Hey everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written but
I just wanted to give you an update of where I’m at. 🙂 After a mini road trip
down south (making stops in Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina), I made
it to Gainesville, GA… which has become my new home. I’m living with six other
people who are all associated with Adventures in Missions in an apartment
complex overlooking Lake Lanier… gorgeous! The community here is amazing. I feel
so grateful to be in a place where we can continually speak life,
encouragement, and the word of God into one another’s lives. God is good and I’ve
truly been loving my time here so far!
Last week the Thailand Initiative officially began. Woo! We’re
in the initial planning stages and have been working in the office with all the
other crazy kingdom-minded AIM people (love it) trying to get some things
nailed down. We’re soaking this whole process in prayer and attempting to fully
seek the Lord and His will for this whole endeavor. We need His wisdom, His
insight, His divine strategies. We desire His freedom, His hope, His
redemption, and His KINGDOM to come. We cannot do this without Him… and we don’t
want to.
I’m working with a team of three other guys at this point
and there’s another woman joining the team in January. We’ve been getting to
know one another and seeing how divinely the Lord has placed this team
together, as we all have different passions and giftings that fit together
beautifully. Thank you Jesus!
Along with prayer and team building, we’ve been diving into
a variety of different things to make this Initiative a reality. We’ve been
looking at some strategic development ideas, brainstorming about fundraising
for the ministry (which could be anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 for the
time we’re there… crazy!), budgeting, marketing, donor relations, logistics,
our online presence, researching the situation in Thailand and Burma more in
depth, talking to a variety of different people to gain wisdom and insight, and
basically trying to figure out what the Lord wants us to do and how we’re gonna
partner with Him to do it. It’s been a pretty intense process so far and to
some degree I feel like we’ve been thrown into something way beyond ourselves.
We have a limited idea about what we’re doing or how we’re gonna do it… but I
believe the Lord is going to lead us, guide us, and make a way (Isaiah 43:19).
We are disciples living by faith, stepping out and saying YES to the Lord and
His purposes in the world and trusting that He will bring about the skills,
insight, favor, and provision that we need. I’ve always loved the quote, “God doesn’t call the qualified… He qualifies the called,� and
that’s exactly how I feel right now. We’re in a process of being shaped and
molded into tools for the Lord and trusting that He will be the one to make it
all happen. Yea… God is good. 🙂
As a brief fundraising update… I am fully funded for the
first six months of the Initiative here in Georgia! YAY!! God has seriously
BLOWN me away with His faithfulness and provision and I feel like He has placed
me right in the center of His will in a season of abundance and blessing. Gosh, it amazes me. He is such a good
Father! So THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and for
partnering with me in this! I am deeply touched and honored by you all. Thank
you, thank you, thank you!! I am continuing to raise funds for my time in
Thailand as well as ministry funds for the work we’ll be doing there, so please
let me know if you’re interested in donating and I’d love to talk to you
further. 🙂
I hope you’re all doing well and you know how loved and
treasured you are. Thank you for your encouragement, support, and for being a
part of my life. I am deeply blessed. 🙂
These are my fabulous roommates! From left to right in a clockwise circle we have: Melina, Heather, Bill, Paul, me, Tim, and Sami. Love them 🙂
This is where I live. Thank you, Jesus! 🙂
