Last night we had a great time sharing with Fincastle Baptist Church, right down the road from where we live here in VA. This visit topped off an amazing week support-wise: God has brought in 15% of our total monthly support need in a week’s time! Wow! We’re still praying for another 15% by our June 1st deadline (which would bring us to 80%), but whatever God decides to do, we are very encouraged by His gracious provision this week!
Category: our support (Page 3 of 4)
We’ve learned a lot in the process of raising support.
First and foremost: God does it His way. We had plenty of ideas and expectations going in, but things have been completely different than we expected! That’s not bad – we’ve just had to learn to trust Him only and be patient as He reveals His way.
2: support development is not about us. Sure, we need the money to live on, but the goal is joining God in what He’s doing in Ireland…..
and here!
We’ve been amazed and humbled at the opportunities to serve the Lord and join what He is doing here in the States. We’ve seen over and over again how He has brought us to the right churches and individuals at the right times to accomplish His purpose for us and for them… it’s a constant adventure, and we’re loving it!
Finally, it’s great to be part of a team. And we have a really great team!
Friday-Saturday Seth helped with a Disciple Now weekend for a youth pastor friend in the area. He ended up being the group leader for the middle-school guys. Last night he slept for 11 hours. That means he’s pretty much recovered except that he’ll probably be sore for another day or two. Spiritually, the weekend was awesome – God showed up in a big way, and it was obvious that it was Him. How exciting to get to be a part of it!
Yesterday we drove down to Chase City, VA to speak at Salem United Methodist Church, where one of Jessica’s long-time friends and her husband go. It was a great! The church building was beautiful, old, and little. The people were friendly, generous, encouraging – and a lot of them were little, too (there were tons of babies)! We are really enjoying watching God work and following His lead in this process of support-development!
Yesterday was a milestone for both of us! We had a wonderful day as a family with some extra-special goodies provided courtesy of Jessica. We took some pictures, too – check them out under the “pictures/media” tab.
We have also been encouraged lately as several churches have expressed interest in either supporting us or in having us come and present our ministry. Please pray that they will follow through and that God will use these opportunities for His glory!
The best thing about full-time support raising is getting to see people. We’ve been able to spend some wonderful time with some great folks lately, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re also looking forward to presenting our vision to a handful of churches – do you know any churches or individuals who would be interested in what God is doing in Ireland? Let us know!
by the way, Daniel got his second tooth the other day 🙂
Jessica got to teach Spiderman a piano lesson on Halloween. Evidently he’s trying to branch out and develop some new skills.
In other news, Daniel is laughing and smiling a lot, Seth is working a lot, and Jessica is busy with the baby and a steady stream of ministry opportunities. We have had several new folks say that they want to start supporting us, so that has been very encouraging, especially after finding out that our support need is now greater due to the rising housing costs in Ireland. It seems like an impossible task sometimes, but we know that our God is in the business of doing impossible things 🙂
Tomorrow morning we are going to be meeting up with some missionaries to Africa (on home ministry) that our church supports. We’ll be getting advice on how to raise support from folks who have done it – please pray that the meeting goes well and that we are teachable!
Random side note: Seth met some missionaries going to England who were eating at Ruby Tuesday the other day (having one last real hamburger before they left). They had a little baby not much older than Daniel, and it was encouraging to talk to them!
We had a great time in Lynchburg meeting with some wonderful folks! Thanks so much to everyone who made us feel so welcome! Your prayers and financial support are vital in helping us go, stay and be effective in Ireland!
After we got back from Lynchburg, we got to go apple-picking with Jessica’s folks (a family tradition) and we had a blast! Check out the pictures under the pictures/media tab!
Seth started working as a server at Ruby Tuesday’s yesterday (Tuesday… go figure). Not only is serving tables something Seth has always wanted to try, but this job will provide the necissary funds for Jessie to stay home and for us to eat and pay bills after Seth finishes up at Daleville Baptist Church in August. Once we get closer to leaving for the field and have at least 50% of our support, we’ll be able to go on stipend with CrossWorld and raise the rest of our support full-time. Until then, Seth is at your service at Ruby Tuesday’s in Roanoke!
Seth had a fabulous trip to Georgia and Alabama June 3-9! He got to see lots of great people and meet with some wonderful churches! Although we won’t know the exact percent for a few months, our support (both financial and prayer) was boosted a lot by some generous folks who have partnered with us to reach Ireland with the Good News! Many thanks to all y’all who made this trip such a blessing to Seth!
