Good-bye, wonderful house!

Three weeks have passed since our last entry and so much has happened! We are now in Virginia at the training center and will be here until December 14. Let me regress and share with you a little (ok, a lot) about what we have gone through recently to get to this point. We were able to build two crates (about 4 ft. wide by 7 ft. tall by 7 ft. long each) for a total of approximately 400 cubic feet to hold all of our worldly belongings that we wanted to ship to Budapest. Since we can purchase just about anything there, we chose to send things that were sentimental to us (such as things our kids made) or special pieces of furniture (antique radio cabinet that Cile's parents used when they were first married), in addition to our dishes and other kitchen items, linens, some tools and various decorative items.


Darden and Glenn put the crates together.

We had lots of wonderful help during the weeks leading up to packing the crate and even the days after crating! Long-time friends from Calhoun helped us with our mailing list and a general punch list of things that needed to be done around the house. For two weeks, friends from West Cobb Baptist Church and North Cobb Christian School came to help sort items to be sold at our huge garage sale, paint rooms, deliever furniture we sold, repair steps, haul loads to the dump, clean the house and help with packing boxes and the crates. We thank everyone of them for their immeasurable help and pray that one day God will allow us the blessing of returning the favor to them! They were such a tremendous help!


Becky Borders stuffing the radio cabinet.



Chris Borders has the joy of packing our crates!

Our son, Chris and his wife, Kate came down to help us actually load the crates. Chris has learned from the Master Crater, Glenn, through the years and did such a good job that Cile did not feel the need to supervise. (If you know Cile and her pickiness, you know he must have done a great job!) Kate held Cile's hand and kept her focused on doing other things while Glenn, Chris and Bobby Rader actually loaded things into the crates. Because we were shipping by cubic footage rather than weight, the more we could stuff in tiny spaces, the more we could ship!



Not a bit of air space was left!


The Master Forklifter, Buddy McLaughlin

Friend Robin Sosebee got us a forklift for FREE and the man that delivered it cut his delivery fee in half when he found out we were going as missionaries! God is good! Then another friend said he knew how to operate a forklift and came to lift the two crates into the truck for us. God is great! (The rental place had told us that operating a forklift was like driving a tractor. Boy, did he oversimplify things!) Buddy had to take someone else's crate out of this big truck and then put our two crates in, then put the other crate back in because it needed to be delivered at the next stop.

After the crates were on their way, we had a massive garage sale to sell off all our belongings that were not shipped in the crates. It was a very emotional time as we sold or gave away things that had memories attached to them. We could not have gone through this without the support and help of our wonderful Christian friends. They kept us focused, fed us, and lent more hands that we could keep busy!

After the garage sale we finished some painting projects and cleaned the house in anticipation of it being sold. If you know of someone who is looking for a house that is great for parties or fellowships that has been given to God for His use, send them to Cile's Dad who is showing it for us until December!

We loaded up and pulled out of Marietta on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Maryville, Tennessee where we spent a few days with Chris and Kate.

Glenn worked so hard (!) while Cile packed that he needed a break in the mountains of east Tennessee.



When Glenn wasn't sleeping, he was watching TV. Yea, right!



Cile and Chris working on a Sodoku (sp?) puzzle.


Kate and the caulking gun.

While in Tennessee, we spent a day helping Chris and Kate with some projects around their house. Kate and Cile painted doors and Glenn and Chris worked in the basement replacing a water heater and "organizing" Chris's tools. We had a great time with them and hated to leave!


Beautiful scenery on our way to Virginia!


Shenandoah Valley

If we don't retire to the east Tennessee mountains, it just might be to Shenandoah Valley! The leaves were gorgeous!

We arrived at the training center on Monday, Oct. 23, and are now settled in. I will tell you more soon about our living arrangements, schedules and what we're learning, but one surprise that can't wait is that we ran into Chris's teacher when he was a year and 9 months old and we were here the first time before going to the Ivory Coast. Her name is Cyndi Wyatt, but we called her Cinderella! She remembered Chris because he was so special to her!!


Cinderella Wyatt

We promise to write soon. We covet your prayers harder than we've ever coveted them.

I'm on my own! Kari and Jonathan returned to France on Tuesday and so this will be the first of the four postings that I will have done entirely on my own. Well, not entirely....Kari is online in France and is prepared to help me if I need to email her any questions! I hope to get the hang of blogging one day, but I must admit I had to email Kari and ask her the address for where I go to post an update. Sad.


Kari and Jonathan waiting at the airport to return to France.

Anyway, we are still sorting and shopping to get ready for our move to Budapest. Glenn and I are going to be building our own crates in our back yard from a crate kit that will have all the wood pieces already cut to size, and will include everything needed such as instructions, nails, screws, and even a hammer! We hope to pack them on Oct. 9th and 10th, and then a trucking company will come pick them up and our crates will be stored in Texas until the International Mission Board releases them to be shipped to Budapest. We will have 400 cubic feet to send our belongings and what we can't get in the crate, we will purchase when we arrive there.


It is an organized mess at our house!

One of the biggest differences for us going this time compared to when we went before to Ivory Coast is that we are not taking our children. They are now grown and have families of their own. Another difference is that the climate will be cold instead of tropical. A third difference is that Hungary is pretty well developed compared to Ivory Coast and we will be able to purchase almost anything we need. All of these differences are affecting how and what we crate. The decisions of what to take and what to leave behind are very difficult and my eyes tear up as I pack away things that belonged to my children. It is a very emotional time for me, but it is mixed with great excitement and joy as we follow God's will to Hungary!


Cody and Joey help us in the yard before selling the house.

Another wonderful difference is how much easier it is to communicate with friends and family members now as to way back then! Emails and skype have made it so simple to keep in touch with those we love and miss!


Glenn working to set up skype.

If you're free on Saturday, Oct. 14th in the morning, come by and shop at our garage sale. The proceeds go to support missions. (Well, missionaries!)


Free cat needs good home!

Also, on Sunday, Oct. 15th at 6:00 pm, West Cobb Baptist Church will be having a special service to ordain our youth Minister, Chad Cannon, into ministry and a commissioning service for us. There will be a reception afterward for everyone, and we'd love to have the opportunity to hug you one last time.

Our schedule:
Oct. 17 (?)-leave Marietta to visit Chris and Kate
Oct. 23 -arrive in Rockville, VA for missionary training
Dec. 14 -return to Marietta for Christmas with family
Jan. 7 -fly out of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport for Budapest, Hungary


Happy birthday Emogene!

After our official appointment service and family vacation in Charleston, S.C. with Kari, Jonathan, Chris and Kate, we had to get busy with the huge task of sorting through all our belongings. We must decide what we will crate to send to Budapest, what we will store in my father's basement, and what will be given away or sold in a garage sale. (A friend told me to call it an estate sale; it implies we have a lot of things and that they are nice things from our "estate"! I would be stretching it to call it an estate sale!) I have taken a trip down Memory Lane as I shuffled through old toys, photographs and baby clothes and remembered all the good times we had as a family.


Sorting through clothes while Jonathan paints the closet.

The realization that those days are gone has been hard on me. Unfortunately, I can't pass all those things on to my kids for them to keep because Chris and Kate are keeping things light since they feel called to missions too (but are waiting for God's timing), and Kari and Jonathan have no space to store things in France!


Family and Friends party

Saturday, the Borders clan had a family reunion (well, any excuse to have a party will do) that included anyone who was a Borders or Acuff or who knew a Borders or Acuff. It was great to see family members and friends and to get caught up on everyone's news. Who knows when the next time will be to get this group together again???


Kari and Jonathan's suitcase for France

Kari and Jonathan return to France on Tuesday. It will be sad to see them go, but it is a gift from God to know that we will only be a few countries away when we get to Budapest! They have stocked up on Americana because they don't know when they will be back in the country again.



Stuffing envelopes for our first prayer letter.


Getting ready for the cold, snowy winters!


We will miss our home!


Budapest, here we come!

We had 65 words per couple to tell of our call to missions!

It's official! Glenn and I were re-appointed as missionaries by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention on September 13th at First Baptist Church, North Spartanburg, S.C. Going back to 1993, during our second furlough, we sensed God changing the direction of our ministry in Ivory Coast from student work to counseling for missionaries, but we assumed it would be for missionaries in west Africa. After our furlough, we went on leave of absence from the IMB while Glenn pursued his degree in counseling. When Glenn finished his schooling, God closed the door to our immediate return to the mission field! It was a very confusing time, as we both knew God called us to help missionaries who are struggling!!! But God's timing is perfect, and He is now telling us that it is time for us to go. Glenn has 10 years of experience in counseling and is now a licensed counselor. In addition, both of our children are out of college, back from Senegal (Kari), and happily married to godly spouses. We truly have empty nest syndrome and are free to go wherever God leads!


Two of the 89 newest missionaries!

The ceremony lasted 2 hours and the highlight was hearing each couple share in 65 words or less their testimony of God's call to missions, one right after another! What a challenge! Instead of returning to Africa, we will live in Budapest, Hungary and will be traveling all over Central and Eastern Europe as we help the 400 missionaries from Poland to the far side of Russia, 26 countries in all, spanning 12 time zones. Wow! Think of all our sky miles!



We will be attending the International Learning Center in Virginia from Oct. 24-Dec. 14, and then will fly to Budapest on Jan. 8, 2007. In the meantime, we will be selling off most of our belongings and building a crate to ship the remainder of our things to Budapest. Once there, we will spend the first 13 weeks in cultural and language study. By the way, Hungarian is reportedly the second most difficult language for english speakers to learn, second to Mandarin Chinese. Pray for the gift of tongues!!!


Family photo, left to right: Chris & Kate Borders (Maryville, TN), Jonathan & Kari Masson (Lyon, France), and Glenn & Cile Borders (Budapest, Hungary)


Off to the beach! Isle of Palms, here we come!

After a week in Spartanburg, our family (Kari, Jonathan, Chris, Kate, Glenn and Cile) spent a few days at the Isle of Palms, off the coast of Charleston, S.C. It was a wonderful time together, but sad to realize the days of all 6 of us being together is going to be very limited.


No visit to Charleston would be complete without a trip to the Market!

Glenn and I ask you to pray for us, and hope that you will enjoy our blog as we share our lives and experiences in Budapest through it. We'll keep you updated on things of interest, and most importantly, of people and needs for which you can pray! We'd love to hear from you and would welcome your visit to our home in Budapest !

Around the world in 14 days!


View from our hotel room

Three months after our first post... God gave us an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Poland through the International Mission Board as volunteer counselors to the missionaries in central and eastern Europe for their annual general meeting (AGM) from June 23rd through July 1st. We had a wonderful time meeting the missionaries, hearing their stories, and being amazed at all that God is doing in and through them! There were about 400 missionaries and their 200 children and 100 volunteers (from counselors to musicians, preachers/speakers, childcare workers, nurses, sales reps, etc.) in a huge resort hotel that sleeps 1200 with such wonderful amenities as indoor water park, several outdoor pools, boutiques, massages, saunas, horseback riding, boating, walking trails, and much more! It was a hectic week, but we were able to find some time to relax by walking into town, doing a little shopping and visiting with the missionaries.


We stayed on a river in Mikolajki and enjoyed the numerous marinas.


Flat Stanley, Glenn and Cile on the bridge leading into town.

A friend of ours from West Cobb Baptist Church and North Cobb Christian School, Adam Doughty, asked me to take his buddy, Flat Stanley, on the trip with us and to take pictures of Flat Stanley as he travels with us. (If you don't know about Flat Stanley, ask any elementary school teacher or children's librarian!)


One of the many, many jewelry stores selling mostly orange, yellow and green amber.

This trip was made possible by the generosity of West Cobb Baptist Church (most notably, by Jack and Kristy Madden and Marie Kiser who provided sky miles), and other friends and family members. We are soooooo thankful for their help in making this trip a reality and are impatiently waiting to see how God uses this experience in guiding us into the next steps of our journey with Him.

Before leaving the U.S.....
Our pastor, Dr. Ken Williams, said we couldn't go to Poland and get this close to our daughter and son-in-law, Kari and Jonathan Masson, who live in Lyon, France without taking a side trip to see them. Our pastor is a wise man and we always try to do what he says, so, we left Poland on Saturday, July 1 and are visiting with them for a week. The four of us will go to Paris tomorrow (July 6) to spend two days sightseeing before returning to the U.S. on Saturday, July 8. (Kari has lived in France now for one and a half years and has not been to Paris yet!)


Enjoying the beautiful Parc de la Tete d'Or.


Which glasses do think look the best? These?


Or these?

Both Cile and Kari got new glasses while in Lyon. As a French resident with socialist benefits, Kari's glasses cost her less than $20 (same frames, new lenses, and eye doctor appointment). Cile got two new pairs of glasses (but no eye exam) for about $400 dollars. Cheaper than in the U.S., and ready in one day! (Although, not as cheap as for Kari as a "temporary Frenchie".) In the two pictures above, I swapped glasses with Kari to see how I'd look with dark, horn rimmed glasses just for a joke. It was funny, but not really! (Next time you're in Lyon and need glasses, go see Mickael GUIRONNET at Lynx Optique at 94 Grande Rue, OULLINS.)


Kari and Jonathan on the bridge that leads to their neighborhood.


Trekking across town in search of a string for Kari's strumstick.

Kari asked us to bring her a strumstick just like her Dad's, so after making a carrying case for it and carefully transporting it to Poland and then to Lyon, I accidentally broke a string during the last leg of our trip to Lyon! We've been to the guitar string store twice and Glenn is trying to restring and tune her strumstick. I think he is enjoying playing with it!


We rented bikes and rode in the park for 1 1/2 hours at night

We have had a wonderful week running errands across town, walking in the neighborhood and across Lyon, taking the metro and buses, eating baguettes and cheese, riding bikes and getting caught up on news since our last visit in April. Tonight we are going out for dinner with Kari and Jonathan's friends, Ken and Gabi Ziegler, who just returned from the U.S. earlier today where they were married (two weeks ago by Glenn) and have been honeymooning.

We hope to do better with our blog in the near future. Check us out again in about two weeks when we hope to have an update. Until then, au revoir!

Welcome to our first web site. We are delighted to have you join us for the initial part of our journey to central and eastern Europe. We hope you will become as excited as we are as God reveals Himself to us, as He guides and carries us into the unknown.

Putting together our website with our daughter, Kari Masson, while we visited her and her husband in France.