I have been reading Elizabeth Elliot's 'Through Gates of Splendor' lately and one of the things that struck me most so far in the book was their dedication to the work God put before them and the timeline of events. They spent years preparing by learning the languages, building their huts, and cutting airplane runways into the jungles of South America. If you don't know the story of Elizabeth's husband, Jim, and their fellow missionaries, I would highly recommend reading up on it or watching the movie, 'End of the Spear'. She shares in the book that they often felt the frustration of waiting. There were times where they, understandably, grew impatient and just felt like they wanted to get to the work that God had called them to do- share the Gospel message. But in reality, all of those years of preparing were part of what God called them to do. They were laying the groundwork for the road ahead. This was just such an encouragement to me and a check on my perspective as I look at the past few months. There have been days over the past few months where it has felt discouraging to not be able to host volunteer teams or not be able to finish a particular project for now. But the reality is, we have been able to use this time to lay some more ground work- to build relationships with others, reach out in ways that we weren't able to before Covid, and truly put "People over Projects" into practice. What a great reminder that nothing takes God by surprise and we are to continue to follow after Him, serve Him, and use our time wisely.  We have been able to move back into working at a few more of the homes and we have all been pretty busy. Last week, we were able to get all the cabinets installed at Sam and Stephanie's house. It's so exciting to see the progress there and how close it all is to being finished. They are so excited for these final stages of construction in their home. We visited a local church two weeks ago that sustained significant damage from a tornado in May. We have been able to come alongside them and start to organize a few work days to help them get back on their feet. We also helped pack up a truck of supplies and tools to get driven up to our staff in Midland, Michigan. When the dams broke in May, thousands of homes were flooded and there are many families displaced and working on gutting and rebuilding their homes. We were able to load up all of the tools that our fellow "blue shirts" needed and get them sent up there to help in that response.  It has been such a blessing to see all that God is doing and follow His leading. Many have asked when I will be able to travel again to visit home. As of right now, I'm not sure of exactly when that will be. Once I am able to make the trip, I'm so looking forward to meeting with my friends, family, and ministry partners to fellowship with you (from a safe social distance! :) ) and share what God has been doing. One specific thing that you can be praying for is my financial support. As many of you know, as missionaries, all of our expenses are covered by the financial support from our individual ministry partners and any partner churches. When I joined the ministry, I raised enough funds for the few months I planned on being here. Since God has called me to stay in the ministry longer, this obviously has effected my finances. Right now, I'm blessed to have about another two months of budgeted funds in my ministry account. Going forward beyond those two months, my budget is about 11% covered. For me to be fully funded, I would need around 16 people committed to $50 a month and 9 people committed to $75 a month. Please join me in praying for the financial support needed and for the opportunities to share with more people and churches what God is doing through Crisis Response and how they can be involved in the ministry. For more information on finances, you can see the financial update and giving information below. | 
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