Thank you. For all of the ways you have contributed to our ministry preparations over the last couple years – thank you! At long last, BJ has graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a Bachelor’s in Jewish Studies and Biblical Studies. And we have begun the exciting work of building our Partner Team – raising funds and recruiting prayer partners so we will be thoroughly equipped for full time ministry in New Zealand this October. We currently receive about 30% ($1,800/month) of the total funding ($6,000/month) we need in order to focus our full time energy on ministry. With your support, we have worked hard to reach this exciting phase, and we are eager to take these next steps!

But to be frank with you – despite many exciting moments and blessings, the last year has been the hardest we’ve ever known. June marked one year since the home-going of our beloved brother, Levi. It is still very fresh to us, and we continue to deeply grieve our loss. We have also faced a number of new health challenges which have intensely complicated our lives over the past months.

Through it all, we have fallen to our knees before God – more than a few times – to ask if we are truly in His will as we continue down this path. Even in May, as we sold or packed up all of our earthly belongings to ship our lives first to New Zealand and then to Brazil, questions flooded our minds. How will these health issues affect running a guesthouse? Will we raise enough support in time to go to New Zealand? How will we handle the days when the pangs of grief are crippling? Have we lost our minds?

Every item we packed into those boxes was an action of faith. Each 50-some pound case says – “I’m going where God takes me, and I don’t know when I’m coming back.” And to tell you the truth? We don’t have the answers to every one of those questions. But despite the fears that creep in, the immense challenges we face, and the unanswered questions, we really do believe that God is saying, “Go.” He has confirmed it for us again and again. And we are reminded of God’s command to Abraham, “Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” (Genesis 12:1) and of His faithfulness in Abraham’s life as God did indeed show him a new home and so poured blessing on him that those blessings are still overflowing to us today. If that isn’t a good reason to follow God in faith, I don’t know what is.