Blessed Miscalculation

I was looking over how much support I had in my account and had a dawning realization. I had been figuring the monthly support and one time support separately, which is alright unless you forget to go back every month and add in the support that comes in. I had not been doing this. When I added it up I realized that I had just over $1,000 more support raised that I had thought! To make it even better I sent an email to UWM (my mission board) to ask when the next training sessions was being help. I had assumed that it was in August, but I was informed that it actually begins on September 10th. So I now have less money to raise and more time to raise it in!
That being said, before I can go to training I need to have $1922.60 for my one time amount. What is more important, however is that I need to get $523.20 more monthly pledges to go to training. So, if you know of anyone who you think may support me, or if you would like to come on board yourself, please let me know. I would love to partner with you in teaching the Gospel!

Getting rolling

To begin with I would like to say hello to those getting this newsletter for the first time. I hope that we remain in good contact with each other and that we will be able to minister together for a good long time.

There's not been too awfully much to talk about this time around. The most important thing would be that I am finally getting into a groove of raising support. I have at least one Sunday School class per Sunday booked for the remaining portion of the month. Hopefully I will be able to generate enough support to go to training in August. All I need to go is $3,000! That may sound like a lot, but it's certainly not as bad as it was a month ago. So, I am still hoping (maybe even vainly so) to have enough support to take the next step soon! Once again if any of you want to support me, or know of anyone who might be willing to come on board, then let me know so that this dream can become a reality!

Two surprises

I've had some pleasant surprises in the last two weeks. The first one came from an unpleasant situation. Last week I decided to step down from my position as youth pastor of New Harmony Grove. The reason for this is that there is just not enough time for me to both raise support and to be a youth pastor, so I had to cut it. So, last Wednesday I spoke to the church and told them what was going on and why. The surprising thing is that they had decided to give me a check for $1,000 for the time I had spent there. Also they gave me the money from the VBS penny war (in case you don't know, this is just a competition in which boys and girls compete to see who can bring the most pennies for missions). This came out to be over &1,200, which was a huge boost to my one time fund. Thus my time at the Grove ended. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm very glad that I had experienced it.
The second surprise has to do with New Harmony as well. The youth had been asked to sing at the local county wide gospel sing last Sunday. During the introduction of our presentation Bro. Don (New Harmony's pastor) mentioned that I was a missionary raising support. Towards the end of the service one of the pastors motioned that the group take up an offering and pray for me. They took up the offering and it came out to be $960. Then all of the pastors gathered around me and put their hands on me and everyone prayed for me. It was the first time anything like that had ever happened to me and I think it will be one of my fonder memories in life.
So, I had a pretty good two weeks. I am continuing to look for supporters and I am still in need of a large amount of support. Please continue to pray for me while I'm doing this and if you know of anyone who you think might be willing to support me or if you are willing yourself please let me know!