And so it begins.....

Today is the day. I am sitting in the Nashville airport waiting to catch my flight. I had a long drive this morning to think about some stuff. For the first time I am actually scared. Yesterday was a hard day. I said bye to the Fuqua's and Parker's. They have been a huge part of my life. They have always been there for me and I know that if I need ANYTHING, they would be there. I also said goodbye to the Arnetts. This was hard. I was and i consider myself still a part of their family. I love each and everyone of them. Michael, Alex, and Abbey are like the siblings/children I never had. Mark and Diana are amazing people. I can't wait to come back to see them. I think being away from them will be the hardest. I have never seen so much love in one family in my life. And I mean that! And I had to say goodbye to my brother Josh. I consider him my brother. He has always been there for me.... well, except the deck :) I'm gonna miss him a ton!

My youth will all be missed. Some of them came over late last night to say bye. But I'll get to see a couple of them in a couple weeks when they come down!

And my parents.... They are used to being away since we never lived close together. But a big THANK YOU to them. I couldn't do this without you and your support. I love you guys!

So I am on my way. My journey begins. I hope you can all come along on this journey through my blog. I think it will be a great experience for everyone. I am going to miss you Murray. I love you all....

10 days....

Wow... I can't believe I will be moving to Nicaragua in 10 days. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have laughed at you. But it will be a year ago next week when I visited Nicaragua for the first time. I am scared, but also very excited!

I am stressing out. I have a lot of little things to do at my house to get it ready to leave. And of course I am putting those off till the last minute. I figure I'll wait till my parents get here and let them help! :)

Someone asked me the other day if I was sad to be leaving or excited to be going...
I can't imagine anyone being just one or the other. I am very sad to be leaving some great friends and a great church. There are a few in particular that I'm going to miss a ton!
I have an adopted family in Murray. It will be very hard saying goodbye that last Sunday!

But at the same time, I am pumped and ready to get to Nicaragua! The Buzbee's are a great family to be working with. I am going to be blessed to be working side by side with Godly people. I also can't wait for us to challenge each other to grow closer to God. For the last 4 years, my faith has been my work. It's hard to understand unless you have been in full-time ministry. But everything I do at church is designed to help others with their faith. Whether I am running youth and children's programs or preaching and leading worship. It's all focused on trying to feed others. I love doing it. Don't get me wrong. But I am really excited to be serving God and being fed myself. It will be nice to be in His presence and just soak it all in. I am needing the time on Sundays to worship him and be fed. I haven't had that in a long time. It's been mostly me worrying about the Celebration service, sunday school, children's sermons, and worship and wonder. It will be great to show up to church again and sit back, be quiet, and listen to God's voice instead of worrying about what I need to do.

Don't take that the wrong way. I am sure someday I might end up in Full-time ministry again. I still feel the calling to be a pastor someday. I just know right now, I am being called to help God's people grow, and enjoy growing myself.

I am also very excited to see the children down there. They have a yearning that the children here don't have. That's a yearning to be loved. Yes, the children here want to be loved too. But these children in Nicaragua don't have parents that show them affection. Most have been abused beyond belief. When you look into their eyes, you see that they just want you to hug them and let them know that you care. I am looking forward to that. I get to be that uncle Tom or as the girls call me Gordito and the boys call me Toe-Mas. I get to be a person in their lives that they know will always be there for them and will love them no matter what. I'm pumped.

Lastly, I am scared. I still need to raise some money for Xalted Ministries. I know God will provide, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not perfect. If you are interested in supporting the ministry, please let me know. Or you can send a check made out to Xalted Ministries to:

John Fuqua
First Christian Church
111 N 5th st.
Murray, KY 42071

If you are wondering who John is, he will be taking care of the donations that are sent in. If you can't help financially, I can use your prayers. I need a lot of them. Please pray for the children that I will be working with in Nicaragua. Please pray for the Buzbee's. Please pray for First Christian Church and the children and youth that I will be leaving. They are so precious. It will be very hard to say goodbye (for now). And above all, please pray that I listen to and obey God's will for the people of Nicaragua and for my life. I want nothing more than to Glority him. Once I leave on the 31st, I will try to update this every day or two. Please check back to see what is going on! Thank you for your support and God bless you all!

In Christ,
Tom Seipel

Days 3&4

The internet's been down the last 24 hours, so sorry I didn't blog yesterday.

Yesterday was awesome.....

Ruth and I went with Elizabeth (a nurse) and went into the dump and into the homes of a handful of mothers with babies. I was really excited for ruth to get into these homes. I hope it really impacted her. I don't see how it couldn't. I got some really cute pictures and i gave out gum and got to play with some of the kids in the dump. After that we came home.

We relaxed and played with the 6 Buzbee kids. We had a great time.

Today was a great day. I took Ruth to the Market. I bought a lot of stuff for my kids at church. I also bought my wonderful mother something for her birthday in a couple of weeks. Ruth got a lot of stuff and it was just a fun time.

This afternoon I treated the boys and girls house to a movie. We went and saw "Tangled" in spanish. I was shocked we had 25 people and it was under $100. Pretty cheap compared to america. Plus it was worth every penny! Dennis a little 4 yr old sat on my lap the whole movie and eventually tried to sleep on my chest. It was cute. After the movie we went to drop them off and I said goodbye to the boys. I took Ruth in to see the girls house. It was pretty cool. We will see the girls tomorrow though, so I didn't say goodbye. We will see them at church. I can't wait for Ruth to see this church. It's pretty upbeat and rocking.

I am off to bed though. It's 7pm and I'm ready to crash. It's been a long and early day! Have a great night all. See you soon!

Day 2

So it's Thursday and I woke up and had an awesome quiet time. It was interrupted by the "twins". But I wouldn't have had it any other way. We chatted for a bit and I loved hearing about what was going on in their lives.

We ate breakfast and played with the monkey a little bit. Then Chachi took us, his family, and the 6 little Buzbees to Ruby Ranch. Yes.... we had 12 in a jeep cherokee. :)

We got there and Brinson had the girls from Casa Havilah there. The buzbees just bought 2 horses. One is bigger than the other. The kids watched each other ride. I was busy catching up with the girls from Casa Havilah. They are pretty special. For the most part we started where we left off in Sept. I heard Vannessa shouting "Gordito" as we pulled up. It made me smile. I was sooo happy to be there.

Ruby Ranch is beautiful. Think of a tropical "dude ranch". The flowers were amazing. The girls picked all kinds of fruit and such. I had a freshly picked green lemon. It was SOUR!!!! I mean more than a normal one. I rode the big horse and actually started galloping on it. I will tell you what.... that's one strong horse to carry me around. It was definitely sucking wind on the way up the hill!

Then we piled back in the car, came back, I played football with Moses, and the kids used me as a jungle gym. Ruth and I noted..... it doesnt matter what borders I cross. Tom looks like a Jungle Gym to ALL children!

Finally we played with the monkey and ruth got to hold it and got some pictures. It was nice. We had a great day. Tomorrow we are going with Elizabeth to the Dump to see some mothers. Then we will make our way to the Market. Sounds like another good day! I'm soooooooooo excited about being here long term. Yes I am going to miss everything about Murray. But I have connected with kids in ways I never have before. I think it's something to do with them being "orphaned" and without parents. That is truly sad, but I realize you become that special bond in their life instead. The affection they want and need is so much greater than kids back home. It's really special to see!

Anyway..... I'm off to do my devotion. I love you all and miss ya! God Bless

I'm BAAAAAACK!!!

So Ruth Daughaday and I arrived in Nica last night. After a couple planes delays we finally got here. I will admit, I was pretty frustrated traveling yesterday.

This morning we woke up and I took Ruth on a tour of the Buzbee's place. I think she likes it. She is sitting on the 3rd floor right now just taking in all of the scenery. We had breakfast with the 5 little Buzbees and then met up with ChaChi, Mr. B and Mrs. B.

It was great to see them again. I am really excited about being here. It is beautiful and it's supposed to be the ugly dry season!

So we went off with Chachi and Mr. B to the dump. It is a bowl of dust right now as it's the dry season. I need to remember to wear glasses this time of year when I'm in the dump because of all the dust in my contacts.

We drove through and made our way to the school. The school is on vacation right now, but they had some teachers inside painting and getting ready for school to start in a couple of weeks. Chachi filled Ruth in with a lot of the ministry info and what was going on while Mr. B and I chatted about my progress for the move.

After the school we went to Ruby's house. She was a wonderful strong Christian that died a year ago today actually. Her sister lives in the house and they have a prayer room. They wanted to pray with us so we spent 15 mins or so in prayer. I really enjoyed it!

Then we went over to Casa Robles. I was really excited to see them. Mr. B said that the boys were even more excited to see me. He said normally they don't get excited to see people, but after living with them.....they were pumped to see me come back!

And when we pulled up we honked and you could hear "TOE-MAS" from inside the house. Angelica came out and opened the gate and welcomed me with a big hug and kiss. Then the boys all jumped on me. I got a running jump-hug by Marcos that hit me somewhere that didn't feel to good if ya know what i mean lol.

All the boys were excited. Unfortunately Kenner, Luisa, and Ceasar aren't there. They went to visit their parents for vacation and the parents aren't wanting them to come back. I am sure that Kenner and Luisa will. But the buzbees aren't so sure about Ceasar. Chachi actually wants me to go with him to see Ceasar and his family because he thinks that I might be able to ease things with them knowing I will soon be living there.

After the boys home we left and came back to grab some lunch. We also saw the monkey. I'll be holding him soon! But that's all for now. We are having a blast. Ruth is taking pictures as I speak. Check back soon. Love you and miss you all!

Love,

Tom

My life will never be the same...

So....

I am moving to Nicaragua....
God has been very clear to me and tugging at me to take a leap of faith and follow Him. I don't want to, But I need to. I can't do this on my own. "I can't, He can, Go ahead". That's my saying I am living by. I also need a lot of prayers and support. I have a TON of money to raise. I pray that God will provide. I know he will. I have faith, I know He has everything under control. It doesn't mean I am not going to stress out and worry occasionally.

I will be moving around the end of May 2011. Until then I will be raising money, selling everything I own, and enjoying Murray and the people as much as I can! I will be living in the Boy's rescue home (Casa Robles). I am excited to let God use me. I have always held back a little in my life. I will now NEED to rely on God more than ever. I am excited. I will be updating this blog often. Please visit my site for my new organization. You can find it at http://www.xalted.org/ .  I am excited about where God is taking me. I am scared too. I hope you all can be a part of this and experience it with me! God Bless you all and LET THIS JOURNEY BEGIN!

-Tom Seipel

Last Blog till I am in the Miami Airport....

I had an amazing time here. Can't wait to get home and plan a mission trip for my church. I already know a handful of families interested.

I spent the morning with Coburn today at him School he has started. It's pretty awesome.

Then I came back and spent the afternoon at Casa Havilah and said goodbye.

Now I'm back at Robles and the boys are getting ready for bed soon. So I am going to hang with them until they go to bed. Saying goodnight will also be our goodbyes. It will be sad. Judy and Angelica said I can move in if i want to live in Nicaragua! That's pretty kind of them....

The Buzbees have been great all week. I really appreciate their support and their love. They do have a lot of love in that family. I am happy I have been accepted into their ministry with open arms.

It is going to be a long day tomorrow. I have a lot of church work to do when I get home before Sunday. I don't wanna go back to a working life. It's pretty nice working for God here and not being responsible for anything other than loving the kids!

But Back to life.... I'll talk to you in the airport I am sure!