How Do You Discern God’s Will?
The last couple of months have been full of prayer and soul searching. When we wrote our last newsletter, we believed that the Lord was directing us to go to language school next year. We thought that it made sense to leave Togo while there were fewer families in Mango (due to multiple overlapping furloughs and other transitions). We had begun researching our options and were leaning toward attending Parole de Vie Québec. It was exciting and frightening to think about yet another transition. But over the course of the last several weeks, we have decided that maybe this isn’t the best time to leave Mango after all. While it is still true that the number of students at the MK school will drastically decrease next year, there will still be children at almost every grade level. (Our dear colleague, Amanda Bressler, was going to try to oversee students in 1st through 8th grade all on her own!) We have also come to realize that the families that will remain in Mango next year will need the MK support more than ever as they will be stretched to their limit with the ministry demands of a short-staffed team. So, after earnestly asking God to direct our steps, we have presented a proposal to the team in Mango which states that we would like to stay here for the next two years and then attend language school after Valerie graduates from high school. At the end of this month, the team will vote on this proposal. Would you pray with us regarding this decision?
With the decision to transition to long-term status with ABWE comes several new responsibilities. We will go through a more extensive application process, receive more in-depth training, complete a doctrinal exam, and need to raise additional support to cover retirement contributions and other new budget line items (such as furlough funds, language school costs, etc.). We are in the first phases of this process and trust that God will continue to faithfully provide. Another thing that we will need going forward is a more suitable car. Our little Russian Lada has been a great car for bumping over the dirt roads in Mango, but we need a more reliable car to make the occasional trips to bigger towns to purchase supplies and do paperwork. Some of our colleagues are selling their used Toyota Hilux and we would like to purchase it this spring. (Total cost is $11,000)
As most of you know, we were able to have Sierra and Ally here with us for almost three weeks during their Christmas break. It was a wonderful time for our family! Sierra is making plans to do an internship at ABWE headquarters next summer in order to fulfill some of her degree requirements at The Master’s University. Ally will be starting her first set of clinical rotations for Nursing School this semester at Cedarville University. God has been so gracious in taking care of our daughters while they are so far away from us.
Praying that we will all discern God’s will and obey it joyfully in 2025!