Setting Sail

Welcome to our blog! We plan to use this as a means of keeping you informed and updated on our life while we are overseas, as well as letting you know about current prayer requests. We know that we can only succeed by having a strong network of people praying for us. We also hope that this will help us as we process our time abroad and discern what God has in store for us.

Our journey will begin in Jerusalem this March. Below is a letter explaining a little more about what we will be up to during our time there.

Also, we are still in the process of raising funds for our time in Jerusalem. If you would like to support us financially, you will find a link below to do so.

God can more easily steer a moving ship than one docked at harbor!

Dear Friends and Family,

We are really excited to share some news about the next phase of our life with you! As most of you know, we’ve had a consistent desire to go overseas and serve God and His Kingdom internationally.  However, we also felt very strongly that we should be debt free before we pursued anything. So we have worked very hard over the last few years to pay off school loans and today we are completely debt free. We have also been deliberate in rooting ourselves in a community that is helping us discern how we could best be used.  After three years of working stateside, we feel it is time to go; to be a moving ship for God to steer. And our first move is going to be to Jerusalem.

Shortly after making the decision to go Jared found out that his company is being dissolved and that he would only have a job there for a few more months.. We feel as though this is God opening up a door to a new opportunity and a new adventure.

Beginning mid- March we will spend three months in Jerusalem living and serving along side Jared’s parents.  Our goal while there is to discern where the Lord may take us and how He may use us. We want our time in Jerusalem to be a mixture of discernment and service.  

The bulk of our time will be spent serving alongside Marshall and Terri Plant working with the Arab people in Jerusalem and the West Bank.  This will likely be a mixture of teaching English, shooting film, and doing Zumba with local women in hopes of discovering people open to the Gospel.   Another vital part of our time will also be devoted to considering our long-term opportunities to serve.

 

First and foremost, we ask for your prayers.  We ask for God to open our hearts and ears to His direction as to where we can serve to the fullest.  We also ask that God would grant us courage and wisdom to take those steps as He lays them before us. We also ask for prayers to surrender fully to God’s will and not allow our own, usually selfish, desires get in the way.

Secondly, we are asking for financial support.  Jared’s parents have graciously offered to welcome us into their home, but life in Jerusalem can be costly and challenging.  We will need a minimum of $3,500 for living costs over three months.

If you would like to partner with us in this journey you can visit http://www.christredeemermke.org/support-us to make a donation (Please be sure to designate your donation to The Plants.) or checks can be made out to Christ Redeemer and mailed directly to them at: 920 E. Townsend St., Milwaukee WI  53212. Our church, Christ Redeemer, will be our sending parish, so please make all donations out to them.  Our church has 501c3 status and your contribution will be tax deductible.

Thank you for taking a minute to share in our journey. We feel confident stepping out in this way: knowing we have a large group of friends and family supporting us through prayer. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to learn more about our trip. You can subscribe to our blog by entering your email address in the Follow By Email bar at the top right of the page.