June 8, 2012
Hi, friends!
Michelle and I wanted to tell you about an upcoming trip we’re taking this summer. Missions has been on our hearts for over 15 years, so after a lot of research and prayer, we decided to partner with an organization called Operation Mobilization (OM). They currently have over 6,000 missionaries in over 120 countries. You can learn more about OM through their website www.om.org.
Missions is a calling that includes our children. That is why we have chosen to go on a short-term missions trip with our kids this summer, living out our calling to be a missionary family. They have been very involved in this process. We’ve talked about why it’s important to tell people about Jesus and give up our comforts in order to serve and love people as He did. We have studied maps and learned about people groups, reading about different cultures’ beliefs and customs. And we’ve talked about which countries would be interesting to visit.
We have the opportunity to go to Clermont-Ferrand, a village in south-central France at the end of July. The OM missionaries there are partnering with local churches to hold a week-long outreach to the community. We will be sharing the Gospel through artistic performances, literature distribution, children’s clubs, and International services, as well as ministering to the local churches. Our kids are excited because they will be able to directly participate in evangelism to other children, so we asked them to share why they want to go:
“I want to tell them about God so that they will tell other people about what we told them. They need to know about what God did for us. He sent down his son, Jesus to die on the cross for us. It seems fun to tell people about God, like talking with them and teaching them.” (Daniel, 9)
“It’s important to tell people about God because then they can tell more and more and more people. God can do anything and He has powers and He can snap His fingers and destroy people, but He doesn’t want to destroy us. He tells us things in our hearts that we’re supposed to do, like clean up, and help other people that don’t have any food or if their car is broken. I’m excited that we get to do the puppets and do preaching and stuff because we need to learn about God because that’s really important.” (Timothy, 5)
“I want to go to help people learn more about God, because He wants us to share it with them. And He equips us with knowledge to give to other people, because they need to know God. I love France, and I’m excited that I’ll get to be with other people and help them learn about God. I’d love to do music and talk to little kids about Jesus. I’d tell them God rocks.” (Emily, 12)
We can’t wait to share the Good News with this community in France! But in order to get there, we need your help. The total cost for the trip, flights, and passports for the kids is around $10,000. It seems almost impossible that we could raise such a big amount of money, but we have seen God’s faithful provision for our family many, many times. We strongly believe He is calling us to go, so we are stepping out in childlike faith. We are so excited that our children will see this faith in action, and will witness God’s faithful response to our obedience.
***An Update***
1. We received passports for the family this week (even for little Judah)
2. Thanks to tremendous support, in just 2 weeks we raised over 40% of our total budget! We currently still need to raise $6,000 for travel costs- airplanes, trains, hotels, etc. We need to purchase our plane tickets asap, so pray with us for this financial miracle!
3. There are now two ways to donate to our trip: You can go to www.liveconnectgrow.com, click on Michelle’s blog, and you’ll find a Donate button where you can donate directly via PayPal. Or if you’d like to make a tax-deductable donation to our trip, we will also be able to raise funds through our church. This is important because although OM has an account for us, the funds in that account would be used to reimburse us for the cost of our trip. Since we don’t have the funds up-front (and don’t have or want a credit card with that kind of limit on it!), we would basically have to do twice the fundraising work. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to our trip, you can mail a check to:
Emmaus Church
316 South Goliad #207
Rockwall, TX 75087
Please notate on the check in the Memo section:
TMW - 2012
4. We have a website that has links to Michelle’s blog, our Facebook page, and our YouTube page. Please visit www.liveconnectgrow.com to see more. We spent some time this weekend getting the kids on video so that you could see how they feel about the upcoming trip. We have Emily's up right now, and we’ll be posting the boys’ videos soon. You can watch the videos and get more updates through the websites listed above.
5. We also have 3 house concerts coming up this month in an effort to raise support. As soon as we get the details, we’ll send out invitations via Facebook & email to let everyone know. If we don’t have your email or aren’t connected through Facebook, please let us know. We want to keep you updated on everything!
6. Regardless if you can give or not, we would ask that you join with us in prayer. This missions trip is an adventurous challenge for our family, so please pray for God to prepare our hearts and the people we will minister to. Pray that the Lord will help us raise all the money we need, keep us safe, and that He will challenge and use each member of our family greatly in this work. We want to leave France knowing and resembling our Savior even more.
Michelle and I are so thankful to have so much friendship and support. We really love getting response emails back just because it lets us know what is going on in your life. Please know how grateful we are to you. At the same time, we don’t want to pester you with info, so if you want to be removed from our list, just let me know - I’ll still be your friend! We would love to talk to you one-on-one about the trip, and about the call that God has placed on our whole family, so if it is alright with you, one of us will be giving you a call or an email about trying to meet up.
Thanks again for all of your love and support. Please let us know if there is a way that we can partner with or pray for you, too!
Ted, Michelle, Emily, Daniel, Timothy & Judah Wallace :)
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