Hi friends, family, and supporters that we are so thankful for! We pray this preparation update finds you well and enjoying the beginnings of spring. All of the color and new life is so refreshing. These past two months have been busy, but so so sweet. We have made some lifetime friends here in Fort Worth, TX and we are so grateful for the year we’ve shared here as our official move out date in July approaches quickly. We have been soaking up time with these precious people in and amongst working long hours, preparing to sell everything, and move out of our house on July 1st. These people are really an answer to prayer for us and it has been so wonderful to soak in this sweet gift of friendship from the Lord. We are truly meant to live in community. We are so thankful for your prayers and support as we continue to prepare and trust the Lord with our yes to this year of ministry with Adventures.
At this point, we have all of our big gear items and have been trying to narrow down our packing lists so we can be as minimal as possible, but also have room for a few things we love along the way. We each have a 60L pack for all of our belongings, clothes, hygiene items, sleep system, and random gear like water filtration, medications, ect. We each also have a 26L “daypack” for travel days and to carry what we may need to and from ministry sites or on shorter treks. We plan to camp out in our backyard soon with our tent and sleep system to ensure that our setup will work well for the next year. We are also camping Memorial Day weekend with some of our dear friends so that will also give us a chance to test out some of our gear as well.
Our church here in Fort Worth, Living Water Church, has been so supportive of our commitment to go overseas for this year. They had only known us for 5 months when we told them last year and they were on board to support what the Lord was calling us to 100%. We have been so blessed by them. On April 6th, we hosted a Missions Night fundraiser at our church and had a great time sharing our hearts with the church, more about where we are going, the ministry we will be doing, and enjoying food together from each continent we will call home. Here are a few pictures!
We used our gear to decorate the sanctuary!
My dear friend Rachel hand made these beautiful bracelets to sell!
My talented friend Nicole is making these t-shirt to sell as well! She is taking orders so if you are interested, let me know! They are so soft!
We did trivia and learned more about each country we are going too! Each table represented a country on our route.
We ate awesome food like African peanut chicken, Bolivian stew, and Thai sweet chili rice! All cuisine from regions we will be serving in!
Also, check out this video, also below, that our talented friend Caleb made for us to use in our fundraising and support gathering process! This was taken in our home and gave us a chance to share more of our hearts and vision with you all and others about this year. We shared it at the missions night as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r84oFkwjDCc
Along the lines of fundraising, we are so thankful to report that we are 70% funded as of this week! We have met our launch goal and have just over $10,000 left to raise by Nov. 2019. The Lord is so good and we have been so humbled and blessed to trust Him in this process. We really feel confirmation that this journey is what He has for us as a foundation to long-term ministry. We can hardly wait to meet our team members soon in Atlanta and begin this journey. But, in the meantime, we are soaking in moments, people, and savoring the present sweet season we are in.
Again, we are so grateful for each one of you! Your prayers are paving the way for us and laying the foundation for the work that the Lord is going to do in Africa, Asia, and South America and each and every donation, big or small, is playing a vital role as well in getting us on the field. Your yes to being a sender and a prayer warrior for us is going to move mountains for the Kingdom!
Love,
Austin & Ally
Here is the video!
