Happy Anniversary City Church!

Yesterday City Church celebrated their one year anniversary! One year ago This church was planted in the middle of Montreal. They are reaching out to their community and impacting them for Christ. We are so looking forward to joining them in Montreal and being a part of this budding church. You can learn more about City Church on their website. If you feel called to do so you can also send a donation if you scroll to the bottom of their site.

[caption id="attachment_1220" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The red dot is City Church.[/caption]

The Update That Took 7 Months to Write

Really, this is the update that took 7 months to happen. It all started with a crazy question to the Reach Global missions organization In mid-December...but you can check out all those updates in the Living Faith tab. Today we are starting with last night.

Adam and I headed to Apple Valley where we met the lead of the Montreal team. He was visiting MN to teach at a missions training week. It was wonderful getting to know him. We talked for 3 hours about so many subjects. We chatted a bit about our faith and what works we are currently doing for the Lord. There was a little bit of budget talk and he asked about our technology needs and apartment needs. He also gave us some wonderful advise about the work we have to do ahead.

In the end the important things we came away with were that he is very encouraged about the works that we are currently doing and feels that we will be a great fit in Montreal. That he wants us to come for 15 months instead of 12 so we can do language training for those additional months. The immersion training that he wants us to do would involve our living in someone else's home for 6 or so weeks. The people in this home would not speak any English and we would be learning in survival mode. It sounds quite intense, but God would not put us into something he did not think we could do and so, with Him, we will make it through. Plus he is planning to have the team up there really train us on being missionaries so we won't be tossed out to the sharks alone, thank God for that.

We also learned that not all missionaries have the gift of faith. The gift of faith is the highest gift for both Adam and I and I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go into missions without it. The lead got to see a glimpse of this faith in us and he was really amazed, so far as to say he could learn a lot from us (commence blushing).

It was after 11pm when we finally made it home and I always check my messages before bed. There was a pile of junk mail, the lead's e-mail to us and our rep detailing our night's conversation, and a surprise for the lead and us...

I am very pleased to let you know that we are accepting you for an 12-15 month term to serve with ReachGlobal in Montreal!

What an exciting way to end the night! Let's just say it was hard to get to sleep and poor Adam worked at 5am this morning.

It is time for the 2 of us to get to work as the ideal leave time for us would be April. There is a lot to pull together, letters to write, people to connect with, and everyday life needs to be in there too. We wanted to share all of this exciting news with all of you. You have been a fantastic support team so far and we look forward to having you all continue in this journey 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.

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.

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!

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!

Exciting News

Yesterday was an exciting day in the Morgan home! We have had missionary work on our minds for a while now but weren't sure about the next step we should take. Honestly  we were a little nervous about it because we felt like contacting anyone would mean leaving home and uprooting soon. Due to a quick e-mail with a few questions about how things work and about a certain missionary position, we got a call from Reach Global yesterday! Adam was on the phone with him for a long time, so I knew that it was going to result in something more than just answering a few questions. Here is what happened...

The rep felt like we would be a great fit as media producers! Either for a large portion of Europe with our home base in Amsterdam, or For the 20 missionary families working in Berlin. We sent in our preliminary forms and will be attending the next training seminar where we will learn more about being a missionary, what position we will work best with, and the fine art of raising funds. Once we start raising funds we are looking at 1-2 years before we would actually leave. That was comforting, since our biggest concern was that we may have to pack up and leave in a matter of months, which we are not quite ready for yet. 

Adam and I are very excited! Adam rarely gets excited and he is, so that is big! Little Guy is a little less excited. He doesn't want to leave his house. I expect our family and friends will have a varied mix of reactions. We would love for all of you to keep us in your prayers as we go through this whole process. It is a pretty big deal (which I realized when I saw the face of the first person I told) and very new, which makes it exciting but also a little scary. We trust the Lord to lead us in this though and so we can easily let go of the scary portion and just stick with excitement!

Testimony

Today we are going to take a short dive into the secret, literally known by only one person, world of me. This post started forming in my mind yesterday as our pastor gave us all a challenge to share our personal testimony with others. I admit it is something I had been thinking about for a while now, but now that I am home I really don't have a lot of face time with people. So here I am on my blog, sharing my heart. I really am an open book when it comes to my life. There are many people that know a lot more about me than you would expect just because they found the right questions. This post today is truly only known by one because, quite frankly, no one has ever asked. One thing to know before I start is that I am very shy. My family will admit that I was shy as a child, but I never grew out of it. I simply learned over the years how to make it look like I am not. So, this will be a tough topic to share. I will give it a shot anyway, here it goes...

My testimony starts when I was 16 and sitting in health class. Everyone else was snickering about sex ed and I was having an internal battle for my very life. It was the darkest most horrifying day of what had been a long depression and my brain was telling me there was only one way to make it stop. That is when Jesus entered my life and encouraged me to get help. I wrote a letter for the counselor because I knew there was no way I would be able to speak the words. My table buddy, who was also my next door neighbor, asked if it was for real because why wouldn't you read your neighbors letter, and I nodded. He said, "I thought you were just really quiet." There is a really quick life lesson for you...If someone is very quiet it could be that their mind is keeping them preoccupied.

I was able to get help. I even made the choice to go off the lovely pills they gave me because they said I could not be happy without them. I knew that with Christ's help I could. As it turns out it was a very good thing because I read in recent years that the drug I was given actually causes depression in teens, clearly I made the right choice. I began the road upward. I started learning how to be a different person, a stronger person and it set in motion the chain of events that led me to Adam. Adam quickly became my best friend and has always been someone I could confide in, even before we started dating. I knew that my life would not be the same without him .

Now I had the personal relationship with the Lord that we should all be lucky enough to have but I didn't have the support from a community. The church my family attended didn't talk about that kind of stuff and I certainly did not feel comfortable sharing. So, when we left home for college, We as in Adam and I because you would be hard pressed to find a time when we are apart if not for work (and that has a 12 year run), we did not find a church. We didn't get the point of it because it never felt sincere to us when we did go to one. We also did not read our packed away bibles because that wasn't something you did at our childhood church or in our homes. We did trust in God though.

We carried on that way till we had Jayne. We wanted him to have a community to grow in with other kids he could befriend. We thought it might be good to make some friends ourselves too, since we tend to keep to ourselves. We didn't quite know where to start and had had a poor experience with one church that we did try. Then Adam decided that we would attend Grace for 1 Sunday, after 2 years of prodding by one of Adam's co-workers, and we just never stopped going. We started attending in April and our family has become so much better since. We have had the chance to grow more in our faith and our understanding of the bible. Plus we are all meeting new people and Jayne has many kids his age to grow and learn with.

We can see the way that Christ has led us through our lives and it is quite amazing. It is such a comfort too. When I lost my job a few years back I was sad but I did not worry because I knew that the Lord would provide. He gives us all clear signs we only have to see them. Like when Adam Asked the Lord if we were ready for me to stay home and then the brakes went out on the car. If I don't have a car to drive, I can't work, pretty clear. And when it wasn't time for me to stop a year earlier the car was running on spirit power so I could get to work. Seriously, we took it in because it was acting up and the mechanic could not figure out how it had even turned on to get us there.

The best part for me is that I have not had a single issue with my depression since we started taking a more active role in our spiritual lives. I have come a long way since the doctor answered the phone in his office and asked if there was any hope, turned to me and said, that was your pshyc test result on the phone. I was told that it is just the way that my brain is wired and it wouldn't truely go away, just hibernate occasionally. It hasn't always been an easy path, but I am so very happy that the Lord has guided me along it. I wouldn't change a thing about the path I have taken, it hasn't always been good, but it has made me the person I am today. I can't wait to see what is on the road that lies ahead.