Almost There
We have not sent an update in almost two months, and we are sorry to keep you all waiting so long. To be honest, things were pretty quiet and uneventful for a couple of weeks after our last update, but the last few weeks have been quite a rollercoaster! God kept answering prayers, so we kept waiting to send out an update until things were finalized, but we cannot wait any longer to share our news! Thank you all for your prayers. God has been answering them in amazing ways.
In our last update, we were pleased to share we were almost there as far as support goes. We were only in need of a couple hundred dollars a month. We are happy to share that God has now brought in all of our support and we are at 100%!
We have been living in Iowa for just over a year. Our thought was that we would begin deputation on the East Coast, where our sending church is located, and finish up in the Midwest, where we lived before moving to North Carolina. Since our move, we have had as many meetings on the East Coast as anywhere else! Shortly after returning from our visit to Maine, we took off to a meeting in Florida. We were able to present at Grace Baptist Church in Vero Beach. We introduced our ministry and enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship with the church.
The week after returning from Florida, we took part in Carlisle Baptist Church’s Vacation Bible School. This is always a crazy busy week of ministry, but it is also very rewarding. Autumn was in charge of the Middlers (3rd and 4th grade) and helped her sister with the song time. Tim ran the sound booth, took part in the skits, and was in charge of the verse memory time for the oldest two classes. Our family was also the missionary family for the week, so Tim shared fun information about Scotland and tied it into the lessons from each day. One young girl made a decision to accept Christ as her savior, which makes all the effort worth it! We also presented a ministry update, and Tim was able to preach at Carlisle Baptist one last time before we leave.
Over Father’s Day weekend, we made one last visit to Ohio to say goodbye to family and visit First Baptist in Elyria. Lincoln and Oliver appreciated being able to catch a couple days of their VBS. God has been so good in giving us friendships with people from churches all over the country. We made a stop in to the Baptist Mid Missions Global Ministry Center and said our goodbyes there as well. Early this week, we were also able to make a trip to Kansas City to spend time with family and say more goodbyes.
While we were in Ohio, we finally received Oliver’s official citizenship paperwork from the UK. We first applied for this back in October last year. Autumn’s dad was able to turn around and mail it right back to the UK for us on the same day so that we could apply for Oliver’s British passport as quickly as possible. We started praying that this final process would go smoothly and that there wouldn’t be any more hold-ups. Oliver’s passport is now the only thing we are waiting on to leave. That same week, we found a really good price on plane tickets for July 11th and decided to purchase them. We were trusting that there would be no issues with his passport and God would allow it to come in time.
After returning from Ohio, we finished packing our boxes, and Tim took them to Chicago to be shipped over to the UK. We are so thankful that God provided for us to be able to keep almost all of our books and personal items. The kids may miss their toys now, but they will be so excited to unpack when the palette arrives!
Where things are right now: We have our tickets purchased, boxes shipped, and visas and passports for 4 out of 5 of us ready to go. We just received a text message this morning that Oliver’s passport is printed and being shipped from the UK. We are almost there!
Please pray that God will continue to have His hand in all the details. Pray for safety for our family as we fly out on July 11th. Pray that when we arrive in Scotland, God will guide us in all the details of settling in. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support over our years of deputation. Thank you for opening your homes and your hearts to our family. This will likely be the last prayer letter we send while on pre-field ministry. Your prayers have carried us through. Thank you!
