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
