Thursday, July 18, 2013

Reaching the Nations

It’s nearing the end of week two of CROSS training at One Mission Society headquarters. During our time here, we have met so many amazing people. This training has a total of 24 missionaries and 15 children, which is the largest class in the history of OMS. These people are coming from different states and even different countries with a single purpose - to be prepared to make disciples in all nations. We’ve made friends from Ireland and New Zealand, friends that God called to reach other nations. We’ve made friends that will be serving in Haiti, Uganda, the South Pacific, India, and many others. We’ve all been brought together to learn together and learn from one another, our individual backgrounds and spiritual journeys.

What’s so exciting is not just that all of us have come together, but it’s the network of believers that have come together to send each one. These 39 people are being sent by hundreds more, and that really helped me to understand deeper the body of Christ and that we all have individual roles to play.

We have studied areas of communication, dove into theology, and learned so much about ourselves. Along with that, we did an hour long interview for a radio show called “One Mission Stories” which will be aired in September. We have had opportunities to tell the story of how God brought us into this calling, which has been and will continue to be a humbling experience. We have also had a lot of fun getting to know the people here, including playing some games (cornhole) and participating in a dunking booth for the kids.

We wanted to provide an update of what is happening now and some more information for you. Several months ago, we moved in with some very good friends and we were able to begin saving money due to our reduced cost of living. We both left our jobs at the end of June to pursue missionary service full-time, knowing that along with that would be the remaining financial support necessary. To better steward our resources, we plan to live off of our savings, hoping to use all of the money sent to OMS for the work in Spain.

As we mentioned in our latest newsletter, we are at the point of no return, and we are very happy to be here. Our last hurdle is our financial support. Many people have asked us what is needed in terms of financial support. Our budget (or Missionary Support Requirement) is broken out monthly, so we need enough in committed monthly support before we can leave. This does not mean that you must give every month, you can choose to give annually, biannually, quarterly or however else you would like it broken down, and then it is converted into monthly support for us. Some people have also stated that they’d like to give but want to wait until we leave for Spain. If you would like to do that, it is okay to do so, but for us to leave, the commitment needs to be submitted - even if you do not plan to begin until a later time.

We have listed three ways to give in the Partner section of this blog. OMS accepts payment via check, money order, paypal, credit card, bank account withdrawal (and then even through different ways, such as jewelry, property, grain and wheat, etc. I know, kind of crazy), it is all so that Christ's name can be proclaimed through the nations - to the ends of the earth!

Feel free to ask us about anything. We will keep you up-to-date with our current status in regard to funding. We would ask for your continued prayers during training, and then also in the various church and individual presentations that lie ahead. Soon, we will provide an update from the field of a recent youth camp that we are very excited about!

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