Busy, busy times…encouraging…stressful…fun…overwhelming but full of God’s provision and grace.
As we enter our final few months in the UK there are many moments which bring this adventure into sharp relief.
One that’s struck me recently is ‘stuff’. Allie and I were chatting the other day about what we were hanging on to. We’re taking very little and all we’re storing is some camping gear for New Wine, a few clothes, our bed and various cardboard creations made by the children for Mother’s Day etc…. Everything else is going. If you are a regular on Facebook you will have seen the increase in posts from Allie selling or giving away various things.
In 6 months we’ll be living in central Africa and I’ll be half-way through my 1st term!
Paper (Approval)
Last week I received formal approval of our partnership with Stewardship (stewardship.org.uk); a Christian organisation which provides financial services to Christian workers.
The key benefits of this partnership are that:
· Gift-aid can be claimed on all donations to our ministry
· We get simple, personalised donation forms making it easy for people to make one-off gifts and set up monthly direct debits (which can be made anonymously)
· Easy transfer of funds to our accounts when we are ‘in the field’
Thank God for this blessing to our ministry
Paper (Money)
Our budget is complete, validated and we are ready to actively fundraise. This blog is not going to be a forum for fundraising; but it is important, in the first instance, for us to make sure that our supporters are aware of our needs.
Either by clicking the link on the right of our homepage or by going to the ‘Make a Donation’ page you can find links to two documents.
The first is a reminder of what we are doing and a more detailed break-down of our budget.
The second is the form you can use to support us financially.
In summary our costs will be as follows…
… living in Burundi is not cheap…especially for a family of 6! We need to raise £60,000 to see us through to September 2013 and a lot of it is needed before we depart.
A lack of infrastructure, Burundi being landlocked and the larger budgets of some NGO’s and diplomats all conspire to drive prices up…in the world’s 2nd poorest nation.
Inflation is running at about 25% and the cost of utilities has doubled in the last year.
Our costs can be summarised as follows:
Entry: £21,000
· This includes flights, freight, UK living costs before departure, generator, some furniture and rental deposit
Annual Mission Costs: £29,000
· This includes rent, bills, internet, food, fuel, car costs and workers salaries
Employing workers is cheap and is standard practice in Burundi. Typically a day guard and night guard are required. All washing and cleaning has to be done by hand and everything has to be ironed to kill the fruit fly eggs in your clothes. All food is prepared from scratch; so there are no fast options like beans on toast!
The secondary benefit of this is that you are able to provide work for a few people.
Home Leave: £10,500
When living in such a demanding environment it is standard to return on ‘furlough’ once a year, which we will do during the summer holidays. Costs for this include flights, transport, food and topping up on clothes and toiletries that can’t be bought in Burundi.
Our work in Burundi is unpaid…we really need your financial support.
We will also be emailing, Facebooking and posting the support information to family and friends…apologies if you receive it more than once!
Please pray that our fundraising will be an encouragement to our ministry
Paper (Letters)
I formally resigned from EDF this week and am now beginning to work out my 3 month’s notice.
It was a pretty weird process writing a formal letter and giving it to my boss who knows all about my plans…but these things have to be done properly.
So I now have 91 days of paid employment left.
If this wasn’t feeling real before, it does now!
Please pray that my final months at EDF will be productive
(News) Paper
Our local newspaper, The Courier, ran an article on us last week (read it here). I spoke to them for over half an hour but, inevitably, the article focused on the more melodramatic asides from our conversation.
But, despite not being a terribly balanced view of our plans, it wasn’t a complete disaster and we hope that it will have raised awareness of our plans a little further.
Please pray that others will be encouraged by what they read in the paper
Paper (Handouts)
On Saturday Allie and I were at Redcliffe College with Caspar and Harry for a training day for families going into overseas mission.
It was great to meet other families following God’s call to overseas ministry.
Harry and Caspar spent most of their time in groups with other children while Allie and I spent all day hearing, principally, about TCK’s – Third Culture Kids.
A TCK is a child that is not living in their parent’s/passport culture…but is neither part of the culture in which they are living. They are somewhere in between (the ‘third’ culture) and need to be handled with care.
We learnt the importance of ‘Good Goodbyes’, maintaining relationships with grandparents, a TCK’s definition of home and the number of house moves a TCK will encounter. Between now and the end of 2013 our children will have moved home maybe as many as 6 times; bearing in mind that when we return in the summer we won’t be staying at our old house but living in a number of places.
This was a useful, but sobering day and has given us so much to think about.
Please pray for protection for the children
Paper (Tickets)
I’ve got a visit to a church in Wick, in the very north of Scotland, coming up at the end of April which I’m really looking forward to. The support from other churches has been amazing!
My trip to The King’s School in May/June is all arranged and I can’t wait to practise some of my French.
Thank God for the support we’re receiving from different churches
Paper (Plans)
Please pray for us as we:
· Apply for passports for Caspar and Felicity
· Pack up the house
· Prepare for a talk at Harry’s school
· Continue with our All Nations studies
· Have more vaccinations
· Arrange flights for August
Our calendar for our remaining months in the UK is absolutely rammed! But I finish with a thought e-mailed to me by UCB the other day.
‘The assignment God gives you will never be greater than the grace He provides. So draw on His strength, keep pressing ahead, pursue your goal and you will prevail.’
God Bless,
Jez
