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.
Showing posts with label preparation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparation. Show all posts
Friday, June 21, 2013
Friday, January 18, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, January 04, 2013
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.
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.
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