Counting the Blessings of 2011

When you are working towards a goal, sometimes it's easier to focus on how much farther you still have to go instead of looking at how far you've already come. While we're still on our journey to the mission field, the Lord has done some amazing things to get us to where we are today. I thought I would look back over 2011 to remember all the ways the Lord has been faithful to complete that which He has called us to. Here are just a few highlights:

February
We formed our encouragement team, which we have since met with every other month for prayer and accountability.

March
Our whole family attended second language acquisition training in NC.

April
We were blessed to be given a car, which allowed us to sell our other car and pay it off, along with the last of our credit card debt.

May
Stephen went part-time at his job to allow more time for support raising.

Our family moved out of our apartment and into a rental house with a month-to-month lease, which means we won't be locked into a long-term rental agreement when it's time for us to depart for the field.

July 
The whole family attended our final training at the TEAM home office in Carol Stream, IL.

August
Thanks to a generous financial gift, Stephen and I were both able to quit our jobs to raise support full-time.

September
Our 90x40 Challenge ended, resulting in 40 new partners joining our team over 90 days for a total increase of over 18% in our monthly support.

We released a professionally-produced video to highlight the spiritual need in Italy, which has opened doors for us to share about the ministry God has called us to.

November
We officially crossed over the 50% mark in our support raising.

December
To date, the Lord has provided 52% of our total monthly budget and 27% of our outgoing expenses!


It has been a great year, full of God's faithfulness! We're so grateful and are looking forward with anticipation to see what He will do in 2012.