Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Great Video with Encouraging Words!

Here's an awesome testimony to the way God provides: The Christian International School of Prague has finally raised the funds to move into their own building! You can read more about the school's story here.

We cannot wait to join this group of teachers & students at CISP next fall! We're believing that, just as this school has reached its financial goals for the building, the Lord will also provide for all of our needs as we raise support to go.

This video was made by the school, a thank you to everyone who provided support for their new building. These are the faces of our future students & co-workers!

Friday, January 25, 2013

So it Begins

We had our first speaking engagement of 2013! It was exciting to have an invitation to share about our calling before we'd even sent out requests to speak. We started small - the 3rd & 4th grade Sunday school class - but what a neat opportunity. If there's one thing we know, it's that children are sincere in their questions, and in their prayers. We thoroughly enjoyed speaking to this class, and it was a blessing to share about our experience as missionaries. Thus begins our transition into support-raising season.

Accepting the position at CISP means that we accept the responsibility of raising the support to get us there. Hang on - let's rephrase that. Accepting the position at CISP means that we accept the responsibility of sharing about our financial needs, and we trust GOD to supply the funds to get us there. 

After sitting down with our budget estimates, spreadsheets, & calculators, we've realized that we are nowhere near the monthly amount that we'll need to live in the Czech Republic. However, we're not starting at zero! We are incredibly thankful for each & every sponsor who has remained with us throughout our extended furlough, because it puts us at about the 20% mark. This means we have only 80% left to raise!

You don't need to tell us we have a lot of work cut out for us. It's January 25th; CISP needs us in Prague by August 15th. We have just over 6 months to see this task accomplished.

Our next speaking engagement will be on February 3, at one of the local churches in Niceville. We met with two other pastors this afternoon, to discuss the possibility of speaking in their respective churches. We're seeking as many opportunities as possible to share about the work to which we've been called, but with Phil teaching full-time, our ability to travel is limited. 

As you remember us in your prayers, please pray that:
  • We will have wisdom as to how to spend our time & energy 
  • Opportunities to share locally will be possible
  • We will have the boldness to ask for that which we need
  • God will provide in amazing, remarkable ways for an on-time departure
Stay tuned for more updates!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year!

Hello & Happy 2013 from Brande Central Station!
In case you're wondering why things have been so quiet over here, let's just say that it's been an incredibly busy two weeks.

We had a great time celebrating Christmas in Washington, DC, with Christiana's parents & Phil's sister. It was also fun to catch up with many HCA friends & former colleagues from Russia. We wished we could have stayed longer, but we had commitments in St. Louis, MO.

We spent five days at Urbana '12 (which is actually held in St. Louis!) exhibiting & recruiting on behalf of our sending organization, RCE International. If you've never heard of Urbana, it's a ginormous missions conference, with more than 16,000 people in attendance. Here's a look at our booth:

The RCE Team at Urbana
It's hard to tell exactly just how many people we actually talked to over the course of five days, but we're guestimating at least 500 brochures went out, and at least 300 people signed up for more information about future opportunities at international schools. That's not too shabby! Christiana will have her work cut out for her, following up with all of these new contacts.

One of the perks of being in Missouri for New Year's is SNOW! We've enjoyed encountering winter again (although one of us likes snow a little more than the other...)

Enjoying St. Louis Snow

We're now in Jefferson City, MO, enjoying some time with family, and some much-needed down-time after the very busy week at Urbana. Next week - back to Niceville!