End of the Road-Trip

We've made it! After six weeks, 16 states, 20 different beds, and more than 6,000 miles, we're back in the DC area.

The Brande Support Tour of 2013

This was a long trip, but we were so blessed by the opportunities we had to connect with dear family & friends. We were grateful for every speaking engagement, and we appreciate every opportunity we had to meet with a supporter or a sponsoring church. Most of all, we are tremendously thankful for everyone who opened their homes to us along the way!

So after all of this travel & talking about our calling to missions, we are almost to 90% of our total monthly support needed. Our sending agency would prefer us to be at 100% - we still have 72 hours in which God can work.

Over the next four days, we will:

• Wash clothing & pack all of our suitcases
• Weigh and repack our suitcases
• Complete the additional documents required to get our shipment through customs
• Print out all of our travel documents & confirm our flights
• Reweigh (and possibly repack) all of our bags
• Continue to trust in the Lord to provide for all of our needs

Please continue to lift us up in prayer!

This Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

We were given the gift of a photo shoot before we left Missouri. This picture pretty much sums up our summer. (Photo credit - Holly Hyde & Posy Creative)

Up, Up, and Away!!!

For many, many months now you all have been praying with us ...from the start of our making the decision to move to Prague, through all the craziness of visas, and on the winding roads (some literally) of support raising.

We are very happy to tell you that our support level has risen enough to the point of getting permission to buy tickets, and God blessed us with an incredible price through a "missionary fare."  Today we received our tickets to leave on August 15! We are excited and at the same time taking very deep breaths as we realize that we are leaving in less than 10 days.

This does not mean that you should stop praying.  Please continue to pray for:
1.) The last leg of travel -- We are in Minneapolis now and will be making our way back to DC this week, arriving Saturday evening.
2.) Continued support provision -- We are trusting that God is going to provide the rest of what we need to meet 100%.
3.) Physical strength and energy -- It's been a long month of travel and we are very tired!
4.) All the details on the other side -- Apartments, dr. appointments, shipment of our container, start of school.

We are so grateful that you have stayed with us on this journey, and we look forward to having you with us on the other side of the ocean as well.  

Two-week Countdown

It's the last day of July. We're hovering between 71-72% of support raised. God has been so gracious in providing us with additional speaking engagements, and slowly but steadily, He's providing new sponsors. We only have $1585 left to raise in monthly pledges.

This would be the equivalent of:

     One hundred new donors making pledges of $15.85 monthly
               OR
     Seventy-five individuals giving $21.30 on a monthly basis

               OR
     Fifty people giving $31.70 each month

               OR
     Twenty-five people pledging $63.40 per month

               OR
     Ten people (or churches) giving $158.50 monthly

               OR

     Any combination of new pledge commitments. 

We are so incredibly grateful for everything which has already been given, and we continue to trust the Lord to provide for the remainder of our monthly needs.

We are still holding fast to our target date of August 15. That's just two weeks from now! There are many tasks to complete before this time, not the least of which is purchasing our airline tickets. We're finally in communication with a travel agent, so at least we're getting closer.

Today & tomorrow are our last days in Missouri - we're leaving Friday morning for Iowa & points north, so please continue to pray for us as we travel. Our greatest needs (aside from the last portion of our monthly support) are for safety, health and strength. We do not want to arrive in the Czech Republic completely worn out! 

I Cannot Say "Thank You" Enough

We've been tremendously blessed to have had two baby showers before we leave for Prague. Friends back in Florida and now in Missouri have gathered to congratulate us and to celebrate Baby B's eventual arrival. We have been blessed with large gifts like a pack-n-play (which made it on to our shipping container before it departed!) all the way down to bibs & spoons, and our daughter has received so many darling clothes that we may have to pack a separate suitcase just for her outfits.

This evening, as Phil & I again looked through the assortment of gifts & cards we've received, it struck me that every single stitch of clothing we'll put on our baby girl will be something which has been provided by someone else. Even the occasional sleepers we've purchased for her were made possible because of donations which have been given to support us (and our soon-to-be-family).

I don't think I fully appreciated the fact that "My God shall supply all of my needs" now extends to the needs of this precious baby we're so anxious to meet in November. Everything - from her diapers to her onesies to her snowsuits to her teething gel - will be provided through the support we receive while on the mission field.

As I prepare to send out more thank you cards & prayer letters, I really don't feel that the words I put on paper will ever be enough to express my gratitude to the friends & family who have given so much. I am grateful today for the love that was "showered" on us in the form of baby clothes and books; I'll be grateful tomorrow as I try to pack all of this love into our duffle bags; I'll be tremendously grateful 3-and-a-half months from now, as I wrap Baby B in the beautifully hand-made blankets & booties we received.
I will never be able to say "Thank You" enough.

There is No "Plan B"

We've been back on the road for two weeks, and after multiple speaking engagements, meetings, and presentations of our power point we've reached 65% of our monthly support. We're thankful for each & every pledge.

Obviously, we're still not at 80%...which means we still haven't purchased plane tickets...which means we have no concrete plans to leave the country on August 15th, even though that's our intended departure date. Each time these details are revealed to our audience, there's always someone who asks, "So what will you do if you don't reach your support goal?"  Our answer is always the same:

"We have no 'Plan B'."

When we made the decision to return to the mission field, we did so without backward glances. Phil gave up his salaried job at the school. We didn't renew our lease. We packed the shipping container. We sold our car. When we left Florida two weeks ago, we did so with the mindset that we were headed to Prague on August 15th, because that was when we were asked to be there.

The support hasn't come in as we had hoped it might, so we have two choices - we can be distracted by discouragement and start concocting a contingency plan, or we can stay the course of our support tour, and continue to put our trust in God to work out all of the details. 

We invite you to pray & agree with us to see amazing things happen in the next two weeks. We know that we serve an awesome God, and we've already seen Him do remarkable things with our documents, our visas, and our hospital registration. This financial component is still a large hurdle, but there is no need so great that God is not greater still.