Chapter Next

I’ve always loved those little milestones in life: crossing another state line on a long road trip; chapters in a book; progressing years in school.  They always seem to carry a confirmation of progress but with a fresh start on something new.  We’ve hit such a milestone in the last few weeks and it’s great to be moving to the next phase.

The milestone is that we have essentially completed our partnership phase.  We have reached our goal of monthly financial backing and can now proceed with our move overseas.  We do still have a small amount of outgoing costs to cover, but knowing how the Lord has provided thus far, we have no doubts or fears of swift completion in that area as well.

Doing the work of financial partnership has been interesting to say the least.  It has taught us a lot about our reliance on God for our very breath among all other provision.  It has taught us a lot about commitment and faithfulness.  The stories that we’d love to share about this are many. 

I can’t say that we’ve seen “everything” there is to see, but it’s been an eye-opening experience, to say the least.  We’ve visited churches that have a long and rich history of missionary affiliation.  We’ve visited some to whom our endeavor is new.  We’ve enjoyed showing the possibilities of engaging the artistic and cultural life of a community to be a carrier of the gospel message.  We’ve enjoyed encouraging people to see worship as a global endeavor and arousing curiosity of what brothers and sisters in Christ do to express their worship half-a-world away.

Many times, our methods and results didn’t line up as we expected.  We enjoyed our most prosperous times while speaking mostly to grade school kids about African arts or geography.  We saw the words of some dedicated advocates pay greater dividends than our own polished presentations.  I can say it was fun most of the time and always interesting.

The next things on our plate include obtaining visas and selling a few things that we didn’t get rid of before our move to Dallas.  After we have the visas in hand, travel plans will be made and the countdown will be on.  Looking forward to it!

Passports are ready...now for the visas.

I need those red areas at the top of my application to become green!  When they are all green, we can schedule our interview at the consulate in Washington, DC.