Trust in the Lord.

"Dot your leader night" at AWANA.
Every time a child said a bible verse, they put a dot on us!

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 has not always been an easy verse for me to swallow. I tend to think my way is the best way; I like to be in control and I like to have a solid plan.. After all, I am so wise and full of infinite knowledge. The truth is that I don’t like to make mistakes, but who does? And no matter how hard I try, I will still end up making quite a few… I will let people down, I will say mean things, and I will make bad choices. If I did not make mistakes; if I was always put together and perfect, Christ coming to die for my sins would be pointless. Traveling across the world to share the Gospel with military children would be meaningless. And that is surely not the case. Because Jesus Christ did indeed die for me and everyone else for that matter, my life has purpose, Matthew’s life has purpose, we all have a purpose.

           

Matthew leading Large Group

There have been times on our journey of support raising where I wonder if our full support will come in and where it will all come from, if we will ever have the opportunity to minister to military children or if we will be “stuck” in Virginia for the remainder of our lives. When those thoughts begin to creep in, I am taken to the very words spoken by God, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). God did not promise to give Matthew and I an easy, happy-go-lucky road/life. God promised that His way will not harm us and that His way will cause us to depend on Him. It is in this dependence we will learn to trust Him fully. In this life, we will have smooth travels, ride on bumpy roads, get stuck in traffic and maybe even have a little road rage. But one thing is for sure, if we trust in the Lord, He will make our paths straight. And this path will one day lead to military ministry.

            As Matthew and I continue to rely on the Lord and watch as His plan unfolds, we will continue

serving in our church. On the Sundays Matthew and I don’t lead a small group, Matthew has been helping co-lead large group and I have started to learn more of the “ins and outs” in leading children’s ministry. We have had an amazing opportunity to connect with a church body that has encouraged us, strengthened us and taught us so much! It will be hard to say goodbye when we head to the field, but we know we will always have a home here in Virginia.
            Matthew and I have big hopes to have 100% of our support by the end of next month (January 2014). As of right now, Matthew and I have 14 people who are giving to us on a monthly basis, which is averaging 25% of our monthly goal. We would love to have 72 more people pledge $75/month or 54 people pledge $100/month. Join us as we pray for God to send more people our way! Maybe you are one of them!!

The Auto-B-Good Event

A few weeks ago Matthew and I helped one of our friends, Susan, with a super fun children's event, The Auto-B-Good Event. I previously saw an idea similar to it on Pintrest and wanted to host the event for our future ministry, so getting to help first hand was great experience!
Auto-B-Good is an animated series for kids to learn character lessons!  For the event, each child started out with a normal cardboard box. By the end, they all had awesome cars to watch the Auto-B-Good TV show in!!

In order to make their cars, there were five different stations (Pit Stops)! Each Pit Stop was designed for the kids to add something new to their car. After they completed each Pit Stop, they were given a bible verse bumper sticker that corresponded with the new accessory.

Pit Stop #1

Pit Stop #2

At the first Pit Stop, the kids decided what color(s) they wanted for their cars! They were able to wrap their cars in gift wrap, add fun sticks, paint.. they were able to be as creative as they wanted!! The verse for this station was 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

I helped with Pit Stop #2, where the kids received their steering wheels (red paper plates)! The bumper sticker here was Psalm 23:3, "He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name sake."

Pit Stop #3

Matthew was at Pit Stop #3, this is where the kids received their wheels (black paper plates)!! After putting on all four wheels, Matthew gave them the bumper sticker with Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Pit Stop #3

After leaving Matthew's Pit Stop, the kids got their headlights (yellow paper cups)!! At that Pit Stop, the kids were actually given TWO bumper stickers! One with John 8:12, "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And Matthew 5:16, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

The final Pit Stop was where the kids received their license plates!! The kids put their names on their license plates and then fastened them to their cars! Then they were given their final bumper sticker with Isaiah 43:1 on it, "I have called you by your name; You are Mine."

After completing their cars, the kids were able to have a "drive-in movie" experience!! As they watched Auto-B-Good, the parents brought around some snacks and let the kids enjoy food and the movie!

It was a fun time had by all and we were soo excited to help out and gather ideas for our future ministry!

Wanna Help?

If you are looking for a way(s) to help, we have three main areas you are able to help in. We have a prayer team, a financial team and an outreach team. Each team plays an important role in the ministry and is important to Matthew and myself. You get the opportunity to join in this ministry by joining one or more of the following teams! Matthew and I would be so blessed for you to join any of these teams! Yippee!

The Prayer Team: is committed to praying for us, the ministry and families of our military. Matthew and I need consistent prayer for our relationship to grow and deepen as we start this new journey. Pray also that we would trust God and His provision in this current faith building season. Pray that God would continue giving us dreams and a vision for the future children’s ministry. Our military families and military personnel  need your prayers as well. When military personnel are deployed, he/she leaves their families making the other spouse act a single parent. That spouse needs strength to balance the day-to-day “to-do” list as well as take care of the children. Our military personnel who are deployed need prayer just as much, they go through more than one could imagine while missing their friends, family and home life in the midst of it all. Once they return, it can be hard to adjust to “normal” life again. Some of our military personnel even struggle with connecting with their children.

The Financial Team: In order for us to officially get on the mission field, we need to raise our finances. We are required to raise $7,600 a month, which is a lot of money! We have to raise money to get us and our household items to Japan, to start up and run our ministry, for health insurance, a house/apartment, a car and everyday living. You are able to choose from different options within the financial team. You can choose to support us monthly, give us a one-time gift or “one-time” gifts periodically through the year. You may be happy to know because Cadence is a non-profit organization, your gift(s) are tax deductible. You can support us by using your debit/credit card, use an electronic funds transfer (EFT) or by writing a check. To invest using your debit/credit card or to set up an EFT, you can visit the Cadence International website, also found on a separate tab at the top of our blog. You can also look in the right column of our blog and click the link under “investing.” If you choose to write a check, you will need to make it out to “Cadence International” not to Matthew or myself. To have the check go to us, write our account number, which is 10790, in the “for” section of your check.

The Outreach Team: The outreach team involves people who desire to help us get our name known to the public! You can share our blog via Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Email, word of mouth or all of the above! We have “share” buttons that allow you to share with social networks easily. We also encourage you to share our ministry with your church; see if your church is willing to let us come share our hearts, lives and vision!

In the future, we look forward to having people join us on the field! We hope that you will come join us for a week or two and serve the kids with us! More on this will come once we have officially made it to the field! =)


**If you make the decision to join any of the three teams above, please let us know. We love knowing who is supporting and investing in this awesome ministry! We would also like to personally thank you for jumping on board and impacting lives alongside of us! =)