When the going is slow, the thankful keep going!

Thanksgiving couldn't have come at a better time this year. It has come after a couple months of slow going ... "trudging" even ... as we wait, pray, and trust that God will help us reach our last 25% of our monthly funds.

As it feels in the moment like God's mercy is running out on us ... a thankful heart will help us to see just how great His mercy is!

We are thankful for the way He has already provided us with 75% of our monthly funding ... even that seemed impossible 11 months ago! And that all of the 75% has come from amazing individuals giving what they can!

We are thankful for friends and family who keep us encouraged and pray for us!

We are thankful for our Portuguese tutor Maura, who tutors us once a week in Portuguese, and who is willing to teach us "full-time" when we are done support-raising!

We are thankful for the random connections we have made whether people or churches, and how they have loved us and cared for us!

We are thankful for MAF and the way God already does amazing work around the world through their ministry!

We are thankful for the staff and unpaid workers of MAF who have led us on this life-changing journey.

We are thankful that even if our dessert and silent auction don't go as planned ... we will still enjoy dessert! ;)

And mostly ... we are thankful for such a big, LOVING God, whose word promises us: "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10) His faithful promises keep us going, along with a thankful heart for all He has done and all that He is. He loves us, He leads us, He rescues us, and He breathes life into us. We cannot see the road ahead of us. (Will we raise all the money we need before the end of the year? Will studying portuguese be difficult and trying? When will we move to Angola? Who does God need us to meet and share our story with?) But He will lead us onward.

BIG MILESTONE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

We won't keep you in suspense any more ... our big exciting milestone announcement is ...

Drum roll ...

Are you ready?!?! ...

We've reached 100% of our OUTGOING, ONE-TIME FUNDS!!!

Hurray! That's $35,000!!!! This is the fund that gets us overseas, gets us through language school, covers things like visas, immigration, moving our life overseas, initial training and Marcel's maintenance standardization, and LAUNCHES our long-term ministry!!

Crazy right? 6 months ago we started on this "Impossible to man, but possible to God" journey, knowing that it would take a miracle (or many small, every day miracles and acts of obedience) to raise the funds we need. And now, we've completed Part 1 of the journey.

All that being said ... we're not close to leaving yet. Don't worry, we're still here for a while. Because as awesome as it is that we have raised our ONE TIME funds, we still have LOTS to raise in our MONTHLY support before we can go. We're almost at 40% of our monthly support. Will you help us SOAR in this next stage of our ministry by praying for us ... specifically for our upcoming London Dessert Night, for God to reveal new supporters and opportunities to us, and for us to trust Him with everything we need?

Thank you friends and family. Because really--this BIG ANNOUNCEMENT would not have happened without you. Your financial blessings have brought us to our knees in thankfulness many times. You are all truly a blessing!!!!

Long Weekend Update!

Guten morgen! (Good morning, in German!)

Thought I would post a little update on life, support-raising, and some praise/prayer points.

We are very excited (and by excited I mean thrilled, exhilarated, humbled, and all around in awe) to announce that our current support levels are sitting at ...

Drumroll please ...

37% of our monthly support AND ...

99% of our one-time, outgoing support!!!!!!!!

So what does that mean?!

It means we could move overseas now, but we'd have to move right back to Canada, LOL. 

So what does it mean for you ... friends, family, supporters, and potential financial supporters?

It means from here on in we're going to put a big push on finding monthly supporters. We want to have all of our support raised by AUGUST. 

But, we know a lot of people do not feel "financially equipped" to commit to being a monthly supporter. So we want to introduce you to a couple of options:

1) Become an annual giver! Maybe you prefer to see one withdrawal a year, as opposed to twelve, and you have a favourite time of year (like post income tax return?). You can commit to give once a year as an annual giver. Will you consider becoming an annual giver of $50, 100, or 200? Your commitment is our peace of mind.

2) You can still give a one-time donation. What will happen to your one-time donation, once we reach 100% of our outgoing fund? It will be counted in our "monthly support" and split up over 48 months. As you can imagine, this still helps us out a lot. We just want to encourage people that if you know you can commit to a similar or smaller amount per month or year, that your commitment helps bring more stability and predictability to our funds!

Now ... on to some praise and prayer points ...

1) Obviously, a huge praise point for us is that number--99%--of our outgoing funds! Wow! And not only that, but God has just richly blessed us with amazing people as our monthly supporters. We are consistently loved, encouraged, and blessed by them!

2) Some personal prayer points. Marcel and I signed up to be soccer coaches this summer. We wanted to do this to meet new people in our community, so please pray for relationships to be made, bridges to be built and team unity! Additionally, it's been on our hearts for a while now to start a "Christianity Explored" Bible study for non-Christians and friends, so please pray for this to come to fruition!

3) Please pray for our upcoming dessert night at West London Alliance Church on June 1st. We want this to be our biggest event. Please pray for at least 50-80 people to come, and for us to see a dramatic increase in our monthly financial support.

4) Finally, please pray for our staff team at MAF Canada. They are currently in the discernment stage of determining where we would serve best overseas, and no doubt, they could use a lot of prayer for this! We're hoping to find out soon where God will lead us!

God bless friends! Have an amazing long weekend!

A Thankful Heart

Lately, God has been challenging me to be more thankful. Have you ever been in that same place? God is so good and yet, like second nature, when I pray, I skip over my blessings and focus on what I still need from God. I make light of the many ways He has been faithful, and go right on requesting.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (New Living Translation) says: "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 

So, after I burst through the doors Sunday night and exclaimed to Marcel, "My heart is so thankful, I feel like it might explode! Like actually ... I feel like I'm having a heart attack and I just need to dance!" I'm going to do the blogiquivocal thing and share some of the good things God has done and how He has shown His faithfulness. If you pray for us, or just enjoy being happy for us, here are some things you can join us in praising God for:

- His faithfulness in bringing in new monthly partners. This past week He provided us with four new monthly supporters--some of them a complete surprise to us! We are so thankful for dear friends and family!

- His encouragement through conversations and visits with friends and family. Also, his encouragement through epically amazing food (I am 100% certain Thai food and Tim Tams will be on the menu in heaven!)

- His provision in bringing our monthly support up to 15% and outgoing funds up to 32% ALREADY! Should we start packing? YAYYY!

- His faithfulness in lining up several upcoming events and meetings for us--dessert nights, ministerial meetings, bible studies, and coffee dates!

- His mercy in allowing us to go on a family vacation in February brought to you by the the Boers clan! So pumped to make memories with the family!

For all the things God has done, and continues to do, I have to add one little thing at the end. I am most thankful that God does so much of His work through people. We are so thankful for the people God has used to bless us in the past weeks and months, and we desire to return those blessings to those people. Thank you to all of you who follow God through big or small steps of obedience! You set an incredible example to us!