After spending three weeks on the road, we are headed home! We left for Orlando on June 22nd and returned home on July 14th. So much happened In between those dates. However, what does not escape us is the fact that we are now living in between two worlds.
On June 29th, we were commissioned at the Church of God Convention as missionaries to Europe and the Middle East. That is the future world that awaits us in about a year.
During the convention we were able to spend time with our future Three World’s teammates as we participated in staff meetings. We also spent time with office personnel from Global Strategy, our sending agency.
We also spent our time in Orlando connecting with pastors as we shared about our future work and caught up with other pastors and friends from around the country.
Our entire family came away from the convention happy to have made new friends and deepen relationships with old friends, and eager to connect with our team and the churches in the Europe and Middle East region.
After the convention we took time to visit Stacy’s brother in Jacksonville and then met up with Nate’s family in Pigeon Forge. Connecting with family and enjoying our time together is the other world, the world we are leaving.
We have roughly one year left on this side of our big move. As eager as we are to get to that new world, we don’t want to wish away the precious time we have left with family and friends.
There is much on our to-do list over the next year – selling our house, vehicles, and personal property, finding temporary housing, helping our girls transition through their final school year in the USA, ending well at our current jobs – those things that we want to just skip right through because, well, it’s going to be hard to move on!
However, skipping to the end is 1) not realistic and 2) not fair to ourselves or our loved ones. It’s important that we treasure this time, especially with family and friends. As we move on to our new world, we know we’ll look back on this year with love and joy in our hearts.
Being a missionary in the 21st century does have its perks, thanks to technology and air travel. Communication through messages, emails, pictures, and video calls will become our new normal in a year’s time.
Likewise, we will exchange short, frequent visits with deeply cherished infrequent travel to spend time with friends and family.
For now, living between two worlds means appreciating and making the most of living in the present moment while we prepare for the future. This missionary life is beginning to become a full-time reality.
Prayer Requests
We would love for you to pray for our family over the next few months. Here are some specific things you can pray for:
- Finish up a few small house projects and place a “For Sale” sign in the yard.
- Host a Garage Sale (July 25-27) in Ft. Wayne.
- Celebrate with Dylan and Sara on their wedding day, August 25th.
- Find temporary housing. (Anyone have a house/apartment we could rent?)
One Time Gifts
As we prepare to move, we are raising support for our start-up budget. While there are quite a few things in this budget, we are specifically raising funds for our family’s site visit to Madrid next spring and our pre-field training in Colorado next June.
If you would like to make a one-time gift for these things you can click on this link and select the “Give Now” button.
Partners
We are also looking for individuals who will financially partner with us on a monthly basis. If this is something you would like to do, we’d love to connect with you to share more. You can send us an email to schedule a time to talk.
We are so grateful for those of you who are following us and tracking our journey.
With sincere thanks,
Nate and Stacy
Our Spanglish Life 