The Snake (not a scary one)

I mentioned that I made a "support thermometer" for ourselves -- just a visual way for all of us to see our support raised.

So...here it is ~ "BEFORE"
Forty-two stripes...one for each hundred dollars we need monthly.

And now....

Yep, that's right!! We've coloured in 18 of the 42 stripes! 18 miracles right there!

For you mathy types, it means we have 42.857% of our support.

Our Little Video

Hip, hip, hooray for iMovie....

What a Day!

This week our pastor emailed to have us share in our church service this morning. We had made a little plan with the pastor -- he told us what questions he would ask us and Nate and I briefly (read: on the way to church this morning) went over what we thought we would say.

The plan WAS for us to answer a few quick questions, show a video presentation I had made on imovie and then the church would vote as to whether or not they would financially support us.

That WAS the plan. Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

This is how it all went down:

We got up to the front and looked out at all the wonderful, beautiful, godly, family-like people in the congregation. All of sudden it seemed very real ~ we are leaving all these loved ones. Nate was asked the first question, which I believe was this:

Nate, we know you went to Togo with a team over Christmas, what has God been doing in your lives since then?

Sounds easy, right?

I think Nate said about four words and then just stopped. Emotion came over him. He started to say what we "practiced" and as the emotion, the reality, the je-ne-sais-quoi, of the whole thing hit him, he stopped talking and teared up.

I looked at him and in my head was saying, "Um....this is NOT what we practiced."

He got emotional, so I got emotional (which, if you know me, I hate being emotional...I'd like to think of myself as having the same emotional capacity as a paper weight). Then I looked in the front row of the congregation where my parents were sitting and could see my mom, crying. More people were crying.... AH! It was crazy.

As Nate was answering the first question, he paused to gain control and a sweet sweet man in our congregation hollered out, "You can do it, Nate!", which was great because it brought a little comic relief.

We did regain control, answered the remaining four questions without much incident and then stepped down while they showed our little video presentation (which I'll try to somehow add to this blog.)

We left the auditorium, the church voted, we got approved and all of sudden we were back in the service to hear our dearest friend, Joleyne, speaking before she prayed for us. I loved her one line, as she really fought back tears, when she said, "Erin and Nate, I promise I will be your biggest supporter, but right now, I'm your biggest cry-baby...."

So, what does this mean? It means we've been approved by our church! Our church is behind us, encouraging us, praying for us AND financially supporting us! And two other families approached us to offer personal support on top of that. Woo hoo!

It was a great day. Miracles #16, 17, and 18 today.

Losing Count

I'm losing track. There have been so many really cool things that have happened in the last week, I'm losing count of all the miracles we are seeing.

Between Tuesday and Friday of last week we had a few more families let us know that they were excited to support us. We received all the kid's new passports. And I got speak with the Project Manager of the hospital work site on skype -- a totally flukey, right-place-at-the-right-time, God-ordained thing. It's incredible.

I decided to make one of those "fundraiser thermometer" things and hang it in our dining room. It's not exactly a thermometer ~ it's a snake. And every stripe of the snake is $100 of support. So 42 strips to go. As the kids colour in the stripes, I'll post some pics so you can see it.

On Sunday morning two men showed up to our church. One is a surgeon and the other is an anaesthesiologist. (for sure I spelled that wrong) They both have worked in Togo at the hospital in the south. We met them just before church and they invited us to have lunch with them and chat about Togo.

It was amazing. These two men were such an encouragement. The surgeon lived with his family (wife and four boys) in Togo for 20 years before returning to the USA due to his wife's health issues. The stories this man told were miraculous! They were inspiring and encouraging and exciting to hear. It was another miracle. God must have known that we needed to meet these men - they'd never been to our church before and were just meeting somewhere before they had lunch together. Don't try and tell me that is not a miracle.

I'm sure we're somewhere around miracle#12 by now -- at least. I can't believe I'm losing count and we're only about 3 weeks into this adventure.

Tonight we meet with the missions committee of our church. We get to share what our plans are and what we hope to accomplish. IF all goes well, our hope is that our church with partner with us and support us financially. More stripes on the snake!

Little Faith

So it's Monday morning. Monday mornings are not my fave time of the week. But this Monday morning is different!

Yesterday we met with a couple from ABWE (the missions agency we're with) to talk about the financial side of this whole endeavour. This is the part that I struggle with the most. How much do we have to raise in order to get ourselves over there and stay for 2-3 years?? A. Lot. And this money comes from where? From people like us who work hard every day to make ends meet.

And we're asking these people to support us?? A family of seven??

We met with this couple and they calculated a monthly total using some fancy-schmancy algorithm that spits out a number based on cost of living, insurance, travel, etc.

Our total? $4200.00 per month. That's what we need.

In my tiny, faithless head, I think: IMPOSSIBLE. That was my first thought -- as well as feeling deflated and disappointed that we probably won't raise that and we won't get to go.

Meeting is adjourned and we head to my grandmother's 90th birthday party. During the party, my dad shares with the family about our plans to head to Togo. And wouldn't ya know, we get a little miracle. A glimmer. My cousin's husband is super pumped about us going and tells Nate that they would like to support us. With their hard earned money.

Nate and I chat about this on the way home and are surprised to think that we have a supporter. It's a miracle.

This morning we get up and start the day like most Mondays. But this is where it gets good....

By 9 am, I have received a phone call from a dear family friend that he'd like to buy Nate's work trailer from us when we leave (when, he said, not if...) and upon our return to Canada, he would give it back to us. For free. "So," he said, "just think about that and get back to me once you and Nate have discussed it." I love that. Oh yeah, we'll be discussing that. Jumping up and down with tears in our eyes!! That's miracle number 5, by the way.

Miracle #6....still this morning: As soon as I hang up from this phone call, I try to call Nate on his cell phone. It's busy. Shortly after he calls me back. He's all excited telling me how another dear friend called him this morning, had just heard about our plans to head to Africa, was so excited for us and wants to support us....with his hard-earned money. Nate's telling all this to me and I'm shaking my head. When he pauses to take a breath, I told him all about the trailer phone call.

We're both floored. We of little faith.

God is big. He is awesome. He's already solved this thing, we just have to trust Him. We're sitting in our front-row seats, watching Him do it. How exciting is that!!