Wow–God is answering your prayers as I continue telling people how God is building his kingdom in Ukraine and everywhere by his grace! I have the joy of encouraging believers with the gospel, as I prepare to serve believers and non-believers alike in Kiev.
Fifteen more monthly supporters at $50 per month and one at $57/month would provide full support: I only need $807 per month in new pledges, which means I’ve received 79% monthly support.
Praise God!
This past Sunday in our worship service we commissioned Jarett & Mary Carole Hall to serve in Monterrey, Mexico with MTW. I was particularly excited to see them heading to their field of service, because they and I started raising our prayer and financial support at the same time.
I just found out one of my supporting churches increased their monthly support by 60%, retroactively from the beginning of 2012! God’s working through your prayers, their generosity, and the giving of lots of others, too!
I’ve received 76% of my monthly support, and only need $933 per month in new pledges to be fully funded. God is providing, and I trust that I’ll be moving to Kiev this August!
Thank God with me, and keep praying for his provision of my remaining support.
Praise God with me: through your giving and prayers, He’s provided 105% of my one-time support. That extra 5% is about $1,200, or the equivalent of a two-year $50/month pledge. My primary financial need is still monthly support pledges, but if a one-time gift is what God enables you to give, MTW can apply your gift toward my monthly support.
Monthly support is still at 62.5%, so I still need $690/month in new pledges to reach 80% before April 15th to register for training.
Kiev is a city God can use for global impact: its a capitol city at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, a borderland of sorts. One of my non-Christian friends from my first visit to Ukraine recently finished his studies in Ukraine and returned to his home country. Though I can still pray for him, I’ve missed the opportunity to catch up with him and commend Christ to him again in person, but there are other students like him in Kiev. Pray with me for the Ukrainian church’s witness to students like him. Ask God to supply my need so I can help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine grow in Christ and bear witness to the nations in Kiev, through their country, and to the world. Thanks!
Just a quick update, friends: I only need $685 in new monthly support to reach 80% monthly by April 15th. Thanks to a new anonymous donor who’s pledged $40/month, and a quarterly donor who increased his or her pledge by 33%.
Praise God with me for 62.5% of my monthly support and 98.4% of my one-time support! Another $1,467 in monthly pledges and I’ll be 100% supported. Aiming for August!
Pray that as I reach out to churches the Chattanooga area and the Tennessee Valley Presbytery, God would connect me with key individuals and families, and would move their hearts to partner in sending me to Kiev.
Thanks for your prayers and generosity!
Thank you for praying for me! God has called me to Kiev, and I know he is faithful to finish the work he’s begun. He’s promised to answer our cries to him when we pray in faith, and he heard Jesus’ cry from the cross, and answered by raising him to life three days later!
Kiev regional map
God has graciously answered our prayers that I would be able to wrap up my responsibilities well at my job. One project finished with the end of February, and my other ongoing project is being passed to two of my colleagues. My last day working in engineering will be this coming Wednesday, March 21st. That means my first day working full-time finding where God’s provided the rest of my Ukraine support is next Thursday, the 22nd!
I’ll be working toward having 80% of my support before April 15th, the registration deadline for the July pre-field training. Through your prayers and generous giving, God has provided 68% of my overall support. That’s 93% of my one-time budget and 61% of my monthly support. Or in dollars, by April 15th I need to find $500 in new monthly pledges, and $725 in one-time gifts to reach 80% overall.
Seven $100 gifts, a $25 gift, and ten people pledging $50 per month is all I need to register for July training – is that something you can help with?
Thanks for praying with me on this journey of faith!
Perhaps I have it a little bit easier than Abraham. When God called him to leave his country, and follow God to a land the Lord would show him, Abraham went, having never seen Canaan before (Genesis 12). In contrast, I’ve been to Ukraine three times, seen some of the needs and spiritual darkness in Kiev, and been called to serve there. However, I feel that I’m taking a huge step of faith, in that I will soon be leaving my civil engineering work to focus full-time on raising my support this spring.
I’m aiming to wrap up my engineering responsibilities within the next three to five weeks. My last day is a little bit of a moving target: I’ve told my supervisor when I hope to quit, I’m trying to flex as much as possible if the firm doesn’t have my replacement in place, and yet I have to walk in obedience to God’s call toward Kiev. Pray that the Lord provides a good employee to take over my projects. Pray that I finish my work with diligence and grace, that I continue to be a blessing in the engineering work were I’ve served 10+ years.
Pray for me as I’m faced with my first round of goodbyes–sure, I’m not moving away from Chattanooga to Kiev immediately, but I won’t see my colleagues daily as I have these past years. Thank the Lord for his goodness in providing my job, for his goodness in the delightful people I’ve worked alongside, and for his goodness in providing the savings I will be living off of while finishing my support raising.
Finally, pray for me as I step into full time work building my team of financial and prayer partners. What will I be doing? you may wonder. Assuming that 10% or so of people will be able to give, and needing 30 to 35 new monthly partners to meet my remaining $1,600 per month support need, I’ve got to present my Ukraine ministry to 300 to 350 new people, and its best to meet in small groups or individually. That means I’ll be calling churches, small groups, youth groups, and individuals, finding contacts, scheduling meetings, meeting with people to tell them how God is working in Kiev and how they can join in sending me, and following up with those people. All the while I’ll be sending out thank you notes and my Ukraine prayer updates.
When? I need to have 80% of my monthly support by April 15, so I can register for MTW’s pre-field training in July. Lord willing I’ll be moving to Ukraine in early August. So pray for $800/month in new support by April 15th, and the other $800/month by the summer.
Thanks for your crucial role praying and giving: I can’t go unless you help to send me in a manner worthy of Jesus’ name. (3 John 6,7)
This week I haven’t seen an increase in my monthly support, but I’ve been encouraged by supporters praying and telling me that they’re praying. Two months ago I’d only received 34%, and through your prayers God’s given me 21% increase.
Pray with me for my next 25%, which will take me to 80% monthly support. Watch your email for an update tomorrow morning. Enjoy your Friday evening (if its Friday evening in your timezone). Thanks, friends!
some of you have told me that you’re praying daily for my support – thanks!
I emailed everybody this morning asking for concentrated prayer, and by the time I got to work a friend had emailed me notice of a new monthly pledge. After work I had another email from a cousin with a monthly pledge. Also, I received three encouraging emails from folks who’re praying with me for God to provide.
These may seem little, but receiving two pledges and three encouraging emails the same day I emailed everyone is a HUGE encouragement: thanks, folks!
By the way, whoever pledges the next $25.99 per month (ok, call it $26 to make it even, but then you may as well round up to $30) will put my support at the 50% mark. Any takers?
Some of you have been following my story for a while, some are new readers. I’m writing an email update tonight (sign up here if you’d like to join my email list), but wanted to give my blog readers a shout-out.
My support-raising deadline is technically the end of November, but I think I’ve got till the end of the year. Either way, that’s not a lot of time, and I’ve only received 34% of my monthly support. But 63 (or 48) new monthly supporters (and three church or very generous individuals) would meet 100% of my outstanding $2,470 monthly support need. Here’s how:
Which giver are you?
There’s lots of other ways the math could work, but the point is I need your pledge today if God plans to supply my support by the end of the year. His provision for cross-cultural ministry will come through his people’s giving.
I’m going to help strengthen the church in Kiev using the gifts God’s given me in music ministry, evangelism, and discipleship. Please pledge now if you haven’t, and pray now for the Lord to provide all my needs and to confirm his calling through the generous giving and praying of his people.
Will you help send me in a manner worthy of God? 3 John 5 – 8 says:
5Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
Thanks!
My previous post lets you know what’s occupied much of my time since my last update. The other reason for my relative lack of posts here was a technical issue that prevented me from logging into this site. Thankfully that’s fixed.
Now I’m back at Ukraine support-raising, and I need your help again. From mid-March to mid-April, I asked you to pray as I worked that I’d reach 60% of my pledged monthly support by April 15th. On that Friday, I had pledges for 29% of monthly support, up 12% from when you started praying. Now my monthly pledged support is 31%, and my one-time support is 35%.
I’m facing an open calendar, and need your help again. Will you pray with me for these two things?
That would be a 15% increase in my monthly support. Last time you prayed God provided 12%, and I believe we’re called to faithfulness in small things. Certainly the Lord who ruled the tornado’s power and protected my parents house can provide the support I need for serving in Ukraine.
Thanks for your work in prayer on my behalf. Pray that the church may be strengthened in Kiev, and that God will continue leading me as I prepare to serve him there.
Stuff folks said