If you are reading this, you are probably well aware of the fact that my family and I are currently preparing to leave the United States as missionaries to children in Honduras. We have been in our fund-raising process since May 2013, and we are closing in on being 100% funded! If all goes well, we will be leaving for language school on May 7, 2014!!
Assemblies of God World Missionaries are given a monthly budget when we receive our approval. This budget includes several different things, like: our salary and our housing allowance (which are fixed amounts, and do not increase if we bring in extra money), medical insurance (which is not cheap, but very important because many countries will refuse to treat you without an advance cash payment of several thousand dollars, which the insurance pays on our behalf), schooling for our boys (which is not free, or cheap, if we want it to line up with the US high school and college systems), and money to do ministry work with. (If you would like to see a breakdown of our monthly budget, please let us know!) All in all, our budget is around what it takes to run a small church, and there is only 5 of us!!
In order for us to receive our final clearance to leave, we have to receive monthly financial commitments that equal the amount of our budget need. These commitments can come from churches, businesses, individuals (about 2/3 of our commitments are from individuals, like you!), or almost any other type of group. Our prayer is to have 100% of our commitments by May, so that we can be in the next group at our language school.
Right now, we have raised just under 70% of what we need! We are very excited by this, but we know there is still a lot of work to be done! We really feel like the month of February will let us know if we are going to make it into the May session of school, or if we will need to wait until September. We have some potentially large commitments that could be finalized in February, as well as some big events that we will be attending. If each of these things works out well, we could move forward a significant amount during the month of February!! If this happens, we will begin the process of closing things out here in the US, and making the final preparations for our move!
February is a small month, but for us, it has HUGE potential!! Will you please help us pray that we will see some HUGE leaps forward this month? Will you help us pray for favor with the pastors and individuals that are considering monthly support for our minstry? Will you help us pray that many of the verbal commitments that people and churches have given us will translate into official commitments during the month of February? We believe that prayer changes things, and so we are asking for you to help us pray! We need this little month to bring us a BIG miracle!!
If you have been considering monthly support for our ministry, there is no time like the present!! There are a few different ways to set up support:
1. Mail in a check or money order each month. You will receive a regular statement with a portion to detach and return with the enclosed envelope. To set that up, just click HERE.
2. Basically the same as as option #1, but with help! Just email or call us with your name, address, and the amount you would like to give each month, and we will fill out the paperwork for you! You still get the statement, and mail in the check. You can reach us at (801) 243-1282 or andy@smithmissions.net
3. Automatic payments with your credit or debit card. Payments will automatically be made for you in the amount you choose! You just need to remember to update your card info when it expires! The extra bonus here is that you don't have to remember to give, and you can even get points on your card for giving! To set that up, click HERE.
Also, remember that everything you give is tax deductible!!
With all that said, our main request here is for prayer! Will you help us pray that February is a month of progress for our ministry? We really want to close-out this process because we feel such an urgency to begin working with our students in Honduras! We are hoping that this tiny month will have a HUGE impact!!
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