24 | November | 2014 | Stoking The Fires

Do not worry; we are not missing any of our literal hands. God has been more than gracious to us this past week. We put a prayer request out there less than 2 weeks ago of needing 10 more partners… and in just 4 days God moved 5 partners to join our team at the needed monthly amount. Only God can do that! We have also been contacted by a couple more people this past week who have shown interest in joining our team. Truly God has raised our support! We have “slowed down” our traveling and been able to reconnect with our home church. We facilitated a small group, shared in 4 Sunday school classes, and taught in 1 high school class in 15 hours J. We will be leaving Lord willing in 8 weeks and 1 day!

Things are in motion!

First off, God has been using people to humble us from day one. We walked into our Sunday school class at our home church (in Pittsburgh, PA) to give an update and they surprised us with a love offering, which will pay for our plane tickets to PNG! Wow! Such an amazing gift, truly a moving of God in their hearts to have the foresight and yet God ordained because they did not know how much the tickets would be and did not corroborate together how much they raised. So that’s a big thing off our list. Money for plane tickets? Check!

We just heard back from our leadership that our work permit paperwork is being processed and Lord willing they send it back to us shortly! So we might have it in 1-3 weeks. Next step is to get our visas. Paperwork… check!

We need 5 more supporters to be at our minimum monthly goal of 75% to be permitted to leave for PNG. We are at an approximate 68% of our committed monthly support as of today.

We will need to pack a crate soon, and then purchase a few more items for that crate in the next month. We will still need some assistance in other fees and what not but we are not worried. God has done all this in just 11 months and we know that in these next 8 weeks He will overwhelm us. We want to say thank you to all of you prayer warriors and to our Sunday school class by overwhelming us with their love!

What have you guys been doing this past week or so?

We have been in places from Kansas to Indiana, to Tennessee to Kentucky, and now we are currently back in Pennsylvania. That has been just in the past 10 days J. We have connected with many groups, churches, and individuals as well in between. We have shared, taught, had coffee, played basketball and much more with many friends, family, churches, and schools. We have strived to connect with as many people as we can the closer we get to our departure.

Seth Preaching in Kansas

What will you guys be doing these next 8 weeks?

We will be in New Jersey for Thanksgiving then come back to Pennsylvania to finish up sifting through all of our belongings and begin packaging them up for our crate. We will then go up to New York for hopefully our last speaking tour which will end the week before Christmas. The week between Christmas and New Years is always an intimate time we have with Nicole’s family in Virginia. We will then have a send-off service in New Jersey (Jan 4^th) and then have our commissioning/ordination service at our home church in Pittsburgh, PA January 14^th at Harvest Baptist Church. We would love to have YOU join us for these special events. We will give times when we know more details. After that, we will tie up loose ends and then LEAVE FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA! That is our next 8 weeks in a “nut-shell” for those of you who are interested and need to plan for those events. Hopefully this helps you know how to pray for us, plan to connect with us, and what to expect from us.

Please continue to pray for those 2 final details we need to come to fruition: For 5 more partners and 1 piece of paperwork. When you look at your hand think of us… 1 hand… and 5 fingers. Thank you so much for your partnership! We have heard from many people how they and their church are praying for us, please continue doing so, we are encouraged by your intentionality in our lives.