May is THE Month!

    A lot of celebrating goes on in our family in the month of May.

          As the Matriarch of the family (being the oldest by 8 months) I start it off with a Birthday on the 12th, followed by our daughter-in-law Holly's Birthday on the 13th, then our son Mike's Birthday on the 24th, and our Anniversary on the 25th!!    

          By then we are all ready for the Memorial Day weekend and a break.

This year is a bit different!

Why?

 Because we added another Celebration date to our month: on May 1st, 2015 we received the pledge that took us to 100% of our support.

Yes the fireworks went off - 
                                    literally!

We attended a Chattanooga Lookouts Ball game right after we found out, and  - as it was Friday night - there are always fireworks after the game!







We give a big shout out to the Platt family for taking us over the top!






And so now begins the new countdown....



To help you put this in perspective, let's go  to the engaged couple - Howard Vander Griend and Sandy Statkus. 34 years ago at this time. Sandy was in Florida preparing for the upcoming wedding date, May 25, 1981, Memorial Day.

 Howard was in Michigan finishing up his classes at Calvin College.
The excitement was palpable...as every engaged couple knows.

The planning was finally all complete, and all the parties had arrived.
We had the rehearsal in the morning of the day we were married and a cookout lunch by the pool and then went our separate ways to put on our finery.

And then there were those thoughts...and butterflies...

...WOW! I am really getting married. In a few short hours. To the person I will spend the rest of my life with - am I ready?

It really makes you stop and think - you know the feelings you had, right?

That's what it is like for Howard and I now.

We have spent the last 10 and a half months telling folks about our passion to go and serve and share Jesus with the Blackfoot people in the Lethbridge area.  So many of you have encouraged us and are now supporting us prayerfully and financially.

But now, WOW! we are leaving for Lethbridge in 31 days.
We plan to leave Chattanooga on June 10th and begin the 3 day drive up to Canada.


 Are we ready?  
         I have butterflies.
                   But we are so excited and ready TO GO!

Praise and Prayer  - 
1. Finding enough time in the days and weeks to pack.
2. Saying goodbye to our kids, grandkids and friends here.
3. Staying healthy in these busy days.
4. Thanks to all our prayer and financial supporters.
5. Thanks to our Heavenly Father who has provided the means for us to share the gospel in Lethbridge.

Taking Myself out of the Picture

“If only I could take me out of support raising and have someone else do it for me!”

  If only you knew how many times we have thought this and said this.  But then we are chastised by God - through his words in scripture, friends, and fellow missionaries - that WE aren't raising the support for the work God has called us to do. HE is raising up supporters for us, just as HE has raised up people to serve him.

   Although most fellow missionaries we have known and met throughout the years are very humble and self-effacing in this area, they have a tendency to fall headlong into the trap of the enemy: feeling and acting, as though support raising is both all about themselves and totally up to themselves. Satan wants us to feel like beggars who think everyone is running the other way when they see us. He wants us to forget that God has already promised to take care of those He has called into full-time kingdom work.

In reality, very little of the whole process of support raising is about us, the missionaries. 

Success is certainly more dependent on God than on ourselves. 

Thus we can take heart in the biblical promise found in 1 Thessalonians 5:24,

 “God, who calls you, is faithful; he will do this.” 

And also in Philippians 2:13, 

"For it is God who works in you, to will and to work for his good pleasure.

  God has called Sandy and I to work in Lethbridge, Alberta with the Blackfoot people in the city and on the reserve just outside of town. As we have shared with many of you, the need is great. Discouragement, loneliness, addictions, single-parent homes, families who don't know what a family of God looks like, people who don't like white folks. 

It is our privilege to invite you into the joy of making disciples among the nations, to see what God is doing to push back the lostness in this world, to be part of the God-sized endeavor, and advance his kingdom in the hearts and lives of those he has called us to serve.  

Even though God has called us to “climb down into the darkness” for the ministry, he is calling many of you to “hold the ropes” to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you once again to those who have done so. We invite others of you to join us. 

 **** Many of these thoughts and words are from an article we recently read by Mike Riggins of  Support Raising Solutions which we recently read and which convicted us.

Suitcase Challenge

   I love our 1946 house. I love that we had a place to stay for a whole year while we built our support team. I love that Julie, our youngest daughter, is going to stay in the house while we spend several years in Canada.




 One of my favorite features of the house is the attic.

 We have never had an attic in any of our homes.

  When we first moved in we debated about figuring out how to add an extra room to the house in the attic. I envisioned a playroom for the grandkids, a sewing room for me, a romantic bedroom, but, unfortunately, the downstairs floor plan does not allow for adding a staircase anywhere...so the attic is the storage place for our extra earthly goods and boxes of memories. (Oh, yes, and the Christmas stuff)





  Yesterday I went up into the attic to scope out the suitcase situation.  Yes, we are getting close enough with our support to think about packing suitcases.
   This is what we have so far.....about 15 bags, boxes, duffle bags, and real suitcases. - and five garbage cans...

(from the Farm - held chicken feed etc...)

I don't think that will be enough, but it is a start. 

So I thought, hey let's turn that pile of suitcases into our last challenge - the challenge to get us packing those suitcases, and boxes, and the U-Haul and get to Lethbridge in June!!

We have 83.1% of our monthly support raised at this time - each of the last 2 challenges we had for ourselves (and you) helped move us about 15% closer to our totals each time!

14.7% of our monthly support!!
(not all totals are in yet!!)

12.6% of our monthly support!!
(not all totals are in yet)

One more group of 15 new monthly supporters should get us there!!!!!

Here is our tentative timeline for the next few months:

April - Continue building our support team - having many of you over for dinner, lunch or coffee. Babysit grandkids.

May - Start packing up the stuff we ARE NOT taking with us to Canada - bring to Christ Presbyterian Church in Sweetwater's garage sale for Missions!!  One more visit to Florida.

June - Vacation with our kids and grandkids, trip to Cherokee NC to volunteer as associate staff, pack suitcases for Belgium and boxes for Canada.

July - Spend the month in Belgium for training in - Cultural Interpretation,Language Acquisition, Church Planting, Evangelism Techniques, Spiritual Health, Team Dynamics, Conflict Management, and Real Life Application.

Arrive in Canada....TBD - we hope in June, but maybe August!! Pray for us in these last few months that we continue to rely on God's plan and timing.

NOTE:  We have added a new section to our blog - PRAYER CORNER.  We will update that daily and weekly as we have prayers and praises and as we share the prayers and praises of our supporters. Be sure to check it often.

75% - Let the reverse count-down begin!

     And my God will supply every need of yours according to 

his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:19 ESV



We will now start counting down....only 25% of our monthly support left to raise.

1/3 of the way to another 15!

Encourage One Another! (February Newsletter)

2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ

                                                                          Philippians 1: 2-6

 Praise God from whom All Blessings Flow.

Howard and I have challenged ourselves to BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS and begin the New Year with 15 new monthly partners. We are humbled by the way God worked to accomplish this by mid-February. This 15% increase puts us over 65% of our monthly support pledged.  We are awed at how God is working to get us to Canada through your support. Thank You to each of you who have joined our support team.





(This challenge to ourselves really helped motivate us to get new partners both prayer and financial - so much so that we are continuing this "15" challenge into March - 15 more new partners by the end of March!!)

   

Road Trip Review

    Howard and I just spent 10 days on a visit to Florida sharing our call to work with the Blackfoot people in Alberta at 2 new churches and with several interested families. We were blessed by the opportunity to minister to family and friends as they are ministering to us, and by the interest and new support we received from people we visited. 

   Here is the photo review of places we went and people we saw while we were in Florida!

Prayers

-We will be traveling at the end of March to Cherokee, NC for training. We plan to work for two weeks this summer with short term mission teams who will be ministering on the Cherokee reservation.  This will better prepare us for working with First Nations cultures and mission teams who will come to Lethbridge.

 -The building which Amazing Kids and Amazing Grace CC were hoping to purchase did not work out.  Pray for the right property to be found – a place to be used by God to reach the people of Lethbridge and the Blackfoot people.  We rejoice that the individual who was going to finance the purchase of a new home for the ministries is still willing to do so!   

Thank You!

Thanks to our 15 new monthly partners - in 45 days we added 15 new supporters with over $875.00 towards our monthly support.

This was such good motivation for Howard and I to get on the phone and

BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS!

So we decided to continue this challenge for another 45 days - this time from Mid-February until the end of March when we are heading out of town again. (more on that in an up-coming blog).



We have a great start already!

PTL

Thank you!

Today is January 15 - we are 1/5th of the way to 15 new supporters in January 2015

Exciting news! 

Yes, we have 3 new monthly support partners and that number should grow by the end of this week.

 Instead of being just short of 50% of our support - we have passed 50%!!!  

   
     Howard and I are really pushing for 15 new partners (or more) by the end of January - which will give us the momentum to get 15 or more new partners every month.
  We have been emailing, messaging, or calling many of you and will continue to do so until we get to 100% of our support. If you know someone who would like to hear about our calling and ministry, please give us a call or drop us an email - or share this blog on Facebook!

    For those of you who have committed to join the team this month - your name is now on our "Chalkboard of Fame"

Thank You!

Watch for updates to the "Chalkboard of Fame" as they come in 

 it will only be a photo, but we are excited! 

It is amazing to see how God is working to grow His Kingdom!

Supporting a Missionary - 101

 

  You’ve been approached by a fellow worker in the Kingdom of God who has felt the call to share the good Good News of Jesus’ saving Grace - either locally or overseas – somewhere not in your neighborhood.  

 They have shared with you their mission calling and their excitement for the work they will be doing in their chosen location. Now…..How will they get there? – they need senders:

 Luke 8:1-3: "After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, an Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means."

  Your fellow worker asks if you would like to be not only a prayer partner, but also a financial partner with them in God’s work. 

What do you do now?  What questions should you ask?

How do you actually go about giving them the money they need?

Let us share our experience with you in a condensed version so you will be able to answer those questions.

   God gave us a clear calling to go into missions after doors kept opening.  We were invited to join a team already working in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, after we had visited the work there, and we accepted their invitation to work with First Nations people there.

   We went to a week of intense and very helpful training by Mission to the World at their headquarters in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

 We were given many helpful tools that would make it easier for us to raise the support we need to get to Canada and do our work there.  We found out why MTW requires their missionaries to raise 100% of their funds before leaving for the field: they want us to be able to do the work we are called to, instead of continually working to raise support while we are in Canada.

We then officially began our itineration* phase of mission work – go get supporters. ROAD TRIPS!

Support from churches, family, friends and possibly even businesses who caught the vision along with us and want to partner with us. A process that can take months or years depending on our work and our supporters.

*Itineration – a time of visiting new churches and allowing new churches and friends to join in prayer and financial partnership.

   So we came to you – letting you know that we will be bringing the Good News of Jesus into the lives of the Blackfoot people in Alberta. We are glad you ask us questions. We want to help you understand what our ministry will look like and how we plan to share.

   Some of you jumped right in and said –

YES, how do we send you support? (Thank you so much!) and we explained. 

   Some people we have had to ask them to consider supporting us both financially and prayerfully – and most of you did! (The first time we heard this during our training, we realized that we ourselves had never been asked by friends who were going into missions to support them, we just started doing it – it gave us a boldness to know that many people have just never been asked!)

Now – the nuts and bolts.

   Did you know that you can begin supporting us immediately - or you can wait until we arrive in Lethbridge?  

   Did you know that we also have one time costs that we need to raise before we get there? The money we get from those who begin supporting us immediately is being built up in our one-time costs account.

The different ways to send your financial support:

1. You can send in the prayer/support card tear-off section we should have given you and fill out the appropriate boxes.  MTW will then contact you with the next steps you will take, and they notify us that you have joined our team!!! Go Team Lethbridge!!  

2. You can log on to the Mission to the World website mtw.org and follow the DONATE NOW instructions.  You will create an account with MTW and then choose either the Donate Now, or the Intent to Give sections and follow the instructions.  They notify us that you have joined our team!!! Go Team Lethbridge!!

3. You can send us an email telling us that you want to support us financially and how much you want to send each month/quarter/year, including your contact information; and we will forward your email on to the Partner Financial Services division of MTW.   MTW will then contact you with the next steps you will take, and they notify us that you have joined our team!!! Go Team Lethbridge!!

4. You can randomly send in money to support us directly to MTW with our name and account number on it (#17971) and we will be notified and we will send you an AWESOME THANK YOU CARD!! 

   I hope this not-to-short, not-to-long Supporting a Missionary 101 guide has been helpful. 

BUT – feel free to ask questions if you need more clarification or want more detail!!

And please call us to come and visit you! 

We love road trips where we can share.

   We are still looking for more Partners and would like your help. If you are involved in a Bible study, church, or know anyone who wants to hear about what the Lord is doing in Lethbridge - let us know! We would love to meet with them, especially before the holidays get here!