Well friends, it's been a while. So much has happened and we are excited to share it with you. Since coming home from Ireland, a lot has changed. One of the biggest changes is that we moved out of Ashland and back into the Akron/Medina area. This was a tough decision to make but we felt like it was the best choice for what we think God is doing in our life. We were excited to own our own home and settle down but God made it clear that we are not done with missions. We felt that the best way we can prepare for this is by getting aggressive with paying off debt. We have three degrees between the two of us so we have a large amount of student debt. Thankfully, Patrick's dad has space in his attic for us to make a small apartment. By moving here, we are saving a significant amount of money and have already made some large debt payments, praise God! I know it seems odd to move back in with a parent, and we feel that too. However, at this point we are excited to be weird for the sake of what God has planned for us! Also, since we are back in an area where we have several neighbors, Patrick and I have committed to knowing and loving them the best we can. We hosted a neighborhood cookout for Labor Day and (with the help of Patrick's dad and some neighborhood friends, Larry and Renay) gave out free hot dogs and s'mores along with candy for Halloween.
I mentioned earlier that God made it clear to us that missions is still an area of focus. This came from a conversation that was had with us from the volunteer France team leads at our church. They approached us several months ago about taking over as the leads of that team. After some time to talk and pray about this, we agreed to take on this role. We approached the leadership at Grace Church who were very excited and approved the change. Our role is to plan the trips, prepare the members of the team who are going, and lead the team during our trips to France. If you have been following our journey with missions, you know that it started with France, took a detour to Ireland, and now we are back to France. We didn't expect that God would take us to Ireland to prepare for France but it's been so fun to His plan unfolding.
Our upcoming trip to France is leading a trip of young adults to Lyon, France where we will be hosting an English Camp for school age children of the community. The church in Lyon is excited to have us and we are so thrilled to have a trip in the works! Our church in Medina, Ohio has been partnered with France for several years but due to Covid and other factors, we have not sent a team since 2019. This is a long time coming! Our trip is tentatively planned for early July of 2024. We are not fundraising yet but that will come soon. If you want to financially partner with us, we ask that you give to the team as a whole instead of us individually.
We will have a lot more details about the July trip in future blogs. Thanks so much for coming along with us as we adventure for God.