Assignment 2009

I'd like to share a quick rundown of what 2009 is, Lord willing, going to look like for Breann and me working with Global Fellowship.

As you know, Breann and I joined GF in 2007, giving up our teaching jobs at Century Christian in Lodi, selling our truck, giving away our dog, and moving out of (and now renting out) our house in Lodi. Since then, we have had various assignments. Our first assignment was to raise enough support that we could serve the Lord in the way in which we feel that He called us. He has been faithful to provide. We praise Him for that. Things have not always been abundant financially, but our needs have been met. Things are getting tighter now. As the economic crunch hits our donors more and more, things will continue to get tighter for us. We ask that you would pray with us that the Lord will continue to meet our needs and allow us to continually devote our lives to encouraging and equipping God's people to do God's work.

Our second assignment was six months in India. That was an adventure. We learned so much. We are very thankful for all that the Lord did in and through us during those months. Many of you have already read all about that on the blog. What an amazing time of spiritual growth that was for us.

Our next assignment was 14 weeks in Eastern Europe. As you know, that was, spiritually, very difficult. The Lord is faithful and was with us in those times. We know that He is at work. We seek Him to know how we can best be of service to Him. We know that He does not need us in order to accomplish His work in this world, and we are honored in any way that He chooses to use us for His glory.

That brings us to our current assignment. 2009 will be a year of less travel and less time away from home. We will be primarily working from the GF home office based in Auburn, California. Our roles and tasks expand daily.

One big thing that we will be working on all year is the planning and preparing of a conference in India in 2010. This will take a lot of time to get all together. We will play a key role in getting all of that ready. It will be exciting and interesting trying to gather resources, make plans, get speakers, make travel arrangements, etc., all while working cross-culturally with our brothers and sisters in India. =^) Should be an adventure!

Also, we have many plans regarding Mexico this year. We have two trips already planned and another one in the works. The first one will be taken in order to deliver a vehicle to our partner in Mexico, Jorge. The second trip will be made with the youth group from Sierra Grace, our home church in Auburn, where we will be working in the kitchen, feeding hungry high schoolers for 8 days. That should be exciting! That trip revolves around Jorge's ministry in Mexico. It will be wonderful to see all that he does to bring glory to God and see souls won for Christ in our neighboring country. The third trip (that is still in the planning stages) will be to deliver and set up a park playground set that has been donated by the city of Auburn for us to donate to the ministry in Mexico. GF has been able to do this once before and it was a big hit with the kids down there! We are looking forward to it. Those trips will keep us busy well into April.

After the Mexico trips, we have plans to bring one of our partners from India to the US for fundraising and relationship building. That will be about two weeks and will get us to the end of April.

Another of our assignments for 2009 which includes travel but not to other countries is fundraising! One of the main burdens that we have on our hearts right now is the fact that all of our partners are under-funded. We want to change that. Part of our role is "equipping God's people." Part of that equipping is in helping our partners acquire the necessary funds to do all that they can for the glory of the Lord. This will be a big part of 2009 for us. Please pray that God would use us and provide fruit for our efforts.

In and through all of these things we will also be working daily in the Global Fellowship office. We will do the weekly receipting of gifts that are generously given to GF. We will work daily to communicate with our partners around the world so that they can continue to do the work of the Lord that He has set them aside for. This includes almost daily emails (one day last week, I did not receive ONE single email all day - and I thought my email must be broken, lol) with me attempting to keep things rolling around the world as much as is humanly possible on my end. We are also communicating through Skype. We have had conferences with Romania and India this last month using Skype. Needless to say, we are planning to stay busy in 2009 (we already are plenty busy, praise the Lord! It is nice to know that He is at work all around the world!).

Please pray with us that God will continue to provide for our daily needs. It is our goal and desire (and we believe it to be the will of God) to work with Global Fellowship for many years to come. As long as the Lord makes the way, we will continue to serve Him in this capacity. Please pray with us that God will go before us and guide us and lead us always, so that we may glorify Him in all things.

I am sure there are other parts of our "jobs" that I left out. It seems as though my to-do-list is a mile long, so I know there must be more tasks and roles I have forgotten to share with you, but hopefully you get the general picture of what the next year holds for us.

We are looking forward to another year of travel and visitation of our partners around the world in 2010! But, as with all things, there is a season for everything. This season holds for us more time spent in the States. May God be glorified in and through us.

Please pray that we will be able to fulfill our calling to be constantly: Encouraging and equipping God's people to do God's work.

The more effective we can be at what God has called us to do, the more effective our partners will be at doing the front line work that they are doing. May God be glorified by it all.