Hallelujah!

becky    Uncategorized    

We’ve honestly been a little nervous the past couple weeks about what was happening with our support.  God was clearly moving and doing some things in our lives personally, but we weren’t seeing the support coming in.  When you’re on a deadline with a goal that ultimately you don’t control it can get a little unnerving at times to say the least.  And then Monday hit and God showed up in some really cool ways.  We are excited to report that we are at 96% of our goal for July 18, leaving about $225 to reach that goal and a little over $1000 to reach our overall goal.  Things are actually moving so quickly that support increased almost 1% from the time Toffer updated the graph 36 hours ago to this morning.  Any thought we had that this might not be God’s timing has been completely obliterated.  We are clearly in His plan and timing and can’t wait to see how He continues to fill out our team.

Our “Family”

becky    Uncategorized    

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Matthew 6:2-4

I said in my post the other day that I wanted to brag on our supporters.  I fully believe what Christ said in the verses above, that giving is in secret-between the Lord and the giver, so except for our supporting churches, we don’t talk about who else supports us. It’s not our right to do so.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about how great our supporters are without naming names, though. (:

We have an amazing group of people who have become our prayer and financial support teams.  Some of them are family or friends who we have known for a long time, others are people we didn’t know before this process and who have become our friends and “family.”  We would never seek personal gifts, but are so very thankful for our supporters who not only give to our ministry, but also have done things for our family personally.  We had a supporter buy a book for Samuel because it was an Asian version of a fairy tale and thought he’d like it.  One of supporters spent time looking for a homeschool book for me.  Another bought sandals for Samuel for him to grow into because they were a good deal and the supporter knew we’d use them.  We had several people send us gifts at Christmastime just because.  Like I said, we don’t seek these gifts, but they are so appreciated.

The one that really brought tears to my eyes was a gift we received this week.  A supporter sent me an email asking for our mailing address to send a note.  The next day I opened the mailbox and found an envelope from the supporter.  It wasn’t just a note, a check to us was included as well.  This month, of all months, those funds were very much appreciated.  It’s not like we were going to go hungry or not be able to pay rent or anything like that, but Toffer had done some extra work in April that we thought was going to be on his May paycheck and it got delayed to his June paycheck.  We had planned Benjamin’s birthday party, a wedding gift for Toffer’s brother, and a few other things based on that money coming in.  Usually Toffer only getting paid once a month isn’t a big deal, but this month not having those funds and having to wait a whole month to get them was going to make things a little tight by the end of the month.  And then we got that check.  It just screamed “Becky-I know what your needs are. I will provide. Stop worrying so much!!  Love-God.”  At a time when finances for our ministry are so crucial and we’re anxiously waiting for pledges to come, God provided in a totally unexpected way.  I know He provides.  We have some great stories of His provision throughout our marriage.  This is just one more.  We are so thankful for the people who are part of this journey and who love God and us so much to give generously and sacrificially to make our dream and call to Asia a reality.  And we’re excited to see how God is going to provide the rest of the funds for our ministry.

History of Religion

becky    Video    

I found this video a while back. It’s obviously generalized because it’s only 90 seconds and not super detailed, but I found it to be very interesting, especially in light of the fact that we’re going to Asia and it’s a visualization of how Asia is very dark. The video is a little wide for our site, so it makes the page look a little funky, but I still wanted to share it.

From mapsofwar.com

90%!

becky    Uncategorized    

Thanks to a generous increase in support by one of our donors and another pledge we received this week, we are now at 90% of our July 18 goal of $5724 in monthly support.  We have just $600 we still need in pledges by July 18 and $1400 overall to reach our total goal of $6558.  God has been confirming to us in interesting and incredible ways over the past few days that we are on the right path and we are feeling more and more confident that we’ll be on a plane October 1. PRAISE THE LORD!  I’ll also be writing a post in the near future to brag on our amazing supporters.  God has put such awesome people in our lives to join us on this journey.

Crunch Time and an Impassioned Plea

becky    Uncategorized    

We’ve been looking at what the next few months hold and we’re at another make or break point in raising support.  We leave for training July 24 and will be gone about a month (we’re so thankful to have a friend house sitting!).  We are hoping and praying to be on a plane right around October 1.  In order for that to happen, we need to have the pretty light red bar at 100% by July 18.  Our lease is up September 30 and we need to give 60-days notice on our townhouse, which means we need to be able to do that before we leave for training.  We also need to buy plane tickets and get our shipping set up before training.  Leaving those things to after training doesn’t afford us the time we would need to get everything done to be out by the 1st of October.  Here’s the timeline we’re looking at:

1. Be at 100% of our monthly budget needs (I’ll explain this in a minute) by July 18.
2. Leave for training July 24 and get back some time during the last week of August.
3. Mid-September send our shipment out so that we get it by Christmas.  We are only shipping a few pieces of furniture and some personal items, so we won’t be in an empty house for months, but we would still like some of those personal things by Christmas time.
4. Be on a plane sometime around October 1 for our move.

So, here’s what needs to come in support-wise to make that happen.  You may notice that the bar graphs to the right have changed.  One is now at 86% and the other is at 0%.  Up to this point we have put everything we need to raise for ongoing support all into one category, but we’re breaking it up now. The graph at 86% reflects our monthly budget needs (personal/housing allowances, health insurance, retirement, travel reserve, etc.)  These expenses are a set amount every month and need to be paid at that amount every month.  We need to be at or REALLY close to this amount ($5724/month of which we have $4905.01 pledged) in order to go forward with all the moving related things mentioned above. That means that we need to see another $818.99 in new support come in by July 18, which is 45 days away.  We need to average about $140 a week in new support for the next six weeks to make that goal.

The other graph is for our ministry expenses and emergencies, which is $834/month  We do not have a set amount that gets doled out each month in relation to this, it’s more designed to build up and when we need the funds we can use them.  It covers everything from newsletters to plane tickets home if we have a family emergency to filling in if a supporter loses a job or is unable to continue supporting us for some reason.  While our monthly budget has a travel reserve line item, that really only covers enough for plane tickets back to the US when we come for Home Missionary Assignment.  If we have a family emergency we can use the funds built up in our account from the emergency and ministry expenses funds coming in every month.  We cannot count pledges towards this amount until we’ve reached 100% of the monthly budget needs explained above.So, that leaves us with a total of over $1600/month in support to still raise and about half of that needs to come in within the next six weeks.

This is where the impassioned plea comes in.  We feel a deep need to take the Gospel to people in Asia, especially those who are in areas where little to no access exists.  We feel that God has called us to HCJB Global and the radio station planting ministry in Asia-Pacific.  He has given us specific gifts and talents that we know He will use there to make Himself known throughout the nations.  Right now what is really holding us back is raising the support for HCJB Global to cover all the expenses listed above.  We’re not doing this to get rich or to live somewhere cool or for our own glory.  If we were doing something for our glory, to live somewhere cool, and to get rich, we’d pick an easier place to live, a job that will actually make us rich that we didn’t have to raise support for, and find something that would actually make us famous.  Our concern is the people who are living every day in separation from the God who created them and Who wants to be in relationship with them.  Will you join us on this journey?  Will you help make it possible for more people in Asia to know the God you have the opportunity to know?

Click here if you want to commit support to HCJB Global for our ministry.
Click here if you’re interested in support, but have questions.  Fill in the form, make sure to click the “Interested in Financial Support” box, and we’ll contact you shortly.