one more week!

hello! well as you can imagine is has been a bit of a whirlwind getting everything prepped and ready to hop across the pond! happy to report several things - we both have our Visas! we have  ALMOST raised all the money we'll need, we only have this week left of work & we got our t-shirts in! which is fantastic news! they turned out better than expected & i'm personally stoked about the design! :) 

Front View - Grey V-Neck

Backside

this journey has been challenging, encouraging, stressful, joyful and hopeful. it always surprises me how many emotions one goes through when embarking on such a life changing trip. i mean, i'm pretty logical so it really shouldn't surprise me but it does. :) 

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we're due to head out this sunday! i can hardly believe the time has finally arrived! through all the ups and downs God has shown Himself faithful, gracious, and in COMPLETE control. sometimes i forget that and think He needs my help. which, is pretty hilarious since  He formed ALL of Creation and i just learned how to a make one perfect cup of coffee :) 


ah, i am amazed at how often He puts up with me, my frustrations and my control issues. but i am most thankful for His continuing grace and patience! it's pretty neat to look as far back as 5 years ago or just last month and see the work He's been doing in my life. i could never have imagined or dreamed that in just a few days i'll be walking around the very same places some of my quotable authors lived! c.s. lewis, edgar allen poe, jane austen - just to name a few ;) what incredible gifts!


now i'm off to start packing! :) but i'll end with this scripture - Psalm 145:3 "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable." if you have a moment read the entire chapter & may your heart be full of His praises!

beverly 

Living on a prayer

So as many of you know Beverly and I have been really praying hard over our trip to school and the financial aspect of it all. It was a crazy amount of money that we had to raise in what felt like such a short amount of time. We just didn't have $20,000 laying around and we surly could not save that much up. We had to rely totally on God to provide. From my last entry you could all tell that I was really struggling with letting go and letting God. I tried to hold on to it for so long, thinking that I could handle it all on my own (I know I sound like a broken record) but I could not get through this thick skull of mine that all I needed to do is trust in Him. He lead me to this school, He has opened every door. Why wouldn't He be faithful with this? You see this lesson I have learned is when you do things liking agreeing to go to Europe without knowing anything, like where, when, how long, these are moments that God really shines through and you have no where else to go but to trust solely on Him. In those moments He is going to shine so bright.

This lesson was very hard for me to learn. I just could not learn. Then finally about 2 weeks ago I couldn't hold on anymore. God and I had a talk and I laid everything on Him just as He wanted me to do from the very beginning. After that I have had such a peace about everything. So about a week ago Beverly and I decided we would go ahead and pay for what we could, which was the first 6 weeks of school. So Sunday while at church pre-selling our shirts I started paying for our school. Now at this point we are about $13,000 short and our missions pastor came to us and said someone donated $500. That's awesome and I was in shock! That was so amazing! It kept getting better, between different donations, the yard sale, and our t-shirt sale we went from needing $13,000 to needing $2,500.

Again I say I learned such a valuable lesson here, that I hope I never forget. That once God tells you something He will follow through. He is not like me, who could back out at any second, or when things get hard. He will provide every step of the way. So my hope is that you see the beauty in all of this. That when you stop thinking that you can handle this world on your own and give everything over to God, He will out do whatever you thought was the best. He will show you beauty in every little step. I now look back on this journey and see the beauty of all the so called failures and frustrations and see that He was just trying to show me that I truly need Him.

- Hannah

Small World

so we only have about a month before we leave (GAH!) and there is still so much to do! we're still awaiting our visas and still need to raise a bit more money - but i know God has it all under control :) i know this because of some recent events.
2 weeks ago, a dear friend of mine, sarah got in touch w/ me because she met a girl (maria) that was training her who happened to attend the EXACT SAME SCHOOL as we are about to! what are the odds of that!? so sarah hosted a dinner party & invited maria so that we could meet. as the dinner went underway, i was able to talk to maria and discover what an incredibly small world we really do live in! as it turns out we had a few mutual connections and how perfectly timed this all was because maria is due to move next month! so God is indeed good. :) 

i love that God is constantly showing me how He's involved in every detail. how He would know the comfort it would bring to me, meeting someone that's walked the journey before me and was full of encouragement. my heart is full. i am excited, nervous, anxious, and happy all at the same time!

we've also been able to meet (so to speak) most of our future teammates, thanks to social media! shout out to facebook :) so they won't quite be strangers to us but i am very excited to meet each of them face to face. i know God worked it all out to put us together for a reason and i'm eager to find out why! :)

i'm not going to lie to you, this has been a very tough few weeks for hannah and i personally. our friendship has struggled and we've hit quite a few rough patches, but i know that we are on the right path. God has continually shown us both (individually) in His Word, through wise counsel and in our spirits that we are going in the right direction. facing opposition is all part of it as well. i know we will be stronger as a team and as a person for walking through these tough times. thinking on this i am reminded of 2 Corinthians 12:9 - "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

as we draw near to our departure date, i ask for you all to continue to keep us and this mission in prayer. there is still much to be done and this is only the beginning. we are both incredibly grateful for all of your support, encouragement and PRAYERS! thank you for taking this journey along with us :)
-beverly

Fundraising

so hannah & I are in full force with Fundraising! we had our Yard Sale last weekend and despite the bad weather had a decent turnout & expect to do another Yard Sale next month. we were blessed with a LOT of donations from our church family! :) here are some photos from that day:

daisy wearing one of the necklaces we were selling :)

all the donations we received!

we also have our Pancake Breakfast tomorrow and sent out Support Letters last week :) next up are our T-Shirts! we are so excited about these and my beautiful friend Lauren & I collaborated on the design & are working on additional shirts to sell as well. here's a photo:

we have various sizes & they'll be $20!

God is providing slowly but surely, hannah told me we will receive a gift from our church of $470! completely unexpected and we are both very grateful. we still have about $12,000 to raise but i know God is faithful and what He has started, He will finish! :) 

we are both really excited about what God's doing and will do on this journey. i know for me personally, i have grown in my love of the Lord and how He has set me free from so many things, it's amazing what He can do in your life when you allow him to :) 

these next few weeks will be trying for both hannah & i and we appreciate your prayers, support and encouragement. we know this is the path set before us and we want to walk it with boldness and determination. 

beverly 

Faith

I don't know where to begin and I have a feeling this blog post is going to be going every which way. I apologize for that in advance. 

Faith is such a small word but such a difficult one for me. By definition faith means confidence or trust in a person, thing, deity, or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion. This whole journey has taught me one thing, my faith is very small. I trust God to provide in the big scheme of things, but the day to day I can't see it and I am really  start struggling with doubt. How can I doubt Him when so far on this journey He has shown me this is where we are suppose to be. He has opened every door and provided everything thus far. 

While on my journey to Southeast Asia I struggled so much with faith, for provision, and with doubt. I doubted my motives for going on the trip at that time and again for provision for the trip. At that point I had pretty much all the money for the trip but still stressed day in and day out about the finances. One night God came to me in a dream saying "let go Hannah I have you" my response was so me I told God, the God that created me and has everything in His power I couldn't, I was scared." Finally I let go and He caught me. Why do I want to hold on to this? Worrying and doubting gets me no where but sick to my stomach and grouchy. It makes everyone around me grouchy and just makes everything awful. 

The other day while reading my Bible I came across Joshua 1:9 " Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." It was like God was talking to me. Telling me again stop worrying and doubting Him. He has this. Most days I can overcome it with God's help. Other days I struggle all day and can't seem to shake it. I ask for prayer for us on this journey. I feel as if the journey to get to YWAM is just as important as the journey we will begin once we leave the states. I pray that you will consider sponsoring and praying for us along this journey. We can for surely feel your prayers so far and we thank y'all for that!  

Hannah

Visas & Background Checks

things are progressing nicely, so far we've completed our background checks and are working on our Visas. such a process! 

this weekend - weather permitting - we are having our Yard Sale and anticipate a LOT of stuff being sold!!! hopefully we'll have pics to post as well :) 

also i am meeting up w/ a friend to design our t-shirts and get those on our site - i'm very excited about this! we should have something set in motion here within the next week or so! :) and we will be able to ship Worldwide. 

that's it for now, back to work and i believe hannah will have a post on here soon :)

beverly 

3 months or less

hello all :) i hope everyone had a lovely Easter!  sorry it's been a bit since we've updated. well things have been slow moving these past few weeks but hannah notified me that we are due to head out in 2 months and like 20ish days. which - whoa! that's sneaking up on us pretty quickly. we're still well under our goal of $16,000. so right now we've just got plane tickets in hand and no funds for school. ah but they call it faith for a reason, right? :) all i know is that God is mighty, faithful and will provide all that we need. 

a couple of thoughts that have struck me lately that i wanted to share:

1) i have been watching The Bible series on The History Channel and there was a part that really stuck with me (aside from the obvious crucifixion/resurrection aspect) from the last episode - it was a scene depicted from Acts 3:6 - But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you...." and this reminded me of our calling and focus. though we may not always have money, we can always share the Gospel of Christ with others. watching this series, reminded me of the sacrifices others have made in order for us to be able to share the Gospel of Christ with others (usually w/out physical harm). i am so grateful for the men and women, then and now. 

2) i was able to attend a special service last night at one of our large local churches, Seacoast in Mt. Pleasant. where Matt Redman would be singing and his lovely wife, Beth, speaking. it was a last minute decision but i am so thankful i went! the message was so spot on for me. i have always enjoyed matt's music but never knew his testimony. hearing his wife speak of their various hardships that led them to write "you never let go" moved me. that in such tragedy such a powerful song could be written. this song has special meaning to me, b/c about 5 years ago i went through a pretty devastating time of loss and this song became my anthem.  it blew me away how God reminded me, AGAIN of His faithfulness, incredible kindness and attention to detail over the years :) what an amazing Savior! i love the fact that despite anything you've been through, He's never let go. <3

and finally last thought - God has placed this verse on our hearts recently as a reminder -  joshua 1:9 -  ^"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

- beverly