Here Am I

Here Am I, send me!

Alright everyone, this blog post is long overdue but I am urgently writing this in hopes that God would move in the hearts of those that read this to give to our mission of spreading the Gospel to those in Australia and in Asia!  We are praying for a support team.  We need to raise $19,700.

Yes. You read right!  $19,700 <<< This is no longer the price, since we decided to go to Florida instead of Australia! Florida DTS is only $13k :)

This is impossible for us alone, but with our GOD, nothing is impossible!  We need YOU to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our lives right now, with support in the form of prayer (and LOTS of it!), spreading the word, encouraging us, and with your funds if God moves in your heart to do so! Only with our friends, family and community surrounding us in those areas of need, will we be able to make this possible.

We will be hosting a slew of fundraisers this month (and for the months to come) including a yard sale, bake sale, parties, car washes, and maybe even a concert! ;) Peter will be doing drum lessons as well. Please let me know if any of these things interest you!

Total length we will be gone= 6 months.

Yep! 6 months! October 21 - April 4. That means quitting our jobs, selling our stuff, packing up, saying goodbye to everything and everyone we know (including our precious kitty!) and heading halfway around the world to learn more about Jesus and make Him known!

Peter and I have felt strongly called to go into missions at this point in our lives.  With YWAM (Youth With A Mission), we will be doing a DTS (discipleship training school) for 3 months in Whitsunday, Australia and our missionary outreach will be in Asia for another 3 months. 

We know from the bottom of our hearts that this is God’s will for our lives; we can’t deny His call about this.  Our prayer is that God would move in the hearts of those that read this to give to God’s call that He has placed in our hearts.  Will you be a part of this with us?

We have been leaning on God’s truth that He WILL provide for us.  I KNOW He will.

Truth #1: I serve a God who provides beyond my faith.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:19

Truth #2: I can't do this without you. Yes, you there reading this blog. I need you!

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” -1 Corinthians 12:12

God has given us YOU to partner with us!  He wants you to share in the adventures of living out of faith (and not by sight) with us.  If you feel a tug on your heart to help us, please don’t ignore that call.  We have only received a few promises from a couple people that will be supporting us (and THANK YOU guys!!)  So far, we only tangibly have what sits in our savings... and that’s not that much!

Let me introduce you to some truths that God has laid on my heart from His Word:

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” -Isaiah 6:8

He is sending us to share Him throughout the nations!

WHY are we going? Here is a little fact that really got to me:

There are over 2,700,000,000 people who have never heard the Gospel at all, and there are only 5,000 to 7,000 missionaries worldwide who work directly with these totally unreached groups of people. That means there is approximately only ONE missionary for every 450,000 of these people!

Jesus was not exaggerating when He said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” –Matthew 9:37-38

Will you help send us?

Here is how you can specifically help:

Prayer: Pray for us as we make this leap of faith, raising funds, trusting in God, and being filled with all joy and peace as we faithfully follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Pray Ephesians 6:19-20 over us: “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Encouragement: Peter and I both need encouragement as we stand boldly in truth that God will provide for us-- anything from text messages of bible verses, a short call with words of wisdom, blog comments, and even Facebook posts that lift us up and encourage us as we walk daily with God and have our faith tested.

Financial Support: Please pray about this! If you want to make a donation, please let me know.  We are currently setting up a final meeting with the leadership board of our church to see if we can have an account with them so that any donations we receive would be tax-deductible (looks promising, just need to work out a few formalities).  As of right now, if you were to give, it would be straight to me and Peter and we have an account for our YWAM funds.  Please either comment on here, or email me at stephotis@yahoo.com for mailing information.

One-time donations and monthly donations would both be wonderful!   Any amount AT ALL would be a HUGE blessing to us!!

Breakdown of due dates (for both of us, total):

DTS (Australia):  <<< This installment is a DIRE NEED right now, these due dates are getting close!

Sept 23- $1,400

Oct 1- $7,300

Outreach (Asia):

Nov 11- $4,000

Dec 25- $4,000

Other Expenses:

-Airfare to and from Australia: approx. $2,000

-International Health Insurance: up to $1,000

-Monthly expenses while in Australia & Asia: approx. $100-200/month

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this, it means SO much to us that you are taking an interest in what God is doing in our lives.  He has been so amazing to us, and I can only hope that you continue to stay throughout this journey with us and see God move in some amazing ways.  We hope to make God known throughout the nations with our lives, and this is just the beginning! Please pray about becoming part of our support team—we need you!  Love you guys!!

http://www.ywam.org/
http://www.ywammedia.com/ywamwhitsunday.com/dts.html