...since we announced we are leaving. A teary, exciting, encouraging week that I'm glad I don't have to repeat anytime soon.
We have received lots of affirmation from folks who believe we will do well as church planters in Canada. I hope so! At this point, the prospect is still equally thrilling and terrifying. But it certainly helps to have so many caring people supporting us as we prepare for this new journey.
I embarrassed myself a bit when I made my announcement Sunday morning. I had thought I would keep it together without much trouble; I ended up blubbering like a baby. I feel bad for the first-time guests that just happened to choose last Sunday to visit. I don't feel bad for the folks who sneak out every week during the invitation: Always stay until the end - you never know what's going to happen!
If I had to do it over again, I would change one thing: There are a few other folks I would have told ahead of time. People we are especially close to that probably deserved to hear our news before everyone else. Of course, the difficulty lies in the fact that if I had told these people, I would then think of others that should probably know ahead of time. There's just no good way of doing it! If you thought to yourself, "Wow! I thought I was closer to Daniel and Amber than to just find out on Sunday morning in a general announcement," you're probably right. We are closer than that, and if I could go back, I would tell a few more folks who probably deserved to know.
While we've had great success getting people to like and follow our social media accounts (and even visiting our website), we are not converting those visits into registrations as prayer partners. Our goal is to have a team of at least 80 people receiving our updates and praying for us regularly. If you haven't signed up as a prayer partner yet, please jump over to the "Prayer Partner" page of the website to sign up.
We have had a few people already making financial contributions. Thank you! It is so humbling to have friends believe in us and contribute to making our dreams a reality. I know as the time for our departure gets closer, the level of support will ramp up. Of course, we welcome gifts given now - as we will detail in a post next week, we receive 100% of gifts given each month, and all money we receive for Canada is going into a separate account and used only for church plant-related expenses.
From the bottom or our hearts, a big THANK YOU to everyone for their love and support over the last week!
Moving 3,000 miles north should be interesting!