Well, here we finally are to the really fun part of being a missionary,
raising money.

It’s quite funny because last year David swore that if he EVER went into
full time ministry, which was clearly not going to happen in the first
place, he would NEVER raise his own support.

Well, we’re not exactly raising our own support. Actually we’re paying our
own way. Well, to be totally honest, the Navy is paying us to go. We’re
using our retirement pay to cover our salary there! Great deal, huh?

We had that all figured out until our sending organization informed us a few
months ago that they don’t let anyone pay their full way. It’s just not
good for your prayer support. As you can imagine, where people’s treasure
(read, money) is, is where their heart is too. World Harvest wants at least
a few people to have their treasure invested into our ministry so that when
we’re in the boonies of Africa, their hearts (and most importantly prayers)
will be with us.

So we started to pray about the money angle and God gave us this brilliant
idea that our church could pay half of our support needs (we were asked to
raise about a third of our total financial needs, we’re still using the
retirement pay for the rest). Didn’t matter that everyone we suggested this
to thought we were crazy to even imagine it happening. We were convinced.
God gave us a number to ask for, $1000, a full half of our monthly support
needs. We figured we had to ask even if we ended up looking like fools.
Course we weren’t allowed to ask until after our approval so we kept praying
and sat tight.

Well, we had that all figured out when out of the blue, before we even had a
chance to be approved, our church approached US and told us they’d like to
pledge $2000/month and cover our full support expenses. They want to BE our
sending church. !!!!!!! We basically just sat down and cried and realized
that we really had so little idea of what God was doing in and through our
lives . . .we really are fools but in a different way than we thought. He
blew us away. Can you imagine what God is doing in our church? And what He
WILL do through their step of obedient faith?? We’re psyched up about it.

So then, we couldn’t believe that here we were back to where we began, with
no financial needs. It was so great. Then came Assessment and Orientation,
along with the news that we actually need a lot more money. Almost $50,000
to be exact. For deployment. This money covers the cost of a new vehicle
upgraded safari style ( absolutely necessary as we are eight hours from the
city across TERRIBLE roads, and must make bimonthly trips in for supplies).
Plane tickets into and out of the country. Upgrades to the home we will be
living in, including the cost of necessary furniture, a really good water
purification system, and repairs/new battery for the solar panel.

The really neat part of this is that we only have 10 weeks to raise this
money, if we stay on the current timeline. Since this seems to be the
timeline that God has for us, we’re moving forward towards it unless he
slows us down.

So here we are. THIS is a BIG mountain. Even the people at World Harvest
who see lots of people raise support think so. Even they aren’t sure it can
happen. And that’s what makes me excited. Here God has given us this
timeline knowing all along what our expenses will be. Imagine what
surprises He could have in mind - and there’s no doubt He’s going to bring
big time praise to Himself.

So that’s what we’re praying for. We’re praying for clear communication
from us to all of you out there. We’re praying that this will be about His
story in our lives, the tiny threads that we are that are contributing to
the making up of the big gorgeous piece of tapestry. We’re praying that as
we ask for money God will show everyone in beautiful and magnificent ways
His character and his presence. This is all about Him, we know that, He
knows that, may this be a chance for everyone else to see that as well.

(Over the next day or two we will be adding a link to a summary of our
expenses and where the $50k will be spent, so check back!)