World Travels Geography Series

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Welcome to World Travels! We are so excited to learn about the world with you. In this series you will find an introduction and 16 country studies. Delbert and Dinah will be flying around the world in their hot air balloon, learning about the countries they visit and how Christianity has impacted them along the way. Here are the stops we will be making. We will begin in France, then head to Ireland, England, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Mongolia, China/Hong Kong, Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, and finish in the United States of America. Click the country to find the post when it is available. The introduction letter can be found here.

In addition to the letters from Delbert and Dinah, we will be using several materials. You can choose to use these to further your study or use your own ideas that will spark your children's desire to learn. I will share country specific items after each letter, but the following we use in our home for all or nearly all of the countries.

 

Introduction Letter

France Letter

Ireland Letter

England Letter

Netherlands Letter

Italy Letter

Greece Letter

Egypt Letter

Saudi Arabia Letter

India Letter

Mongolia Letter

China/Hong Kong Letter

Australia Letter

Easter Island Letter

Guatemala Letter

Mexico Letter

United States of America Letter

The Update That Took 7 Months to Write

Really, this is the update that took 7 months to happen. It all started with a crazy question to the Reach Global missions organization In mid-December...but you can check out all those updates in the Living Faith tab. Today we are starting with last night.

Adam and I headed to Apple Valley where we met the lead of the Montreal team. He was visiting MN to teach at a missions training week. It was wonderful getting to know him. We talked for 3 hours about so many subjects. We chatted a bit about our faith and what works we are currently doing for the Lord. There was a little bit of budget talk and he asked about our technology needs and apartment needs. He also gave us some wonderful advise about the work we have to do ahead.

In the end the important things we came away with were that he is very encouraged about the works that we are currently doing and feels that we will be a great fit in Montreal. That he wants us to come for 15 months instead of 12 so we can do language training for those additional months. The immersion training that he wants us to do would involve our living in someone else's home for 6 or so weeks. The people in this home would not speak any English and we would be learning in survival mode. It sounds quite intense, but God would not put us into something he did not think we could do and so, with Him, we will make it through. Plus he is planning to have the team up there really train us on being missionaries so we won't be tossed out to the sharks alone, thank God for that.

We also learned that not all missionaries have the gift of faith. The gift of faith is the highest gift for both Adam and I and I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go into missions without it. The lead got to see a glimpse of this faith in us and he was really amazed, so far as to say he could learn a lot from us (commence blushing).

It was after 11pm when we finally made it home and I always check my messages before bed. There was a pile of junk mail, the lead's e-mail to us and our rep detailing our night's conversation, and a surprise for the lead and us...

I am very pleased to let you know that we are accepting you for an 12-15 month term to serve with ReachGlobal in Montreal!

What an exciting way to end the night! Let's just say it was hard to get to sleep and poor Adam worked at 5am this morning.

It is time for the 2 of us to get to work as the ideal leave time for us would be April. There is a lot to pull together, letters to write, people to connect with, and everyday life needs to be in there too. We wanted to share all of this exciting news with all of you. You have been a fantastic support team so far and we look forward to having you all continue in this journey with us!

Still Waiting

Here we are 4 weeks since our missions interview and we are still waiting. We even got an e-mail this afternoon from our rep apologizing for not calling us while ON VACATION! What ever he has to tell us must be of great importance. Perhaps it is a yes, perhaps something else is going on.

A week ago the wait, and missed phone call, was eating away at me. I was going crazy knowing that we could have had our answer had we simply been home. God used that time to show me a thing or two. First of all he reminded me that this is HIS plan, not mine. God will see to all of the details, I simply need to come along for the ride and be a willing vessel for Him.

He showed us the peace we can have in waiting. We have really enjoyed this quiet week knowing the chances of our rep calling us while on vacation are slim. We have not thought much at all of our mission trip this week. Instead we devoted our time to bible study and family togetherness. I think God much preferred that, as did we.

He also laid out more of his design for us. God is already placing the support net on his plan for us to be missionaries. It is quite incredible to watch! With out any solicitation, we now have 3 churches and a fantastic business woman who want to talk to us about partnership when the time comes. While I am not willing to take that as a guaranteed yes. till I actually get one, I can see that this is God's work preparing us in advance for the next step.

There is a good chance we will have another week to wait. We decided a short vacation was in order after all these months of hard work. So we will be taking a mini trip to have some much needed fun and recharge our batteries. Then we can come back, get our answer, and get to work. In the meantime, I will enjoy the quiet stillness of the wait...and try desperately not to itch my bug bites any more (a result from outdoors family togetherness).

Extra Interview

It has been 2 weeks since our interview and we heard from our rep yesterday (2 weeks to the day). Sadly, it wasn't the definitive answer we were hoping for. Cue awesome facebook graphic...

https://www.facebook.com/busyhomeschoolmom?hc_location=stream

This morning we had yet another interview. This one was all about our family life. We discussed how we discipline, touched shortly on homeschooling, and talked about how we connect together as a family. It went very well! The rep was laughing and having a good time with us which put us at ease and made it so much easier to chat.

She said at the end that we are very wise parents for our young age (complimentary in so many ways). We said that we are always praying that God would make us wise in our parenting. It was wonderful to hear because most of the time we feel like we are total failures as parents. I guess it is like standardized testing for school. You don't know if you are doing well or not based on your own guesses on the matter.

We also learned that the highest number of missionaries leaving the field are families. It is the reason that they really want to make sure a family is right for the job. It does make sense as the position we originally applied for became open because the man currently doing it left when he got married.

She said that our rep would get back to us with an answer quickly (early next week) because they realize that this process has taken especially long for us. It has felt long, but has gone by quickly. We have been going through the application process for 6 months! It was nice to hear that they also think it has been drawn out and not just that we are impatient.

So, we still don't have an answer but have gotten some great affirmation. God answered our prayers of the Reach Global team continuing to be punctual in their communications even if the communications were not what we expected them to be.

We are looking forward to what God has planned for us this summer. It could be a very busy one. Over the past 6 months of application time we have had several people tell us that they believe our fundraising will take 6 months. If we get our approval right away next week that could mean leaving in November. That is by no means our goal, but it will be very exciting to see God put this all together and to see when exactly He has decided we should go.

Mission Interview

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for us this week.We went into our interview today with calm and peace. 3 hours on the phone is a very long time, but we filled the entire time.

The first 2.5 hours we discussed our entire lives. That includes our past and current sins/temptations, our marriage, our ministry work, and most importantly our walks with Christ. We did our best and with help from God Almighty, we didn't fumble over our words and were able to speak clearly and decisively.

In the last half hour we talked about what will be happening should we be green lighted and move ahead in this process, training, funds, timeline, ect. We found our chat during this time to be very optimistic. Our rep is planning on putting together our mission description and budget during the 2 weeks we will be waiting for our answer. Since mission description and budget are supposed to be the next step after we are approved, we are feeling pretty strongly that we will be approved. Until we get a definitive answer, we will continue life as usual.

Life as usual means taking the next 2 weeks to do major and deep spring cleaning. Our house needs it and it is great ground work for putting our house on the market this summer. I am going to enjoy the peace of these next 2 weeks. Should we be approved 2 weeks from now, we are going to have a lot to do!

A Video on Montreal

I found this video tonight featuring Jay, the Montreal lead. These are the people we would be working with and the place we would be living in if we do end up in Montreal. Take a look!
Jay and Kathy Pinney ministering in Montreal with ReachGlobal from Jay Pinney on Vimeo.

Mission Update

Sorry to keep all my Facebook friends on pins and needles all day! I know you have all been looking forward to this update. As it turns out, it is great that I waited because we just got off the phone with one of the Reps we are working with and we have even more to share now!

One thing is set and figured out now. That is a nice feeling! We will not be in the media producer position  This is not a let down in any way for us. This spot got us motivated to apply but was never the one thing we had our heart set on. We were also connected with 2 of the team leaders from Europe to find out about some other opportunities we asked about and others that may be available. That happened this afternoon and was exciting enough for one day...but then it got even more exciting.

We got a call from one of the leaders this evening. He shared 3 locations he thought would work well for us. Budapest, Montreal, and Lisbon. Canada was the one place he mentioned in his e-mail and it just made my heart jump to see it, which I did not expect it to do. I told Adam over the phone and he sounded thrilled. My Mom had a similar reaction. We shared this with the Rep and he told us that he had already mentioned us to the leaders in Montreal and they are very excited to talk to us. This is absolutely the first one we are going to check into. We would still be doing video and internet work most likely. We will be getting in contact with them soon to find out more about their actual needs and where we might fit into their ministry plans. We are just so excited after our chat! We will definitely be looking into the cities he mentioned tonight and seeing what they are like, as we were asked to do. I won't lie though, we are having a very strong leaning toward Canada right now.

Sunday's Comin'

This is a powerful video for your good Friday! See you Sunday!

Life in Christ

Today churches and people around the world are honoring Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. I thought it would be fitting to share what Christ means to us in the Morgan home. We have accepted Him as our savior. That means that we can join him one day in heaven. We put our faith and lives in his hands too. We have relinquished control of our lives to our Heavenly Father. You don't have to be a missionary to do this and you will be handsomely rewarded. I think many people are scared to do this. They might like the way things are and don't want them to change. Maybe they are scared of what could happen if they do. What ever the reason, it keeps people from accepting the truth of Christ. They are blinded by society's views of the world and harden their hearts to God. Our relationship with Christ means we can have a worry free life. Here is a short list of some of the things we do not worry about...

• Money - Any time we have had a financial need or struggle, God has provided for us. When I lost my job a few years back, God gave me a new one within the week in a bad economy. When we wanted to start tithing at church but didn't have the extra funds, Adam got a raise out of the blue that gave him the exact dollar amount he wanted to tithe each month. Are we worried about funds for mission trip? No! God has provided time and again and we have complete faith that he will bring us all we need...no worries.
• Safety - I could worry myself sick over our biking on busy streets to get to places such as the grocery store. I put it in God's way more capable hands instead. If the unfortunate happens I will know my fate and that it happened for an important reason. God uses tragedy to change peoples hearts too.
• Our marriage - Believe it or not, there was a time when we bickered like crazy. We can both be hot tempered from time to time and it was hard on our marriage. When we let Christ be the center of our marriage and began to following more biblical roles, our marriage flourished. I don't even remember the last time we had an actual argument. FYI, we made this marital change for the better long before we started attending church, for those of you that seem to think church "brainwashed" us.
• The Future - I don't know where we will be, or what we will be doing. I am excited to find out, but not worried in the least. It is in more capable hands than my own!

Life is wonderful in God's hands, so put your hand in His and let Him lead the way. You don't need to worry because God's got your back! He loves you and wants to take care of you. What is holding you back? Think about it and decide if it is really worth holding onto! I would love to hear about how God has worked in your life too. feel free to share in the comments below, anonymously if you like, so that we can all be blessed by your story!

Less and More

So many posts to write! Since missions updates are in slot #1 of the blog post priority list, I will start there. Tomorrow I will be sharing our Squinkies craft. Thursday I will share our 100th day of school. Friday will be a book review and giveaway. And ending the week with a post about Balloon Volleyball. Now that you know what to look forward to, let's get to the meat of the day...

We had a long chat on the phone today with our new Reach Global rep. He spent a large amount of time asking us questions to get to know us a little better. Then we got into missions talk. Somehow we now have less of an idea of what we are going to be doing but know more, in general. The missions team has found themselves in a unique position  They have several people who have applied for this one spot. This is very out of the ordinary for them. They normally get 1 applicant for each posting. Crazy, right?

At any rate, he wanted to know our thoughts on taking another post. We discussed where our gifts lie and locations we would and would not be interested in (NOT Africa, you're welcome mom!). He said he will be looking into other opportunities for us and was happy to hear that we are planning that this short term trip will be a launching point for long term.

Ultimately, we came away feeling that ReachGlobal is looking forward to having us on board. We may not end up in a media position but we will end up where God wants us to be. If we remember back to the beginning, this was not a job we initially planned to apply for. It did open the door for us to get started on our missions path though and that may be the purpose God had in mind.

Lots of Help

We have been working on our missions application forms for about 2 1/2 weeks now. The form that had given us the most difficult time was the Theological form. Thank goodness we have gotten so much help with them! First off, we have fantastic pastors who have given us resources to help us. Second, we prayed and waited patiently for the Spirit to help us put the words to paper. Third, was our past studies. In all the places we needed a verse reference but there weren't any suggestions we wanted to use in the books, we were able to draw from our past bible studies and our Sunday school classes. It has been incredible to use what we have learned over the last few years for something other than personal growth. I guess you just never know when you will get to take your knowledge out for a spin.

Our Theo forms are coming along. We are taking our time and the second drafts are far better than the first rough, very rough, drafts. We were hoping to get the remaining forms in by the end of the week, but now I will be happy if it is by the next. I never thought they would be so time consuming or difficult to fill out. We will keep plugging away at them and hopefully we will have all our applications in (including the demo reel) by the end of March. As long as we keep working on them and making progress, I will be happy!