Tag: germany

Newsletter, April 2010

With all that’s been going on with home renovations, it’s been hard to pull away and write a bit. In the last newsletter I wrote (in December), our email project was about 50% complete. Now, a part of me can rest, since that project is 100% finished. Done! And so far, I haven’t seen much residual work.

So now the big push is to finish the sorting and selling and packing and fixing-up and planning and … you get the idea. Perhaps you’ve been through it yourself. In the newsletter, I describe what we’ve been up to and what lies ahead. In just a few weeks, we’re going to make our first major moving trip, and there’s a lot to do in the meantime.

Please enjoy the newsletter. You will notice that it mentions how much more support we need for our assignment in Germany. You may not be aware that all Wycliffe missionaries raise their own support. We’ll need to get the full amount before we can leave. And that, my friends, is part of what faith is for.

April 2010: A Liddle Good News (for reading on-screen)

April 2010: A Liddle Good News (for printing)

Just don’t get Congress involved

I certainly don’t know if you use a budget for yourself or not and what you think of the process, but when you’re a Wycliffe missionary, the whole matter of budgeting can get pretty complicated.

Wycliffe members are responsible for raising all of the funds that they’ll need for life and work in their ministries. Typically, the only funds that are raised by the mission itself are for large or special projects. Good examples of these are the Last Languages Campaign and individual projects that Wycliffe takes on. (Yes, do go and check them out – you don’t really think God’s going to let a little thing like the economy get in His way, do you?)

My main point is that Wycliffe doesn’t pay us a salary. But they certainly don’t leave us hanging in the breeze – they’re a very caring mission. To make sure that we’re financially sound (nothing’s secure, mind you), they estimate how much we need to live on – including taxes, Social Security, retirement, health care, etc. – and set that as our support goal. Now it’s very easy to write “they” and make the whole thing sound simple. But “they” truly are multiple people in several places, each person having a little piece of the budget puzzle. One must gather the pieces to assemble the puzzle. That’s where we are right now with the Germany move.

We’re decided on sending the boys to a local school, so we know that we don’t have to account for tuition. Katherine’s pretty sure that a local health insurance plan will be a better option for us than the one offered through Wycliffe, but we need to be certain of the details and costs. Our tax status will change overseas, and estimating taxes is always fun. (Everyone groan together, please.)

So please pray that we’ll get these numbers put together reliably. We don’t want to be wrong in either direction.

This old house … ugh

In Wycliffe, anytime one is in the process of getting a new assignment – whether it’s the first one or not – there are periods of slooow progress toward one’s goal. Now is one of those times for us.

Katherine and I groan inwardly and outwardly when we look around us at our house. There’s something to be said for those religious orders that renounce materialism and worldly possessions (just see Matthew 6:19-21). Stuff reproduces and multiplies faster than rabbits, and some of it attaches to human sentiment like tar. And we have to deal with all of it, in one way or another, before we can move.

Please, oh please, pray for God to put a fire in us to go through our home and separate our belongings:

  • Sell
  • Give away
  • Store
  • Take to Germany

Some of this sorting needs to happen so that I can get to work on putting down a new laminate floor in the dining area, family room, living room, and hallway. There’s lots of painting to do, as always, so all the pictures and shelves have to come down, too. (So pray that we’re able to keep the fumes from stirring up the boys’ asthma; pulling up the vinyl floor didn’t do any of us much good.)

Now that was a nice segue to the next prayer request. Katherine has looked at a local health insurance option in Germany and thinks that it may be a better fit for us there than the plan we’re on through Wycliffe. We’re still collecting information at this point, but we need to be wise and discerning in our final choice – health care is a big deal for just about everybody.

And yet, the Man said, “… do not worry ….” (Matthew 6:31-34) – so I guess we won’t!