Steve and Jenny Valentine

Who ever said “stop and take time to smell the roses” has never been shoved in a minivan with almost all their belongings, 3 small children and told to drive over 1,500 miles through 16 different states in an effort to raise financial support for the ministry you feel called to do. Who even cares about stinkin “roses” when you have 400 miles left in your drive but cannot manage to be on the road for more than 30 minutes before someone has to use the bathroom yet again? This has been my heart condition of late. A heart that is more concerned with arriving at our final destination than the journey we are on. But what if the saying was “ stop and take time to become more like Jesus ” or even “ stop and take time to deeply treasure Jesu s”. Oh how this changes the long days in the car on this sanctification journey called a family road trip. Lord forgive me when I have been more concerned with “getting there” then who we are when we arrive. -Steve More  about our move to...

We are on the road traveling. We signed paperwork yesterday to sell our home. Today, after Karis got out of school and Steve off work, we left Orlando and began what we plan to be a two month long trip.  The purpose of this trip: meet with potential financial and prayer partners that will enable us to serve as missionaries in Poland and visit with family and friends all along the way.  As Steve drops down hours (and pay) at work, we have a goal to reach 50 percent of our monthly financial budget by the end of October.  We hope to be departing to Poland in July of 2015.  Day one: we arrived at our first place of rest (Pensacola, FL) in just under 9 hours...pretty good with three littles to tend to along the way. Overall, it was a good travel day, despite three major rain storms! We thank the Lord for safe travels and for many who are praying for our family during this trip. Now...to get two of the sleeping children into the hotel for a good nights rest...