This is Tabi, finally sitting down to write a newsletter, and chasing away any excuses that try to detract me from my purpose.
Before I begin a run-down of the last few months, I need to update you on a few things. We no longer live in Columbus. As of July, we moved into a small city called Wellsville. It sits on the side of the Ohio River, facing West Virginia. Our apartment lies one street up from the river. Since we live in the upper part of the apartment, we get a pleasant view of river, although I suppose it would be nice not to have to peer through the trees to see the water.
Mike and I have moved onto Stage 2 of our support-raising process. We no longer have part-time jobs to keep us away from our real goal, and we're living off the support we've already raised. If money gets too tight, I'll get a job and let Mike continue to raise support. We hope, however, that won't be necessary.
The summer heat permeates the air almost every day. As the days progressively get warmer, we slowly adjust to our new schedule of focus on the mission. Wednesdays are dedicated to either visiting churches or working on materials for the mission. Sundays, we revisit churches that we visited on Wednesday, or visit a new church altogether. The rest of the week is usually reserved for scheduling meetings, attending to our everyday needs, or good ole' R&R. Picking up from where I left off on the last newsletter, here's the run-down of our last few months.
March
We decided to begin attending a Hispanic church in the area. One Sunday, the preacher asked Mike to give the Communion meditation . . . about five minutes before the service. Also, I (Tabi) typed up a little survey, to help me better know how to go about setting up guidelines for my ministry in Chile. If you'd like to see the survey, go to this link. If you can't click on the words "this link," try copy-pasting the following link into your web browser: http://www.xanga.com/MK_
April
We began having meetings with our forwarding agent and our missions board. We not only met with our missions board, but we also consulted a CPA to make sure that our taxes are straight and above-board. Floundering through the rules of the IRS, we found, is comparable to navigating the back roads of Kentucky with broken compass.
May
Meetings with our Missions Board continued. During this time, we tried to stay with one church, at least until we could set everything up for a smooth transition into Stage 2 of our support-raising. We learned during this time that many of the rules set up for missionary taxes and tax exemption came about because some missionary committed some unforgivable IRS crime for which there was no rule, and a rule came into being.
June
We celebrated our anniversary on the third of the month. Two years for us! The pace of our life began to pick up, too. The one-year lease for our apartment would end in July, so we began to think about moving to another place. We needed a cheaper place to live, because living off our support and quitting our jobs would lower our income considerably. Mike found an ad online for two apartments, one in Salinesville and one in Wellsville. We drove out to look at the one in Wellsville. Not only was this apartment bigger than the one in Columbus, but they would charge us half the price and include utilities in the price of the rent. Wow!
One of the churches we attended regularly let us know that they would pick us up for support.
July
That brings us to the eventful month of July. Two days before we moved, our apartment flooded. We awoke to find many of our boxes (and everything in them) soaked. Fortunately for us, the boxes stored in our bedroom remained dry. If you'd like to read more about it, go to this link. If you can't click on the words "this link," try copy-pasting the following link to your browser: http://www.xanga.com/MK_
Our transition into Stage 2 of our support-raising has not gone quite as smoothly as we hoped, but we're doing all right. We have visited three churches so far this month. All of the churches have received us enthusiastically, and referred us to other churches with equal enthusiasm. One church we went to offered us donuts before Sunday School. Before we could finish our donuts and coffee, they told us that they had been wanting to support a missionary, had been talking about it on the way to church just that morning, and would add us to their bulletin for next Sunday. At another church, Mike met the president of Northeast Ohio Bible College. After some conversation, they exchanged emails and phone numbers so that Mike could apply as a professor at the college. The other church has already had us speak there, and the preacher lined Mike up for a sermon. Overall, our experience with the churches in this area has been a good one.
We thank you all for your support of our mission. I know that some of you support us with money, and all of you support us in prayer. We know that the mission cannot thrive without prayer, so we feel very grateful for your conversations with God on our behalf. Our way of raising support is not by asking. We believe that God will lay a desire to help on the hearts of people. Those who want to give will give, whether we ask or not; those who do not want to give will not give, whether we ask or not. You see, then, why we cherish your prayers. When God moves the hearts of His people, anything is possible.
The prayer requests and praises we lay before you are the following:
- Pray that God will keep us strong as we work through this process. It takes a great toll on our energy, faith, and budget.
- Pray about the possibility that Mike will teach at a college. The experience would be valuable.
- Pray that this stage of our mission will move as quickly as possible.
- Thank God that we have had such a great success rate. His workings in our lives have astounded us on every turn.
- Thank God that we have found good connections that have helped our process.
- Thank God that we have good friends and families to support our decisions.
In Him,
Mike and Tabi Boyce
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