The plan...

OK, here's the plan for this year in regard to our mission.  We recognize that, even though we have experience with education, with health care, and with church life, we have never been on the mission field (except for Lisa, who has been on a short-term trip with TORCH missions to Honduras).  There's a lot we don't know.  Thus, we need some practical experience.  In order to gain that...

Jeff will be flying to Ukraine for the last two weeks of April to spend time with Andrew and Jenny Kelly in the Kiev area.  Andrew and Jenny run Jeremiah's Hope, which works with children in difficult situations.  They have also started a post-institutional home for orphans who age out and have nowhere to go, to give them support and teach basic independence skills.  Additionally, the timing of this trip is to coincide with a conference on sex trafficking in Eastern Europe, something that is a huge problem in Bulgaria.  At the conclusion of the conference, Jeff will fly to Sofia for a week, spending time with Hristo and Vania Arnaudov (the minister and his wife with whom we will be working) and gathering information on specific ways in which we can minister when we're there.

In the last two weeks of June, both of us will be flying to Sofia again as part of an annual mission group from the West Ark Church of Christ in Fort Smith, AR.  This is primarily a group of teenagers intent on spreading the gospel to other young people in Sofia.  Since West Ark will also be sending their pulpit minister, we are looking into putting on a mini-lectureship.

Lord willing, we will have gathered enough support to make the complete move to Sofia by mid-September.  We are eager to get on the ground, but we also know that God's time is not our time; his blessings will ultimately determine when we are able to go.  We ask for your prayers, your encouragement, and your financial support so that we can get to work!