Kenya Vigil Vigil (Kenya Vehill Vijil): We're still here!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We're still here!

Nope, we haven't left yet. And I, for one, am actually glad that God knows best!! Some things have gone exceedingly well...

God has brought in all of our one-time needs and 33% of our monthly needs. AND He did it in -- get this -- the last 2 weeks of July! THANK YOU GOD!
My business closed and I got most everything done before leaving (can you ever get everything done?)
Jeff took the full-time job with Schwan's (thank you for your prayers on this decision) to compensate somewhat for my lack of income.
We decided upon COVA (Colorado Online Virtual Academy) as a homeschool alternative for Ashley while we remain here in the States.
We got our house cleaned and listed to sell. (The cleaning part was the hardest. Everything got moved/shoved into the garage, so now we're at the "Where's the...?" stage.)

I'm not really sure how I thought I'd be able to finish up work, get the house listed, clean/sell/move everything out, help with our church's VeBS (very exciting Bible school), and allow time for all of us to say goodbye to friends and family all before August 15th. Call it blind optimism...or just chalk it up to my ever-present over achiever mentality. Whatever it is, I ended up overcommitting and we're still here.

Did you read the blog about how God brings what you need when you need it? He has been so awesome to provide us the encouragement we needed to move forward and bring in the huge amount of support, but He knew way before I did that August 15th was a pretty aggressive deadline. So, now, the big question is, "What's your next departure date?" Hmmm. Dare I set another? :) Duh! OF COURSE I dare!

God's already shown us that he will take care of the funding side, and that He can do that pretty much overnight. Since He's doing that, I'm betting that the house sale and vehicle sale won't slow Him up too much either. So I'm pretty much thinking that the time frame will be based on how fast I move. I've had some offers for help, so adding in that factor and allowing for homeschool time, let's pray for a departure by ..... mid October! Will you pray with us?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Hi Julie - just checking up on you! You are in my thoughts and prayers! Sharon Younger; August 19, 2008 at 3:09 PM

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Prayer Requests

1. Pray that, despite the stressors of living in a completely different country, we are able to reflect Christ's love to all those around us.
2. Pray that the Lord will show us where we can be most effective for the Kingdom, that our ears are open to hear, and that our hearts are ready to obey with no hesitation.
3. Pray for Ashley to share God's love with students who don't know Him.
4. Pray for safety in travels as Jeff begins a 4-month travelling stint.
5. Pray that Julie learn the motivations behind the actions of those she works with, so she can effectively build a cohesive team.

Team Information

SIM is a faith-based organization. Simply put, that means that we need to raise our own funding for living in Africa and travelling to and fro. SIM has given us a budget that includes everything we’ll need to consider. This budget includes set up costs and monthly living expenses. We have been blessed to receive 100+% of our set up costs. We've also been so blessed to have received enough one-time donations to fulfill our financial requirements for our first two years here. However, our actual recurring monthly support is only at 54% of what's required. That means that after two years we won't be allowed to come back until our recurring monthly support is at 100%.

How can I help?

Great question!! You can join our team! There are lots of ways to become involved:

Prayer – We need a team of committed prayer warriors who will pray for our effectiveness in sharing the love of Christ to the Kenyans. Our specific prayer needs are listed in the prayer section above, but if you would like to “officially” be part of our prayer team, send me an email or just add a comment to any blog saying you’d like to be on the prayer team and we’ll make sure you are notified of all the current team needs!

Financially – Since the Lord has so faithfully brought in the funding to meet our one-time costs, our current financial need is in monthly partners. Our partners contribute $10 to $300 per month, so any amount helps. You can begin support now, or you can wait until we’ve been in the field for a bit. However, if you choose to wait, PLEASE tell us that’s what you intend. Faith promises count toward our goal of being 100% funded.

How much do you need?

Monthly, we need about $6,100. That may seem like a lot, but it includes everything you typically need to live here, plus additional amounts for insurance, taxes, visas, and travel expenses when we come back every two years to report on the work God is doing in Kenya. Below is a breakdown of where the money goes.

Donations are tax deductible and can be made online at http://www.sim.org/giveUSA/. Click on the “Give Now” link, then on Donate. Pick USA and fill in the blanks. If you would prefer to mail in a check, you can send it to

Attn: Receipting

SIM USA

P.O. Box 7900

Charlotte, NC 28241-7900

Our missionary information should be noted as “Vigil: 76374” in the memo line of your check or in the Missionary field online. Please designate your gift as “Support Account."

Whether you give online or mail in your gift, please, PLEASE, PLEASE let us know what your intentions are. We can’t tell from our monthly statements if your gifts are intended as one-time or as monthly and we need this information to determine if we’ll be able to stay in Kenya.

Thank you for coming with us on this AWESOME God Adventure!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We're still here!

1 comment:

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