Half the News

We came back from a 3 day vacation on Wednesday and the house and our routine are mostly back in order. The highlight of our stay in the Twin Cities was visiting the EFCA headquarters in Bloomington where we were able to meet our ReachGlobal rep in person. Yes, the Como Zoo and science museum were fun, but this was a big deal.

These past 6 months we have done all of our communications through phone or computer so getting to see our rep face to face was great. The most exciting, of course, was finally getting to talk to him about our acceptance. It was the reason we went to visit him after all. I will stop stalling now and get to all the nitty gritty.

ReachGlobal is very excited to have us on board and wants to send us out on a 1 year mission trip. The position that we are going into the field for is quite new and 1 year gives everyone a chance to feel out how it will work. There will be a possibility of a 1 year extension which we can apply for toward the end of our stay, any longer and we will be looking at making the transition from short term to long term missionaries.

We do not have our "official" acceptance yet. For that we need our location to be finalized. That is taking a little longer as Jay, the Montreal lead is just getting back from Haiti...possibly helping to translate for our own church's mission trip. How crazy would that small world connection be. We are meeting with Jay on Wednesday to chat and just start building a relationship with him. It is also a time for him and us to see if we will mesh well on the same team.

There is a lot on our minds right now. We are planning a trip back to the headquarters in August for orientation and training. With our trip being only 1 year we have to make a decision about what to do with the house. In the coming weeks we will be determining a shop closing plan for The Crazy Elephant, how and when to get our wordpress blog up and running, what technology needs we will need filled, and a plan of attack for how determine what to bring, leave, or get rid of as far as stuff in our house goes.

It is all a bit overwhelming right now to look at all there is to do and plan. We will be turning to the Lord to help us in all of this. It is a comfort to know that He will be guiding us in this journey. We want to thank everyone for your prayers over these months. Please continue to pray for us as we begin making huge life changes in preparation for our trip. We look forward to seeing how God uses us to change the lives of those we will be serving and those who will be serving with us.

Still Waiting

Here we are 4 weeks since our missions interview and we are still waiting. We even got an e-mail this afternoon from our rep apologizing for not calling us while ON VACATION! What ever he has to tell us must be of great importance. Perhaps it is a yes, perhaps something else is going on.

A week ago the wait, and missed phone call, was eating away at me. I was going crazy knowing that we could have had our answer had we simply been home. God used that time to show me a thing or two. First of all he reminded me that this is HIS plan, not mine. God will see to all of the details, I simply need to come along for the ride and be a willing vessel for Him.

He showed us the peace we can have in waiting. We have really enjoyed this quiet week knowing the chances of our rep calling us while on vacation are slim. We have not thought much at all of our mission trip this week. Instead we devoted our time to bible study and family togetherness. I think God much preferred that, as did we.

He also laid out more of his design for us. God is already placing the support net on his plan for us to be missionaries. It is quite incredible to watch! With out any solicitation, we now have 3 churches and a fantastic business woman who want to talk to us about partnership when the time comes. While I am not willing to take that as a guaranteed yes. till I actually get one, I can see that this is God's work preparing us in advance for the next step.

There is a good chance we will have another week to wait. We decided a short vacation was in order after all these months of hard work. So we will be taking a mini trip to have some much needed fun and recharge our batteries. Then we can come back, get our answer, and get to work. In the meantime, I will enjoy the quiet stillness of the wait...and try desperately not to itch my bug bites any more (a result from outdoors family togetherness).

Extra Interview

It has been 2 weeks since our interview and we heard from our rep yesterday (2 weeks to the day). Sadly, it wasn't the definitive answer we were hoping for. Cue awesome facebook graphic...

https://www.facebook.com/busyhomeschoolmom?hc_location=stream

This morning we had yet another interview. This one was all about our family life. We discussed how we discipline, touched shortly on homeschooling, and talked about how we connect together as a family. It went very well! The rep was laughing and having a good time with us which put us at ease and made it so much easier to chat.

She said at the end that we are very wise parents for our young age (complimentary in so many ways). We said that we are always praying that God would make us wise in our parenting. It was wonderful to hear because most of the time we feel like we are total failures as parents. I guess it is like standardized testing for school. You don't know if you are doing well or not based on your own guesses on the matter.

We also learned that the highest number of missionaries leaving the field are families. It is the reason that they really want to make sure a family is right for the job. It does make sense as the position we originally applied for became open because the man currently doing it left when he got married.

She said that our rep would get back to us with an answer quickly (early next week) because they realize that this process has taken especially long for us. It has felt long, but has gone by quickly. We have been going through the application process for 6 months! It was nice to hear that they also think it has been drawn out and not just that we are impatient.

So, we still don't have an answer but have gotten some great affirmation. God answered our prayers of the Reach Global team continuing to be punctual in their communications even if the communications were not what we expected them to be.

We are looking forward to what God has planned for us this summer. It could be a very busy one. Over the past 6 months of application time we have had several people tell us that they believe our fundraising will take 6 months. If we get our approval right away next week that could mean leaving in November. That is by no means our goal, but it will be very exciting to see God put this all together and to see when exactly He has decided we should go.

Mission Interview

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for us this week.We went into our interview today with calm and peace. 3 hours on the phone is a very long time, but we filled the entire time.

The first 2.5 hours we discussed our entire lives. That includes our past and current sins/temptations, our marriage, our ministry work, and most importantly our walks with Christ. We did our best and with help from God Almighty, we didn't fumble over our words and were able to speak clearly and decisively.

In the last half hour we talked about what will be happening should we be green lighted and move ahead in this process, training, funds, timeline, ect. We found our chat during this time to be very optimistic. Our rep is planning on putting together our mission description and budget during the 2 weeks we will be waiting for our answer. Since mission description and budget are supposed to be the next step after we are approved, we are feeling pretty strongly that we will be approved. Until we get a definitive answer, we will continue life as usual.

Life as usual means taking the next 2 weeks to do major and deep spring cleaning. Our house needs it and it is great ground work for putting our house on the market this summer. I am going to enjoy the peace of these next 2 weeks. Should we be approved 2 weeks from now, we are going to have a lot to do!

A Video on Montreal

I found this video tonight featuring Jay, the Montreal lead. These are the people we would be working with and the place we would be living in if we do end up in Montreal. Take a look!
Jay and Kathy Pinney ministering in Montreal with ReachGlobal from Jay Pinney on Vimeo.

Mission Update

Sorry to keep all my Facebook friends on pins and needles all day! I know you have all been looking forward to this update. As it turns out, it is great that I waited because we just got off the phone with one of the Reps we are working with and we have even more to share now!

One thing is set and figured out now. That is a nice feeling! We will not be in the media producer position  This is not a let down in any way for us. This spot got us motivated to apply but was never the one thing we had our heart set on. We were also connected with 2 of the team leaders from Europe to find out about some other opportunities we asked about and others that may be available. That happened this afternoon and was exciting enough for one day...but then it got even more exciting.

We got a call from one of the leaders this evening. He shared 3 locations he thought would work well for us. Budapest, Montreal, and Lisbon. Canada was the one place he mentioned in his e-mail and it just made my heart jump to see it, which I did not expect it to do. I told Adam over the phone and he sounded thrilled. My Mom had a similar reaction. We shared this with the Rep and he told us that he had already mentioned us to the leaders in Montreal and they are very excited to talk to us. This is absolutely the first one we are going to check into. We would still be doing video and internet work most likely. We will be getting in contact with them soon to find out more about their actual needs and where we might fit into their ministry plans. We are just so excited after our chat! We will definitely be looking into the cities he mentioned tonight and seeing what they are like, as we were asked to do. I won't lie though, we are having a very strong leaning toward Canada right now.

Sunday's Comin'

This is a powerful video for your good Friday! See you Sunday!

Life in Christ

Today churches and people around the world are honoring Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. I thought it would be fitting to share what Christ means to us in the Morgan home. We have accepted Him as our savior. That means that we can join him one day in heaven. We put our faith and lives in his hands too. We have relinquished control of our lives to our Heavenly Father. You don't have to be a missionary to do this and you will be handsomely rewarded. I think many people are scared to do this. They might like the way things are and don't want them to change. Maybe they are scared of what could happen if they do. What ever the reason, it keeps people from accepting the truth of Christ. They are blinded by society's views of the world and harden their hearts to God. Our relationship with Christ means we can have a worry free life. Here is a short list of some of the things we do not worry about...

• Money - Any time we have had a financial need or struggle, God has provided for us. When I lost my job a few years back, God gave me a new one within the week in a bad economy. When we wanted to start tithing at church but didn't have the extra funds, Adam got a raise out of the blue that gave him the exact dollar amount he wanted to tithe each month. Are we worried about funds for mission trip? No! God has provided time and again and we have complete faith that he will bring us all we need...no worries.
• Safety - I could worry myself sick over our biking on busy streets to get to places such as the grocery store. I put it in God's way more capable hands instead. If the unfortunate happens I will know my fate and that it happened for an important reason. God uses tragedy to change peoples hearts too.
• Our marriage - Believe it or not, there was a time when we bickered like crazy. We can both be hot tempered from time to time and it was hard on our marriage. When we let Christ be the center of our marriage and began to following more biblical roles, our marriage flourished. I don't even remember the last time we had an actual argument. FYI, we made this marital change for the better long before we started attending church, for those of you that seem to think church "brainwashed" us.
• The Future - I don't know where we will be, or what we will be doing. I am excited to find out, but not worried in the least. It is in more capable hands than my own!

Life is wonderful in God's hands, so put your hand in His and let Him lead the way. You don't need to worry because God's got your back! He loves you and wants to take care of you. What is holding you back? Think about it and decide if it is really worth holding onto! I would love to hear about how God has worked in your life too. feel free to share in the comments below, anonymously if you like, so that we can all be blessed by your story!

Less and More

So many posts to write! Since missions updates are in slot #1 of the blog post priority list, I will start there. Tomorrow I will be sharing our Squinkies craft. Thursday I will share our 100th day of school. Friday will be a book review and giveaway. And ending the week with a post about Balloon Volleyball. Now that you know what to look forward to, let's get to the meat of the day...

We had a long chat on the phone today with our new Reach Global rep. He spent a large amount of time asking us questions to get to know us a little better. Then we got into missions talk. Somehow we now have less of an idea of what we are going to be doing but know more, in general. The missions team has found themselves in a unique position  They have several people who have applied for this one spot. This is very out of the ordinary for them. They normally get 1 applicant for each posting. Crazy, right?

At any rate, he wanted to know our thoughts on taking another post. We discussed where our gifts lie and locations we would and would not be interested in (NOT Africa, you're welcome mom!). He said he will be looking into other opportunities for us and was happy to hear that we are planning that this short term trip will be a launching point for long term.

Ultimately, we came away feeling that ReachGlobal is looking forward to having us on board. We may not end up in a media position but we will end up where God wants us to be. If we remember back to the beginning, this was not a job we initially planned to apply for. It did open the door for us to get started on our missions path though and that may be the purpose God had in mind.

Lots of Help

We have been working on our missions application forms for about 2 1/2 weeks now. The form that had given us the most difficult time was the Theological form. Thank goodness we have gotten so much help with them! First off, we have fantastic pastors who have given us resources to help us. Second, we prayed and waited patiently for the Spirit to help us put the words to paper. Third, was our past studies. In all the places we needed a verse reference but there weren't any suggestions we wanted to use in the books, we were able to draw from our past bible studies and our Sunday school classes. It has been incredible to use what we have learned over the last few years for something other than personal growth. I guess you just never know when you will get to take your knowledge out for a spin.

Our Theo forms are coming along. We are taking our time and the second drafts are far better than the first rough, very rough, drafts. We were hoping to get the remaining forms in by the end of the week, but now I will be happy if it is by the next. I never thought they would be so time consuming or difficult to fill out. We will keep plugging away at them and hopefully we will have all our applications in (including the demo reel) by the end of March. As long as we keep working on them and making progress, I will be happy!

Dream Prayers

Last spring I was doing a bible study with some wonderful ladies from church. We were discussing that when you are awake in the middle of the night it is a perfect time to pray for whoever or what ever is on your mind. Of course, I have been praying that way ever since. I don't normally get the chance because I have been blessed with night long sleep. Last week I was awake at about 3am several nights in a row. The last night I did not wake up, but I still prayed.

I had a dream that there was glowing script written on the air (think Star Wars holograms). I was scanning this list of names and prayed for 2 of them. I have no idea who these people were. I could barely pronounce their names. I guess it was incredibly important that these people be prayed for for the Holy Spirit to make it happen in this way. Whoever they were, I am glad someone was looking over them that night!

Humbling to Say the Least

Some accurate, but not to be used, slogans for becoming a missionary...

Relive every dark moment from your past - fill out a missions app!

Put your doctrinal and biblical knowledge to the test - fill out a missions app!

Seriously though, it has been a very humbling experience thus far. I don't think anything could make me feel less adequate as a spokeswoman for Christ than these applications. I thought waiting to get them was hard. Turns out that was a piece of cake! I don't think I ever claimed to know it all when it comes to, well, anything to be frank, but I am starting to really feel just how much I really don't know.

There are 2 things holding me through this application process...well, 2 things that are not God. First are all the encouragement and prayers from our family and friends. Second is this post on the ReachGlobal Facebook page, "Jesus entrusted the leadership of that which he died for to non-professionals after just 3 years with them. And you're dragging your heels?" It is so true! I am doing my best to remember that God doesn't need me to be an expert, he needs me to be willing. That, I can do!

Being Wrong

Love this song! It is like the author of this song was reading our minds or something. It perfectly describes how we have been feeling the last few years. I chose to share the version showing lyrics so you all can read what it says and not miss a word.

I'm alright being wrong, are you?

Moving Forward

After 4 long weeks of complete stand still, we are finally moving forward in the missions process! It is so exciting, but makes me a little nervous too. Not doing anything for so long kind of makes you comfortable.

The main issue holding us back was location. After a meeting they were able to have on Monday, this was resolved...in a way. They are planning on placing a 3rd team in Europe and the Media Producer position (the one we are applying for) would be part of that team. Amsterdam is high on the list of locations, but the actual location has not been finalized yet. So, the question was, "Will you be okay with going forward and not knowing where you will actually be going?" We said yes and that we feel called to use our skills, not called to a particular location.

Next we talked a bit about the position. Before filling out the application to be missionaries with Reach Global we have to fill out a questionnaire for the particular position and make up a demo reel. For those who don't know what that is, a demo reel is a DVD that showcases our video/editing abilities. This is a special step for this position. She also told us that there are other people that have applied for this same position. She wanted to clarify that this will not be a competition. We let her know that we would be more than willing to take a different position should we not be chosen for this one. This is how we ended, for the last time, with our rep yesterday.

Today she sent me the questionnaire. She also introduced us to our new rep, in the short term department. That was all I was expecting, questionnaire - check...new rep - check. We got an extra surprise though! Since we have expressed an interest in doing missions in general and are not necessarily dependent on the Media Producer position, she is also hooking us up with a rep from the engage team who will be sending out our application pack! This is awesome because we weren't planning on filling that out for at least a month, when we plan to have our demo reel sent in. I am all smiles and excitement today! I was happy to just take another baby step, but here we are taking leaps and bounds. We will be busy at work on our forms the next few weeks and happy to do so!

I almost forgot! We were brainstorming video ideas for our reel and we were informed of a need in our church for a very particular video that will be a prefect fit for our reel. I love how God provides everything you need.

You are Called

Since "coming out" about our missions aspirations I have had several people tell me that they have always felt called to missions but their spouse isn't. I have got a great book for all of you to sink your teeth into! It is called Godspeed: Making Christ's Mission Your Own by Britt Merrick.

This is a great starting point for missions activities. The whole point of the book is that we are all meant to be "on mission". What we all tend to forget is that God has purposely put us where we currently are. That doesn't mean we won't eventually be called to the far reaches of the earth. It does mean that each of us has a mission purpose where we currently are. It is worth a read. We started it before we started setting things up for our own mission trip and it really opened our eyes to our purpose in little SE Minnesota. 

It is available on the kindle, in hard cover, or soft cover on amazon, or check your local library/bookstore!

Small Strides

You get 2 posts from me today because after nearly 3 weeks of waiting I got an update from our Reach Global Rep! I know that some of you are just as excited to find out something new as I am. It is pretty small though. I just feel good knowing that small steps are still being taken.

Our rep discussed the change to short term with her team...today. Apparently she has a very full plate and hasn't been able to till today. That is good though. It means lots of people are ready to accept Christ's call to action! They still need to talk to the people who are in charge of the Amsterdam location. There is currently no team there and Reach Global doesn't normally place people in a location with no team. So they have to find out what the plans for Amsterdam, and our position, are before getting us into the thick of it all.

In the mean time, I have been through my medical exams (got the paperwork on that early) and we will set up Adam and Little Guy for theirs later this week. That should be lots of fun...a 5 year old taking blood and urine tests. I guess this is where they start weeding out those who are not truly committed. We also need to get in touch with our church and make sure they know what is going on and the plans ahead.

So, we will get back into patience mode. God knows when the time is for us to go. We just have to follow Him faithfully. Thank goodness Adam and I both have faith as our strongest spiritual gift. It is the one gift that has never changed.

Switching It Up

We had our phone call last night, so it is time for another missions update! The big question was, do we want to do a short term mission trip first? The answer is, YES!

This changes the look of our year by so much it would be scary if we didn't have complete faith in God. The short term process is much shorter and there is less funding to raise. So here is what our new outlook looks like:

Our rep will be getting with some other reps and supervisors to get a set idea of what we will be doing, where, and for how long (we are hoping to do 23 months). Till this is done, there is nothing for us to do but continue slimming down our house. 

Then we get our application package. Our rep said we could get it done in 2 weeks if we hunker down and focus on it. Then we send it in and it is reviewed and accepted based on our new reps work load. that could be 2 months or more.  

Next budgets and job descriptions are finalized and we go into the training/support raising phase.  

Then we leave. 

If it only takes 6 months to raise the funds, there is a good chance we will be saying Merry Christmas form The Netherlands this year. This is a huge change from the 1.5-3 years till we leave that we were anticipating with the long term trip timeline. There is a very possible potential that we will be leaving in 9 months. While it could take longer, I am planning for 9 so that we will be prepared for whatever may happen.

I will try to answer some of the questions we have been asked recently.

Q: What about the house and the dog?
A: We are not making any decisions on those till we hit the fundraising phase and we are locked into our trip. That being said, we will likely sell the house and poor Tucker will most likely need a new home.

Q: Are you crazy? Adam already has a good and reliable job!
A: We are going to be working for God! You can't get a better, more caring, and rliable boss than that. Fith has always been our #1 spiritual gift and we intend to fully use it in this. We are going all in with God and couldn't feel more comfortable with doing it.

Q: What is happening with all your stuff?
A: Most of it will be sold, donated, or given away. The big stuff we will worry about when we are locked in, like the house. We will store a very, and I mean VERY, small selection of things with family.

Q: What are you going to bring?
A: Clothing, a small selection of homeschool materials, bibles, Kindles, studio equipment, and a very small selection of personal items. We fully intend to start from the beginning when we get there.

Q: What does Little Guy think of all this?
A: He is really excited! He can't wait to be a short term missionary. Just the title makes him feel better. Long term sounds like forever, and short term sounds short. He has decided that he can handle a short term trip, even to say good-bye to the house and Tucker.

Our little house is all a-buzz about this exciting new turn around. We are all on board and planning for the future. We will be doubling our efforts to unload stuff and clean things out. It is also time to let our vollunteer activities know what is coming up, so they can prepare too. Mostly, we are just praying for wisdom and strength during this enormously changing time in our lives.

Curve Ball

All week we have been patiently awaiting the next e-mail from our Reach Global rep, the next step of our adventure waiting inside. Of course, we never should have thought that God would place us on a straight and narrow, predictable path. Silly us! What were we thinking?

We did in fact get a message today, but it was not even in the ball park of what we were expecting. It was sort of a three-parter. First on the list was the news about homeschooling in Germany, it is illegal  We originally were leaning more toward the Berlin location because it would be stationary, lower key, and we would stay a little closer to our comfort zone. Plus we would likely be able to keep our dog. After our first chat with the rep, Amsterdam started to grow on us, to the point that I don't think we were even considering Berlin any more. Clearly, God knew this news was coming and prepared us for it in advance.

Part 2 is where our plan for the year, our comfy, cozy, we have a good feel for what our year looks like plan, comes into question. Would we be interested in doing a short term trip first and then going long term? About a hundred questions popped into my mind instantly. I took a look at the timeline for short term and it is less involved, by a lot. We are open to making the change, but we will have to ask a lot of questions about time frames and the like. We could end up leaving way sooner than currently anticipated. I don't have anything to base this on, but it is possible that the missionaries in Europe would like to have someone fill the spot sooner and perhaps starting out with a short term trip would help with that. If there is one thing I do know, It's that I am going to hold on to Jesus' hand through this as he guides me along the path. At least He knows where he is going!

Number 3, not such a big deal, is if we have done or heard of Perspectives. We have not, but if you have any idea of what this is, please share!

We will hopefully be chatting with our rep again next week. In the mean time we have a lot of talking and praying to do. We are getting our list of questions started tonight and will be adding to it frequently till our call, I'm sure.

Our Phone Call

Wow! It was actually about 45 minutes instead of the 1 hour we were prepared for. It is probably because the only 2 questions we had will be answered by other people farther down the line. If everything goes smoothly and according to plan, our whole year is basically planned out now. It is very nice to have any idea what that plan is too. Here is a rough outline of what will be happening in our year...

January-April
We will be filling out forms galore. We will be meeting with doctors and phsychologists as well. All of this is due by April 15th. This way we have plenty of time to get it all in and filled out.

May
By May 1st we will have an invitation to go to the interviews, if we are going to get one.

June
At the beginning will be the interviews in the middle will be the acceptance, should we be accepted.

July
We will be preparing for a training week.

August 
A week of various training

After all that is accomplished we will be taking a vision trip in which we would visit each location we are considering (at the moment that would be Amsterdam and Berlin). This gives us a chance to see the area and meet the people we would be working with so we can make an educated desision of where we will fit best.

Then there is more training and fundraising starts. Whew! It is going to be some year! We are just bursting with excitement though! I will keep everyone updated on our journey to becoming missionaries. If it helps just one person to be more comfortable with taking a leap of faith and becoming a missionary, I will be happy.

Art, School, and the End of the Year

 We have been having a blast doing lots of pintrest inspired artwork this month! I even got Little Guy to let me paint his hand, a big step for a kiddo that doesn't like anything messy. We have been off of school for the entire month and it is going well. I continued to write down anything "school" related we did over our break, and if you look at the list it hardly looks like a break at all.

We have done many art projects, advent devotionals, read tons of books, and Jayne even read a few stories to me to keep up on practice. We also did some research on goblin sharks after reading about them in one of his picture books. You can see our favorite goblin shark video below.

It is only a few days till Christmas and it has been a huge month for us! Honestly, it has kind of felt like some sort of crazy dream between good news, bad news, and just good old fashioned fun. This year is certainly going out with a bang. The biggest event for us is our upcoming missionary activities, which I am sure will be keeping us quite busy in the coming year. Right now it hasn't exactly sunk in yet. I am still cleaning and cooking and doing all my normal everyday activities. For now I have to focus on those till we get the date of training, because if I don't I will wile away the hours wondering and waiting. We have had a few people ask us about details of the future and we really don't have the answers right now. God will provide a way, support us, and sustain us. He has our faith 100%