August 3-21 Missionary Training School and Special Family Reunion with Colorado Relatives

What an awesome adventure Missionary Training was!!! We were nestled in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs, CO for 3 1/2 weeks with an amazing group of people from all over the Nation. All of these wonderful people were about to embark on the greatest journey of their lives as well. It was an amazing feeling being surrounded by so many people who were just like you. For the 1st time in a long time we seemed to "fit" in with people around us. God worked through the staff and the "trainees" to prepare us for the most rewarding, yet scariest time of our lives. We learned all about living a life full of paradoxes and how real they would come to be. We were shaken to our emotional core throughout most of our training and we found out many things about ourselves. We learned that being in highly stressful situations can have you leaving the mission field very quickly if you are not truly prepared for the "what-ifs" that can occurr when living in a third world country. We give God thanks for this amazing experience. We are so thankful for the SPLICE training 2009 brothers and sisters. We feel so blessed to have another family.

O'Dell's in the News!

On Septemeber 11th, the O'Dells were blessed with an opportunity to tell their story and raise awareness about the great works happening through God's calling in their lives and at Robin's Nest!

Take a Look!!!

http://www.kcci.com/video/20858975/index.html

"Home" to "Move"

We are glad to be back “home” for a few weeks…we have a lot to get done before we move for good on September 8th. Please keep us in your daily prayers as they are always needed. This is going to be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences in our life while at the same time be one of the most difficult and demanding challenges we have faced!!! We will keep God in the center of it all and are faithfully confident that He will continue to bless this mission!!!

Time Flies

So much happens in one day…and like one of our workers told us “there is never the same day twice at the Nest”…I have found it too hard to keep up on a daily journal because we are both completely exhausted by the time we get back home to do some small projects around our new house, take a quick bath / shower to wash off the daily grime off us and the kids (as well as a great way to cool off), have a snack, have a little family time, devotions, put the kids to bed, we use what little energy we have left to process the day and plan for the next…we take one day at a time…and each morning we give thanks to God for giving us this day!!!
We had some incredible mission teams do some great work around the Nest that would never get done without their assistance…praise God for their talents, time, energy, and resources…they are food for our soul as they bring us much needed strength to persevere when things seem to be going wrong and a moral boost when projects get done as well…and the list of projects is a long one.

A Long Day & A Good Meal

Well our day began at 3:45 AM so we could be on our way to Kingston with no traffic to deal with…I was a very beautiful drive watching the sun rise over the ocean…and a nice smooth road…and great conversation with Michelle…somewhere past Ocho Rios we hit some very winding mountain roads…about 45 minutes into this Anna decided to get sick…we were thinking she had got the same sickness that Carly had a few days ago…we pulled over and wiped her up…the locals said that we should put newspaper on her chest…so I put some on her to catch the next round…by the time we made it to Kingston Anna got sick 3 more times and Angie, Sam, and myself were felling a little sick ourselves…Winding roads, the stench of baby vomit and the heat were making us want to be out of the car ASAP…Kingston is a fairly dirty town but luckily Michelle has been here enough that we only made a few wrong turns and back tracks and went down a one way street the wrong way for one block… We were even more lucky by getting all of our documents done and submitted in one day and still had time to make it back to Ocho Rios before dark (the sun sets about 7:30PM here right now) We discovered that poor little Anna has Car Sickness as she got sick one more time on the way back…locals tell us they put newspaper on their bare chest to cure this ailment…I think we will try Dramamine next time!!! Michelle treated us to a dinner at a very beautiful restaurant called The Ruins…it had a beautiful waterfall and fish aquariums that the kids loved. The food was excellent as well