Undeserved Blessings
I was a junior in college and God had been putting overseas mission work on my heart. A friend and I had the opportunity to meet up with a missionary who was a few years older than us and was in the states on a home assignment. Over coffee, I asked him about the challenges of being away from family and friends for years at a time. He said that although he still maintains his close relationships, the most difficult part for him was missing out on life events with them. I could tell from his disposition the reality of this hardship for him. Tears formed in my eyes as this reality struck a chord with me. I expressed that leaving family and friends would be the biggest sacrifice for me as well. His response was something I will never forget:
“When we get to heaven, I don’t think we will regret any of the sacrifices we made for Christ. If anything, I think we will wish we had made more.”
There is no getting around sacrifice when it comes to following Jesus. Though I’ve not lost my life like Jim Elliot or suffered in hunger or intense persecution like many still do today, I must count the cost of missing time with family and friends, some of their life events, air conditioning, and more. Knowing I deserve death allows me to have the greatest joy when, in His grace, God gives me the good gift of not having to sacrifice so much. Flying to Kansas City a few weeks ago to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s wedding was one of many undeserved blessing from the Lord. This friend of mine has also been living overseas for the past several years, so the fact that we got to be in each other’s weddings while we were both in America is nothing small and we were both thanking the Lord for it.
While Luke and I were at the wedding reception, we received a text from a supporter saying they had just made a HUGE donation to our house building fund for Papua New Guinea! That donation put us at 72% of our goal. We were blown away ,yet again, at God’s faithfulness and provision. It reminds us that God is AT WORK. He is ACTIVELY moving among the nations, moving in Papua New Guinea, and he is working to reach the lost; and He chooses to work through his people! Through us who are going, and through you who are sending us. We cannot thank you enough and we hope you are in awe of our amazing Lord and view this as an incredible privilege to be used by Him in bringing His word to people who have yet to hear.
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” - Psalm 100:4
Luke and I have been loving our time in California and we are constantly praising the Lord for his provisions for us during this time. We praise him daily for the place he provided for us to stay during this time. We love the family we live with, ABC church we get to be involved with, guitar lessons, linguistics practice, surfing, hiking with friends, ministering to homeless people, and Jess’ first live Christmas tree experience! We had a marvelous thanksgiving with Luke’s family, most of whom came to visit us in Atascadero for the weekend. We look forward to more time with Luke’s family in California and time with Jess’ family on our trip with them to Colorado around Christmas time.
Lord willing, we will be in Papua New Guinea in about a month and a half - 41 days! We plan to arrive on January 16th. We are still waiting on Jess’ work visa before we can apply for entry permits that will be stamped in our passports. THEN we can buy plane tickets. Please be in prayer for us over these practical steps for us to be able to go in January.
We will have a few days to get settled in and get over jet lag before starting official orientation classes on January 20th with several other missionary families and students arriving around the same time as us. We have at least 6 months of orientation where we will be learning the national language and culture of Papua New Guinea as well as receiving some other practical training for our job. The last part of orientation we will live with an established tribal church for 6 weeks to see the vision of an established indigenous church before we move into an unreached tribe to start from ground zero with learning that tribe’s language and culture. During orientation, we will be looking to form a team with other missionaries and we will be praying about which tribe to go into. Please be in prayer with us for God’s guidance in these areas, especially the team formation process.
Practical Needs
We have been planning and purchasing some things we will be taking to Papua New Guinea as we have received information from our leaders and advice from other missionaries. We still need a few things and have put them on this Amazon gift list. If you are interested in purchasing us an item you can check out the link below. We would like everything to arrive by January 7th. THANK YOU!
Prayer and praise
Praise the Lord that Luke’s passport arrived in the mail!
Pray for Jess’ work permit to be approved this week! Once we have that, we can apply for our entry permits (visas). We will then mail our passports to the embassy and get the stamps/visas in our passports. Once we get those back THEN we can buy plane tickets to PNG. It seems like a lot, but we do believe these details are nothing for our God and if he wants us to arrive in January, he will make it happen!
Praise God that married life is going well. We would still like prayer for our marriage to be strengthened even further. Pray God would continue to teach us how to love and serve each other well and that our marriage would continually glorify Him.
Please pray for Luke’s sister who has been going through some difficulties.
Please pray for more funding for our one time cost of building our our house in the tribe. We are 72% funded!
Please pray for our transition to Papua New Guinea, that God would lead us in team formation and finding co-workers. Also pray for the people group God will lead us to live among and minister to.
A few wedding photos:
