March Madness Day 23

becky    General    

We have been praying for 23 days now that God would increase support from 30% to 50% and our prayer team by 20 people.  It’s been an interesting few weeks.  I prayed earlier in the year that God would increase my faith.  I knew that would mean He’d give me something to have to really trust Him about and really believe Him that He was going to do what He said He would do.  So, it’s March 23 and instead of God increasing support on March 2, we’re still waiting to see how He’s going to increase it.  A 20% increase is $1767/month.  As of right now, we know of $67/month in new support, which put us to 31%.  And we’ve had 3 people ask to be added to our prayer team.  We still have 8 days left in March and we know that because of how long it can take from when a pledge is mailed to when we find out about it, it could be a couple weeks into April before we really know what God has done with this month.  It’s definitely taking a lot of faith and a lot of trust in God to see Him through on this.

As I was praying the other day God reminded that I’m not the only one in this process who has to trust Him and have faith, those He’s calling to support us do as well.  Just as I’m walking in faith that He is going to provide the funds, those who are giving the funds to Him for this ministry have to trust Him and have faith that He’ll provide for their needs and their families along with what He’s asking them to give.  We very much believe that going to the mission field is not just about us following God’s calling, but about a whole group of people and churches responding to God’s call to take the Gospel to Asia.  While we will be the ones actually living and working in Asia, every person who supports us through prayer or finances is very much a part of the work.  We can’t do it without those people and we’re thankful for them.  So we will continue trusting God with this plan He’s called us to pray for and having faith in Him that He will bring the right people to join with us.

Don’t Want to be a Doubter

becky    General    

Today is the 14th day of March, which means we are almost halfway through the month.  Two weeks ago Toffer wrote and sent out an e-mail detailing a plan God laid on our hearts to see our financial support increase from 30% to 50% in just the month of March and that our prayer team would increase by 20 people/families.  So far, we have had a couple asked to be added to our prayer team, but we have seen no new financial support.

We could get really discouraged at this point (I won’t lie and say we aren’t really wondering how in the world God is going to make this happen) and begin doubting whether or not we trust that God is going to do what He said He’s going to do. Or we could doubt that God laid this on our hearts to begin with, but I don’t want to be a doubter.  I didn’t question God at the beginning of this month about whether or not we should do this. I don’t want to question God now. I don’t want to question Him in two weeks. God has always been faithful.  In the six plus years we’ve been married (74 months to be exact-we celebrate every month on the 10th) God has always provided for our needs and has blessed us with much, much more.  This month is no different. God will be faithful as always.  Stay tuned to see how God provides. We’re quite curious–aren’t you?

Fortune Cookies

becky    General    

We went to Pei Wei today for lunch after church.  We almost always get fortune cookies before we leave. It’s tradition that we eat our fortune cookies first, then look at our fortunes.  Toffer jokes that our fortunes won’t come true if we look at them before we eat our cookies. Obviously we don’t really believe that what our fortune cookies say is what’s really going to happen in life, but the ones we got today were just too great not to share. Here they are in the order we read them:

Becky’s: Endurance and persistence will be rewarded.

Toffer’s: No need to worry! You will always have everything you need.

Samuel’s: You will move to a wonderful new home within the year.

While we don’t believe that everything a fortune cookie tells us will come true, we do believe that God can and will speak to us in any way possible. So, maybe just maybe fortune cookies were His way of reminding us today that we just need to keep on with what He’s called us to, that He will always provide, and that Singapore will be a wonderful home for us and that we’ll be there in no time.

Our Own March Madness

becky    General    

I (Toffer) am writing this message shortly after arriving back home after our time at the Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church (Farragut, TN) Missions Conference.  We are honored to have been invited and to have the opportunity to share what God is doing through radio in Asia-Pacific. We had the opportunity to reconnect with some that we haven’t seen in years and connect with new people that we hope to get to know better as time goes on.

We are asking you to join with us in prayer each day during the month of March to see God do amazing things and meet a goal that can only be accomplished by Him.

Before I get into the details of what to pray for I’d like to share where this vision comes from.  One of the opportunities you have when attending a church missions conference is hearing from speakers that truly challenge you.  This weekend Dr. Frank Barker, Jr. challenged us to step out in faith when God calls us to give or to serve regardless of what our human understanding tries to limit us to.  As our own pastor has said, the problem with our dreams is not that they are too big, rather that they are too small.  C.S. Lewis in The Weight of Glory describes the mentality well… “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”  I find myself too often easily pleased and too limited in my vision.

So building on that we are taking our own step of faith and asking you to pray daily for the next month that by the end of March these two goals would be met:

1) Our level of monthly support with HCJB Global would increase from 30% to 50%.
2) The number of prayer supporters would increase by 20.

This type of increase in support is impossible by our own means but we know that with God all things are possible.  Even in the midst of tight economic times we know that God is our true resource.  He is one who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” (Psalm 50:10)

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Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:
1) 30% to 50% is an increase of $1767 in monthly, ongoing support.  A possible scenario of how it could break down for families/individuals to pledge monthly support to HCJB Global:
10 at 1/2% ($44+)
10 at 1% ($88+)
2-3 at 2+% ($176+)

2) 20 people telling us they will receive regular prayer requests from our family and lift our family and ministry up in prayer

If you are interested in participating in March Madness, you can commit your financial support to HCJB Global for our family by clicking on the link to the left.  If you would like to commit to pray for our family and ministry, send us a message through the “contact us” page.