"...that's the plan anyway"

In just the last week, we have begun to get into the meat of membership with The Organization. Following a phone call with our Pre-field Assistant (PA), and several emails later, we have a pretty good idea of what will be required of us in the next year.

First is the intensive two-week training session in Orlando. We plan to be there late April-early May of '09. Second is the Intercultural Communications Course (ICC) that will be held in Waxhaw in August of '09. Then, to be eligible for the 3rd Training (the Pacific Orientation Course [POC] in Madang, PNG) we have to have 100% financing. As it looks right now, the earliest we could enter POC would be January of 2010.

There is obviously a lot of empty space in that itinerary. "What will you be doing in the meantime?" is a natural question for you to ask. Our first job as Organizationmembers is to build partnerships with churches and individuals. We are actively building a contact list to that effect. So, in very short order, we will be making good on all of those invitations to speak at your church, small group, dinner party, missions committee, etc. If you have not extended an invitation and want to, feel free! Our first goal is to build awareness of The Organization and it's work in the world, the second goal is to present how you can partner with that work in a myriad of ways. As my dad likes to say, "some pray, some give, and some go."

To be sure, the giving is the most controversial part of the whole thing for many of our friends and family. You cannot understand why we would ask other people to pay our way into a life that seems to be reckless and irresponsible. On the other side of the same coin, you ask why anyone would pay us to do work that does not benefit them in any way. To answer this, I would again have to refer you to our very first post: The Reason Why
http://weirmissions.blogspot.com/2008/07/reason-why.html

Moving on.

So in view of God's mercy, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Rom.12.1) and make plans to go. To facilitate supporting us and our work, we will get out a mailer with all the necessary information in short order. We don't know how much we will need yet, but our PA says we'll know that soon.

So, we'll build partnerships, go to training in Orlando, build partnerships, go to training in Waxhaw, build partnerships, go to training in PNG!

...that's the plan anyway.