Kickstart-ing

Have you ever heard of Kickstarter? It's a brilliant concept that allows people who have creative ideas - games, albums, inventions, projects and such -to let the world know what they are doing and be a part of the upstart.

Say you have a game you think the world would love: Propose the idea on Kickstart. You include all the information people would want in order to fund your idea. Let's say you need $10,000 by December 31st in order to even begin making this game. People are able to pledge whatever amount they want in support of what you are doing. Now most times if you pledge "X" amount, you get a copy of the game, album, or a certificate saying you were a supporter. The brilliance in this is that if the goal is met by your deadline, they are charged the amount pledged. If you don't make the amount needed, you know there is not enough interest, they are not charged, and you don't have to deliver on your idea. It's a safe way of finding out just how popular your idea really is without the up-start investment.

Stay with me now....

As we invested in a game recently which Ruel and Elijah can't wait to play (*Merry Christmas* to you, honey!), I began to wish people knew how close what we are doing in moving to Ireland this is. Yes, we are going: This is what God has called us to. However, we can't go until we hit 100% of our funding.

Thankfully, we don't have a set in stone deadline that keeps us from going if we haven't reached our goal by that time. But we do have a date we have to be out of the house we are living in now. Being that we have already sold all our furniture and household items, this makes it a little more "serious" if our support is not reached by then.

No, we won't be sending you a game to play, music to listen to, or other tangible item. What we can give you is the promise that you are investing in the Gospel. I'm not saying that to be overly dramatic  It's the truth. God has called us to minister to those in Ireland: To show them how to have a real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the Gospel. And that is what we will be doing in a place that desperately needs it 24:7.

This is how I see it right now. I feel like we are a living, breathing Kickstart project. Our one consolation is that I know because of the promises we have received, we will never see that "Funding Unsuccessful" icon on the corner of our lives page.

But won't it be amazing when we see the bold print: FUNDED!
:-)

The Sower and the Seeds Anew

This morning as I was reading the parable of the sower and the seeds in Mark 4, the Spirit brought a fresh meaning to me. Yes, this is about the sowing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (We know because He explained it!), but a new meaning came to me too: As Ruel and I have been talking and sharing about our family's call to Ireland, I realize we have been sowing seeds. Seeds of ministry, partnership, and passion.

Some of those seeds will fall on hard ground.
Some will fall in shallow soil.
Others will grow up in thorns that will choke them out.
Still, others will produce great crops of differing amounts!

Now, we are not so petty as to say this can only be applied to financial means for us - though I'm afraid sometimes it may seem that way to others. These crops come in the necessary form of money, yes. But also in prayer, fellowship, and spiritual support. Most have no idea the stress involved in following God in this way... We were greatly blessed by a brother in Christ this week, who admitted he can't help monetarily, but ministered to our souls by sympathizing, encouraging, and praying over us. He spent precious time with us.

I love the life of Scripture.
And I long to share that with the Irish.
Seed scattered......

Called

Not everyone is called to drop their lives and move to share the Gospel.
Not everyone is called to partner with us financially so that we can.
Not everyone is called to come on short term mission trips to reach out to Dubliners.
Not everyone is called love the Irish sacrificially.

But, if you're a Christ follower....
You are called to share the Gospel with those around you - where ever you are.
You are called to partner with other believers in advancing God's kingdom. (Your church, ministries, missions, etc...)
You are called to plant seeds wherever you go, even briefly. (We don't take vacations from Christ)
You are called to love others, unconditionally. Especially your brothers and sisters in Christ, so that we will be known as His by the love we have for one another.

Settled. ???

Thank you all for your prayers over the last few months! We've learned so many things about ourselves during the selling of our home & belongings, and while moving twice. But most of all, we learned of God's goodness. We learned first hand that,
Yes, everything really does work out in the end.
No, there was no point in stressing over "that", and
He always comes through at the right time.

It's funny how we all KNOW these lessons, but living them takes you to a whole new level of understanding.

We are so in love with the Irish! It amazes me that day by day our love grows deeper and deeper for a people we've barely met. That can be nothing other than the Spirit working in our hearts. Starting...today!, we are devoting ourselves to finding those people God has called to partner with us through prayer, special gifts, an/or monthly support. We will be calling you. Both to talk and to listen. Are you one of those people? Has the Spirit laid anyone on you're heart that you can connect us with who may? Can we just take a moment to share our passion with you? No pressure. Just love.

Will you pray we reach 50% by Christmas??

This will help in many ways:

• It will put us on track for being at 85% by February so we can go to the training we need. 
• Ruel will be able to quit his 60+ hours a week job and focus on ministry with me full time. (This is sorely needed!)
• We have obligations at the end of this year/first of next that would be helped greatly by Ruel working at home.

Pray.

Isaiah 37:15-20

My prayer from behind the walls of my comfort zone, surrounded by Enemy and his taunts that we'll never raise enough support to get to Ireland....

I prayed to the LORD: "LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are God - You alone - of all the kingdoms of earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Listen closely, LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, LORD, and see. Hear the words that Satan has sent to debase the living God. LORD, it is true that the enemy has devastated all these peoples and their faith in You. They have clung to their new gods of reason, self fulfillment, political correctness, and complacency, yet they are not gods, but made by human excuse - selfishness and pride. So they have embraced them. Now, LORD our God, save us from his deception so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD - You alone."
AMEN

THAT Post....

Please forgive me for not updating this page more often!
(The best way to keep up is to Sign Up for our monthly Newsletter)

The good news in that is that I'm not sitting here bored trying to think "What could I possibly do next??", but rather "Ahhh! I need to update the blog!" as I go running by ;-)

God has been working in so many ways! We will finally have the house on the market within the week, the kids are off to their Nana's and then camp not long after, I've been cleaning, talking with people, and writing letters. Dare I say, this is starting to feel real!

One thing I think I need to clarify to people is the financial situation. It's a bit confusing if you've never experienced this kind of missional support and can be completely overwhelming. Below are some of the things we'd like for people to understand about this process:

• We have to be 100% supported before we can go to Ireland. That is, that all of our monthly support has been promised and is coming in: Almost $8700 monthly (If you're concerned about the amount, EMAIL me. It really does make sense when you break it down), and all of our launching fund must be in: Around $74,000.
• We need people to start supporting us now. This is basically due to the launching fund which all monthly support will go into for now. It's our moving expenses, training for several weeks before we leave, and purchasing a car once we are over there. It also includes other training once we are there and travel for family wellness.
• You don't have to give hundreds of dollars every month for years in order to be able to help. One thing I learned while helping with WAY-FM's pledge drives is that every dollar really does help. If some can do $100 or $200 a month, bless you! But if you can do $15 or $20 a month for one year, that adds up with others just as well! Our goal is not to have "X" number of people giving at a certain amount. Our goal is to reach our monthly goal- however many people it takes. In fact, the more people who support us, the more we know are praying!
• We want you to feel this. In other words, no, we don't want you to feel you have to break your budget to support missions in Ireland, but we also don't want you not to feel it at all. We are challenging people to try an amount that doesn't stress them too much, but is still a bit of a sacrifice to the Lord for them. That may mean cutting going out to eat once a month, toning down the cable package, or cutting back on a "Venti Mocha Java Happy" once a month. Whatever it is, we want this to be a personal experience between you and God in partnering with us :)
• We can't work over there. I've had several people ask us why we aren't getting jobs in Ireland. Well, we are in the sense we will be meeting and discipling people all the time, but as for Irish employment, we can't. The economy is too bad and we can't get the visas for typical jobs. Should have been a brain surgeon instead of a nurse for One for the soul.... ;-) Though we would love to get an official job over there, it's just not what God is allowing for now.

Though I know this post is a bit long, I pray it has cleared up a few concerns about our finances. Please continue to pray this all goes in God's timing. Though personally we would like to take it easy, we feel God wants it to be quicker and even that is taking a huge step of faith because of how slow it seems to be going still. We are at less than 10% of our monthly needs still.
So......... here's our support link!!
Our account is #19860

Third Culture Hearts

We've been working so hard the last few weeks with getting the house ready to sell, getting our stuff ready to move, cultivating partnerships, and taking a course to develop an education plan for our kids. One of the books I've had to read for that was Third Culture Kids. It's brought up many great points about the moving process not only for the kids, but for us as well.

Today as we were driving to Lowe's again, we had the windows down enjoying the coolness of the day. All my thoughts though were of Ireland and the move. Will I miss this drive? Though this seems cool to me now, will it seem like a heat wave once we've been in Ireland for a while? I wonder if the bugs sound the same in the trees?


I realized, our hearts are moving cultures as well. Everywhere we look we see the mixture of TN, the USA, and Ireland. What things will be the same? What little things will we miss?


This is both an exciting and scary time. We are happy and sad. Spending time with friends becomes all that much more precious because we know it won't last that much longer.

We are so excited to have this journey to share with you :-)