This is the outreach report from our missions trip to Clermont-Ferrand, France. The pictures and quotes are from our team- including us! You may have to click on the image of the page to see it more clearly.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
We're Headed to France!
It's very surreal to announce that we'll be leaving for France one week from today! God has been so good to us. We have raised $10,000 in a few short months, gotten our passports, booked our flights, hotels, and trains. So many people contributed to this miracle, and we are grateful beyond words!
We'll have three days in Paris and the rest of the time we will be in Clermont-Ferrand. The last few weeks we've been reading travel books, devotionals, studying French and trying to keep it all in perspective. We don't just want this to be a great vacation, or to get lost in a whirlwind of events. We desperately want God to move in our hearts- in us, our kids, and in the people of France.
Please pray for us over the next few weeks- for protection, for all the details to come together, and especially that God would do an amazing work in and through us (and in spite of us!). We are so excited to watch this journey unfold before us, and we can't wait to see what God has in store!
On top of the Eiffel Tower in 1996, my first trip to France
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Update: Final Push!
Bonjour!
We wanted to let everyone know where we stand right now:
1. We have 87% of our budget so far. This leaves us $1290 left to raise in 2 weeks!
2. We leave in a little over 2 weeks! (July 18th)
3. We are really excited!
It seems like all we can do and think about right now is this trip to France. We have been in communication with our team there and with the family we will be staying with. We even have a list of worship songs in French to practice! For some more details, visit our website: www.liveconnectgrow.com.
This past week has been a real roller coaster ride. We have both felt very heavy at times and random problems seem to arise- like one of the windows on our truck shattering, our dryer going out, and the couple who hosted our party on Saturday was in a serious car accident on Friday.
Yet despite all of these efforts to distract and defeat us, we can feel our faith and our intimacy with God growing. I love seeing the amazement in our kids' eyes as they hear about God's miraculous provision day by day. They pray with such simple faith and sincerity for courage to share the Gospel with the children in France. And their child-like faith is a great reminder to us that our heavenly Father has not brought us this far to leave us undone.
Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to embark on this adventure that He has laid out before us. We ask you to specifically pray for:
* Our hearts and minds to be prepared to minister, and for the people we will be ministering to
* Unity with our entire team (we'll meet for the first time in Clermont-Ferrand)
* ALL of the logistical details to come together- hotels, trains, misc. things that we will probably forget :)
*Opportunities for our kids to see how God wants to use them in a real way
* The rest of the financial support that we need for the trip to come in
For those of you that have given, thank you!!! For those of you that still want to give, now is the time to be part of our miracle! As God keeps reminding me, "Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it" (Heb. 11:1). Thank you for partnering with us in prayer and support!
Much love,
Ted, Michelle, Emily, Daniel, Timothy & Judah
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
France 2012: Daniel's Promo & Update!
With less than one month before we leave for France, there is so much going on!
1) We have raised 45% of our total budget!
2) We have a (semi) active website that you should totally check out if you haven't already! You can see our upcoming House Show dates, videos from the kids about our trip, and weekly postings about our progress: www.liveconnectgrow.com
3) I've been busy creating some art pieces and jewelry to sell. I'll post them on my Etsy site as soon as they're ready. All proceeds from my Etsy shop will go towards our missions trip, so check it out!
4) We now have two ways to make a donation- through the Paypal button on this site, or for a tax-deductible donation, send checks to: Emmaus Church 316 South Goliad #207 Rockwall, TX 75087.
Now, enjoy our sweet Daniel's video:
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Overflowing
***Update: Wow! Thanks to some amazing people, we are now at 40% of our budget for our family missions trip! We currently have enough to buy 2 tickets to France, so we still need to raise enough to buy the other 3 tickets. But God has shown His faithfulness and people have shown their generosity over and over, so I have full confidence that He will provide all that we need!***
I wanted to share something God spoke to me a few days ago. I was reading in John chapter 2 about Jesus' first miracle- water into wine. His family was at a wedding and suddenly there was no more wine for the celebration. Jesus asked some servants to fill six huge jars to the brim full of water. And when the master of ceremonies tasted it, he was shocked to discover the groom's family had "saved the best" for last.
Then I read the short devotional in my Bible on the next page. It asked a simple question- What do you want from Jesus? If He stood before me and asked, what would I say? After some reflection, I realized my answer would be "more of You." I have pain that needs healing, faults that need fixing in me, dreams that I want to see fulfilled. But more than any of those things, I realize what I need is more of Jesus. I want Him to fill me to overflowing. Then, nothing else will matter, and everything else will fall into place- healing, transformation, fulfillment. Yes, I want God to fill me to overflowing with more of Him.
Then I read my devotional in Streams in the Desert: "Each of these is God's way of providing vessels for the Holy Spirit to fill... the Lord is saying to you, 'Bring them here to me.' Firmly hold the vessels before Him, in faith and in prayer. Remain still before Him and stop your restless working until He begins to work... Allow God time to work and He surely will. Then... will become God's opportunity to reveal His grace and glory in your life, in ways you have never known before" (Streams, 211).
In John 2:11, I had underlined this- "He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him." Jesus' first miracle, turning the jars of water into wine, caused the disciples to believe in Him. So I felt like God was saying to me, to bring my empty jars, filled with ordinary stuff, or even pain and longing, and He would do a miracle- He would fill me to overflowing with Himself. So that it would reveal His glory and I would put my faith in Him and believe.
"What a source- God!... It is your heavenly privilege to trust all your needs to His glorious riches, to forget all your needs in the presence of His riches, in His great love... Go in and draw upon Him in simple childlike faith and you will never again have the need to rely on anything else" (Streams, 210). Just like the woman at the well, I can draw on God's supply of living water from the vessels He has filled within me. And I pray that God's glory would be revealed in my life and that many would believe in Him!
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