Destination :: THAILAND!!!

As promised, today we are sharing our other BIG NEWS….

We bought the tickets Tuesday night, so it is OFFICIAL! We leave January 18th, and won’t return until April 28th. That’s over 3 months which adds up to…..

In essence we are ‘moving’ there – we will not be staying at a missionary base or anything like that – we will be renting our own apartment there, and buying a car to use for our time there (then selling it back when we leave).

There are many reasons we are going to serve overseas for this season. The #1 reason is to connect the ministry there with The Sound of Hope. Thailand will be our fourth partnership (the others are Swaziland, Kenya, and India). One of the conditions in our partnership agreement is that we must go to these countries and see the program in person that we’ll be supporting. We want to meet the children, meet the leadership, and build a good relationship with them. We want to see the area and culture first hand. With so much corruption in the world, this is VERY important! It insures that we understand the culture there, have a good relationship with the leadership, that the program is doing everything they said they would do, and that the children are well taken care of.

In Thailand we’ll be partnering with a Thai couple and an American couple who have been doing ministry there for 10 years. We’ll be working with two children’s homes – one that already exists, and one that is ‘in progress’. For the second, there’s a chance that we might even be able to help build it!

These couples are dear friends of Rusty’s, and he is SO excited to have this opportunity to serve them. He worked with them in 2007 and 2008 when the World Race went to Chaing Mai, and he’s extremely passionate about them and their ministry!

There are other things we are hoping to do while in Thailand – village ministry, bar ministry (ministering to women in the sex trade), possibly helping with World Race teams that come through, and any other needs God opens our eyes to. We are going to bring Kingdom, and we know God will direct our paths!

Now you see why it is SO important that we make the purchases I explained yesterday. The Sound of Hope needs to be 100% up and running so that we are able to provide for the orphan programs there and share the stories of the people we meet in Thailand. In order to share those stories though, we have to have the media equipment we need (camera, computer, editing software). So please, please pray about giving to our needs!

There are two ways you can support us in this venture. The first is to give to our support account. We still desperately need monthly support and one time gifts! This is how we get paid to continue to do this work, and how we’ll get reimbursed for our tickets to Thailand. We bought the tickets on our credit card in faith that God would provide, so we are currently in debt $2,600 for them. To give towards these needs, click HERE. (or, if you’d like to write us a personal check toward the cost of the tickets, contact me).

The second way to help us is to give towards our Sound of Hope needs. As I explained yesterday, we need a total of $6,250 to move forward. The full breakdown is below:

• $1550 – Legal fees & Filing fees
• 
  $2000 – Camera
  
• 
  $1500 – Macbook pro
• $200 – Quick books (software for our bookkeeping/accounting needs)
• $1000 – Final Cut Pro (software for Rusty’s video editing)

*in the memo line, write “SOH – ADMIN” if you’d like the money to go towards our start up needs listed above.