boxes and on Thursday afternoon and evening, a ton of people came over to help me clean the house and help Jordan move all of the boxes and furniture into storage. So THANK YOU: Dad and Mom, Uncle Ray and Aunt Kathy, Mary, Daniel, Brad and Crystal (and Lillia), Josh and Jenni, Neil and Mandalyn (and Hugo), Luke, Sara, Brad and Kris (and Lyssa), Nick and Mareena (and Fenner), Tyrel, and Levi!! 

Also, MANY thanks to Sandy for letting us eat at her house all week so I didn't have to cook!  :) 

The hardest part of the week was saying goodbye to a lot of special people. We really enjoyed spending time with friends and family but we tried our best not to think about the goodbyes that were coming. 

Sunday morning at Vineyard was definitely a highlight of the week; we did not expect to receive that much encouragement! The prayers that were said at the beginning of the service So many of you made a point of waiting to talk to us, giving a hug, or promising us your prayers. Jordan mentioned this at church but we have talked about it so much amongst ourselves that I really want to say it again: We of course knew when we started all this that we would not be doing it alone; that's not the body of Christ that we know! That being said, we have been overwhelmed by how much love and encouragement has been shown us. Every person at Vineyard has said/done something and you can't imagine the support we feel knowing that our entire church body is praying for us. It really is a crazy thing to wrap our minds around and we wish you could all see it from our point of view! It seems like a very small way to give back but all we can say is:

THANK YOU. 

On Monday morning, we packed up the Camry and said goodbye to our family. I have to admit that we (somewhat seriously) joked about leaving early in the morning before anyone woke up just to avoid all those goodbyes. :(

 At least for this picture none of us look like we're crying too bad. :) 

And then... we drove.

Bye bye Ohio! 

We decided to make the trip in two days so that we could stop over in Kansas City to see my best friend, Jessica. :) It worked out really well because then we felt like we didn't have to rush the trip and it was very nice to have a fun HELLO to look forward to in the midst of all the sad goodbyes. We were definitely ready to be out of the car though! 

And now, we are safely in Longview, TX, at my parents' house. We'll hang out here today and tomorrow and head to the IOC (International Operations Center) in Lindale early Friday afternoon. It's great to see my family and to NOT be packing!! 

On Saturday, we will have registration at the IOC and we'll get settled into our dorm. And on Monday, classes start! 

One last thing: I am working on our email list for those of you who said that you'd like to receive email updates from us. If you didn't give me your email address yet and would like to receive updates, just send an email to: kaitlyn.stull09@gmail.com. 

One Month?

According to my calendar, it's already August 14?? We've had a super busy summer but it's mostly been busy because we've seen a lot of people and gone a lot of places--a good busy!

But now we are down to a month left until we leave for Texas for our training. Training (otherwise known as Onboarding) starts Saturday, August 14, and we will be in our dorm the day before to get settled in. Onboarding will last around 8 weeks. There are only 3 Onboarding classes each year and any crew members who are serving for 10+ months are required to take the class. I think this is great from a practical standpoint, but I also like the idea of spending 2 months training with and getting to know some of the people that we will be starting this new phase of life with.

During the first 6 weeks, we will be at Mercy Ships headquarters in Lindale, TX. The training will cover a lot of different areas, including:

Learning more about the Mercy Ships organization;

Discussing why we do missions from a Biblical perspective;

Examining our own spiritual lives and studying the Word with our classmates;

Recognizing our own personalities and how to successfully live/interact/work with 480 other personalities;

Study how best to serve the poor (i.e. not "hurting by helping"); and

Undergoing Basic Safety Training (first aid, CPR, sea survival, firefighting and fire prevention, blood borne pathogens).

After those 6 weeks, we will fly to the Congo! Our tickets are for October 22. The entire team will fly out together and we will spend 10-14 days completing some sort of project (painting a school, adding a room to an orphanage, stuff like that) on the ground before we board the ship. This is another way that Mercy Ships gets involved with a host country from a non-medical standpoint. It also is a great way for us to get to know the Congolese--whom we will be serving the next 10 months!

Knowing that this is all just a month away definitely produces mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are so excited that this is all we can think about. On the other hand, we know there are going to be a lot of goodbyes up ahead and so we try not to think about that part too much. And on the other hand (or foot I guess) we have so much to do in the next month that we can think about it too much and end up stressing!

So when all is said and done, we need to come to God in prayer. 

Please join us in praying that we do not lose sight of what God has called us to--we are definitely excited and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are going where God wants us. But in the midst of stressing about packing and saying goodbyes, it's easy to wonder if we're doing the right thing.

Please do pray for those goodbyes! Honestly, goodbyes are what occupy most of my thoughts right now and I know there will be many teary days ahead (to be perfectly honest, I'm tearing up writing this). We are so blessed by our family and friends here and I'm always reminded by this quote when my thoughts go this way: "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." I love this quote because it's a reminder to look on the bright side. But those goodbyes are definitely hard and we're not looking forward to them.

Please pray as we get packing. We have a lot of sorting to do--what gets thrown away, what is given away or sold, what to find a temporary home for, what goes into storage, what comes with us when we fly, and what will be shipped to us later--you get the picture. Pray that we use our time efficiently and that we use our space even MORE efficiently! :)

However, despite writing all that, packing is NOT our focus for this month. We want this month to be all about PEOPLE. So PLEASE, if you want to hang out, shoot Jordan or me a text, write an email, or leave a comment. :) We want this last month to be full of fun memories of our friends and family! 

Prayer Card

We had our prayer cards at our Benefit Dinner which was a great way to get them to people! However, because of that, I haven't taken the time to make out a list of people to send a prayer card too since we gave away a bunch in one go! 

Our prayer cards were taken by the lovely Mandalyn Renicker [http://morceauphotography.com] designed by my incredibly talented cousin, Michael Albright. He did a fantastic job! (Vanity disclaimer: I'm only posting a picture of it so that you can decide for yourselves whether or not you'd like us staring down at you from your fridge.) :) 

We also have a brochure that Jordan and I designed (in the loosest sense of the word) for the Benefit Dinner. It gives a few more details about Mercy Ships. [Sorry, can't post a picture of it!] 

So if you'd like a prayer card and a brochure, or just one or the other, please email me (kaitlyn.stull09@gmail.com) or Jordan (jordan@stullwoodworks.com) with your address and we'd be happy to mail one to you!

Email

We found out that our Mercy Ship email addresses that are on our prayer cards will not be available to use until closer to the time we leave. Just wanted to let that be known in case someone tried to email us! Until we say otherwise, if you would like to email us, use:

jordan@stullwoodworks.com

or

kaitlyn.stull09@gmail.com.

Thanks!

Benefit Dinner

We are completely in awe of what God's people can do all together. Last night we came home with tired bodies but minds that would not shut down. Jordan mentioned briefly at church that it's amazing to think of how God's employee system works: the whole earth is His Kingdom, so whether he asks someone to relocate to a boat off the coast of Africa or whether he asks someone to stay where they are to be a sponsor, there is no difference between the two. Some go and some stay, some give and some serve but the body of Christ is most effective when they all work together. 

I'm sure there are a few people who are interested in the statistics part of the evening so here's some information. :)

We figure that close to 200 people came! We had no idea how many to expect but people started pouring in at 5:30 and didn't quit coming until 8! We've obviously been preparing for this dinner for a while but so much of that planning is just practical stuff--how much food, what to share during Jordan's talk, how to communicate information effectively, how to ask for financial support (which neither of us have ever done and don't particularly enjoy doing!), etc. So when Jordan got up to speak and we both took a look at how packed the room was, we were incredibly humbled that all of you came because you wanted to support us in any way you could. So if you did stop by, thank you!! We knew we were going to be saying goodbye to a very special community of people and last night really emphasized that. We count ourselves blessed to be able to say that we have a LOT of support behind us! Not everyone who serves on the mission field can say the same and we do not take your words of encouragement, prayer, and financial support for granted.

We are also completely in awe of how much financial support did come in last night. Before the benefit dinner, we estimated that we were at around 29% of support raised, which we already thought was cool since we hadn't said much to anyone! After last night, we found that we are at 71% of our support!! Needless to say, the phrase "I just can't believe it" keeps popping up. :)

Sandy (Jordan's mom) put the word out that she and Brian were going to be hosting a Benefit Dinner for us. She never asked for help but tons of people offered--even the ice cream was donated! So after we sat down and figured out our menu and what food we would need to buy, she sent out the list only to the people that had shown interest in helping with food. Within a week, the list was full and people were still asking what they could bring so she ended up adding a few more things to the list! We got to Pathway around 2:00 on Saturday and really all we had to do was cut up some watermelon and set up the tables! So many people offered to help with grilling, serving, cleaning, etc. and we want to thank each and everyone of you who brought food and helped out!

So all in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the evening--we loved talking with the people who came and we were excited to share what we're doing next! We hope you enjoyed the food and fellowship. :)

Financial Information

If you are interested in supporting US financially, first of all: THANK YOU for your generosity!

~~~~~

We understand that it does seem strange to volunteer our time AND pay our own way, so we’d like to be as open as possible with why we need support! We have worked through a budget with the Mercy Ships financial advisor, who helped us list the expenses we will have on the ship:

• Crew fees (this includes room and board)

• Medication (this is mostly for our anti-malarial meds)

•Insurance (both medical and evacuation insurance)

•Personal costs (day-to-day materials, such as cosmetics)

• Travel Expenses (travel to and from the ship)
• Taxes and Tithe

All of this adds up to $1700 per month that we will need to live on the ship for two years, starting in September. 

Because we will not be making any form of income while on the ship, we need monthly financial support in order to pay our expenses. 

If you are considering supporting us, there are several ways to do so; either through the Mercy Ships organization or through our home church, Vineyard Fellowship. Whichever option you choose, you will receive a tax deductible receipt. 

      Give Online through Mercy Ships

      Every crew member has their own personal financial page on the Mercy Ships website. Click here to go to our page. On the right side of the page, click on the green “Donate” button. This will take you to a page where you can make a one time gift or pledge to give monthly.  

      Giving at Vineyard Fellowship

Make check out to “Branching Out Ministries” and place in giving box at Vineyard Fellowship. Write “Jordan and Kaitlyn Stull” in the memo.

      Branching Out Ministries (through Vineyard Fellowship)

      Branching Out Ministries

      888 S. Furlong Rd.

      Laura, Oh, 45337

Make check out to “Branching Out Ministries” with "Jordan and Kaitlyn Stull" in the memo. If sending cash, please include a note with “Jordan and Kaitlyn Stull” written on it.

      Mail to Mercy Ships

             Please make your check out to “Mercy Ships”. Write “3595 Stull” in the memo. This is our account number. Mail to:

                    Mercy Ships

                    P.O. Box 1930

                    Lindale, TX 75771