I know… the title of today’s blog post is a little bit cryptic at first glance, but it’ll make sense less than 400 words from now.
15 weeks
It was roughly fifteen weeks ago that we held our first service, in McAdam NB, promoting, and seeking support for, our AIM term in France. Since then we’ve been in eleven churches throughout New Brunswick and Quebec, with both old friends and new, discussing what the LORD has put on our hearts for the next two years. Time has flown, our car has racked up a lot of kilometers and our kids have gotten a lot of experience doing homeschool in the car!
Although not all of our support has come in during those 15 weeks (some came before), a majority of it has. Here’s where we stand to date:
We are currently sitting at roughly 38% of our budget either given or committed to*.- 52% is from monthly partners.
- 48% is from one-time donations.
- The amount committed to-date is already the equivalent of 37 monthly $50-partners.
(The 38% assumes that current partners maintain their PIM commitment during our entire stay in France. It also includes a few individuals who have let us know that they will be partnering, but have not yet begun.)
Still… how does 32=38 ?
So in terms of my cryptic title… you’ve probably figured out that the 38 refers to the percentage of support that has already been committed… so what’s the 32 represent? “32” is the number of churches and individuals which, combined, have committed to 38% of our funding.
- 15 churches or individuals have committed to and/or
have already begun to give roughly $23,500 in monthly pledges and - 17 churches or individuals have committed to and/or
have already given roughly $21,600 in one-time donations.
Now you have it… 32 really does equal 38. It is not some kind of “new math”, rather it’s just a way of expressing how God is working through incredible men, women and churches to support very normal people who desire to do something for the Lord and ultimately for the people of France.
There are many families who are able to step out of their comfort zone and, by faith, involve themselves in another corner of God’s kingdom here in North America. In our case, God has equipped us both linguistically and culturally, and has been preparing us, in such a way that going to France presents relatively few obstacles. Not everyone can say that. We are simply taking what the Lord has done in us and giving it back to Him.
Looking Ahead
In order to ensure that we leave with the promise of full support, we still need the equivalent of 65 more $50/month partners willing to support us for the entire duration of our appointment. Of course some of that number will be off-set by other churches or individuals who will (a) give more than $50/month and (b) prefer to give one-time offerings; as can be seen by the 48% above, one-time donations make a huge difference and we are grateful for both.
This Weekend
As you read this post, we are preparing to minister in three Prince Edward Island churches tomorrow. We look forward to discovering this part of the Atlantic District, with Pastors Donald Hood (Charlottetown) and Troy Wickett (Summerside / Alberton). We’re thankful for the opportunity to be there and will tell you more about it in next Wednesday’s post.
Until then… God bless you today!
Thank you for your interest… let this info feed your prayers for us!
For anyone not familiar with the Miramichi River, it flows some 250km through New Brunswick from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and is home to the one of the largest populations of Atlantic Salmon in North America. People come from around the continent, indeed around the world to fly fish salmon in the pools and rapids of the Miramichi.
Our first stop, last weekend was to the UPC of Gray Rapids 
On Sunday, after service, lunch and a short rest, we climbed in the car and headed some 35-40 minutes up the river to the Chatham side of Miramichi City. The Pentecostals of Miramichi is pastored by Rev. & Mrs. Peter Long
While over there we were involved in three places, Châtellerault 
Châtellerault noticed we had a little problem; we now had one less person. Our friend Nick Cannon had bent down to tie his shoe, saying he’d catch up but had totally lost sight of us. No worries, he was found in about 10 minutes. Once we got to our destination, via tram, we had a five minute walk back to the hotel, and it started to downpour. We got to the hotel wet and tired, but we dried off and had a good night sleep.
That night we had a service where there was another young person that was filled with the Holy Ghost.
We arrived at the back entrance to the White House… well not literally the back door…. the back, heavily guarded gate. We walked to the White House gift shop and dropped a bit of cash at the till in exchange for a few souvenirs and then headed to the south lawn of the White House, over to the Washington Monument down past the War Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial
Rev. & Mrs. Jerry Staten pastor the church in Washington and we connected with them upon arrival. We were able to join them for their “Evanglize D.C.” prayer-focus meeting on Saturday morning where some 40+ people had gathered. Later that day, we joined them for their Spanish service “Esperanza Viva”, and of course for church the next morning.
Part way through the tour, the kids were thankful to be escorted first to the candy-stash closet where they got to fill a ziplock bag full of goodies, and secondly to the Missionary Kids’ Lounge where they could hang out and play Wii 
The next day saw us head to downtown St. Louis where we would see St. Louis’ famous landmark, the Gateway Arch.
Exploring God’s Word for the then Home Missions Division.
The kids got to spend lots of time with their friends Winston & Olivia Wojciechowski, whom they’d only met in November 2013, at the French National Youth Convention…. but even then, they hit it off so incredibly well it was amazing.
Yes… we’re still in France, and yes… we still have Nick Cannon with us (He may just make it home Tanya & Jason!).
While going through the city, we stopped to take a picture of the team in front of the Henri IV bridge, built in 1564. During WWII the German army had wired it with explosives in an attempt to completely destroy it and prevent American tanks from crossing the river. A German-speaking Frenchman pleaded with and was able to convince the soldiers to disobey that order, thereby saving the bridge… which is to Châtellerault what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris – an irreplaceable and immediately identifiable municipal landmark.
Bro. Neyland’s church has a double-wide mobile home that is used for visiting ministers which he graciously invited us to make use of. Later, we had supper together and the kids were able to play on the trampoline – entertained by the pastor’s son – before capping the evening off with a bowl of Blue Bell ice cream (oh my word, that’s good ice cream!!).
AIM Long 