Support Update

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Here are the latest numbers regarding our financial support:

52% of our one time budget has been given or committed
45% of our monthly budget has been committed
6 people have committed to pray daily for us
17 people have committed to pray regularly for us

Kris and I are humbled. Truly, we just feel so unworthy of all the support we have received from so many of you. We know that your giving is for the Lord's work and to further His kingdom; but that you would use your resources and time to give to us is overwhelming. I have to say that to see the funds and prayer support coming in, has really increased my sense of God's providence. I know that God has provided every day before this process began, but there is something about having to raise money for daily living expenses and ministry that puts a whole new emphasis on how generously God cares for us.

Just to give you some perspective, the fund raising process usually takes 1-2 years to complete. Early last fall, we received the OK from the leadership at Lakeside Bible Church to be sent out as missionaries. We were really excited to get the process rolling. God, however, had other things in mind for us. Circumstances out of our control (aren't they all) dictated that we couldn't officially begin fund raising until late October. Those weeks of waiting were times of amazing reliance of God. It seemed that He was stripping us of all the human advantages that we thought we had (time and momentum from the summer...) to remind us that when the funds came in, it would be because HE did it, not us. I have to say that I discovered a whole new dimension to my faith in God during those months. I praise God that He allowed us to be in that "waiting room". So, from the human perspective, we were running short on time to raise our funds if we planned to leave in July. But from God's perspective, we were right on schedule.

I guess the thing that has been so truly amazing about these past 3 months has been to see the Lord use the body of Christ to provide "above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine". We are looking forward to the next 5 months as we anticipate God continuing to work in an amazing way. We are ahead of the "normal" first-time fundraising curve, and it's ALL because of God's lavish, abundant, overwhelming, extravagant generosity towards us. Thank you for being a part of His extravagance.

Only God knows when we will actually set foot in Albania, but I am absolutely confident that God can condense a 1-2 years process into 8 months, just to show off how powerful and beyond our comprehension He is.

My prayer is that God will be exalted and your faith will be strengthened by our testimony of how He is working in our lives through you.