Dear Praying Friends,
August and September have been busy months of travel as we continue to present our ministry to churches in Michigan and the Midwest. We have experienced good fellowship with churches and individuals, who have hosted us and encouraged us along the way. In late August we took a week to visit with family and enjoy our grandchildren. This week we have just returned from a ten-day journey into Wisconsin and Iowa to present in churches there.
August 4th we flew to Houston, Texas to participate in Vacation Bible School at Good News Baptist Church of Katy. There were about 28 children who attended throughout the week, and many parents also accompanied them. Several new families were contacted throughout the week who are now being followed up by the Hawks.
In August, after prayerful consideration, we determined that as soon as we reached 95% of our needed support, we would begin preparations for our move to Katy. It was only two weeks after making that decision that we were notified of additional support pledges that brought us up to the 97% mark. To say the least, we are ecstatic! This has been a clear confirmation that God has given us the green light to make the move to Katy as soon as we can make the necessary preparations. We are still praying for the last few percentage points of needed support to come in, but we are shifting gears from deputation mode to moving mode, and then to ministry mode.
When we started our deputation travel in February, we had no idea how long it would take us to raise support. In seven months, we increased from 60% to over 95%. The speed with which we arrived at our current support level is evidence of God’s faithfulness and mercy to us. But we are not finished entirely with deputation travel. We have additional meetings planned over the next two months before we can settle into ministry at Good News Baptist Church. Please continue to pray for this upcoming travel—from Michigan to South Carolina, from South Carolina to California, and from California to Texas. This will take us through the end of November. You will find our itinerary listed at the end of this letter.
Here is our tentative plan for the move to Texas: We will arrive in Katy at the end of November to begin looking for a home to purchase. Lord willing, we hope to find a house and put it under contract by mid-December. We will then spend Christmas in South Carolina with our daughter and move our household goods from storage in South Carolina to Katy in early January.
Key prayer requests for you to bring to the Lord on our behalf include the following:
- Pray for our safety over many thousands of miles of car travel yet remaining to us over the next several months.
- Pray for God’s blessings on our missionary presentations in churches yet to come, and that God would send laborers into His harvest fields.
- Pray that we will be able to find a suitable and affordable home in our target area within the few weeks available for us to look for one during early December.
- Pray for our move to Katy in January (Lord willing) and all the details which that will involve.
- Begin praying in advance for a seamless transition to ministry in Katy at Good News Baptist Church with the Hawks.
In Christ,
