Sunday, October 17, 2010

Support trip back home...

Last weekend we made a quick support trip back home to Pa. It was a whirlwind but we are so grateful for God's provisions and helping us to share more about what God has called our family to at Gospel for Asia. Our flight arrived late Thursday night. We rented a car (a Ford Edge - God blessed us with free upgrades - we went from a Toyota Yaris all the way up to a Ford Edge) and headed to my parents for the night. We slept in and since my parents were home Friday, Dave and I headed out by ourselves to local churches in the area to see if we could raise more support. We went to 7 churches in the area and praise God for one pastor that was very interested in the ministry of GFA and having us come back and share with his congregation. God is faithful and we need to be faithful as well to His calling on our lives. We are not sure when we will be heading back up to PA but we are going to be sending this pastor our information and keeping in contact with him as we move forward to raise support.
Friday night we had a wonderful dinner meeting with 2 couples from a church that just wanted to meet us and encourage us through prayer. Sylvia and Carl and Joel and Allison. Allison was an MK herself so it was neat to be able to share with her and what a blessing to meet their beautiful daughter Katarina. So fun to hold a healthy baby in my arms :)
Saturday, after a quick visit to see my grandmom - a faithful supporter - we headed to Dave's mom's house and to visit his dad in the hospital. Dave's dad's health is failing and he also has Alzheimers and was admitted back to the hospital the Thursday we arrived. Please keep his mom in prayer as she needs to make many decisions on the future care of dad. God's timing is perfect in ALL things and we realize that he allowed us to go and spend some extra time with his dad that we would not have been able to have without this quick trip. Please pray for his salvation. We were able to talk a little to him about Jesus and he just broke down crying. Only God knows each heart and we rest in that.
Sunday was a big day for us. We had the opportunity to share at a church on Sunday morning for a short time in both services and then with the adult Sunday School. It was a blessing to let people know of the need in Asia and how the majority of this world lives on less than $2/day. God has blessed us here in the US for a purpose - to reach and help others with the love of Christ! We do not know specifics of how much support we may have raised while speaking at the church but we know God does and that He will send us in His time. After the services, we were able to spend some time with more new friends, Ivor and Krystal Griffiths at lunch. They were such a blessing to us and we pray we did not scare them off from having children - lol!! It does always amaze me the awesome bond we, as believers, have in Christ. We can just meet someone and share a meal and just love each other knowing that we have a Savior that loves us and died for us. There is never any awkwardness, just love as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sunday night Dave and I went to CC Philly for their service which was a complete and utter blessing to us. We prayed with people from the church and again it is just awesome sharing your heart with other believers!! After the service, we met with the missions pastor and shared with him about our calling. He was an encouragement and stated they were going to have another missions board meeting where they would bring us up for support. Again, only God can raise our support and we trust in Him to do it quickly.
Monday, we spent some time with Dave's mom and brother and then headed home on our flight back to SC.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we move forward to what God has called our family to and please pray that many will realize that God is soooo much bigger than this economy and help support us and the work God is doing!!!! We have heard of many missionaries that are struggling to raise their support right now due to the economy and churches that are struggling financially - please pray for them as well.
The verse that I am clinging to right now is...
1 Thessalonians 5:24 -- The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.

1 comments:

Braley Mama said...

Praise God!!! Praying for Dave's family!!! And praying for you guys!