Have you ever experienced God working through the events and happenings of your life? Many times I take for granted the gifts and good things God sends our way. Our recent experiences have absolutely blown us away and been a confirmation for us of God's calling. We started sharing with people about 6 months ago the monetary needs we had in order to begin serving in Togo. Our first church presentation was only 4 months ago. In march we had less than 10% of our required monthly support. We needed to have 50% of our monthly support by June 30th to attend the next required training. To be honest, I had serious doubts whether we would reach that goal. In the past month through the help of many of you, we have reached and exceeded 50%. We have also been working hard to complete the other assignments. Yesterday we got the official invitation to register for the EMC conference July 28 - August 1!!!!
This is not something that was accomplished through our hard work, though we have been working. It was through God moving and meeting this need! We are so grateful to our Lord and to those of you who are making the monetary sacrifice to partner with us.
The past few months have been a learning experience for us. We are gradually learning more and more to rely on God to provide. He is Jehovah Jireh, and He will provide as we follow Him.
During the trip Natasha and I will be working at the hospital for the first few weeks. Then we will be joining many of the missionaries there and some of the Doctors who are preparing to go for a Missions Summit. We will be discussing the ministries of the two hospitals in Togo, vision, and strategies for the future. We are very excited to meet other members of the team both missionaries and Togolese leaders and hear how God is already working in Togo. Following that meeting we will be traveling to our future home in Mango. We have never actually been there, so this is exciting for us. Pictures can only show you so much, and we are ready to see Mango and the hospital with our own eyes. We recently saw a picture of the hospital and were amazed with the progress.
Please continue to pray for the construction team that they would be able to put the finishing touches on the facilities in time for the opening in January. Please pray for the medical team who is working to get all the medical equipment to Mango and then setup. Pray for our trip in August and September for safe travels, effective ministry, and for God to guide the strategy meeting.
After July, our last required training is offered in April and November of 2015. We must be at 85% in order to attend this training. After that we will have met all of the training requirements and be ready to leave for language school after reaching 100%. We are hoping to be ready to start language school in France at the beginning of the school year (September 2015). For this to happen we must reach the 85% mark before the April training. Please pray about whether God is leading you to partner with us as we take the Gospel to the unreached people groups in Northern Togo, Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso. We know that God is already working in Togo, and we will be there full time whenever He is ready for us to start.
Thank you for all your prayers and the encouragement we have received thus far. We love to hear from you. Our new ministry email is nattierstotogo@gmail.com. Please send us emails with any questions you may have about us, our ministry or Togo. We are beginning to schedule church visits for after we return from Togo in October. If you or your church would be interested in learning more about how to partner with us in ministry, we would love you tell you more in person.
