Are You Man Enough?

A post by my husband Travis who IS man enough...

      Since becoming a father, my biggest fear has been that my children will fall away from God and the Church.  I know that the best way to teach is by example. Jesus tells us that in John 5:19, when he says, “Amen, Amen I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; For what He does, his son will do also.”  

           

      After reading that verse, I have often worried about whether I’m a good enough example for my kids to follow especially my two teenage boys. I want them to grow up to be “Men of God” not men of this world.   I always felt that there was something else I should be doing to show my boys just what it meant to be a Christian man, a follower of Christ.  I always felt like there had to be more to the Christian life than just going to Mass, saying your prayers, and being a “good” hardworking person.

            

      There is no better place to lead by example than in missions.  I learned this while on a short term mission trip with Family Missions Company in May 2012, and God confirmed it to me on our second mission trip the following November.  Being in Mexico, serving the poor, and bringing the Gospel to them, changed me in many ways, but most importantly, it confirmed the importance of a Father’s example to his children.  

           

        Seeing those rancho chapels
empty of men and hearing the prayers of the women for their husbands and children, made me see the great need for more men in missions.  Strong Christian men are desperately needed to help lead these lost men back to God, so they can become the Christian leaders for their own families.   As men, we must step up and show the love of Jesus to the world because it is in desperate need of that these days. 

     Think you're man enough?  Watch this video and share it with other men who may be read to step up and be real Christian men.

Blessed Beyond Belief

These past few weeks have flown by.  It seems like just yesterday we were packing up our house to move out to Big Woods. But it's actually been almost three weeks since we left behind our old life and began our new life. Yet, at times it seems as though we've lived out here all our lives.

From the moment I unpacked and set up the house, it has felt like "home."  Yes, I know that your "home" is where your family is and that the location doesn't matter.  But each time we've moved in the past, I felt that sinking homesick feeling in my stomach as I laid in our old bed in our new house at least a few times in those first days or weeks.  Here, I'm laying in a strange bed in a strange house, and haven't had that sinking feeling once. It's very weird to be perfectly happy in a strange place.

I also expected the girls to be in our bed or at least trying to come get in our bed a few times the first week or two until they got used to the new place.  But we tuck them in at night, and they stay put until morning.  I keep waiting for the "homesickness" to begin with someone and then to snowball into a huge family meltdown.  But it hasn't happened.  I know that this is only a "baby" step compared to the move we will be making in January, but it still seems too good to be true, too easy. But it is such a huge blessing!

A huge part of this successful move and transition is all of you!  All of the prayers that you have said for us, all of the encouraging words, notes, text messages, emails, and calls have blessed us so much!  I know that these last few weeks would not have been so easy and the transition so smooth without all the prayers that everyone has been offering up for us and the graces given to us by God through your prayers.  We could definitely feel the prayers and are so blessed to have such a wonderful support team!

We are in awe daily of the generosity that people continue to show to us.  The number of donor/pledge cards that have come back to us is absolutely overwhelming.  Some days I walk back from checking our mailbox at the FMC office in tears and disbelief at the generosity of our friends, family, and even strangers.  It is a huge blessing to have so many awesome people joining our mission "team".  I love watching our prayer list grow each day.  Since there is no way to fully express our gratitude or to ever repay you all, praying for you and your intentions each day helps me feel like I'm able to give something back to you.  I pray that you will be blessed a hundred fold!

The Father's Day Bake Sale that we had at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church, our home parish, this past weekend was an unbelievable success.  We had so many wonderful friends and family members help us bake.  We had so much stuff that I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to sell it all, so I prayed that everything would sell while the kids prayed for leftovers. I also prayed that God would allow us to make a couple hundred dollars to help with some of our future expenses.

Once again, the support was amazing!  As our fellow parishioners began to file into the St. Mary's Center after Mass, the baked goods began to quickly disappear. But what blessed us the most was all the hugs, the smiles, the words "We are praying for you," uttered by so many---some we had been close to, some that we had never officially met before, and some that we had never even seen before.  After the Masses, the tables were empty, the money bag was overflowing, and our hearts were bursting.  We are so blessed to be part of such a wonderful parish and community.

This week a wonderful family donated a minivan to us, so that we could sell our car and still have a vehicle to drive.  The car is the last big weight hanging over us.  We desperately need to get rid of the monthly note of the car, but still need to be able to get around at least until In-take (our training) begins in September.  I hitched a ride to Lake Charles yesterday to pick up the van and was once again in awe of how faithful God is to us and our needs.  The owner, a mechanic, began to list all of the things that he had changed or fixed before giving it to us so that we wouldn't need to worry about anything.  He even stopped to put gas in it!  The van is in excellent shape, very clean, and perfect for our family!  Once again, we were blessed way more than we deserve!

God has given us just about everything we have prayed for and has provided for every need thus far and then some.  Each night as I lay in bed and think back over the day, I can't help but think at how crazy all of this is. I never imagined that this journey would be so blessed. We have truly been blessed beyond belief and you will too!  God confirmed that tonight at Mass with the first reading.

June 19, 2013 First Reading:  2 Cor 9:6-11

Brothers and sisters, consider this:
whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.
As it is written:

He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.

The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food
will supply and multiply your seed
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

You are being enriched in every way for all generosity,
which through us produces thanksgiving to God.

May we all be blessed beyond belief and give thanksgiving to God!

St. Francis House: Our New Home

We have officially moved to Big Woods!  We closed on our house Friday and are now all settled in at our first "mission" house.  The kids and I participated in the community morning prayer this morning while Travis went off to work.  The girls and I helped out in the office answering the phone and stuffing envelopes while the boys went scouting the property.  Thanks for all the prayers for a smooth transition!  It has been great so far!

Here's a few shots of our house and some of the other community houses here at Big Woods Mission.

St. Francis House:  Our New Home

Living Room

Main Kitchen

Boys' Room/Music Room/School Room

Girls' Room/Laundry Room

Back Apartment/Master Bed & Bath

Travis & Melissa's Room

2nd Kitchen

St. Michael House

St. Paul's House

Community Playground

Family Missions Company's Office

The Community House aka The Big House

Beautiful Horses

Fishing/Swimming Pond

Baby Gator in the Pond

Beautiful View

Seilhan Family Missions Update

Selling, cleaning, and packing.  That's what we have been doing for the past two weeks.  Almost everything is sold and just waiting to be picked up this week.  The house is beginning to echo which the kids think is kind of cool.  We all still have beds for now, but the kids are very anxious for them to be picked up this week, so that they can sleep on the floors.  If we'd have known they preferred a sleeping bag or mattress on the floor to a bed, we could have saved a lot of money a few years ago!

We are waiting on the final word from the Mortgage company and for the title work on the house to be completed, so that we can close in the next few weeks.  Our tentative move date is May 25th.  We'd like to be settled at Big Woods before Family Missions Company's "Come and See" which begins on June 5th.  Anyone interested in seeing and learning about mission life? "Come and See!"

With all the "craziness" going on here, I do not have the time to blog weekly about our journey like I promised.  But we did create a Facebook page just for our mission work.  It's easier to post a quick status update than to sit down and type up an entire blog post.  If any of you are on Facebook and would like to follow us there for more timely updates, you can click here and then "LIKE" Seilhan Family Missions page.  https://www.facebook.com/SeilhanFamilyMissions

Again, we are truly grateful to all of our friends, family, community, and those of we from afar that we do not know, for all of your support and prayers!  Please continue to pray for us as we get closer to actually leaving everything behind.  And know that we pray for all of you daily.

The Seilhans

Yes, We're Scared

Most normal human beings fear the unknown more than anything else---we have A LOT of unknowns at this point.   Where will we go? Will it be safe?  Will the people accept us?    Will we be able to understand them? Will they be able to understand us?  Do we know enough to go out and preach?  And the BIG ONE...Will we have enough money to feed and care for our own family's needs?  Yes, we are scared.

So, why are we doing this?  Because this is what God is asking us to do.  That's the one thing that keeps us from turning around and running the other way---God chose us to do this.  Why us?  We ask that ourselves that question ALL the time.  And we have no idea why us, but know that we can't tell God "No" especially after trying to teach our kids that God's will is the only will that we should follow.

This is what I think people do not understand.  We did NOT chose this for ourselves.  If it was our choice, we'd stay right here surrounded by all the people we love, all the things we've worked so hard for, in a place that is familiar and comfortable with AC and hot water!  Sometimes I feel as though people think we are doing this because we think that we are "holier" than them or that they are thinking "Who do you think you are?  We know the real you. " (The eye rolls are a dead giveaway.) But nothing could be further from the truth.

We know the real "us" better than anyone.  (Remember, we see each other daily in the privacy of our own home behind closed doors.) We know that we are definitely not "holier" than anyone else.  There are lots of people we know way more holy and better qualified for this call, and we wish He would have called them instead.

We are just regular people---sinners just like everyone else.  Our kids fight, disobey, talk back, etc.  We lose our cool and yell at them sometimes.  We lose our patience with each other at times.  We fail to love everyone at all times as Christ does.  We neglect our prayer life at times.   We get caught up in the world and worldly things.  We struggle like everyone else to stay the course and to keep our path straight. Actually, going through this journey has taught us that we are so far from where we once thought we were in our relationship with Christ. It has shown us that we have so much learning and growing to do. 

We do not want all the attention that we are now getting. We liked our nice, quiet life out in the country.  We hate having to speak publicly and having to ask others to support us financially.  But we have recently come to realize after trying to keep it private for so long that we can't do it by ourselves.  Believe me when I say, we tried to figure out how to do this on our own many times!  We tried to figure out how much money we would need to live for two years and started to save up our own money to build our mission fund alone, so we wouldn't have to ask others to support us.  We have been fundraising and selling our things for almost a year now trying to do this alone.

Each time we got ahead some catastrophe came along and wiped out that extra money. We finally realized that God was trying to teach us to let go of the steering wheel and to trust Him.  Once we let go with one hand, He was able to start working and amazing things began happening in our journey.  We finally surrendered the wheel to Him (although we do take it back occasionally--slow learners) and started to see things actually fall into place.  We discovered that the more people we shared our story with, the more people we had praying for us.  The more people we had praying for us, the better things began to work out.  The better things work out for us, the less scared we are becoming.

The Day the Lord Made Just For Us

This past Friday morning was not our usual "sleep-in a little later than usual" Friday.  We actually rose earlier than we do on a normal school day.  We quickly grabbed breakfast and put on our "Sunday Best" instead of our "Friday Casual."  It was the day that we had been waiting for, praying for, the day we thought we'd never see...Adoption Day!  After three very long, very heart wrenching, very stressful years, it was finally going to come to an end.  Our foster son was going to officially be ours; no more worrying about what the next court hearing would bring.

We left the house all giddy and met several of our family members at nearby gas station to begin the caravan to the courthouse.  I joked about being in labor, yelling occasionally with a "contraction", and the boys laughed about me "birthing" a 5 ft, 4 inch, 95 pound 13 year old in a few hours.  The 35 minute drive seemed to take hours, but we finally arrived at the courthouse---four carloads full!

Next, came the hard part, the sitting and waiting for our turn. 

At least this time, we had lots of family to keep us company while we waited.

Finally, they called us into the courtroom where the judge questioned Philip to make sure that this was what he wanted.  After she confirmed that being adopted into our family was what he desired, she signed the papers!  His name was changed.  He was officially ours.  No one could try to take him away from us.  After three years of fighting for what was best for Philip, it was decided that we were what was best for him!

This would be the last time we would have to appear in this courtroom.  The judge that had seemed so cold throughout our three year journey seemed to be just as relieved and excited for this case to finally be over and for Philip to finally have closure.  She quickly came down and posed for pictures with us and allowed the kids to go sit in her chair which they had secretly been hoping to do all morning.

 













I'm pretty sure that we all floated out the courthouse afterwards since this huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders, but the day wasn't nearly over.  We still had something even more special coming later that day.  Philip was going to be baptized into the Church that afternoon.  Our awesome pastor had agreed to hold a special Mass that day so that Philip would "not have to wait any longer."

After a celebratory shopping trip and lunch, we headed back home to prepare for the next ceremony.   He had chosen to wear a suit for this very special event.  He looked so handsome!  But best of all he was wearing the biggest smile that I had ever seen him wear.  When we arrived at the church, we found it already filled with family and friends waiting to celebrate this special Mass with us.  Some had left work early to be there.  Some had traveled all day just to be there.  We felt so blessed.

As the first reading began, my eyes began to fill with tears.  The reading was Saul's conversion and baptism. (Acts of the Apostles 9:1-20)  Philip's conversion had happened about a year after he moved in with us about two years prior to this day.  He had been sitting in on many family rosaries, daily and Sunday Masses, retreats, youth group talks, etc.  He knew he needed to be baptized.  He knew he wanted to receive Jesus.  His devotion to his personal prayer time, to reading the scriptures, and to learning about the faith, assured us that his eyes had been opened and God was preparing him for something, something BIG.  This reading was perfect for today---conversion and baptism!

Then came the responsorial psalm.  The psalm was Psalm 117.   Yes, praise the Lord for His faithfulness and mercy!  Perfect!  But the people's response to this psalm was from Mark 16:15.  As it was being read, I saw a huge grin come over our oldest son's face who was serving on the altar.  "Are you kidding me?" I thought as I chuckled.  This was the verse that had been appearing everywhere during our discernment of missions.

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature."

One of the prayers that we had had for months now was, "Lord, IF you are REALLY calling us to be foreign missionaries, we can't go without Philip, and we can't take him unless he's legally ours, so handle this so that we know that you are really calling us."  This responsorial was our answer and our confirmation---He was really calling us into foreign missions and He had taken care of that roadblock earlier that day.

One would think that those two were enough mind blowing readings for the day, but God wasn't quite done.  He still had some showing off to do.  The day's Gospel reading was none other than John 6:52-59.

...Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day...

Not only was Philip going to be baptized at this Mass, but he would be making his First Holy Communion too.  He would be eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood for the first time.  This Gospel was not another "coincidence" either.  It had also been hand picked by God Himself for just for us on this very day.

Numerous times these past few months, the evil one has tried to make us doubt our Catholic faith and our belief in the Eucharist.  Many times lately I have prayed for God to take away these doubts planted to distract us from our call to be Catholic missionaries.  My prayer has been "Lord, I believe, take away my unbelief." (Mark 9:24)  That Gospel reading was the answer to my prayer.  God was confirming to me that the Eucharist IS the body, blood, soul, and divinity of His son Jesus Christ.

God had used this Mass to confirm that everything we have been doing and that everything He is calling us to do is His will for our family.  He confirmed that He does hear our prayers and answers them in His perfect timing.  He confirmed that He will always be there for us guiding our path and showing us the Way.  He confirmed that we have an awesome faith community behind us to help us through this journey with their prayers and support.

This was the day that the Lord had made just for us. 

If you'd like to help support our family's foreign mission, you can send tax deductible donations to Family Missions Company, 12624 Everglade Road, Abbeville, LA 70510.  Please write "Seilhan Family" in the memo line.  Or donate online at http://www.fmcmissions.com/portfolio/travis-and-melissa-seilhan/.  You can donate once or set up a monthly donation to our fund. Please know that donors/benefactors are prayed for daily.

Praise Him in the Storms

This morning I went out to find our oldest son who had disappeared from his schoolwork to tend to his chickens.  (He is now in the fresh egg business which is much more interesting and profitable than school work.)  While outside, I noticed a large limb that hangs over our bedroom swaying in the wind.  I knew a storm was coming in tonight; the winds were already pretty strong.  I said a quick prayer as I looked at the swaying limb, "Please, Lord, don't let that branch fall on my bedroom tonight during the storm."

I then hollered for my son to come out of the barn and back to the house.  I went about my day schooling, baking for our fundraiser, and running kids here and there.  Later, that afternoon, I could hear the winds picking up, so I sent our son back outside to pen his chickens up early before the weather got too bad.  A few minutes later he comes running back into the house to tell me that there was a "tree" on the house!  I immediately ran to my bedroom to see if it had come through because I knew exactly what limb had fallen without him telling me.  No sign of any damage in the bedroom "Praise God!"

I then ran outside to see how bad it looked from the outside.  That's when I found this:

I panicked as a gust of wind blew the leaves into the air.  It was 2:00 in the afternoon.  I had a huge limb on my roof.  The roof looked like it had several holes in it.  My husband was in the air somewhere between Houston and Wyoming and would not be home to take care of this before the rains began.  The storm was going to be here soon with lots more wind.  And LOTS of rain. And we are trying to sell it.  And I have people coming to see it later this week.  And so what do I do now?

I thought about crying and asking "Why?" but then I remembered my prayer.  "Please, Lord, don't let that branch fall on my bedroom tonight during the storm,"  and my Facebook post this morning about how God takes care of his missionaries. So instead I said, "Thank you, Jesus! Praise you, Lord, for not letting it fall during the night during the rain." I left the pity-party before it ever got started and began to make a few calls and sent a few texts.

Within 15 minutes, a neighbor owning a tree service business (Beaver Tree Service----awesome guy) shows up at my house to help remove the tree limb from our roof.  My dad shows up (like he always does) and has already called a carpenter (Paul Dupuis-another awesome guy) to come patch the roof for me before the rains start.

The next thing I know there is a huge crane in my yard lifting the giant limb from our roof, and there are several men up there assessing the damage it left behind.  I ran in to check on the baking situation (Missions Fundraiser was already underway!) and came out to find that they had already removed the part of the roof that was damaged.  I offered them the blue tarps from the shed, but they didn't need them.  They weren't just patching it for the night.  They were fixing it!

In less than 3 hours from discovering the fallen limb, the tree had been removed, the kids had hauled off all the little branches, and the roof on that part of the house had been replaced!  It was something that only God could have orchestrated in such a short time.  I am slowly learning to praise God not only in the clear skies, but in the storms too! 

Top 5 Questions Asked

Since declaring that we are officially CraZy (see Yes, We Know We're Crazy and Yes, We're Still Crazy), the big question has been "Where are y'all moving to?" and then "Do they pay you to do this?"  Followed by "So, you will get jobs where ever you are?" Then "How are y'all going to live?"  And finally, "Doesn't that scare you?" So, here's the answers to all your pressing questions.

Where are we moving to?  First, we are moving south of Abbeville, LA.  We will live at Big Woods, Family Missions Company's community base, for about two months (September/October) of studying and training.  We will spend the month of November in General Cepeda, Mexico for hands-on training.  We will return home for Christmas.  Then in January, we will be sent out to our first mission post.  We won't know the destination until our training is almost complete.  This is probably the most difficult part.  If we knew where we were going, we could start researching and studying the culture.  We could begin learning the language.  But that's not how it works, so we continue to learn to trust God and His plan for us.

Do they pay us?  No, Family Missions Company does not "pay" us to be missionaries for them.  We will have a small "stipend" each month based on the amount of money in our mission account and the cost of living where we will be stationed.  The amount of money in our mission fund will depend on how much we fundraise and receive from our benefactors/donors/sponsors.

Will we work?  Yes, we will probably work harder than we've ever worked before, but, no, we will not have regular paying "jobs" in the community where we will be living. Our ministry of proclaiming the Gospel, feeding the poor, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned, etc. will be a full time job all by itself.  If we were to get a job, then we would not be able to do what God is calling us to do effectively.  He's not calling us to be part-time missionaries (which is what we would have preferred!); He's calling us to be full-time missionaries.

How will we live?  We will live very simply, much like the people in the community in which we will be living.  One of Family Missions Company's charisms is Embracing Gospel Poverty.  "We are beggars for the Gospel. We detach ourselves from our possessions and live on the providence of others in order to serve the poor and live in solidarity with the poor. Though poor ourselves, we live lives of generosity to the poor, showing a preferential option for the poor, as the Church teaches." 

Does this scare us?  Not at the moment.  It only scares us when people constantly bring it up! Satan likes to plant those doubts often.  We wouldn't be human if we weren't a little frightened about living in a foreign country without jobs depending on others to provide for our own families' basic needs.  But when we do get "scared," we go to Him in prayer with our worries, anxieties, and fears, and He calms them through scripture---in the Mass readings or in the LAUDS readings or in a daily prayer book or a daily bible verse app.  He continuously sends us confirming "messages" through others, through social media, through songs, through our kids, and through numerous other outlets in our lives.  God is always faithful, and His timing is always perfect.

The last thing people usually say to us is "Let us know if we can help in any way."  Here's how you can help us:

PRAYER:  Put us on every prayer list you find.  Ask your friends, family, and neighbors to add this "crazy, Cajun family" you know or heard about to their prayer list.  Prayer is what has gotten us this far and will be what gets us through the rest of this journey.   Pray for the sell of our house and car.  Pray for us to have the strength and courage we need to continue to follow this call.  Pray for the people that we will be sent to minister to that they be open to God's Word.  Never underestimate the power of your prayers. We are all going to be amazed when we reach Heaven at how many mountains were moved by a simple, yet sincere, prayer for someone.

BE SUPPORTIVE:  Love us and support us with smiles and encouraging words.  Please don't fill our heads (nor our kids' heads) with all the horrible things that could happen or tell us how lonesome we will be or remind us of all the things and people we will have to leave behind, don't keep questioning us about whether we've thought about this or that.  We've thought about it all.  We've prayed about it all.  We are learning to trust God totally and completely through this process; please be positive and encourage us.

DONATIONS:  If you feel God calling you to become part of our mission to "proclaim the Gospel to all Nations" monetarily, you can donate to our mission fund in several ways.

(1) Spring clean and bring us your "junk" to sell at one of our upcoming garage sales. Or have your own garage sale and donate the money to our mission fund. (Thanks to a great friend for that idea!) 

(2) Save your loose change over the next few months and add it to our kids' Coin Drive.  (We cashed in $50 already!)

(3) Make a one time or monthly donation to our mission account by mailing a check to Family Missions Company, 12624 Everglade Road, Abbeville, LA 70510. Please write "Seilhan Family in the memo line.  Or donate online directly to our Mission Fund at:

http://www.fmcmissions.com/portfolio/travis-and-melissa-seilhan/

Please know that all of you are in our daily prayers. We pray daily for our benefactors---those who support our journey through prayer and through donations. We couldn't do this without both.

We know that this journey is not an easy one. We know that we are not worthy to be called to such a journey. We know that we still have a long way to go in our faith journey.  But we also know that God will provide the strength, courage, wisdom, patience, perseverance, faith, and the love and support we need to do what it is He is asking of us. He promises this to us all, no matter what our call is. 

Mexico Christmas Project Update #2

Here's a link to Family Missions Company's website where the project update is.

The Ultimate Gift Update

Here's the links to the original post and the first update:

The Ultimate Christmas Gift

Update #1

A note from the family:

Thank you to the Seilhan Family and those who contributed to this project and to Raul and Marta, my friends who remained very close to us during this process. For that I thank them for helping me. May God bless you and give you strength. May your spirits continue to be full of love and harmony, so that you can continue helping people like me that need it. Thank you for the room and roofs that you built for my benefit and my family’s benefit. Thank you once again. – 
Maximina Martinez Logo and the Tapia Martinez Family

 

Yes, We're Still Crazy

If you didn't read our first post about being CRAZY, you might want to go back and read it here so that you know what I'm talking about.

It's now almost official.  We turned in our applications yesterday to Family Missions Company to become full-time missionaries this September.  All we have to do is wait for our references to send back the forms saying how wonderful we are, so that FMC can approve our application packet, and then it will be officially official!

We are pretty confident that we will be accepted.  I mean, how many people wake up one day and say, "Hey, I'm going to sell everything I own, join a missionary group, and let them send me to wherever they want to send me!"  I really don't think that they have a huge amount of applications to sift through.  And since they have already conned us into to being on committees for a conference they are putting on this fall, I'm pretty sure we won't be turned down.

That means we have six months to pay off all our bills, sell all of our belongings, and raise enough funds to support our first couple months of mission life. Six short months!  It sounded much better when we were able to say "next year."  Now that "next year" has become "this year," it's starting to get a little real for me.  I like to have all my ducks in a row.  I like to know things ahead of time and right now we know nothing. 

Our biggest "unknown" right now is our house. We have someone trying to sell their place to buy ours, but are unsure of how long we should wait.  And if that sell doesn't go through, what next?  We have several other people interested in buying our place, but also someone interested in leasing it while we are gone.  Did He really mean sell everything? Can we, should we keep the house? 

We love our place and always dreamed of retiring out here and having our kids build on our property. The kids have fought over who will get the house and who will have to build their own. We have worked very hard on remodeling the old farm house, fencing in a pasture, cleaning up the barn and still have lots left that we wanted to do.  We'd love to be able to come back here one day, but is that what God wants us to do?  

This is something we have prayed about constantly.  And decided long ago that it will work itself out if we just completely trust the Lord.  But now that we only have 6 months left, it's hard to just sit back and let God take care of it.  I want it sold right now or have the lease papers worked up and signed asap.  Please pray for us and for God to show us the path we are to take---either way.

Then there's the furniture and stuff.  Most of it isn't worth much, but we do have a few things we'd like to keep for our return.  Again, we ask the same question "Did He really mean everything?" Or can we keep some of our stuff?  And if so, what do we really want to keep and what needs to go?

The other big issue, which was partly already solved, is the sell of our Traverse.  Besides the house note, it's our only big monthly expense.  We figured if we sell it soon, we can use the monthly note money to pay off some of the smaller bills faster so we could start building up our mission fund.  But weren't sure what we'd drive if we sold it.  Well, God is awesome!  Someone offered to give us an older mini van.  So, now we just need to sell the car!  Anyone in the market for a 2011 Chevy Traverse? :)

Last on our "need to-do now" list is to begin fundraising.  We have a garage sale planned for the first weekend of March.  We will hopefully be getting rid of some of our "unnecessary" items like the things stored on the top shelf of the pantry and in the tops of closets that haven't been used in years, but will gladly take your junk too!  If you're in our area, do your Lenten/Spring cleaning asap and bring us your give away piles!

So, the answer is, yes, we are still crazy. Yes, we are still planning to sell everything and follow Christ proclaiming the Gospel to all the nations.  And no, we are still not worthy nor are we qualified.  But God keeps assuring us that He will give us what we need to do what He is asking us to do.  All we have to do is TRUST.  That's the hard part.  Not my will, but Your will be done.

Consequently, if you need someone to offer up your Lenten sacrifice for, we could definitely use the extra prayers and graces.  Or if you are looking for a good cause to give your Lenten alms to, pray about helping to support our future mission. 

Thanks in advance for the prayers and support!
The Crazy Seilhans


Tax deductible donations can be sent to Family Missions Company, 12624 Everglade Road, Abbeville, LA 70510.  Please put Seilhan Family in the memo line.  You can also donate online to our account at http://www.fmcmissions.com/portfolio/travis-and-melissa-seilhan/.  You can donate once or set up a monthly donation to our fund. Please know that donors/benefactors are prayed for daily.