Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,
This is, D.V., our last general update from this side of the ocean for at least the rest of the year, and we have many reasons to give thanks to God as we look back over the year.
Transportation
Before we began traveling in early 2008, we prayed that God would supply us with a van for deputation.
We already had a 1994 Dodge Caravan that a family in our church had graciously given to us. But with 150,000 miles, we didn’t think it would be reliable enough for all our traveling. However, as each new trip approached without another vehicle becoming available, we continued to use the Caravan. We faithfully carried the title with us, so that if it ever broke down, we could just get rid of the van and rent a car to get home. We were told it would definitely not be worth fixing! (I remember when our hearts nearly stopped when the van died on us in El Paso, Texas. The joke turned out to be on us. It was only out of gas!) That van has taken us to southern Florida, northern Maine, Arizona, Minnesota, three Canadian provinces and many points in between. We have just returned from New York (our last major trip) and with 226,829 miles to its credit, the Caravan still hasn’t had any major mechanical issues! God, in an unexpected way, answered our prayer for a vehicle, and we give praise to Him.
Support
We began 2009 with 29% of our support needs met. Having already visited 70 churches and with nearly a year of travels already behind us, we wondered how long the deputation trail would stretch out before us. Today, by God’s undeserved kindness, we have reached 70% of our goal and have plans to move to France next month. God has so overwhelmed us with kindness, we almost feel ashamed. Now we are praying that the remainder of our support will come in so that we do not have to leave our place of ministry in 2010 to continue traveling in the United States. We know that God is able, and we look forward to seeing how He will provide. We are in the exciting position of not knowing when, how or from where God’s provision will come. It does keep us rather keyed up every time we go to check our email or answer the phone!
Visas
One of the ways God has recently reminded us of the fragility of both us and our ministry is by causing a snag in our visa application process. I won’t give all the details (more are available on our blog), but we visited the French Consulate on April 14 with a high degree of confidence that we had all our ducks in a row and that it would only be a short amount of time (1 to 2 weeks, according to others’ recent experiences) before we held our visas in hand. It didn’t happen that way! After the Protestant Federation of France denied to issue us the invitation the consulate said we were required to have, we jumped through multiple hoops to secure two other invitations that we prayed would be accepted as replacements. We received a phone call last week from the representative of the consulate who chided us for not returning the required form. After kindly t
rying to explain to him our predicament, he told me that he would make an “exception” that “could not be repeated” and accept the replacement invitations we had sent in as sufficient. We were overjoyed at the news. However, more than a month after first requesting the visas, we still do not have them in hand, and we cannot purchase plane tickets until we do. Would you please pray that God would move the proper authorities to send us our needed visas? We rejoice in a God who sovereignly controls nations (and their consulates!) according to His will.
We will try to keep you posted with news of our visas and move on our blog as it unfolds. We hope to fly to France on June 24. Please pray for the much-needed wisdom about how/what/when to pack. It is difficult to leave the country not knowing if this is a permanent move or just a six-month deployment. The task of going through nine years of accumulated … uh … “treasures” is daunting. We just discovered yesterday that my nice gas grill was stolen while we were away on our last trip. After indulging in thoughts of finding and grilling whoever stole it, I was able to rejoice that my life doesn’t consist in the accumulation of things I possess, and in the fact that there is now one less thing we have to figure out what to do with before we leave!
May God be with you all,
Tim for the family
Itinerary
May 3 (am) — Albany, NY
May 3 (pm) — Mohawk, NY
May 6 — Queensbury, NY
May 10 — Jamesville, NY
May 13 — Weare, NH
May 17 — Cohoes, NY
May 23 — Wedding of Ruth’s sister in Raleigh, NC
May 24 (pm) — Burlington, NC
June 14 — Apex, NC
June 21 — Sendoff service at CPBC in Spartanburg, SC
June 24 — Planned departure for France!
This is, D.V., our last general update from this side of the ocean for at least the rest of the year, and we have many reasons to give thanks to God as we look back over the year.
Transportation
Before we began traveling in early 2008, we prayed that God would supply us with a van for deputation.
We already had a 1994 Dodge Caravan that a family in our church had graciously given to us. But with 150,000 miles, we didn’t think it would be reliable enough for all our traveling. However, as each new trip approached without another vehicle becoming available, we continued to use the Caravan. We faithfully carried the title with us, so that if it ever broke down, we could just get rid of the van and rent a car to get home. We were told it would definitely not be worth fixing! (I remember when our hearts nearly stopped when the van died on us in El Paso, Texas. The joke turned out to be on us. It was only out of gas!) That van has taken us to southern Florida, northern Maine, Arizona, Minnesota, three Canadian provinces and many points in between. We have just returned from New York (our last major trip) and with 226,829 miles to its credit, the Caravan still hasn’t had any major mechanical issues! God, in an unexpected way, answered our prayer for a vehicle, and we give praise to Him. Support
We began 2009 with 29% of our support needs met. Having already visited 70 churches and with nearly a year of travels already behind us, we wondered how long the deputation trail would stretch out before us. Today, by God’s undeserved kindness, we have reached 70% of our goal and have plans to move to France next month. God has so overwhelmed us with kindness, we almost feel ashamed. Now we are praying that the remainder of our support will come in so that we do not have to leave our place of ministry in 2010 to continue traveling in the United States. We know that God is able, and we look forward to seeing how He will provide. We are in the exciting position of not knowing when, how or from where God’s provision will come. It does keep us rather keyed up every time we go to check our email or answer the phone!
Visas
One of the ways God has recently reminded us of the fragility of both us and our ministry is by causing a snag in our visa application process. I won’t give all the details (more are available on our blog), but we visited the French Consulate on April 14 with a high degree of confidence that we had all our ducks in a row and that it would only be a short amount of time (1 to 2 weeks, according to others’ recent experiences) before we held our visas in hand. It didn’t happen that way! After the Protestant Federation of France denied to issue us the invitation the consulate said we were required to have, we jumped through multiple hoops to secure two other invitations that we prayed would be accepted as replacements. We received a phone call last week from the representative of the consulate who chided us for not returning the required form. After kindly t
rying to explain to him our predicament, he told me that he would make an “exception” that “could not be repeated” and accept the replacement invitations we had sent in as sufficient. We were overjoyed at the news. However, more than a month after first requesting the visas, we still do not have them in hand, and we cannot purchase plane tickets until we do. Would you please pray that God would move the proper authorities to send us our needed visas? We rejoice in a God who sovereignly controls nations (and their consulates!) according to His will. We will try to keep you posted with news of our visas and move on our blog as it unfolds. We hope to fly to France on June 24. Please pray for the much-needed wisdom about how/what/when to pack. It is difficult to leave the country not knowing if this is a permanent move or just a six-month deployment. The task of going through nine years of accumulated … uh … “treasures” is daunting. We just discovered yesterday that my nice gas grill was stolen while we were away on our last trip. After indulging in thoughts of finding and grilling whoever stole it, I was able to rejoice that my life doesn’t consist in the accumulation of things I possess, and in the fact that there is now one less thing we have to figure out what to do with before we leave!
May God be with you all,
Tim for the family
Itinerary
May 3 (am) — Albany, NY
May 3 (pm) — Mohawk, NY
May 6 — Queensbury, NY
May 10 — Jamesville, NY
May 13 — Weare, NH
May 17 — Cohoes, NY
May 23 — Wedding of Ruth’s sister in Raleigh, NC
May 24 (pm) — Burlington, NC
June 14 — Apex, NC
June 21 — Sendoff service at CPBC in Spartanburg, SC
June 24 — Planned departure for France!
1 comment:
We are praying for you and praising God for your most recent addition. Maybe Jon and I will join you some day. Jon always wishes to go back to where he went on his mission's trip in France.
Ashleigh Sutter
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