In training…

toffer    General    

The guys in the NFL aren’t the only ones in training these days. Today marked day 2 of training for us here in Colorado Springs. Last week we stopped through the midwest to see family, friends, supporters, and to spend a little time with our regional director while he was in the country before he heads back to Asia soon.

Now we are in training, learning the tools we will need to be effective personally, as a family, and as a team. It turns out it’s kinda hard to cause the lost you are trying to reach to be interested in God’s love when you can’t even show kindness to the people you are around the most. In John 17:21 Jesus asks “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

It will be nice to have some time here and not be living out of a suitcase again for a little bit before heading back home to get everything ready for our soon-approaching move to the field. Thanks for your prayers during this time.

Of course, we are still needing to add to the “Ministry Expenses & Emergencies” category in the progress bar you see to the right. Joining with us at $35/month can move it 4 percent! Thanks for your consideration as we desire to shore this up soon. You can contact us for more info or click the HCJB Global logo to the right to give.

Getting closer…

toffer    General     moving, support raising

Right now we are only $1,800 a month a way from our goal… that’s just over a quarter of the way left to go.  Thanks so much to those who have caught the vision for seeing a region transformed by Christ through media.

We’re now registered for training that is coming up in a few months and we’d love to have reached our goal by the time we begin training.

It is both exciting and scary for us as we see the end of this part of the journey approaching but the reality of living in a totally different culture is starting to become more real.  I can get thrown off by going to a different grocery store than my usual… what about when I don’t recognize much of what is on the shelf at all?

read more

The Right Time for Support Raising

toffer    General     support raising

Throughout this phase of support raising that our family has been in (seemingly forever sometimes) a response that has come up more than once is that this is a bad time to be trying to raise support.  Gas prices keep going up, everybody feels uncertain about the future, civil unrest around the world, and unemployment (or the fear of unemployment) would all make great reasons to suggest that this is a bad time for us to be asking people for support.

That would be all well and good, except that God really isn’t limited by an American (or even a worldwide) financial downturn. read more

Stories of My Own

toffer    General     support raising

We all like stories.  We love to tell them (and sometimes we even stop to listen to them).  For me, the stories I hear about what God is doing in the field keep the real focus of the ministry being seeing lives changed with the Gospel, not just another bunch of equipment that was hooked up.  In emails, face-to-face conversations, and newsletters we have tried to share as many related stories of lives changed as we can.  They are fantastic stories of what God is doing in some really dark places in the world.

But now I’m ready to have some from my own experience to share.  read more

Cautiously Optimistic

becky    General     Fund raising, prayer

We have desired through this entire process to go where God leads and do as He calls us to do.  Any goals we have set were set with the information we had at the time and things change, God reveals more of His plan.  A year ago we had our own “March Madness” we felt God had called us to-to pray earnestly, seeking Him to increase our financial support by 20% and our prayer team by 20 people.  And pray we did! At no point did we feel like we were praying outside of God’s will and we had several people confirm that for us.  If you’ve followed our journey you know that we did not see either one of those increases last March.  But I don’t believe that means we were praying outside of God’s will or that He doesn’t have every intention of fulfilling exactly what He called us to.

Fast forward to this March.  We have been faithful to God’s call on our lives and persevered despite everything that’s happened that could have easily caused us to give up and stay home.  In order to get to the field late this summer we have a fairly compact time table (we could potentially be boarding a plane 6 months from now-YIKES!) in which to get things done that still need to get done.  And here’s the kicker-we pretty much need a 20% increase THIS March.  I don’t believe God wastes any experiences we have and I don’t believe He calls us to do things without a plan to bring them to fruition. It’s just not in His character, which is why the result of last March was so hard to figure out.

When we were at the missions conference last weekend we had the joy of speaking to both the middle school and high school Sunday school classes.  During both hours each of the pastors had their students gather round us, lay hands on us, and pray for us.  A beautiful, humbling experience and one we will treasure.  And during both hours the wives of the youth pastors prayed the exact same verse for us-Psalm 50:10 that says “for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”  The Bible has plenty of verses about God’s provision, but they both prayed the exact verse Toffer included when writing about our calling to pray last March.  And we originally felt called to pray as we did last March as a result of the missions conference we were at last weekend.

I’m not one to believe in coincidence.  I think things happen for a reason-God causes or allows them to happen or they happen because of the choices we make.  I might be making more of the way things seem to have lined up, but I’m cautiously optimistic that God fully intends to bring the 20% increase to fruition this March and we will be on a plane six months from now.  Here’s to waiting and praying and hoping for a really amazing testimony about how prayer works.

I Heart Missions Conferences!

becky    General    

We participated in Christ Covenant Presbyterian‘s missions conference this weekend and we had such a wonderful time.  I will admit that we are all tired after the weekend (Samuel and Benjamin are both taking naps as I write), but also feeling very loved and cared for.  We had so many opportunities to share about our journey to full time mission work and about the amazing things God is doing through radio in Asia.  The most powerful, touching moments of the weekend were on Sunday.  We participated in the conference last year, so most of the adults who were interested in hearing us probably sat in on a session last year.  We got to speak to the youth Sunday School classes instead.  And we are so glad we did! We always enjoy talking to kids and youth.  We feel a little less pressure talking to them and they always come up with great questions!  At the end of both hours the youth pastors had the kids gather around us, lay hands on us, and pray over us.  Part of the reason was to model for the kids the importance of the church sending and supporting missionaries. And part of it was that we really need prayer!!  We were humbled by this lovely gesture and I could tell how these kids have a depth of faith. Some of them prayed exactly what was on my heart without me having to say a word about it.  We absolutely treasure the relationships we’re building with the people at Christ Covenant and are so thankful for all the church has done to support us on this journey.

Fight to the Death

becky    General    

I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve been hesitant to devote a post to spiritual warfare in the past.  We have had our share of crazy, spiritually charged experiences in the past couple years. It started with our house being broken into and a few very sentimental things being stolen while we were interviewing in April 2009 and has gone from there. I won’t write about every single experience we’ve had because it would fill pages, but I will say some of the experiences have been terrifying and very unsettling.  Raising support to serve God and share His name and love with people in the least reached area of the world generally makes the one who has a stronghold there a little nervous. I know some people would find it odd that we have experienced heightened spiritual warfare during this period of lives because it seems like we’re not doing anything.  We are indeed doing something.  The big key to us moving is support. If Satan can keep us from getting support or convinces us to change our minds, then he need not worry about how God will use us in Asia.

This week has been tough.  This morning I realized that we have been working on several big support raising and donor relations things that could really affect how things go from here and it dawned on me-the difficulties are not a coincidence. Once again we’re in the midst of spiritual warfare. I should have identified it last night when I was feeling the way I typically do in the middle of spiritual warfare, but I didn’t.  Satan wants us beaten down, feeling worthless, alone, useless, and rejected. He wants to separate us from those who desire to love, encourage, and support us. And he wants relationships that coul help our ministry to be soured and instead hinder it.

We know that ultimately God has the victory and we can live in victory through Him. That does not at all mean we don’t have to fight for that victory. We can easily be defeated in battle, especially if we stand alone.  We know that every battle we fight back on brings glory to God and peace in our hearts eventually and we know that being defeated doesn’t get us where we need to go. We know that no matter what we do, where we go, or how long we follow God we will have to fight to do as God has called us.  Anyone who is following God’s will and doing things that infringe on areas of stronghold for Satan will experience spiritual warfare. It’s part of walking with God.  And we know that the only thing that will bring complete and total relief will be when we die or Jesus comes back.

We are left with a choice-give in to what Satan wants or fight to the death.  We will fight to the death knowing that Christ fights with us and for us and we will always win with Him by our sides.

What do You Want to Accomplish in the Next Five Years?

becky    General    

During my MOPS meeting yesterday this was a question I pulled from the bowl as we were doing a “getting to know you” activity.  I was sort of befuddled, completely unsure of how to answer. Everything I think about wanting to “accomplish” in the next five years has so little to do with me.  Five years from now I’d love to have seen Samuel welcomed into the family of God. I’d love to know that hundreds, if not thousands, of people had come to Christ in those five years thanks to the radio stations all over Asia. I’d love to see our family expanded and growing in every way. But those aren’t things I can accomplish. Even one of the things I mustered up-finally being on the mission field this year-isn’t something that’s particularly up to me.  One goal I have for this year is to read the entire Bible. I started toward the end of last year and have made good strides in this.  I guess there are things that are up to me-like continually making better food choices for me and my family, increasing our activity level (which is tough when it’s winter with two small kids), and trying to spend more quality time with Toffer.  But so much of what I want for my life is completely out of my hands. Ultimately what I want to see is God continually accomplishing things in and through me and not accomplishing things on my own.

One Goal Met, One to Go

becky    General    

Take a look at the progress bars above–one of them is mighty green!  We are praising God that we now have raised 100% of the funds for our outgoing budget!  Meeting this goal is a huge step towards getting to Asia.  Having this goal met does not, however, mean we get to leave.  We still need ongoing support to sustain us while we are in the field.  We are very thankful that HCJB Global has set up missionary funding such that anything that goes into a specific missionary’s account stays in that missionary’s account. So anything that gets sent to HCJB Global with our account number will still go towards our account, which will go towards our funding long term and also give us surplus in case we do something like buy a car or need to come home for a family emergency.  We have also heard from several people about new long-term support that will be starting early this year.  Without an actual support schedule percentages for ongoing support are harder to determine, but progress is progress and we’re excited.  We covet your prayers as we continue this process. If you’re interested in joining our financial or prayer teams, just contact one of us and we’ll be more than happy to let you know how to be involved. Thank you to God for your provision and to all of you out there who have supported us financially and through prayer!

Psalm 37:4 and Our Boys

becky    General    

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord;
and He will give you the desires of your heart.

When we were expecting Samuel we talked about what we wanted for Samuel  and any children God blesses our family with.  A lot of parents want their children to be successful, contributing members of society. While we would like our children to be those things, most of all, above anything else, we really, truly want them to love the Lord, to serve Him, and to desire to honor and glorify Him in all they do. We literally pray this daily for Samuel and Benjamin, for the other children God will give our family, and for our children’s spouses.  Sure we get excited about them hitting developmental milestones and all that they learn, but we’re really excited about how God is developing a heart for Him in Samuel (and likely in Benjamin-the baby chatter might be incredible, prophecy we’re missing out on. (; )  Samuel has nine pieces of scripture around his room that we read to him daily. We don’t always read every one, but we do read at least a few before nap and bedtime. Toffer and I have memorized all of them from reading them so many times, which helps when Samuel asks to “read verses” and we are not at home, and now Samuel has begun to show that he knows them in his heart as well.  He can say at least a word or two from every piece of scripture and one passage (his favorite-I Peter 5:6-9) he can plug in about a quarter of the words. I say all of this as a testimony to God and the heart for His word that He’s developing in Samuel and for how God is answering the desires of our hearts.  We don’t know what God plans for our boys for their futures. They may be butchers, bakers, or candle stick makers or something not out of a nursery rhyme. We don’t care. We do know that God desires for them to walk with Him and we are thrilled to see that He is already working in their hearts.