Growing Partners And A New Home Church

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Growing Partners And A New Home Church

The first month of the year has come and all but gone to a close, and much change has already taken place in both our lives and ministries. After returning home from Australia in November, we began to feel the Lord tugging on our hearts regarding our need for a new sending church. While we have no hard feelings in regards to our previous one, it was clear that the Lord was calling us to move in a different direction. So, after much prayer and discussion, we became members of Hale Baptist Church on January 1, 2023. 

Since then, we have had the opportunity to become involved with many of the ministries there, sharing a recap of our survey trip on the 18th, as well as becoming involved in the praise and worship team each Sunday we are able to be present. We also are blessed with the opportunity to begin a discipleship course with our pastor this upcoming Thursday, and could not be more excited about it. 

 As mentioned in our previous newsletter, January was set to be a very busy month for us, having many churches to visit in response to the conclusion of our recent survey trip. As of yesterday, our obligations for the month have all but come to a close, but our schedule for February has continued to grow, and we expect it to be just as busy.

Saturday, February 11th, we are scheduled for a missions night at House of Faith Church in East Tawas (our previous sending church). 
Sunday, February 12th, we are scheduled to share our ministry with the people of Harbor Church, also in East Tawas. 
And, February 15th, we are scheduled to do the same at Calvary Baptist Church in Gaylord, Michigan. 

Aside from that, we will be attending discipleship class at our home church every Thursday, which is set to begin this week. 

In conclusion, we do have a few praises we would like to share. 
  1. While we have not mentioned much about it, we have been sincerely struggling to get medical insurance ever since stepping down from our full-time positions in November. Trenton continued to work part time just to pay for the insurance we had, and had little left after the fact. We applied for Medicaid and got denied three times, but this Wednesday evening, we finally got an email saying we were approved. So, praise God for that blessing!
  2. We also praise God that yesterday, we had a meeting with E-free Church of Gaylord, MI. Though we unfortunately couldn’t be there in person due to the icy roads (Michigan….), they were gracious enough to still meet with us over zoom. The meeting went very well and we truly felt encouraged by their commitment and dedication, not only to God’s work on the field, but also to the missionaries serving on it. They have decided to become a part of our monthly support team starting this upcoming month. So, praise God for new partners and for a growing family in Christ!
In regards to prayer requests, please pray for the following: 
  1. For the churches/meetings we have this month. We are very much trying to make some headway on our monthly support as last year didn’t show much increase.
  2. For Hanna’s upcoming appointment at the University of Michigan. Her EOE is relatively under control, but the medicine she has to take to control it often makes her very sick. She is hoping to get the remaining surgeries at some point so she can stop taking it. 
  3. For God’s direction in regards to the ministries we should take on at our new sending church. It is very easy to put to much on your plate, so please pray that the Lord will convict us of those things He’d like us to be a part of. 
  4. And, for Australia and the missionaries that already serve there. It is a big job in a spiritually dying world to try to carry the Gospel to people who often don’t want to hear it. Pray for encouragement and for the Lord to continue working in the hearts of the Australian people. 
As always, we sincerely appreciate sharing in this journey with you. We appreciate your prayers and thank you for rejoicing with us in answered ones. There is a lot of uncertainty on per-field, and it can often be disheartening. But we are continuously reminded of how good God really is in comforting, guiding, and providing along the way.

”Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” - James 1:4
 
Trenton serving on the praise and worship team at our new sending church. It has been wonderful to see him blossom and use the gift God has given him. 
On January 22, 2023 we were able to have a wonderful time of fellowship with our very first supporting church. We were able to share a recap from our survey trip, and play some games thereafter. These people have been such a blessing to us, and we are truly thankful to call them family. 
Hanna has been working on a Christian fiction book since October of last year. She finished 14,200 words this month and is about halfway through the first draft. It is entitled “What I Call Home”, and she is hoping to have it done by July of this year. 

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