February 2021 Update: Full Steam Ahead

Dear Ministry Partners,

Starting with this newsletter, we are going to focusing our prayer updates on three main areas: ministry, family, and fundraising. We want to keep you posted on all three of these areas in the coming months and years to help you prayer and partner with us well.

Ministry

Unfortunately, we decided it was best for Chris to cancel both of his trips to Hawaii this winter and spring. With all of the COVID variables, it was not possible to accomplish the goals of these trips, so we sadly had to pull the plug. The next planned trip to Hawaii is in July when plan to move back (!). However, there are three couples heading to Oahu in March to pray about whether the Lord might have them move there to join us. Pray for the Irwins, the Figgers, and the Larsons to have wisdom in discerning whether they'd like to be a part of our team.

Even though we haven't been able to get there since September, all of our ministry plans are full-steam ahead. We've now accepted six students into our BCS programs and are making plans to re-launch our preaching workshops in the fall.

I'm including a picture below that a friend in American Samoa passed along. They have been trying to minister a group of Chinese nationals, and I was able to get them some copies of The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses in Mandarin. Pray that the Lord uses this opportunity to reach Mandarin speakers in American Samoa.

Be praying for Chris as he continues to teach at Bethlehem College & Seminary through the semester and has a few writing projects he is working on as well.

Family

On the family front, we are plugging away at home school and beginning to pray about school options back on Oahu. We have some good potential options and are praying for open doors and wisdom on that front.
Luke is continuing to work at Chick-fil-a, Simon is playing basketball for a local home school team, Elliot just completed a science project on Rubik's cubes, and Noah is working on his letters and playing a lot of Uno these days! Please keep praying for the boys as we plan and prepare for the transition back to Hawaii.

It has been fun to have Katie's family around the last few days to celebrate her birthday (February 2). We are very grateful to God for supportive families who are excited about our ministry in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.

Fundraising

We are also grateful to God for the way he has been providing for our ministry. We recently decided to increase our budget a little to help cover some school costs for the boys, but even with this increase, we are still very close to fully funded. We're continuing to pray that God would provide several more individual partners and churches. Please let us know if you'd like to get involved!

As a heads up, in March we plan to shift our attention toward raising start up expenses. We hope to raise a substantial amount so that we can not only move back, but also set up a home office as the ministry base and the beginnings of our pastoral resource center. Stand by for more info on that in the coming weeks, but please be praying that the Lord would provide additional funds for us to launch well.

We praise God for all the ways that he provides through the prayers, giving, and encouragement of his people. Thank you for being a part of this ministry!

Yours in Christ,
Chris and Katie