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Update

Just a quick update to keep my readers coming back (sorry, no rants this time):

I was sounding very discouraged about the status of my fundraising last time, but I neglected to mention that my church has been really fabulous -- overwhelmingly supportive. They have set a goal to raise a substantial amount and are currently about halfway to reaching it. So I do have faith that it will all work out. (However, if you have intentions to give any funds, please send your pledge forms to World Team sooner rather than later so they can release me to actually leave when I'm supposed to on August 1.)

Not only are they supportive financially, but they've been really supportive with logistics as well. I guess it comes from half the church being former missionaries -- they know what it's like out on the field and want to provide as much encouragement and support as they can. They've formed a support team for me consisting of a team leader or coach, a logistics person, a fundraising coordinator, a communications coordinator and a re-entry coach. They're also running a Sunday School series based on the book Serving as Senders by Neal Pirolo in which they discuss aspects of the church's role in missions from discerning a call and commissioning workers, through logistics like fundraising, health insurance and power of attorney, to communicating while out in the field and re-entry support upon return.

It's quite overwhelming and I think "I really don't deserve this; I haven't earned this level of effort they're putting in for my sake." But that's what God's love is all about, isn't it? We don't deserve it; we could never earn it; it's a gift, freely given. So thank you, people of Crossroads, for modelling Christ-like-ness for me.

One last thing: please pray for Dan and Lisa as they've been in limbo for months now waiting for Joshua's (a Cameroonian boy they're adopting) citizenship papers to be processed. Pray that they will not become discouraged as their furlough is consumed with all the hurry-up-and-wait of dealing with bureaucracy. Pray that Joshua's paperwork will be processed as soon as possible and that appointments with immigration officers will happen in a timely fashion.

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