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Now What?!?

Over the past 6 months we have hugged many of you and shared about God’s call for us to move to Ireland. As we’ve shared most of you asked the question, “When will you leave?” And, most of the time, we answered that it depended on support, but our goal was the end of January. We would never have said that God’s clear, audible voice told us we would move in January. In fact, God never answered the question of “when” about our move. So we set some goals for ourself and it appeared that January would be the best time to go.   Well… here we are at the end of January, and there is definitely no plane ticket yet. Because of that, the newest question is, “Now what?”
 
I have to confess that these last two months have been fairly discouraging. In our goal setting I looked at the month of December and thought, “Oh! Everyone will be around for the holidays and we’ll be super busy sharing about our ministry.” It didn’t cross my mind that everyone would be busy with other holiday plans. Therefore, from about Thanksgiving through New Year’s, our calendar was fairly empty and the business of adding new supporters to our ministry ground to a halt.

Inside of this incredible lack of activity, Satan started being a big jerk, putting a lot of doubt and frustration in my mind concerning Ireland. I had even begun formulating the email about how God changed our plans and we weren’t moving anymore. Somewhere deep inside I think I knew that it was Satan causing doubt, but in my conscious thoughts I was confused. I knew that God had blessed us to go to Ireland before, but I was asking for a very clear, multiple choice, word from God again – a) Yes, go to Ireland or b) No, don’t go to Ireland. As support raising continued to be non-existent, my prayers became more and more urgent. Eventually, because of the confusion in my mind, my prayer simply became “Lord, tell Corey what we’re supposed to do.” And a few weeks ago… God spoke. Corey and I had a great conversation and I asked him, “Do you know absolutely that God is calling us to move to Ireland?” and Corey could very clearly and confidently say, “yes.” That was followed by a great meeting with our missions pastor, Leighton, where I talked about my fears and frustrations… and eventually understood that I had become burnt out on support raising. Between Leighton and my good friend Amy, God showed me that I had been carrying the burden of raising our finances on my shoulders… forgetting that it is up to God to provide and that Corey and I are a team. Leighton gave me some very pointed homework – delegate responsibilities, make a schedule that includes things that are not support raising, and go have some fun.

And because of that… these few weeks have been a breath of fresh air… the renewed energy that I so needed. This Sunday as we sang in worship I felt the Holy Spirit began to again stir up my passion for missions… my passion for Ireland… and my passion for the lost once again. I began to remember why we’re raising finances… not to live in a really cool country… but to share GOOD NEWS to those who need to hear it.
 
Not only has God renewed our hearts, but our support raising has quickly picked back up and we are happy to share that we have surpassed the 50% mark!!!
 
Some of you may wonder why that’s such exciting news, but in the world of support raising, that means we’re close. The first 50% of your support is usually the hardest, and according to those who have gone before us, the second 50% comes much faster.

 
We still have no audible word from God about when we will move, but there is a thought in our heads, maybe inspired, about March. We would definitely love to be moved before the end of March! But we continue to rely not on our plans, but on God’s provision. When He provides we will move… whether that’s in March or 3 years from now. Either way, it will be because God stirred the hearts of people, like many of you who read this blog, to join our ministry through financial partnership.
 
I can’t tell you the number of times that I have had tears in my eyes as another friend, another family, tells us how they will be giving of themselves to join our ministry. It floors me every time to see the Body of Christ work together. We could never say thank you enough for believing in what God has planned for our life.