Leveraging Our Lives

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Mark 8:34–36 (ESV)

A little over a year ago, Carrie and I began a prayerful journey of discovering whether God was leading us to leverage our lives for Gospel impact in an unreached part of our country. Today we sit less than six months away from moving our entire family more than ten hours north to the City of New Bedford, MA. Two of the questions I get the most are: how did you land in New Bedford, MA, and are you dragging your wife to New England? Both are fair. Specifically, the second question, because if you know my wife well you know she has lived on the piece of property we now live on for more than ¾ of her life. The answer to both questions is GOD! God cultivated the desire in our hearts for New Bedford and is intersecting that desire with provision and opportunity. As I realized this was happening, my prayer was that He would also make this clear to my wife and family. Praise God, he did!

Today we are in the throes of all things transition, as you can imagine. Carrie spends most of her day educating our children, helping to create awareness for the ministry ahead of us, and coordinating fundraising meetings for us. Praise God for the Godly woman He’s paired me with. I am still enrolled in seminary, have a full-time job, and spend time each week hosting meetings to grow our partnerships. I have found that creating awareness around the desperate need for the Gospel in forgotten parts of our country is most rewarding. More often than not, I hear, “I had no idea such brokenness and lostness existed in our own country.” I would have said much of the same prior to getting involved with Neighborhood Churches.  The beginning of being part of real change is awareness of the need. Thank you, God, for allowing me to be part of this. 

Today we have about 35% of the monthly contributions we need to relocate and support the planting of a church in an impoverished area of our country. Many might ask, “Why do you need to raise support, and why do you need support for so long?” Another great question! Because there are so few Christians in the New England area, and because New Bedford is so impoverished, it will take time to stand up a church family and cultivate the Biblical understanding of tithing. This is why less than 1% of church planting is happening in impoverished areas. Pray that God will raise up families to partner with us as we go for Gospel impact.

Today, I may ask that you join me in prayer for Ember and Bradley Wilkie (and four kids). They are currently serving as IMB missionaries in an Unreached People Group outside of the US. They left everything and only took a dozen or so suitcases to go and be used by God to share the Gospel in a part of our world that doesn’t know the love of Jesus. Lift them up in prayer and consider sending them a word of encouragement here.