Unreached people groups are those among whom Christ has not been named; there are no self-reliant churches and no meaningful access to Christ and the Gospel among them. The Joshua Project has identified 16,689 different people groups on the earth today. Two thousand years after Jesus issued the Great Commission, 6,898 people groups are still considered unreached. This means that approximately 2.8 BILLION people currently have little or no access to the Gospel message! These are the people we want to live and work among.
In July, we will move to Los Fresnos, Texas (near Brownsville) to become full-time missionaries with To Every Tribe. They are a mission agency with a rigorous, 2 year missionary training program called The Center for Pioneer Church Planting (CPCP). We will live in an on-campus apartment and will go through various training classes. In fact, approximately 40% of our training time will be spent outside of the classroom - with on the job training in the countries of Mexico and Papau New Guinea (above Australia). We will be able to put into first-hand practice the church planting concepts we have been taught in our classroom studies by working in these areas of unreached people groups.
First and foremost, our family needs your prayers! Transitioning to a new state, new friends, new home, new environment and leaving our family and friends will be hard....especially for our 3 children. Beyond that, the emotional, physical and spiritual rigors of attending training classes, studying new languages, investing in the community, homeschooling our children and going into Mexico and Papau New Guinea to serve is not something we would ever undertake without prayer! Please pray for our family as we transition into this new role that God has called us to.
Second, there are financial needs that we are trusting the Lord to provide. We will be sending out support letters very soon and we are currently seeking churches that would allow us to come share our passion for mission work with their congregation either on a Sunday, Wednesday or in a small group setting. The cost of tuition for our 2 year training program is $13,700. We will also have a monthly housing bill of $625 as well as basic living expenses (food, insurance, gas, etc.) that total around $700 per month. Will you please join us in prayer that our financial needs will be met and that Christians hearts will be touched to support our mission efforts?
As we prepare to train, study and reach out to people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, we want to keep you on the front lines with us. By asking for your involvement, we are committing to you as well. We will communicate regularly to you with updates and prayer requests through this site. We will be transparent and accountable to you and To Every Tribe with every aspect of our finances. We will study diligently, work hard, invest deeply and live passionately and we will do it all for the glory of God ~ because Jesus IS worth it!
