Moving Forward
Every time we write these updates I am overcome with a sense of gratitude to all of you for your prayers and support. We have exciting things to share this month, and none of it would be possible without all of you! We thank God for you often!
“We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God has been graciously opening doors over the last couple of months. Since we started our deputation process, Tim continued to work full time at his retail job. This made it difficult to invest the time necessary to set up meetings and accomplish other things necessary for deputation. However, by God’s grace and though the generosity of many of you, he was able to leave his full time job at the end of March! He will need to continue working part time for the time being, and God has already provided in this area as well. On May 1st, Tim started working part time as the “Director of Ministry Development” at our sending church in Winston Salem. We are so thankful to have more time for deputation responsibilities in addition to the opportunity to develop evangelistic strategies here in our home church. God is good!
Because of all of this, we were able to have three meetings in April. Two were at local churches here in the Triad and one was a missions conference in the Outer Banks. We would really like to thank the members of Grace Baptist Church in Greensboro, New Friendship Baptist Church in Winston Salem, and Still Waters Baptist Church in Nags Head. We enjoyed our meetings with you all. We were especially refreshed by our visit with Still Waters Baptist Church for the missions conference they put on. It was relaxing and encouraging. We felt genuinely cared for and loved. Thank you all very much!
We covet your prayers as we move forward in deputation. We are attempting to book meetings for the months of July and August right now, and we are praying that God opens doors. Many churches still have restrictions and limited time together. Many churches and individuals are struggling financially at this time as well. Pray that God overcomes these hurdles and allows us to raise our support in spite of them. We are confident that God has a plan and will take care of us.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
It is often much easier to look back over time and see God’s goodness and protection in hindsight. And in the moment, it is much easier to feel fearful of what might happen and a responsibility to resolve it on our own. Jesus describes this tendency in Matthew 10. In this passage, we see Jesus giving power to the Disciples to do amazing things. And yet in the same interaction He instructs them not to fear. Why should they fear if they have just been given such power? It is perhaps because the excitement and joy of following God’s will and embarking on new adventures for his sake is quickly followed by a fear of failure. I believe the Devil can often use these fears to prevent us from ever embarking on those adventures in the first place.
The reason Jesus gives that they needn’t fear is twofold. First of all, God is in total control of everything, and secondly, they are valuable to Him. Those two things are just as true of us today as they were of the disciples 2000 years ago, and they excellent reasons not to fear.
Praises:
Safety last month as we travelled.
God providing the opportunity for Tim to leave his retail job and work for the church.
The meetings God provided in April and May.
Elowen is healthy and growing fast.
Prayer Requests:
Opportunities for meeting in the coming months
New support to come in.
Opportunities to preach the gospel right here where we are now.
