February
We formed our encouragement team, which we have since met with every other month for prayer and accountability.

March
Our whole family attended second language acquisition training in NC.

April
We were blessed to be given a car, which allowed us to sell our other car and pay it off, along with the last of our credit card debt.

May
Stephen went part-time at his job to allow more time for support raising.

Our family moved out of our apartment and into a rental house with a month-to-month lease, which means we won't be locked into a long-term rental agreement when it's time for us to depart for the field.

July
The whole family attended our final training at the TEAM home office in Carol Stream, IL.

August
Thanks to a generous financial gift, Stephen and I were both able to quit our jobs to raise support full-time.

September
Our 90x40 Challenge ended, resulting in 40 new partners joining our team over 90 days for a total increase of over 18% in our monthly support.

We released a professionally-produced video to highlight the spiritual need in Italy, which has opened doors for us to share about the ministry God has called us to. Also, the director of an Italian missions organization recently saw the video and asked to show it at an upcoming conference.

November
We officially crossed over the 50% mark in our support raising.

December
To date, the Lord has provided 52% of our total monthly budget and 33% of our outgoing expenses!


It has been a great year, full of God's faithfulness! We're so grateful and are looking forward with anticipation to see what He will do in 2012.

Q: How long will you be on the mission field?

A: The short answer to this question is until the Lord sends us somewhere else or tells us to come back to the US.

When the Lord revealed His plan for our family to plant churches in Italy, He didn't let us in on all the details, including how long we will be there. All we can do is plan for what we know and trust that God will show us if and when He wants us to leave.

When the Lord called Elisha to take up Elijah's mantle, Elisha slaughtered his work oxen, used his plow as firewood to cook them, and threw himself a farewell party (1 Kings 19:19-21). Because he destroyed his means of making a living, there was no turning back to his old life! Elisha may not have known what the future would hold, but if things got tough, he couldn't just go home and pick up where he left off.

That is how we feel about our call to minister to Italians. There is no Plan B! We will sell or give away most of our belongings here and start a new life there, walking out Plan A - God's plan. While we will get to come back to the US every few years, we won't have a home here in the States. Our home and our ministry will be in Italy until the time that God tells us to do something else.