As many of you know, we are getting closer and closer to our move to Arizona. The closer that we get, the more questions are asked. So I am going to take the time to try to answer the top 10 questions that we are asked (not in any particular order).
1. What are you going to be doing when you get out there?
*** We are going to serve and minister to the Pima, Maricopa, and Tohono O'odham tribes as well as working with First Indian Baptist Church in Phoenix to minister to urban youth. What exactly does serve and minister mean? Well our goal is to look for needs in these communities and villages and to try and meet those needs. What exactly that will look like we won't know until we get there, but we envision things such as providing clothes, food, and shelter. Spiritually what it will look like is bible study, prayer, and relationships. Our goal is simply to share life, good and bad, with the individuals in these communities to gain the opportunity to lead them to Christ. We hope as well that as pockets of believers develop that we can plant new churches in the areas that are currently unreached or in some cases unengaged.
2. Where are you going to be living?
*** We have a house in Phoenix that we will be living in. We are SO thankful for Dr. Cecil, Shaun Whitey, and First Indian Baptist Church. Dr. Cecil has known for a few years now that we would be in Arizona...and has been building our ministry before we ourselves knew. A couple days before Dr. Cecil passed we were visiting and he made a phone call to Shaun Whitey, pastor of First Indian Baptist Church, and he and Josh spoke on the phone. A couple weeks later, they voted to be our requesting church and voted to let us live in a house that is on their property. This was before even meeting us officially. It is amazing to look back and see how God has orchastrated this with us being 1600 miles away.
3. How are you going to make money?
*** In a general term our only job will be to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ (full time, all day everyday) All our funding will come directly from family, friends, churches, and maybe even some strangers that God has called to help support this ministry. This funding will supply the financial support we need to meet our everyday basic living needs as well as financial needs of our ministry. It is through ministry partners, possibly you, that will supply all of the financial support to make this ministry possible. We know that God didn't call us to this mission without calling others to support this mission.
4. What about your house in Benton?
*** We currently have it listed through Crystal Jeter with Remax. We would like to sell it before we move however if it comes time for us to leave and we still have our house, we will go from there with a couple other options that we have available.
5. Why are you doing this?
*** Because you don't say "No" to God's calling forever. If you have been keeping up with our blog from the beginning you know that we ran from this calling for quite some time and finally realized it was time to accept His Calling and follow Him.
6. How can we support you?
*** There are many ways that you can support us. Most importantly is through prayer. We would be lying to ourselves if we said this is going to be easy. We know that this is a difficult task that we are taking on, however we are not doing it alone. With the guidance of Christ and the support from our friends and family we know that this is possible. You can also support us financially if you feel this is something God is calling you to do. MSC Missionaries are not supported financially through NAMB as we have mentioned before, we have to raise all of our financial support ourselves.
7. Can we set up our support to come out automatically?
*** YES! This is probably the easiest way if it is something you choose to do. By clicking on this link http://msc.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1023666&lis=1&kntae1023666=BD12AB3EF8444B08944A0980C495883A&supId=376708634 or copy and paste in the browser, it should take you directly to our Fundraising Page. There is a "Give Now" button on the top right side of the page. By clicking on this and following a few simple instructions you can have the support coming out of your account. You can choose to give a one time gift or a recurring gift. If you have any problems or have additional questions about this page, feel free to private message us.
8. Are you scared/nervous/excited/etc about moving to Arizona?
*** YES to all of the above! I have moved 10 times and believe it or not, EVERY SINGLE TIME has been in Marshall Co. So to say I am scared/nervous is a bit of an understatement, lol. However, I know that I will be okay. Will there be culture shock? Yes! Will it be an adjustment? Yes! Can I do it? YES!!!! I am very excited to take on this task with my family and follow through with God's plans and see where they take us.
9. What about your dogs? <---this question usually makes me laugh
*** They are both coming with us :) We have thought about leaving Brewski here with my dad but I began having emotional breakdowns every night at the thought of breaking our "family" apart. So the decision has been made to bring them both with us.
10. Can we come visit you? Will we see you again?
*** ABSOLUTELY!!! We would love for all of our friends and family to come and visit. We know that it will be difficult to get out to Arizona though for some people but don't worry...we aren't moving away and never coming back "home" to MC. We will be back to visit throughout the year and to give our supporters updates on what they are do by helping us. Aside from just coming to visit, we will be having mission teams come in the summer to do work on the Reservations. We would LOVE for you to be a part of this. You can see why we have followed God's calling for us and feel blessed yourselves I am sure.
If you have any questions about the process feel free to contact us at any time and we will be more than happy to help. Thank you for staying connected with us through our blog and thank you ahead of time for your support, We know that God will surely bless you and your family for giving so freely.
~Deidra
