We're Headed to France!

It's very surreal to announce that we'll be leaving for France one week from today! God has been so good to us. We have raised $10,000 in a few short months, gotten our passports, booked our flights, hotels, and trains. So many people contributed to this miracle, and we are grateful beyond words!

We'll have three days in Paris and the rest of the time we will be in Clermont-Ferrand. The last few weeks we've been reading travel books, devotionals, studying French and trying to keep it all in perspective. We don't just want this to be a great vacation, or to get lost in a whirlwind of events. We desperately want God to move in our hearts- in us, our kids, and in the people of France.

Please pray for us over the next few weeks- for protection, for all the details to come together, and especially that God would do an amazing work in and through us (and in spite of us!). We are so excited to watch this journey unfold before us, and we can't wait to see what God has in store!

On top of the Eiffel Tower in 1996, my first trip to France

Update: Final Push!

Bonjour!

We wanted to let everyone know where we stand right now:

1. We have 87% of our budget so far. This leaves us $1290 left to raise in 2 weeks!

2. We leave in a little over 2 weeks! (July 18th)

3. We are really excited!

It seems like all we can do and think about right now is this trip to France. We have been in communication with our team there and with the family we will be staying with. We even have a list of worship songs in French to practice! For some more details, visit our website: www.liveconnectgrow.com.

This past week has been a real roller coaster ride. We have both felt very heavy at times and random problems seem to arise- like one of the windows on our truck shattering, our dryer going out, and the couple who hosted our party on Saturday was in a serious car accident on Friday.

Yet despite all of these efforts to distract and defeat us, we can feel our faith and our intimacy with God growing. I love seeing the amazement in our kids' eyes as they hear about God's miraculous provision day by day. They pray with such simple faith and sincerity for courage to share the Gospel with the children in France. And their child-like faith is a great reminder to us that our heavenly Father has not brought us this far to leave us undone.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to embark on this adventure that He has laid out before us. We ask you to specifically pray for:

* Our hearts and minds to be prepared to minister, and for the people we will be ministering to

* Unity with our entire team (we'll meet for the first time in Clermont-Ferrand)

* ALL of the logistical details to come together- hotels, trains, misc. things that we will probably forget :)

*Opportunities for our kids to see how God wants to use them in a real way

* The rest of the financial support that we need for the trip to come in

For those of you that have given, thank you!!! For those of you that still want to give, now is the time to be part of our miracle! As God keeps reminding me, "Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it" (Heb. 11:1). Thank you for partnering with us in prayer and support!

Much love,

Ted, Michelle, Emily, Daniel, Timothy & Judah