Friends and Family,
This update has been on our minds for quite some time, but we are just now sitting down to write it out! Where to begin...
House Sold!!!
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| M, J, & J with the sign :) |
You may remember from our last post that we took a step of faith in order to move closer to living in the DR by putting our house on the market. Our prayer was that the Lord would sell our home and do so quickly so that we would have more flexibility towards moving overseas. The house SOLD in 8 days!!! We are thankful for the 5 1/2 years this home provided refuge, many memories, and a place to host small groups, friends, and family. This is also the only home our kids have ever known, so leaving it once and for all last week was bittersweet, but one step closer to our next home. As a temporary home, we have signed a short term lease and have moved into a 3 bedroom apartment in Warrenville. The kids enjoy the "new" place but are asking when we are moving to the DR! Thanks for all your prayers for the sale of the home and our state of transition.
Upcoming Trips
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| 40+ students being commissioned |
The last few months have been busy, busy, busy! Holly just finished up teaching her second year at homeschool university, the kids finished their first year of pre-school, and I (Dan) have been slowly recovering from shoulder surgery in February and closing the ministry year with our student ministries. I have the great opportunity to lead two student trips- one to the DR with GO Ministries (June 16-23), and the other to Pine Ridge Native American Reservation (June 27- July 5). These are always exciting weeks of ministry for me as we get to witness students outside of their comfort zones serving, sharing, and learning. Holly will be helping lead the trip to the DR with me and will have an opportunity to spend some time with some of the other missionary wives while we are down there. We are hoping also, that this trip will be the first of many for the students of GEBC to partner with GO Ministries. This is likely the last time I will be leading our students from this side of the process, and look forward to hosting other teams as a missionary!
51%
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have officially crossed the 50% mark and currently sit at 51% of our funds raised!!! That means that we have 49% left to raise before we can head to the DR. We've signed a 6 month lease where are are currently living and our hope is to leave sometime in January. Please continue to pray for us in this, that the Lord would help us communicate the vision of our ministry, that people would join us in partnership both prayerfully and financially in the days ahead. We have had 5 vision nights already, and are speaking at a church in a few weeks. Our hope is to continue to build as many connections, share at other vision nights, and meet with anybody interested as much as we can over the summer and hopefully reach our goal by this fall.
Don't Wait to partner!!!
Besides our need to raise $6500 monthly for ministry in the DR, we also have an outgoing expense that we need to raise of approximately $18,000. This figure helps with the visa fees, initial travel to the DR, set-up costs (home furnishing and a vehicle), and a few other expenses. The good news is that of the 51% we have raised, the majority of this is comprised of people who are ALREADY giving monthly! By doing this, our outgoing expense is being covered by the money we are currently raising and building up in our account. If you'd like to partner with us financially, you can do so online through this link:
http://bit.ly/1CITArP and you can set up recurring payments (monthly, quarterly, yearly- whatever your preference), or you can give a one time gift towards our outgoing expenses. All donations are completely tax deductible as GO is a 501(c)(3) organization. We'd ask you to continue to pray and ask God how HE would have you partner with us and this awesome ministry! To find out other ways to partner, check out our "how to partner" page!
GO in Major League Baseball News!!!
Lastly, GO recently had some great PR as St. Louis Cardinals Manager, Mike Matheny invited a team of teens to come up and serve in St. Louis for a week and to take part in some festivities with his Catch 22 Foundation. Here is the MLB article if you want to read more. Its exciting to see how God has grown this relationship and how it will be used for His glory! Here is a link to the article:
http://m.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article/127609232/mike-matheny-helps-dominican-youth-visit-busch-stadium
We wish you all well! Please contact us to find out more about GO Ministries, partnership, or our role!
