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How to join our Wycliffe ministry

When you make the decision to be a part of our ministry with Wycliffe in Europe and beyond, here’s what you need to know.

If you’re committing to pray for us and want to let us know, you can go to this Wycliffe site to indicate that. You people who are crazy-committed to praying for us should probably give us a phone call when the Spirit drives you to pray. I think you know what I mean – the Lord works in mysterious ways.

If the Spirit is pressing you to give to God’s Kingdom, and you’ve decided that our ministry is a good outlet for that need, there are two ways to do that: 1) go to this Wycliffe site and complete the process on the Internet, or 2) send a check payable to Wycliffe Bible Translators to the following address, with a note that your gift is for our ministry.

Wycliffe Bible Translators
P.O. Box 628200
Orlando, FL 32862-8200

You may be interested to know that we have two kinds of financial needs: regular monthly support and one-time household setup. So far as the first goes, we need to receive about 9% more ongoing support before we can go to Germany (as of 7/8/2011). Once we get there, we have to “set up house” by purchasing a car and home furnishings. So far, we have a bit more than 62% of that amount (as of 7/8/2011). To contribute to our getting set up there, please note that your gift is for account 281600-71.

Well worth the wait

The dust has settled now from our move out of Dallas – and from our journeys north to put things in storage and west to celebrate Christmas and the new year with Katherine’s family. We’re leaving Colorado tomorrow for St. Joseph, Missouri, where we’ll live while we dig in to the work of getting to Germany.

Last month, moving out of the house took longer than we had hoped. As much as we had sold or given away, there was still too much left to fit safely into the trailer we had rented to pull north to Missouri. With God’s help, though, we persevered through that stressful time. We also traded in that trailer for a small truck!

Now both Christmas and the new year have passed, too. The holiday time was refreshing for both of us – we got to rest and play with the boys and with Katherine’s family. And we got to spend time together without the need to deal with stuff or moving or that house that we still own. What a relief!

When it comes to housing, we feel pretty good about both the house back in Dallas and our needs in St. Joe. We have had some good prospects for renters, so hopefully we’ll see someone in there soon. In Missouri, we have arrangements in place through February, and we’re praising God that we might have a place to stay after that as well.

These things come from praying – and waiting. It’s been about a year and a half since we first agreed to go to Germany, and while we’re closer than ever, we still have some work to do. But there’s often a lot of time between God’s promise and His answer, as I heard a pastor point out recently (Mark Gungor, “The Misery of Christmas”). We’re still waiting for Jesus to return, aren’t we? Just as we savor the possibility that each day might be The Day, our family is eagerly waiting for the day when we get on that plane bound for Europe. And just as Simeon and Anna praised God and rejoiced when they finally saw the child they were waiting for (Luke 2:25-28), we too will go completely nuts – spiritually speaking, of course – when we set foot in Holzhausen and see God’s calling fulfilled.

So it’s worth the wait! When you pray for us, please pray for that patience and trust that comes from the Spirit of Jesus. If God’s leading you to get more involved in our ministry, the Wycliffe Links to the right will help you learn more and get started. Happy New Year!

Going, going, going … gone?

The end of our time in Dallas is getting closer and closer. Ten days ago, we moved out of our house and into an apartment on the Wycliffe center. From here, we are making better progress with clearing out the house and selling the stuff we don’t need or can’t take with us to Germany. (If there were background music to this paragraph, it would be a strange mix of the theme from Jaws and the “Hallelujah” chorus from Handel’s Messiah.)

Our house has been re-listed for either sale or rent with a different real estate agency. The rental market in Duncanville is currently stronger than the market for home sales. We know the agency owner and the property manager personally, so we feel that we can leave Dallas confident that our home is in good hands. Our agent is confident that we can get and keep a good renter in the house, which will remove owning that property as a barrier to us leaving the area and the country. Hooray!

In another twenty days, we’ll drive out of Dallas with a trailer behind our car, not planning to return until we come back to visit supporters and friends. Our first stop is Denver, where we’ll spend Christmas and celebrate the new year with Katherine’s family. After that, it’s on to St. Joseph, Missouri, where we expect to stay (near family) while we find the additional financial supporters we need. Thanks to friends in a church there, we have housing arranged for the first month or so of our stay. That is a major answer to prayer! Thank you, God!

So when you pray for us, please pray that we’ll be able to sell or give away everything that remains. We’d like to throw away as little as possible. Pray for us to get everything we’re taking organized in plenty of time, so that we’re not completely stressed out when we arrive at my in-laws’. (We don’t like to just dump ourselves, exhausted, at their front door.) Thank you, pray-er friends!