Hi Friends and Family!
First of all. We are SO thankful for all of you and are humbled by your decision to either support us in prayer, financially, or both! We are grateful for every one of you and the part you are playing in this story the Lord is orchestrating in and through us, and using YOU to make it all come together. Each piece and person is vital to what He has planned for this year and those following. We are eternally grateful for your generosity, faithfulness, and willingness to be SENDERS! We are unable to GO without you, so please know you are very much a vital part of this journey and the fruit that will come from it!
We just wanted to take a moment to update everyone on how the preparation stage is going for us, as we are officially 4 months out from our training in Georgia and 6 months out from leaving the US with our team. We have slowly begun gathering the necessary gear we will need. Our new tent, sleeping pads, packs, and other outdoor essentials. We hope to test out some of our gear in the spring camping here in Texas a few times, as those bags will hold all of our belongings, that tent will be our home, and sleeping pads our beds for the vast majority of the next year. We’ve only just begun to process the gravity of that.
We have also begun talking through what belongings we are going to keep and what we will be selling closer to when we leave Texas in July. Being a married couple on this journey is unique and the reality of the fact that we are leaving and selling the vast majority of what we have worked for over the past 4 years together is an interesting place to be, but also very freeing at the same time. The Lord has been tender with us and we are just so thankful He has promised to meet our needs as we follow His lead. We will have our daily bread and He is enough. So much of what holds us back is our nature to seek comfort and rely on what is known. We honestly are excited to part with the vast majority of our physical belongings, anything that might hold us back from the Lord’s best for us, and be ready to move and go wherever He asks and leads us during this year and afterwards.
We have also been praying. So very much. Sowing seeds. Speaking life. Casting vision. Asking the Lord. We have a large world map in our living room that we have marked and begun praying specific things over each region of the world and country we will be doing ministry in (see picture below). What is the Lord’s heart for this place? How does He want to use us and our team to bring love, restoration, hope, and life here? What dreams and visions do we have for each location? How can we begin to align those with the Lord’s? Beginning to do this has really made our going all the more real. Tangible. Palpable. Spiritually heavy. But in that, our hearts are already growing for the people, places, and ministries we will be a part of, without even having stepped foot among them.
Next, for a fundraising update. With the commitments we have from our supporters so far, we are at roughly $12,500, which is about 33% funded! We are 1/3 of the way to our goal! SO awesome! We still have a long way to go, but we are so encouraged and motivated to continue sharing our hearts and vision with others and also working hard ourselves to reach that goal. If you are still considering supporting us financially, we would love to chat with you and share more of our hearts behind this year-long journey. The Lord has given us a beautiful long-term vision that this will lay the foundation for and we are so excited to take this first step.
As we have been praying into this year, we would love to share with you some things you can be praying for as we continue to prepare to go!
1-Pray for the preparation of our hearts and the rest of our team for what is to come this year. May we be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and remain teachable in these upcoming transitions
2-Pray for hearts and soils of South-Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. May they be ripe and receptive as we come to love and share of Jesus and His great love for them
3- Pray for our marriage to be strengthened and fortified. Pray against any scheme of the evil one to steal, kill, and destroy as we prepare and head out. We know saying yes to this as a married couple is makes us a target of the enemy
4-Pray for our financial provisions – may the Lord prompt the hearts of those He has set apart to partner with us in this way over the next few months
Thank you all again for sowing seeds into our ministry and the calling the Lord has placed on our lives. We are so grateful and excited to continue to share this preparation phase with you and the fruits of the journey as we leave this summer. Please don’t hesitate to reach out, we would love to connect with you and please share our journey with anyone you know who would be interested in partnering with us in some way, we would love to connect with them as well! Thank you again so much!
Love,
Austin and Ally
