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You Only Get One "First"
June 17, 2014
Hi <<First Name>>,
It gives our family great joy to tell you that in less than a week, on June 23, we are scheduled to fly to the Czech Republic as full-time missionaries. Many of you have prayed with us for this and now the time has come to depart and begin a new life and ministry overseas.
Thank You
We are humbled and honored to have many of you financially supporting us and/or faithfully praying for our family. And by God's grace and through your sacrifice we are fully funded at 100% of our budget! We could never have done any of this without you and for that we say thank you.
Packed, Loaded, Shipped
 On May 23 we watched all of our possessions get loaded on a twenty foot container and driven away to be shipped to Czech. Our friend Cathy packed boxes for three days with us and also provided us a wonderful system for keeping everything organized. Many volunteers came on loading day to help us get everything in our container, even though the container was over five hours late. Thank you to all of you for the sacrifice of your time and energy!
You Only Get One "First"
A few months back we had the privilege of spending a weekend with Dave and Connie Patty. Dave is the president and founder of our missions organization, Josiah Venture, and he and Connie have been in Czech as missionaries for twenty years. When asked what advice they had for us as we leave, Dave said, "You only get one 'first' so make sure you write it down." What he means is you only get to have your first week in a new country once. You only get to have that initial flight to Czech once. It's like watching a child take their first steps...you want to make sure and have the camera ready to capture every moment because it only happens once.
Next week when we fly it will be a first for sure. It'll be the first time all four of us have gone to Czech. It will be the first time Titus has ever been to Czech. It will be the first time we have moved to another country. We will move in to our first European apartment and soon we will drive our first European car. These are just the firsts I think of, and I know there will be many more. But significantly more important than all of that, our hope and prayer is that of all our "firsts" will one day lead to someone hearing the gospel for the very first time.
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Prayer
- We have said many goodbyes already, but this Sunday (June 22) will be our last Sunday with our church family at Placerita Baptist Church. Please pray that as the church commissions us to go that our fellowship would be sweet and that we would be an encouragement to them.
- Please pray for our final week in the States. We have a few doctors appointments, final paperwork, and final packing still to do. Pray these go smoothly.
- Please pray for our departure on June 23. We have an evening flight and will be flying directly to London from Los Angeles all night. After a short layover in London we'll head to Prague. We will have lots of luggage plus carseats for our kids. Pray for strength and endurance during the travel.
- Finally, pray for Central and Eastern Europe. There are still less than 1% of young people who know Christ as their Savior. Pray that God would use our family to proclaim the gospel faithfully!
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Did You Know?
There are over 2,000 castles, keeps, and castle ruins in the Czech Republic, one of the highest density in the world (notably after Belgium and France).
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