Our house is now officially for sale.  We have a few showings this week.  Please pray with us that our house would sell this summer, to make our jump to full-time smoother.

Recently we have had two couples join our support team and an increase in support from one of our supporting churches.  It is exciting to watch our number creep closer to our 25% goal for September.

We just got back from a wonderful Mission’s Conference in Clinton, ME.  The church was so warm and welcoming, with a huge heart for missions.  We stayed with a wonderful family of 10 who spoiled us and were such a blessing to us.  We were able to ride the horses a few times, which was a big highlight of the week.

  

  

On Friday we went lighthouse hunting and found this beautiful lighthouse in Jellison.

We have been working like crazy lately, getting our house ready to sell.  It is very time-consuming going through almost 11 years of belongings and trying to decide what needs to go in storage for our move to South Africa, what we need in our travel trailer, and what needs to go.  Our house will be going on the market at the beginning of May.  We really need the house to sell by the end of August so that we can travel full-time in September.  Please pray with us that God will bring the right buyer to see our house, and that the timing will be perfect.

Wednesday night we were at a church in Brockton, MA.  We had a great time with the church family there.  They were very welcoming people and made us feel important.  We were pretty tired the next day, though, because  the church is 4 1/2 hours away, and we drove right home after the service–getting home at 1:15 AM.  Our next meeting is a mission’s conference in ME,  April 15-19.  Please continue to pray with us that our support would reach 25% by the time we go full-time in September.

 

As we plan for going full-time in September, we have made some big changes.  Through some advice from other missionaries, and much prayer and research, we bought a travel trailer several months ago.  This will make it possible for us to sell our home (hopefully this summer), and always have a “home base” as we travel around the country.  After getting the trailer, we knew we would also need to sell our minivan and get an SUV to tow it with.  God answered our prayers and our van sold within four days of listing it.  And, He provided a great Suburban with low miles that we purchased last weekend.  Then, just yesterday we found out that friends have taken us on for monthly support.  What amazing timing!  It’s an amazing and humbling thing to have individual supporters.  Maybe God is leading you to join our support team.  We are so thankful for the faithful family and friends that God has given us.

Today we drove to Brockton, Massachusetts.  What a warm day it was (compared to the weather we’ve been having lately).  We enjoyed the morning service at North Baptist Church.  Afterward, we were treated to a great buffet lunch at a local restaurant.  The church was very generous to give us a bunch of leftover school curriculum that they had.  This will save us hundreds of dollars.  God definitely meets our needs in ways we never would have guessed.

We just got back from Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, NH.  What a wonderful time we had reconnecting with old friends and meeting new people.  Our children really enjoyed being able to go to AWANA at a different church.

Have you noticed our higher support level? We praise the Lord for two new supporters and one that raised our support. What an encouragement! Our goal is to be full-time by September.

  

We enjoyed visiting with the Rudolphs while they were in Vermont.  Talking about the ministries in South Africa renewed our burden and urge to get the field as soon as possible.  Since our children didn’t go on the survey trip with us, they enjoyed getting to know “Uncle Dave, Auntie Julie, and Justin.”