You Have Our Hearts!

Well, tomorrow some missionary friends of ours are leaving for their appointed country. We haven't met them in person yet, but we are excited to do so. We've watched them post on facebook about selling everything they own. We've watched them post on facebook about saying their good bye's to family and friends. We've also watched them post on facebook about packing the 15 suitcases that they are allowed to take with them as they move their family. It has been exciting to watch! Everytime I see their posts I put myself in their place. I think to myself, oh how exciting this must be! I can't wait to be so close! Although I have to admit, the posts of their good byes made me teary eyed....because I know some day soon we will be in their shoes. As they posted saying good bye to parents, siblings, friends...again, I put myself in their place...and I am not sure I can imagine how difficult this must be. And yet, we can't get away from it as a family. We all (well, those of us who can talk) say everyday..."we just can't wait to get there!" "we wish we were moving today!" We are all so excited to be in Swaziland! Our friends who are leaving tomorrow, the Goodlings, are also moving to Swaziland. We will all be working together, along with the Drews, Amanda Koll, and the Myers. Swaziland, you have our hearts, and we cannot wait to be there! Thanks to all of you who support us with prayers and finances. It's an honor to be able to serve in this capacity. We are beyond excited for all that God is doing and is going to do in that country. And to the Goodlings, we will see you on the other side of the world just as soon as we can!

Our Favorite Thing

As we travel and itinerate one of our prayers is that we will minister to the churches that we go to. More than just raise funds from them, we want to bless them. Raising support is a necessary part of what we do. We have to gather the cash budget to get us to the field and monthly pledges to keep us there. It is not a dread to us or burden to us to raise money. I don’t know that I would call it a joy yet, but it is what it is.

I guess, offering people the opportunity to give and partner with us financially is ministry. I’m not sure there is any greater discipline for the heart than the obedient investment of our finances. Jesus did say that where we invest our money reveals the position of our heart. I have always found it funny that Jesus had so much to say about money, but if a minister does these days he’s considered a crook.

Nonetheless, raising money is fine and we embrace it as a part of what we do, but we love to be a blessing to people in other ways. To leave something with them that encourages and strengthens them really is our aim. We are noticing a couple of very interesting things though. God is taking care of the finances. As we simply share the need without violating our conscience by being obnoxious or pushy, He’s speaking to people. We are also noticing that God is using these churches to minister to us way beyond money!

Our favorite thing about itinerating so far is that at the end of almost every service, the church gathers around us and prays. Oh, it is so awesome! They pray these amazing faith filled prayers for our ministry. They pray these powerful prayers of protection. THEY BLESS OUR CHILDREN! As I’m sitting here with tears on my cheek, I’m reflecting on the things that have been spoken over my children and their ministry to Swaziland. Dez and I are not in this alone, our kids are a part of this team. We knew that, but we are so thankful that others know that to.

Your financial support is such an encouragement to us. We can’t get there and stay without it. However, your prayer support is our favorite thing!

RF

Our most asked question....and the answer. :)

The question I am asked the most is: “So when are you moving to Swaziland?” This simple question makes perfect sense but the answer is not so simple. I often respond by saying, “When we get our budget raised.” However, I am finding that most people don’t really understand what that means. I think they get that we need money to buy food and rent a place to live, but aren’t really clear what else is involved. After all, isn’t it much less expensive to live in Africa!

Imagine all of the expenses related to running your household, not any extras just the basic things. Then add to that the cost of education for your children because that is not free in Swaziland. When you’re thinking of the basics don’t forget everything from health insurance to toilet paper. Think of everything. Once you have that in mind, think of the expenses related to running the daily operations of your office, a ministry, or nonprofit organization. Things like office supplies and gasoline to get to places of ministry.

There are the one-time expenses like flights to the field and flights home three years later (there are six of us- btw). The cost of setting up a home and shipping stuff to the field is also included in our budget. There are deposits, visa fees, etc. The mission we are a part of is so helpful and gives such great assistance. WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR THE TEAM WE ARE A PART OF! They have our back and we know that. They help us keep our costs down, but even with their help our monthly budget is substantial. The cash budget is also substantial.

We have to raise all of this before we go to the field and for our first term we go for three years. So we have to find people who are willing to partner with us monthly for 3 years and how ever long it takes us to raise the budget. This can be hard because for some folks a monthly commitment for that long is hard to imagine. The quicker we get people to come on board as monthly supporters and get the cash budget raised the sooner we get to the field. The benefit of that is that less money is wasted itinerating and less time wasted before we get feet on the ground meeting the need.

So people often ask next what our greatest need is. My answer is daily prayer warriors and monthly partners. We need people who will come along side us and through our Missions organization support us monthly starting now. We need people who will hold us up in prayer daily.

I hope this answers the question and I would be happy to discuss it further with you if you have any more questions.
Randy Freeman (follow me)
www.lifeforswaziland.com

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home! We spent the last 3 weeks in Springfield, Missouri at Pre Field Orientation. We loaded up the family, and all that that entails, and drove to Springfield on June 12th. The seven hour trip took 8 hours, as we had to stop many times for diaper changes, snacks, and the feeling of going out of our minds if we did not. We finally arrived in Springfield around 3 p.m. and commenced to getting registered for orientation. As missionary candidates, we were required to all stay in the dorms at Central Bible College. I will get to the good times that we "endured" there in a moment. :) One of the first things we did at orientation was go up to medical processing so that Hudson and Olivia could have their blood work done. They took it like champs! 3 large viles filled each, and no tears. Clearly they did not inherit this from me. From there we unloaded the van into our lovely 2 room dorm "suite". Memories were made there that will surely last a life time. We were lucky enough to share the hall with what had to be close to 20 other babies, toddlers, and their equally as enthused as we were families. I don't think there was a time on that hall when at least one baby wasn't crying. Mostly, I was just thankful when it wasn't my own....and terribly sorry when it was. There was much misery in the dorms. As our beds were very loud and springy. At first we had no chairs, but some our friends shared theirs after the first week....when we made our "need" known. :) There was no Internet in our room...this was terribly unfortunate. We felt like we were being prepared for a third world country or something. This made sense for us, considering where we are going...but it made us feel sorry for our friends going to Europe. Why would they need this kind of preparation? Anyway, moving on....that night we had dinner with the legendary Bill Moore and his lovely family. We enjoyed getting to spend time with them, it's always great to talk to veteran missionaries! The next day we got up early and went to a church that had invited all the missionaries that were at orientation to come and be their guests. This church's heart for missions was amazing! They let each one of us share what we were going to be doing in the countries we were going to. They also gave us gifts, and prepared a wonderful lunch for us. They blessed every one of the family's children with an individual gift, and had a drawing for family prizes. We won a dual dvd player for the van! Their out pouring of love was unbelievable! Thank you Life 360 Church!



The next three weeks, for Randy and I, were filled with cultural studies, dental visits, forums, dinners, area director meetings, educational specialist meetings, U.S. relations meetings, church services, a class on how to fill out an IR, choir practice, and the list goes on and on. The kids' three weeks consisted of physical exams, dental visits, swimming, cultural studies, bowling, camping for Hudson, going to the zoo, barn swinging, Silver Dollar City, a Branson show, making crafts, and meeting lots of other missionary candidates' kids. They had a little more fun than we did, but really, we greatly enjoyed getting to spend time with all of the other candidates, veteran missionaries, and our area directors. We love the people that we are working with in the region of Africa, and the people in the South Africa area are just icing on the cake! God has blessed us with so many new friendships....we are overwhelmed! In a good way. :)



Thursday night we had our official commissioning service. It was beautiful to see all of the missionaries as their names were called to serve in places all over the globe. So many of them had become dear friends over the 3 weeks we were at PFO. It was hard to say good bye to some of them...as we know we may never be with them on the same continent again. Fortunately, we live in a day and time when Facebook can keep us close....cyberly speaking of course.



Thank you so much for praying for us over the last month. We have been so blessed in so many ways...we stand in awe of our Lord. He is good and He is faithful. We are honored that He loves and takes such good care of us.