Well folks, it’s been a looong time since our last update. I’ll skip the list of reasons for our silence, and jump straight to the good stuff.

Summer Happened

This summer was full. We did some manual labor, had family visit, and moved twice. July was filled with an intensive German course, which gave us a little more language confidence. Wir sprechen Deutsch ein bisschen besser. (If you speak German, you may be able to tell just how little better by that sentence.)

School’s back in session!

In late August, BFA started up again. We’re so glad not to be new this year! It’s wonderful to know how BFA operates, know what all those crazy acronyms mean, and best of all, to know students! God has already blessed us with some amazing, truth-filled, life-changing conversations with students.

Israel and the Screaming Girls

Israel is coaching JV Girl’s Volleyball this year. Last year he helped out, but now he’s an official coach. This means daily practices and traveling to games every weekend. Israel seems to be uniquely equipped, by his five sisters, to deal with all the screaming involved in a six hour bus ride with 20 teenage girls. He’s very much enjoying coaching, but it makes for a very tiring schedule.

Dani Goes to School

I am in my last few weeks of a Biblical Counseling class through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. The class is called Foundations of Biblical Change and has been incredibly applicable, both to my own life and to my conversations with girls. Already this year, several girls have come to me with some pretty serious things, so the training I’m receiving through this class has been incredibly helpful. I hope to continue with more classes next semester.

Hello Long-Term Commitment?

Our initial commitment to BFA was for two years; this is our second year. Because it takes several months for BFA to fill empty positions, the school asks us to make next year’s commitment in October. A few weeks ago, we turned in a sheet of paper indicating that we would be at BFA next school year. We feel that we need to stay here until God tells us to go somewhere else. We’re excited about this decision and about being able to invest here longer term. This will mean more support raising this summer and, hopefully, more language learning, but we’re excited about the ways God will provide through these opportunities.

Pray for Us. Pretty Please!

• Busy, Busy, Busy — As our lack of updates indicate, we’re crazy busy! We’ve had very little free time since school started. We hope things will slow down a bit in mid-November, once volleyball and my class are over, but we’re already looking forward to Christmas Break.
• Chapel Talk — I, Dani, am speaking in High School Chapel on November 11th. I think I’ll be speaking about the miscarriages and what God’s been teaching me through them, but I don’t really know what “the point” of my talk is yet, partially because I’m still in the middle of this journey. I’m also sharing my story of dealing with sexual addiction in a dorm on Sunday. Prayer is much appreciated!
• Student Issues — God’s allowed us to join girls in pretty serious issues this year. We feel privileged to get to walk with them toward Jesus, but we can also feel rather helpless! We know, though, that Jesus is the only one who saves and changes. Pray for wisdom for us, and for redemption and salvation for the students!
• Summer and Future Plans – We’re still many months away, but summer will be upon us sooner than we think. This will mean travel, finding temporary housing and a car, and raising more support. We’re also in the process of deciding what direction to take for our family, whether fertility, adoption or something else.

We love you all! We’ll try to get another update out before Christmas!

So our community group, back in the states, sent us a package for Christmas. We didn’t end up getting it until after the new year, but it was well worth the wait. It was full of white-elephant (dirty Santa) gifts!

What Was Inside?

Let’s see…among the gifts was my favorite, the abominable snowman. You put it in water and then it grows over a three day period into three-times it’s normal size. I’ve happened to discover that I like hiding it around the house. So every few days it’s placed in different locations. Loads of fun for all involved.

So What Does This Have to do With Being in Germany?

Absolutely nothing. But it has everything to do with having great friends and supporters. People who will stand by you. People who will laugh with you. People who will pray with you.

We love our community group. Receiving fun gifts like this makes me feel loved and supported. And I enjoy the silly gifts. I guess I’m trying to say that it’s a blessing when we get surprises. And it’s a blessing to have great supporters like our community group and others who are willing to stand by us while we are over here in Germany.

Thank You

Thanks community group for all your prayers and care. We love every note and little gift you send our way. You have more of an impact than I can ever convey. We love you. Know that your sacrifice for us will not go unnoticed. You are all in our prayers as well.

Here are the Gifts Being Used

First Semester at BFA from Israel Jernigan on Vimeo.
The song in the video is Your Glory by Sons and Daughters. It is used with their permission.

As you know, we’re leaving, the country, for a while. As of July 16th, we’ll no longer be US residents, let alone Arkansas residents. We want to say goodbye to you, so we’re having a going away party, also known as the Jernigan Jubilee. I think The Jernigan Jubilee is a rather horrible name, but it’s all I could think of at the time, so we’re stuck with it.

The awesomeness that will be the Jernigan Jubilee is from 6:00 to 10:00 pm on Saturday, July 10th. The shin-dig will take place at The Farm of Hale at 16045 Trapp Hill Rd., West Fork, AR. If you put this address into your GPS, you might get lost. Directions are at the end of this post.

Here are some of the amazing things you can look forward to at the Jernigan Jubilee.

• Hotdogs and Hamburgers
• Farm Animals – Goats, chickens, sheep, dogs, cats, ducks. We will not be eating any of the farm animals.
• Fishing from the pond. Bring poles if you have them!
• Yard games – Corn Hole, Ladder Ball, Bocci Ball
• Beautiful Arkansas countryside
• Fireworks…If you happen to have some extra lying around.
• Us!

We would love to see you at the Jubilee. If you’re going to come, please bring a drink, a side dish, or a dessert. We will provide hot dogs and hamburgers with all the fixings, tea, lemonade, and plates and such. Please let me know if you plan to attend and what food you will bring. You can now RSVP on Facebook! But, if you don’t RSVP, come anyway!

Directions, Dani Style

From Fayetteville, AR to 16045 Trapp Hill Rd., West Fork, AR

• Head South on 540 for about ten miles (depending on where in Fayetteville you start).
• Take Exit 53 to AR-170 toward West Fork.
• Turn right onto AR-170. Continue to follow AR-170 for 6.6 miles. Enjoy the view.
• Turn right onto CR 2073. There is a blue sign on the left side of the road, but you will turn right.
• Continue down this road for about a mile. Stay to the left. The house is a log cabin home on the left. It set back from the road a bit. Look for the small Farm of Hale sign.
• Call if you get lost! 918-287-8014

See you soon!

On Sunday afternoon, I made a phone call that brought us from 53% of our monthly support to 80%. 80%! I was in total shock. And awe. I couldn’t believe it.

The family that brought us from 53 to 80% was one that we had met with in March. I was supposed to call them back in early April to update them about whether we were leaving, but I didn’t. My initial excuse was that we were busy at a family wedding. But then I felt bad that I hadn’t called, and I put it off. And then I felt even worse that I hadn’t called, and put it off again. And on and on the cycle went, until yesterday. If I had called when I was supposed to, we might have been gone by now.

In late March I posted on our blog about my sense of expectation that God was going to bring our support in. And what do you know, he had! I just hadn’t called to follow up. Anyway, my whole point in telling you these details isn’t to rue the past, but to tell you that God really did have it taken care of!

Since Sunday, we’ve even received 4% more of our support. So now we’re at 84%! This means we can actually leave for Germany!

We’re currently waiting to hear from Black Forest Academy about whether we should come now or wait until the summer. If we come now, we’ll probably arrive with just two or three weeks of school left. These are some of the busiest weeks of the year, for both students and staff. It probably won’t be a great time to try to transition, plus the staff won’t have much time to help us get settled. But, it would give us the opportunity to meet Tim and Sandee, the director and his wife, before they move this summer. Plus, we’d be there!

If we don’t head over immediately, we’ll be able to attend our TeachBeyond orientation in June. Then, we might head to Germany in July and have a month or so to adjust to life before school begins.

With whatever time we do have left in the States, we hope to raise the remaining 16% of our support. We plan to continue meeting with new people and following up with those we have yet to hear back from. It would be a huge blessing to head to Black Forest Academy fully funded!

We’re so excited! It doesn’t seem quite real that we’ll actually be going to Germany! Thank you for walking with us through this journey. You all have been faithful encouragers to us.

We serve a God who is good, faithful and generous, despite our faithlessness, doubt and sin.

We’ll keep you updated on our departure date!

Well, it’s been another month since our last blog post. The five sentence post previous to this one doesn’t count, obviously. Usually, not posting for a month means that nothing exciting has happened, which is kind of the case here. Not much has happened on the support side of things.

Because I know you’re all dying to know, I’ll give you a brief overview of what’s been going on for us in April. Ready?

April 1st happened.

We knew it would eventually—the looming, self-imposed deadline. When April rolled around, we found ourselves not at 100% or even 80% of our monthly support, but at 53%. Well, it’s better than 25%. Moving on.

Hannah got married. Israel’s lovely sister Hannah married her beloved Australian beau on April 3rd. A wonderful time was had by all. Also, 20 minutes before the wedding, I fell down half a flight of stairs. More on that in a later post.

The Bride

We moved. From November through March, we were living with the wonderful Luke and Ashley. Here’s a bit of info about these two. First, they are pregnant with their first child. In case you didn’t know, that’s a big deal. They found out they were pregnant a few weeks before we moved in, but still graciously opened up their home to us. Second, they bought and moved into their first home while we were living with them. Also a big deal. Third, they have two relatively new dogs. For some, this may not be a life-changing occurrence, but when one of your dogs is a separation-anxiety prone Weimaraner who like to use knives as chew toys, break dishes and eat 100 pieces of chocolate at a time, it can be rather stressful. So, in order for let Luke and Ashley to properly settle into their new home and prepare for their upcoming baby, we moved in with some other friends.

We are currently living with Josh and Margo in a town about 30 minutes south of Fayetteville. They live on a small farm, which is why you may have heard us mention snakes and missing kid goats. That’s all I’m going to tell you about the farm until we post more later.

Am I annoying anyone with my blatant withholding of information? I don’t want to ruin our upcoming posts!

When we moved in with Josh and Margo, they went to Hawaii for two weeks. After four months of living with another couple and seven months of traveling and sleeping on air mattresses in other people’s living rooms, we got to be alone. Oh glorious solitude. I do need my alone time and when I don’t get it, I tend to seclude myself in my room, which feels a little anti-social when all the other people in our house are chatting in the living room. Anyway, our two weeks of alone time also coincided with two weeks of disappointment and discouragement about not being in Germany yet.

Last week, we traveled to Texas again to visit some of my family that was in town. We spent about a week hanging out with the fam, playing games, eating too much and hold Addy, my cousin’s miracle baby. More on this in another post.

Addy and Her Momma

There you go. That’s what’s happened since April 1st.

Our monthly support hasn’t really budged at all, partly due to our lack of effort. It’s been hard to get back up and press on with our support raising. I had a rather profound and encouraging thought earlier today about support raising and God’s plan and such, but I can’t remember it now…. I’ll let you know if I do.

We’re still at 53% of our monthly amount, but we’ve seen a lot of one-time gifts come in this month, about $5,000 worth. This puts us over our required start-up money. We’re still waiting to hear back from two churches regarding monthly support. This Sunday we’re also heading back down to Texas to speak in the evening service at the First Baptist Church of Bonham. Pray that God softens the hearts of the congregation there so that they connect with us (this is not a church either of us have attended), see the importance of loving missionary kids and want to give! We’re hoping to find a few new monthly supporters here.

I think we’ve both had a hard time not giving up. We’ve gone through most of the people on our list of potential supporters and don’t feel very optimistic about proceeding. After working so hard for the last few months, it’s hard to believe that we’ll actually make it to the point where we can leave. The past couple days, I’ve found myself in the same mental state I was in a year ago, questioning whether God answers pray and is good. But, I’ve been reminded that God isn’t a formula. I can’t do A and B and expect God to answer with C. I know there’s a plan within all of this, and I can see the benefit of our months of support raising. God not answering my prayers in my timing doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love me or have good things for me. Sigh. Shouldn’t I be past these things already?

And just in case you’re wondering what in the world the blog header has to do this post, not much. Those oranges were in the juice the morning of Hannah’s wedding. I always feel pressure, from some unnamed person who shares my last name, to use an image in the header, and usually I have no idea what to put there. Hence the oranges.

We’re at 53% of our monthly amount. This means that we can’t leave for Germany when we’d originally hoped. But, we have several promising potential donors who may be able to cover more significant portions of our budget. We’re praying that God will give us favor with these donors. So, we’re not heading out yet, but we could be very soon.

Right now we’re in Muskogee, Oklahoma with Israel’s family. Israel’s sister, Hannah, gets married on Saturday. She lives in Australia and is marrying an Aussie named Ash. So it’s a rare and wonderful treat to see them. We’re spending the rest of the week with the family.

Thank you all! We’re blessed to know you. We’ll let you know what happens over the next few weeks!

Today is March 25th. And that means that April 1st is seven days away. One week. 168 hours. Actually, less than 168 hours, because it’s currently 10:29 p.m.

We haven’t budged much in our support these last two weeks. We’re at 52%. According to the numbers, we won’t be leaving for a long time. Logically, we probably won’t arrive in Germany until after the school year is over. But for some reason, my heart is denying that logic. I have this strange eagerness inside me. I’m excited, and anxious, and eager to see what happens. I feel like I’m waiting for a huge, life-changing event, like my wedding. Which is a little ironic, since Israel’s sister gets married on the 3rd.

I don’t know that God will bring our support in within the next seven days. I don’t know when he plans for us to be in Germany. But I feel…hope, or faith, or something, almost physically in my chest. I really can’t describe it. And the more I think about it, the more I think that maybe this is faith and belief in God’s ability and power and desire to prove himself.

We’ve reached a point in our support raising where we’re not really sure who to talk to. We’ve contacted the majority of the people we know. Occasionally I freak out a little bit and wonder where in the world the rest of this money is going to come from, but mostly, I feel the need to pack, and prepare, and order books that I might need. I feel like we’ve done what we can, and the rest is up to God. I’m not saying that we won’t continue meeting with people, but I’m more aware now that all of this is out of our hands. So far, support raising has been such a shocker. So much about it is surprising, that I know that God is in it. From the 50 or so people we have on our team, to our living situation, to the money that keeps coming out of nowhere for us to live on, I can see God’s provision.

And I feel ready to move to Germany now, in some way that I haven’t before. Not that I speak the language (I don’t), or think we’re finally prepared (we’re not), or feel in any way capable of doing our jobs (oy), but I feel peace, and assurance, and love for the students. I’ve learned so much in the past six months (and four years), and I think God’s been preparing us for this. And in some intangible way that I can’t describe, I feel ready to leave.

I don’t know what God’s going to do with our support. I’ve never had the kind of faith that allows me to believe that God will do this one thing at this one time. I’ve never believed things in that way. But I’m believing in this support thing in a way that’s beyond my normal faith. I feel quite frightened admitting this, because I know I’ll feel embarrassed and foolish if we don’t have our support for three more months, but I think God might do it. I think we might be heading out in a couple weeks. And I think this is a perfect opportunity for him to display his power—to me, at least.

On a whole other note, God’s been opening my eyes again to the fact that we have a enemy. Some days are awful. I’ll be discouraged, and irritable, and angry and sad, and suddenly realize that maybe this isn’t just me, but I’m actually being attacked.

Our marriage has certainly been more…rocky…than usual. We’ve been much more easily offended, and annoyed and angered than ever before. We actually got into a fight, a real, yell-at-each-other-and-storm-out-and-slam-the-door fight, the other day—about our car tag, of all things. I think this was our first official fight. Pretty good for almost four years of marriage I suppose.

Now there’s no reason to be concerned. In many ways, our marriage is more healthy than it has been in a long time. But I can see how these squabbles add to the stress of this time, and make us more weary and can make us feel more downtrodden. In spite of that, God’s drawing us closer together. We’re delighting in each other in ways that we haven’t in a long time. I’m so thankful for that.

Someone mentioned, during one of our support meetings I believe, how one of the best ways for Satan to attack missionaries is to attack their children. I realized, for the first time, how precious and important Black Forest Academy is, and how important our roles are in protecting, and loving, and praying for these kids. They are vulnerable, just because of who they are. For the first time, I felt like I was actually going to be fighting for something at BFA.

Anyway, those are two rather unconnected trains of thought, but that’s what I was thinking about tonight.

Oh, one more thing, if you don’t mind.

We just found out that the director of BFA, Tim Shuman, will be leaving after this year to take a position with the Association of Christian Schools International in Colorado Springs. Tim has been at BFA for 24 years and Sandee, his wife, has been there for 29 years. That’s where they met, became engaged, had their children, and saw them graduate. Israel and I now feel even more of an urgency to get to BFA before the school year ends. Tim has a strong vision for the media at BFA and they obviously know the school very well. We want to absorb every bit of their wisdom and vision that we can. If you’d like to learn more about the Shumans, you can check out their blog.

We’ve made it to 50%! Yay! Hooray! Haroo!

God’s done some amazing things in the past few weeks. In 24 hours, he brought in 5% of our support. Then, a few days later, in about 48 hours, he brought in 6% more. That’s 11% in one week. It’s been a very encouraging time. We’re excited to see how God will bring in the remainder of our support, hopefully, by April 1st. For some reason, reaching the 50% mark seems like a huge mental hurdle that we’ve finally overcome. The rest doesn’t seem to be nearly as difficult, maybe because we can head over at 80%.

Okay, here are the specifics. We’re at 50.7% of our monthly support. That’s $2,752. We still need at least 30% more; that’s $1,625. We have 17 days left and need $96 a day. Sorry for all of these numbers, but for some reason, knowing the specifics makes me feel better.

So, keep praying for God to bring in our support in miraculous ways! I’m eager to see how God is going to make himself look great through all of this. Also, pray that we’ll be able to find at least one supporter who could cover $300 to $500 a month. We’re also running out of people to contact; pray that God will bring people to mind who might want to join our team.

So, since we have 23 days remaining to raise at least $1,912, we could use your prayers. Here’s some stuff you can lift up to Jesus on our behalf.

An Abundance of Support – In order to have enough support to leave for Germany in April, we need to raise 1.5% of our monthly amount per day. That’s about $80 a day to reach 80% of our budget. In order to reach 100% of our budget, we need to receive $130 of new support a day. That’s about 2.5%. Obviously, if we reach either of these amounts by April 1st, it will be all God. Pray for God to bring a flood of new support! We know that we’ll get to Black Forest Academy at the right time, but it would be amazing if the right time was now.

Favor – Pray that we find favor with those we meet with. We want people to connect with us, understand our vision and passion for the students at BFA, and want to support us. Ask God to give us favor with everyone we call and meet.

Appointments – Pray that the remaining 23 days of our support raising will be packed with appointments! We’re heading to Texas on Thursday and want to meet with as many people as possible.

Glory to God – Pray that through all of our calls and meetings and highs and lows, God is glorified. Sometimes it’s difficult to see how God could receive the glory when we are feeling discouraged and defeated, but we want him to be praised and honored even in our discouragement.

Preparation for Life in Germany – Pray that God will continue to prepare the way for us to get to Germany and then make a life there. We want our support to come in quickly, our travels to be easy, and our adjustment to BFA to be quick. Pray for an apartment in Kandern, the town where the school is. Pray that we’re able to connect with the staff and students. Pray that we make new friends, find a church and learn German quickly. If we do arrive in April, we know that our transition will probably be more difficult than the normal new staff person. We will be arriving mid-year, we will miss the formal orientation and we’ll barely get to know the students before they leave for the summer. It could be a difficult time, but we’d like it to be wonderful. Pray also for our summer; most BFA staff leave for at least one month of the summer, so we could be rather lonely.

Thanks friends! We’re glad to have you in our lives.