You may be saying to yourself, "Well it's about time the Englishes gave us an update on missions and life and plans!" And you'd be right. But to tell you the truth, it's taken time to pray and listen to the Spirit, and it's taken even longer for us to get into our new apartment with internet, and for me to be motivated enough to sit down and type this.
That's right, one thing that's happened is that we got our own place to rent! After living with mom for 7 months and paying off loans, we have moved into a fairly cheap apartment which we can afford on Isaiah's landscaping salary. Not everything's functional yet. There are still significant pieces of furniture that we need (like a stove!), but the place is starting to look good, and we're excited to host people and prayer meetings, etc.
After TEAM told us that they love us, but that they want us to be married longer and to get more training before trucking it to Japan, Isaiah and I prayed and thought about future plans. We decided that we'd get our own apartment since we're no longer in the transitional period of Japan or Not Japan. For now, it's Not Japan.
We are planning on settling into life in our new place for a year. Next August (not this one!), we will try to head to "To Every Tribe," a missions school in Texas that Isaiah has always liked. We can stay married and get some years under our belt, and receive 2 years of awesome, intensive training (on the field and off). After all, Isaiah and I want to be like Paul, which means Pioneer Church Planning, tons of transitions, and very little "settledness" in life and friendships. So, having a year of calm and 2 years of training to prepare us is a VERY good thing. We thought about GFM as well, but really would love more training for a longer period of time.
We have a meeting with our church, Rich Fork Baptist, on the 22nd of this month to pitch them the new plan to head to "To Every Tribe" in order to see how much they'd be able to support us. After we know that information, we'll start talking to you guys more about the missions school and seeing if you'd be willing to invest in prayer and finances.
For now, we are trusting in our Father and living life for Jesus in the now. This means getting to host people in our home soon, planning some prayer meetings at our apartment complex (there's already an awesome lady pumped to come who I met by the garbage dump the other day haha!), Isaiah working hard at Laramore Landscaping and ministering to co-workers (we're planning a cookout with them soon), and me doing Spoken Word and dance with CrossMovement this summer, and starting to be the Storyteller on Wednesday Nights at Rich Fork for the kiddos. I may also start working with Colton again on goals this summer through Easter Seals (I would get paid to work with my brother!), and perhaps tutoring online, depending on my level of comfortability with Bible reading and theology classes at that point.
We aren't completely sure of God's plans for us. But we have a Plan A, and we know we serve a great God. So, the Englishes are here and kicking. We love you all! Continue to pray.
-Us.
P.S. We are visiting the Boardwalk Chapel again this summer when Dr. K is in, which we are excited about! Yay. Friends and Jesus Time and lots of Holy Spirit.
