There's a very good chance we might be moving to Davao City in the Philippines this summer for 2.5 years! This is something we've been praying about and considering for several months now. Sarah was recently accepted to a midwife training program where she will work at Mercy Maternity Clinic (the largest charity-based maternity clinic in the Philippines) while she is working towards her certification as a licensed midwife through Newlife International School of Midwifery. I'll have the chance to take part in lots of exciting ventures possibly including building water filters for nearby villages! I'll write more about that later.
It has been quite a process, but we have never felt more sure about anything we've ever done. God has confirmed this to us over and over. For example, we prayed that if He wanted us to go, that He would take care of Avery's severe eczema, digestive issues, and weight-gain problems. Not long after, her skin cleared up and she received a glowing checkup from the doctor! She's even gaining weight again!
The biggest challenge facing us now is that in order to go, we must raise our financial support because foreigners are not allowed to earn a salary in the Philippines. So we are required to go on missionary visas.
We've begun the process of raising support, which I must say has been a surprisingly fun process so far! We raised support before we moved to Los Angeles to work with Kairos, and that was probably the most difficult thing we've ever done. However, this time, we feel like we have a fresh vision and a renewed hope that where God leads, He provides. We've also taken a little different approach which feels more natural and fits us a little better than the way we were trained to do it before. So far, we've received a very warm response! We've already had several thousand dollars in special gifts pledged and several hundred dollars in monthly gifts pledged! Thankfully, our living expenses will be much lower in the Philippines than they were in LA! We can actually live on less than what we paid in rent there each month!
Please join us in praying for this mission. We have to pay a deposit by April 1 to secure Sarah's position in the program, so that will serve as our cut-off date to see if we can go this summer. If we don't meet our support goal by then, we'll postpone it till next year. We are meeting with the mission committee from our new church, Carmel Baptist, this month. The missions pastor has said they might possibly take us on as one of their missionaries and the support they typically give would provide approximately 25% of what we need! We will find out their decision on February 25th and we are praying that we will have a clear picture by then whether or not this will become a reality for us this summer! Thanks for reading, I'll keep you updated!
It has been quite a process, but we have never felt more sure about anything we've ever done. God has confirmed this to us over and over. For example, we prayed that if He wanted us to go, that He would take care of Avery's severe eczema, digestive issues, and weight-gain problems. Not long after, her skin cleared up and she received a glowing checkup from the doctor! She's even gaining weight again!
The biggest challenge facing us now is that in order to go, we must raise our financial support because foreigners are not allowed to earn a salary in the Philippines. So we are required to go on missionary visas.
We've begun the process of raising support, which I must say has been a surprisingly fun process so far! We raised support before we moved to Los Angeles to work with Kairos, and that was probably the most difficult thing we've ever done. However, this time, we feel like we have a fresh vision and a renewed hope that where God leads, He provides. We've also taken a little different approach which feels more natural and fits us a little better than the way we were trained to do it before. So far, we've received a very warm response! We've already had several thousand dollars in special gifts pledged and several hundred dollars in monthly gifts pledged! Thankfully, our living expenses will be much lower in the Philippines than they were in LA! We can actually live on less than what we paid in rent there each month!
Please join us in praying for this mission. We have to pay a deposit by April 1 to secure Sarah's position in the program, so that will serve as our cut-off date to see if we can go this summer. If we don't meet our support goal by then, we'll postpone it till next year. We are meeting with the mission committee from our new church, Carmel Baptist, this month. The missions pastor has said they might possibly take us on as one of their missionaries and the support they typically give would provide approximately 25% of what we need! We will find out their decision on February 25th and we are praying that we will have a clear picture by then whether or not this will become a reality for us this summer! Thanks for reading, I'll keep you updated!
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment