Five Reasons to Stay and Three to leave

As we continue to seek the Lord’s guidance for our lives we desire to know that we are being obedient to His will for our lives.  We have been asked and given an opportunity to leave the field in a good way which at other times is only accomplished by dying, getting severely ill or after serving for a looong time on the field.  We have prayed and will continue to pray to make sure that we are stepping in line with the Master’s will but feel very confident that we are supposed to stay here in Madagascar and continue to build His Kingdom here in Madagascar.  With that said we wanted to give you a few reasons why we will not be moving back to the USA at this time and a few reasons why we would.  This will hopefully help you know our hearts and how to pray for us.

Why we will stay in Madagascar:

·         God’s Call on our lives:  We feel very deeply that this is the place that the Lord has for us to serve Him.  We will serve Him no matter where we live but we truly feel like He has asked us to continue to serve to the ends of the earth. 

·         The Task isn’t Finished:  Despite seeing the Lord do great things we have in no way even began to even get close to our exit strategy timeline.  There is a lot of work to still accomplish for His namesake and we have committed our service for as long as it takes.

·         Other Depend on us:  We have current and new personnel that depend on us and the work that we do.  At the very least our presence.  If we were to leave we would be doing a disservice to them and what they have signed up for.  The timeline given to us just wouldn’t work well with those here and those coming.  Our choices have a direct effect on what others decide to do.

·         Silence- The fact that many have never heard continues to compel us to go to the ends of the earth (Literally).  Many haven’t had the opportunity to hear and we hope they all have a chance to hear.  We also have a growing harvest of believers that are being trained and willing to go.  They need to be trained and equipped and if we were to leave it would hinder the silence being shattered in the South of Madagascar.

·         High School- Phoebe and Emma are in High school and though it is boarding school and we don’t enjoy being apart from them, they simply love their school and would prefer to graduate from there.  Not as spiritual as the other reasons but very important to us.  Moving during high school can be harsh and we don’t know how many times we would have to move in the States before we would be settled.  It would ask a lot of them.

Why we would leave the Field

·        Health-  The older we get the more health issues we find.  We also are putting our bodies through a beating every time we go out and to be honest we are simply exhausted and need some refreshing so we can feel healthy again.  Unfortunately we just don’t have a lot of time for that and most or our get away’s involve meetings which contrary to popular opinion are not refreshing.

·        Family-  We absolutely miss our family!  We love them so much and think about them all the time.  Knowing that we are missing so many events that they live through and we will never have the opportunity to love on our nephews and nieces while they are youngsters and see all of our families kids grow up together bothers us and we would love to be there for them all.  Also, our parents are doing well but we would sure love to help them out and just spend time with them if we could.

·        The Future of the IMB and what the future of an IMB missionary will look like:  We love the IMB and truly believe that it is the best missions sending organization out there.  However, with all of the changes taking place and the re-definition of things we don’t desire to just become mobilizers for short term personnel.  Furthermore, the quality of people that will be coming may be changing and we will have to seek the Lord and His desires for where we would stay involved.

Honestly, the easy thing would be to go back home and find another route to stay involved with missions.  However, the Lord has continually reminded us that this is His plan for our lives and He is constantly guiding and directing us in the ways in which we should go.  So we set personal preferences aside and just let Him know that all we have and all we are is His

Finally, thank you for your prayers and support.  The Lord has used so many of you to remind us of His plans for our lives and that we aren’t alone.   

Praises:

• Colten and Dylan have made it to Mada and ready to serve their Hands On term

• We have seen and heard good reports of our national partners going out and shattering the silence to new places

• We had safe travel to our meeting

• Phoebe and Emma are doing well at RVA, Baylee is doing great in school and River is growing up into a big boy.

Prayer Request:

• For the business of the next month and a half

• For our SoMad team to stay focused on His plans and His desires

• For the Minton’s as they go on STAS

• The drought in Androy land.  Hundreds of thousands being affected.

 Time in Ambovombe

 Suzie's Bday cake thanks to Angela N.

 Lunch in Toliara

 Bday Gift

TEE Final Exams