What’s Next 2.0
For 22 years, God has moved and guided us here at First Baptist Church in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. In college, I believe God knew my fears of not finding the right church for us that He fit us in the perfect place for us from the beginning. We are so very fortunate for His divine leading in our direction. God has worked in many ways through our ministry here. This new journey has been quite different. It has been fun to see Him guide us– we would head down one road, then He would change our direction— and then change it again. This has happened more than once. We feel God‘s hand is definitely in this journey to Portugal. Several weeks ago I wrote an article titled “What’s Next?” This article laid out a very well-crafted and thought-out timeline for the next four years’ journey to Portugal. It was pretty picture perfect. Well, God has drastically changed that timeline. I guess He wants us there sooner than later. For you, our supporters and listeners, we want to fill you in on just how our “What’s Next?” has changed:
March 30, 2022 - Deputation began - I know this was a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t read my article about the “Gift of Grace,” I would recommend that, to get up to date on our first meeting and our first glimpse of the sacrificial giving from God’s people. We have several meetings lined up this summer and plan to increase that number in the fall.
May 15, 2022 - Commissioning Service - to become official missionaries. I picture this similar to an ordination service and I am excited to start this journey praying for God's Hand of guidance and power on us.
May 16, 2022 - We are missionaries! At this point our duties at FBC will begin to diminish. By God’s grace, FBC has been able to hire a new youth pastor, and he will start in June. I think this is such a good thing for the youth of FBC that we will have a good transition period.
May 2024 - Andrew Graduates - We are empty nesters!
Fall 2024 - We head to Portugal.
A few thoughts:
1. Support Strategy
Support raising for missionaries has changed throughout the years. In the past, the majority of support would come from churches. This is a great strategy but modern missionaries would tell you, over 60% of their support comes from individuals. To me this makes sense. For instance, next week I will be going to a church where I know the pastor very well, and the pastor knows me. But other than that, I don’t know one other person in their church and they, likewise, don't know me. They don’t know my family, my hobbies, my likes or dislikes, my work ethic, they don’t know anything about me. This is no one’s fault, and I very well know God could still partner us together to take the Gospel to Portugal. On the contrary, I’ve been serving in the same church for 22 years and I know many people very well and have developed very close friendships. They also know me very well. They know my family, they share in our joys and heartaches that we have and will experience through the journey to Portugal. They know firsthand the servant’s heart that my wife and I have and that we will strive to build a great work for God reaching the Portuguese people. It definitely makes sense that those that personally know us would personally support us. I ask you, the reader, to please pray for us as we reach out to our friends and family. Please pray and consider that maybe you could be the one that God would use to partner with us. Below is a graphic that we will use heavily through our deputation to show our progress and needs. This strategy has proven to be quicker and more efficient. This will help get us to Portugal as fast as possible. To conclude, our goal is to have a balance of individuals and churches on our support team.
2. Deputation Strategy
Initially our plan was to hit the road on deputation and pretty much travel the country. This will be kind of hard now that God has moved up our timeline, and we are doing deputation while our son is still in high school. Our plan is to raise most of our support from churches in the Midwest. This will allow us to travel on the weekends and present our ministry to churches and still be home. This will also allow us to still be involved here at FBC as I transition fully out of my roles. We will probably have a few lengthy tours that are 2 to 3 weeks long but for the most part we will do things on Wednesdays and Sundays.
To be candid, these plans are not as we had planned, but we feel God is very much a part of them and this will allow us to use the next two years productively and ultimately get us to Portugal sooner to continue God's work there.
Our tentative plan, once in Portugal, is to start off in Lisbon as we begin to learn the language and embrace the culture. As I have mentioned before, God has connected us with a tremendous missionary family, David and Sarah Booth, whom we hope to partner with as we transition to our new ministry. Our focus in Portugal will include three areas:
Church Planting
Evangelism and Discipleship
Leadership Development
Will you continue to pray with us that God will guide our every step and that we will be willing to follow Him?