On the Road with Mike and Sarah

Hello to all of
our Ministry Support Team!

The last few
months have been a whirlwind, but one filled with many blessings from God!  Let’s see….where to begin?

 

We Moved!

Yes, praise the Lord, we have moved!  We are no longer in our tiny apartment with
mold and an oven to small for my pans. 
We were blessed to find a much nicer apartment in town.  We now have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms!  We have a kitchen that is bigger than a
hallway.  And we have no mold!

 

We were able to move into our new
apartment 1 month earlier than we expected because we were given a free month
of rent!  How awesome is that?!?  Also, as soon as we moved out of the old
apartment, someone else was interested in it (shocker, I know, but true none
the less) and we were allowed to break lease early with no penalty – and we
received all of our security deposit back!

 

So, on the 1^st weekend of
July, we moved to our new home.  Mike and
my dad had the pleasure of moving our sleeper sofa (and other many heavy items)
up to our 3^rd floor apartment!  Then, the next week, Mike went out of town to
lead a mission trip and I got to unpack all the boxes.

 

Please
make a note of our new address:  811
Crest Park Point, Gainesville, GA  30504

 

 

Mike’s Mission Mania

Mike was blessed to be able to lead 3
mission trips this summer.  The first one
he led was in June to Washington, D.C. 
He had a small group from Texas that jumped right in to serve.  They did children’s ministry with a local
ministry partner, they did a lot of yard work and cleaning up in some lower
income neighborhoods, and they did prayer walks throughout different areas of the
city.  You can see some highlights of the
trip at: http://washingtondc.myadventures.org

 

Mike then led a trip in July to the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Heart Butte, MT.  He had 2 churches from Washington come to
serve for the week.  They did a lot of
work around the church there.  The
Circuit Pastor had just been there a few weeks, so this church hadn’t even been
used lately.  The group did a lot of activities
to build relationships with the teens on the Reservation.  Basketball is extremely popular on the
reservation.  So, the greatest draw of
the week was the 3 on 3 basketball tournament the group hosted.

 

Then,
just when we thought there was an end to the traveling – Mike was needed to
help lead a trip in Las Vegas!  So, he
flew out to Las Vegas in August and worked with a group from CA.  This was AIM’s first trip to Las Vegas, so
Mike stayed busy keeping 60 teens and leaders painting, working with the
homeless, etc.

 

While
it was a lot of time traveling this summer, it was such a blessing to have been
allowed once again to have a direct hand in God’s work around the country and
the world!

 

 

Sarah’s Busy Summer

I was not
traveling all summer like Mike, but I did have plenty to keep me busy!  In June, a co-worker in accounting was let
go.  So, I inherited all of her work in
addition to my own.  I was basically
doing 2 full time jobs.  There were many
long days and late nights of work for me this summer.  It was fun to throw a move into the middle of
that as well! J 
But, my God is faithful and sustained me through all of it.  In a time when so many people are hunting for
work, God has blessed me with plenty!  I
finally received some help from a temp agency in mid-August – just in time for
me to go on vacation! 

 

 

Vacation

Mike and I were able to take a week away
from the office in August.  We flew out
to Seattle, WA to help my parents move!  I
know, moving isn’t necessarily a vacation – but it was time away from the
office and we got to see some new things on our drive back across the
country.  We also were blessed to connect
with some friends and family while in WA.

 

 

Church

We also have
been blessed to find a wonderful church home in Gainesville.  We have joined The Church at Lanier Hills and
have been assigned to a small group now. 
The group will probably begin meeting in the next few weeks.  Please continue to pray for us as we get
connected and find places of ministry at our new church home.

 

 

A Change in Position

As you know, Mike stepped into upper management
in February as his boss was called to another mission organization.  Mike has been the Director of Ministry
Development this year and has done an amazing job.  But, as we got further into the year, and he
dug deeper into management, he was getting further and further away from “the
field” – what we felt called to.  Even as
this summer ended, Mike was told that he could not lead any mission trips next
summer as he needed to be in the office to handle fires that come up.  This is totally understandable but not where
Mike’s heart for ministry has been.  He’s
a field guy.

 

After seeing God open some doors for the
move, Mike has officially stepped down from management.  He is now going to be “just one of the guys”
and will be setting up ministry locations, leading trips, and working with the
groups as they prepare for the trips. 
This is what we felt called to and we are excited to see all that God
does this next year! 

 

Already Mike has seen his position change.  The fall has seen him on the road frequently,
though not usually more than a couple of nights.  In October he went to Philadelphia to help
move the AIM equipment from a church we had been using for lodging.  A new church had purchased the building and
they needed the space to operate.  While
this does cause us to find another place for groups to stay, it is a blessing
to see the church growing and the building being utilized. 

The
same trip had a stopover in Washington, DC for some additional mission trip
setup.   A week later, Mike flew out to
the Northwest to setup mission trips in the Portland, OR and the
Seattle/Tacoma, WA areas.  He was able to
make some good contacts for ministry and enjoyed getting to spend time with our
friends in Vancouver, WA (where we used to live) and in Puyallup, WA (where my
parents used to live).  These visits were
more than just a great connection with friends as AIM groups traveling to the
Northwest next summer will be staying in our old church in Vancouver and in my parent’s
old church in Puyallup.

 

 

Future

As I type this newsletter out, I am
amazed all over again at how much God has blessed us.  Life is not all smiles and blessings.  We have had some hard lessons to learn along
the way, but that is what makes the blessings even more amazing! 

 

We continue to seek God’s guidance as we
continue in ministry.  We do pray that we
can soon work together more in ministry, allowing me to travel more and to help
Mike on mission trips.  We also are
praying for Mike as he moves into a new role and will probably be traveling
much more.  He will need much wisdom and
insight as he seeks out and works with ministry partners around the world.

 

We continue to seek God as we hope and
pray for children.  We know God has
placed this desire in us for a reason. 
We want to follow God in whatever path He has planned for us.

 

We continue to seek God as we raise
support for the work here at AIM.  God is
already showing Himself as our Faithful Provider and He has utilized many of
you as His instruments.  We are grateful
for the grant we received from Mike’s home church as well as the support many
of you have generously provided.  As
always, financial support is a great blessing. 
However, we are finding out more and more just how critical prayer
covering is. 

 

Please continue to keep us in your
prayers as we serve in general, and please pray specifically for the locations
Mike is working on.  He is directly
involved in setup for

• Portland,
  OR
• Seattle/Tacoma,
  WA
• Washington,
  DC
• Las
  Vegas, NV
• Uganda,
  Kenya, and Scotland (though it is unlikely he’ll have to travel for setup as we
  have great partners in these places)