Our next steps

Well we've been making some big decisions lately. We've been doing a lot of praying and talking and seeking these last few weeks and we're ready to share with you what our next steps are going to be.

First of all we have decided our time at Belize Mission and Retreat is coming to an end. We have pretty much run out of things to do other than just keeping up the yard and keeping things in order. At this point we just feel like caretakers. There are no more teams scheduled and we're just waiting for the property to sell.

Meanwhile we've mentioned before that we've had several meetings with another large missions organization. We've had 3 meetings with them and have kept in close touch since December. They are going to be starting a new place in Belize and invited us to join them. It came to a point where they were buying land and wanted to know if we were on board, and we decided to tell them yes. We gave our notice here at BMR and started making plans to go home, raise support, and then come back to Belize and build their team-hosting facilities in Belmopan. We even started the application process (some of you have probably been contacted as references.)

And then we felt Lord said 'Wait.'

We prayed and talked and sought advice and had others praying for almost a week. Then Joel woke up one morning and felt the Lord had spoken to him. He told him to stop side-stepping what God had asked him to do.

Some of you know this already, but Joel knows he is called to be a pastor. He has known this for a long time and I've known it for a few years now.

We know we could be used a lot of places, and that the Lord will work through us no matter where we are. But this is where we feel He is telling us to go, we feel it's time to prioritize what God has asked, and move forward in that direction. When we met with you and/or your church one thing we said is that we are not called to a certain people, place or ministry, but we are called to a need. This burden we share for the church to us is becoming one of the most critical needs anywhere today. We don't know where that is going to lead us past this next step or are we trying to figure that out. What we do know is that God has a plan and He will show it to us on His timing.

So we contacted David Pompo whom we've known for over 20 years, who we consider a spiritual authority, has been our pastor, and is going to be associate pastor at his current church. Joel asked him about discipleship. We all prayed about it over a weekend and the answer came back a huge YES :)

We don't have an exact plan. But we have some ideas, Joel would really like to continue what he has done here with ministry where we are going. Maybe getting a couple part time jobs just to get out there and meet people, get to know them and look for any opportunity God provides to minister and or disciple while under the leadership of David Pompo. This is just an idea, nothing is for sure we are just going to trust God on this one. We want to come home and visit all our supporters and supporting churches when we leave here. Then we will plan on moving over to the Detroit area. Joel is not ready to leave Jay yet - he's going to be baptized in June (YES!!!!!) and we definitely want to be there for that.  Joel wants to spend as much time as he can working with him and encouraging him to grow and fully trusting God. Now that the painting of the lodge is done they've been spending a lot of time together and that has been really great. So probably this summer sometime we'll leave here. We're still praying for a buyer so we can be here for the transition and not leave anyone hanging.

So there it is! We don't have details, we still may need to raise some support so Joel can concentrate on learning and being discipled and doing ministry instead of on working full time. We'll figure that out when the time comes. We know it's a little different to ask for support living in the US where we can legally work but it might be necessary in our situation. We know the Lord will work out the details so we're not going to worry about it right now. Of course if you have any questions about any of this feel free to ask, we want to know what you're thinking!

Thank you to all of you who have been and continue to pray for us. We appreciate each and every one of you so much. You can pray the Lord continues to use us while we're here and that we don't lose focus trying to plan things out too much.

Happy Easter!