Some Big, Exciting News

Well it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag.

Scott is getting out of the Navy on December 1st (but will hopefully be finished on October 21st) and we will be moving overseas to serve the Lord by sharing His word with those that have never heard. If you are savvy on the five unreached people groups that coordinate with the acrostic THUMB, we will be working with the M group. For security reasons we are unable to share exactly where we will be working but will be able to share with you on a personal basis. We can tell you that we will be partnering with our churches and serving with PIONEERS... an incredible organization. (Click Here for a great video clip)

Our hope is to be on the foreign mission field no later than the summer of 2009.

There are some significant prayers that will need to be answered for this to happen:

1. Our home. We bought our house in 2005. It has depreciated $75K. Rent has also gone down and so our options are to sell our home or find a way to pay it down considerably in order to rent it. The market here continues to depreciate and it seems unlikely that we will be able to sell. Please pray that, either our home will sell and that we will completely break even, or that God will provide for us to keep and rent our home to cover our monthly mortgage.. Obviously we cannot go overseas with $75K debt. God is the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and it is not above His powers to work out this situation.

2. Deadlines: Scott needs to finish his bible units. Please pray for the time, energy, ability (not a whole lot of computer access on his deployment.) And, H needs to be walking. This was our decision. We really want to give H the support she needs to reach her full potential.

3. We are praying for a job for Scott after the Navy. There may be a period of anywhere from 3-10 months between his time in service and our arrival on the mission field. We are asking the Lord for a job that will pay our living expenses during that time, give us health care and possibly a job he can take overseas… let us know if you have any leads.

4. We are beginning the Church Partnership phase of our transition. We will be taking about 45 days in the fall to travel across the country in the hopes of raising prayer and financial support from individuals and churches. We strongly believe that God has called and commanded each Christian to be a missionary, whether next-door, or across the ocean, whether as a profession, as lay service, as a payless shoe salesperson, or a student… ministry is a command. We believe that some are called to the ends of the earth, and some are called to the end of the hall. We have witnessed and trust that just as in the early church, the Lord will raise up financial supporters for His ministries and we trust He will do the same for the ministry to which He has called us. Our goal is 100 committed prayer partners, 10 church partnerships and full support raised by March 2009 (one year from now… though earlier would be better!). If your church is looking for missionaries to support, a team to support or a region to be committed to, please let us know. If you would like to partner with us in prayer, please let us know in the comments section.

5. It’s hard to know that we are choosing to be poor---that is when we lose sight of the goal. This is very hard to do especially with all that we have been through. It is easy to say, “I want to give it up for Jesus.” but so very difficult for us to do. The financial security is a tremendous idol that people worship (and we are constantly tempted to worship). “Passion for God transforms all of life…”. Please pray for us to keep focused on the TRUTH that it was never ours to begin with… the house, the money, the car, the life, the toys, etc. Our security and our hope must remain in Jesus Christ and not in earthly things.

Q&A… we figured we’d go ahead and post answers to some questions that we have been asked, and to some questions you may have. Click on the question for the answer.

If your question is not answered, feel free to leave it in the comments section, and we will be sure to address it.
How did this come about?
Where will you serve?
Is the timing right?
What about your children?

New Rules:

We have a website devoted specifically to missions. You may click HERE to access it. This website will be password protected in June for security reasons. You will notice that we will not ever be posting any identifiable information on that website… no pictures of family, friends, no names, no links to identifiable information. We ask that you will help us ensure that our names, church, organization, region, people group, etc. are never mentioned in the comments section. You will also notice that we will be slowly taking out our names from this website. We will be referring to the members of our family as S, K, C, JR, H, and M in the future and ask that you do as well when making comments.

If you would like to partner with us and receive updates and access to our web page, please leave your name, phone number, address, and email address in the comments section. Our comments are now moderated and no one will be able to see your information.

If you would like us to send an information packet to your church, or a mission board, please leave a contact person and your church’s address in the comments section.