Sadly
we are sharing with you, our supporters, that we feel it is not in
God’s will & timing that we go to the foreign mission field as a
family in the near future. As missionaries we willingly agreed to a
financial policy which in a nutshell reads “We make no appeals for
funds.” We’ve never made our need a focal point of our ministry
presentations because we believe that God will move upon hearts to
support us independent of our asking. In light of this, we must admit
that since He hasn’t so moved over the course of six years, it appears
not to be in His will that we should go right now.
We are not
quite ready to decide upon meaningful next steps, but we intend to stay
as involved with TACO as we have been. We will talk to leadership at
our missions agency in the next few weeks about what our technical relationship with them will be; but they will remain in our affections!
We know that missions is a good thing and that TACO is a good thing.
We even believe that we are a good thing; as much as any person is any
good before God; our marriage is good, kids are good, and our
relationship with our church is good. All of these things are very
good. It a mystery to us that these things don't come together in the
way that we had hoped. But after six years, and especially this past
summer of working ardently to raise support to go to the field where we
felt we could best use our gifts and talents, we find ourselves no
closer. In addition, the nomadic and flexible lifestyle we have lived
has begun to wear on us. Our savings safety net is dangerously
depleted. Our children have sacrificed friendships as well as material
needs and wants. We, Todd and Tricia, separately found ourselves ready
to find regular employment for some time.
Although we don’t regret
the choices we made over the last few years, we feel grief over the
loss, at least temporarily, of this dream, which have nurtured since
before we were married.
If you have given to us financially we are
so grateful for your support and encouragement. Thank you for
investing in this ministry! You have been a great blessing to us with
your prayers as well. We hope that you will continue to support the
work as the Lord leads and as we are able to participate in events.
Please continue to be in prayer for our family as we reconsider and wait
for direction . We want to continue to honor God with the challenging
decisions we have to make.
