Encouragement

Building partners to support our efforts abroad is emotional work. We put ourselves out there, trusting on the faithfulness of our God and the generosity of his people. It has been discouraging, mostly because of the lack of support from one of the most important entities to our mission: our home church.

I want to document the issues we have been having, to vent and to illustrate the source of our frustrations, and to show why recent developments are so encouraging.

Our church: I informed our church missions director of our plans to join with The Organization sometime near the end of 2007. Then, in March 2008, I had a meeting with the director and head pastor notifying them of our intentions and asking if the church would partner with us. In July 2008, The Organization notified the church of our acceptance. In November 2008, at the request of the missions director, I sent the church a letter outlining our intentions and requesting support. I asked the missions director in December 2008 what had become of the letter. I was told that it was going to be presented to the board at the next opportunity in January 2009.

By this time I was noticing a pattern and so a day after the scheduled meeting, I emailed the director again, requesting the results of the meeting. The director scheduled me for a meeting on February 12th, 2009. On Sunday, Feb. 8th, the church congregation was informed that due to budget constraints, several staff positions had been cut, including that of the missions director! I approached the pastor that made the announcement and informed him of the pending meeting. He told me that he knew nothing of it, but that he would be my contact person from that point forward. The next day, he called and requested the letter that I had sent in Nov. 08. Two days later, another phone conversation. He informed me that the church would love to be our sending church! He said even though we are not asking for money from them, that they would find a way to give if at all possible! In 3 days, I got an answer, after asking for a year and 3 months!

Adrienne has really been struggling with the fact that our home church has been so loathe to give us support. I have been stoic, insisting that we just needed to give them time. Well, I didn't realize how important it was to me personally. I had a moment after that last phone call with the pastor where I just had to break down for a bit! So, while it has been tough, we are now encouraged!

Continue to pray for us. (1) Pray that our house would sell quickly. That one element is the most important factor in releasing us from all debt, thereby freeing us to attend all training, and leave our jobs to focus on our roles with The Organization. (2) Praise that our church and others have committed valuable resources to seeing our ministry be successful. (3) Pray that God will raise up others to come along side us and enable our family to touch people the world over.