God's Work in the Behind-the-Scenes Details

   Several months ago I received a Facebook message from a friend who was wondering if he could find out more about our plans for Peru and how he could help. He and I had been good friends in elementary school, but after that his family moved to a different state and we essentially lost contact with one another. We attended the same university at the same time, but really didn't have much interaction at that point either. Kelly and I were invited to his wedding which was about five years ago. We really enjoyed attending that. From then until just recently we haven't really had much contact with one another other than being "friends" on Facebook. This past fall, our travel itinerary took us to the city that he and his wife live in. Our families spent some time together. What quickly stood out was that God had been working behind the scenes to reconnect our families for His good purposes.
   We began talking about how God has been directing us over the past few years. Kelly and I told about how God has directed us to Peru one step at a time. As our friends talked it was obvious that God had been strengthening their faith in Him through life trials and biblical instruction. My friend described how in the past few years he had set some high financial goals for himself. The financial goals weren't the problem, but the love of money had become a problem. He attained his goals but soon realized that they didn't satisfy and no one was praising him for his financial success. Among other things, God used the book The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn to reorient how he uses the resources that God provides. He and his wife began to look for ways to use the money and other resources that God has given them to advance His kingdom. As they thought about how they could invest their money for eternity God brought our family to mind. In God's providence we became beneficiaries of the work that God has done in their lives. We thank God for His goodness in reconnecting us to them. They have been a tremendous encouragement to us through their kindness, generosity, and faithful prayers. We look forward to a life-long, iron-sharpening-iron type of friendship.
   This story is just one of the many behind-the-scenes details that God has been superintending to assemble the right gospel partnership team to send us to Peru and keep us on track in our service for Him.
   After a recent monthly support increase from a partnering church and monthly commitments from several families we are at 56% of our projected budget needs. We thank God for His provision and for the fact that this represents so much more than money. It represents His care for our physical and spiritual needs by giving us faithful gospel partnerships. It represents people who have a desire to pray for God's work to be done in and through us. It represents people who want to send us out to spread the fame of Jesus Christ both here and in Peru. God is on a global mission to restore sinners to Himself. We're glad to be a part of it!

Last Round Trip?

   Could this be our last round trip? Maybe so - only God knows. When we started our pre-field (deputation) travels in August 2014 our main objective was to develop strong, long-term partnerships with local churches on the East Coast that we already had a direct connection to. As we've traveled, God has been providing for that objective and has also connected us to several other like-minded churches along the way.
   We're currently revisiting churches in Florida and plan to head toward South Carolina on February 12. From then until the end of May our itinerary takes us to churches in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. We look forward to strengthening our friendship with these churches and are praying that God will enable the right ones to officially commit to a gospel partnership with us during that time and send us down to Peru.
   Our prayer is that we could be moved to Peru by June or July of 2016. Pray that God would make the timing of our move to Peru very clear and give us a strong sense of direction in how we can best complement the existing church / gospel work that is going on in Peru.

Tools for Kingdom Expansion

  Over the past few months books, conversations, sermons, etc. have encouraged us to use everything in life for the advancement of God's kingdom. Whether it's a vocation, skill, spiritual gift, or a hobby; God has given us many tools to use. We were able to purchase a guitar with Christmas gifts from family and partnering churches. Pray that God would give us increased skill with the guitar to use this tool for His glory and for the encouragement of His church here in the USA and in Peru.