I think tonight was the last of our big meetings in the Kansas area! It has been a crazy past few weeks.

It has gone something like this. Drive to Kansas City: stay the night; drive to Newton. Group meeting, group meeting, garage sales. Drive back to Kansas City for group meeting: stay the night; drive back to Newton for another group meeting… !!!

Like I said, crazy. But God is good, tonight and last night there were a number of people who seemed very interested in the ministry and have said they wanted to keep in touch, and even a few said they would consider donating!

Keep praying for an increase in ministry partners: both prayer and financial supporters. Thanks to a few wonderful friends in Newton, we’ve been able to meet a lot of new people and share the vision of Málaga Media Center. And, as good or as bad as our presentations go, it’s really up to God to create a response.

We have been very encouraged from tonight and last night’s meetings, so praise God, it was not anything that we did!

Friday we go BACK to Kansas City, spend the weekend there, and head out for CA on Monday morning. Where we will fervently start looking for a reasonable car on craigslist so we can get to our next destinations…

Thanks for your prayers and for following what we’re doing!

Kirsten and Tim

Today being Mother’s Day (in the US) we’ve decided to announce to the world the big news of our pregnancy! The baby is due in November, changing our original plans and adding yet more uncertainty and prayer needs. But we know that only God could have timed this to take place while we were in the US near friends and family, and for that we are so thankful. Who would have guessed that within the first month we were back in the US we would discover news like this?

Below are some updated prayer requests, please know that your prayers are so important to us! God is sovereign, but the prayers of his people are not in vain.

–Tim and Kirsten–

Updated Prayer Requests:

1. Financial: We are still well below our minimum target for monthly support. Please continue to pray for God to provide new monthly supporters, one-time gifts, etc. We trust in His ability to provide for our needs.

2. Safety in Travel: As we continue to drive between destinations, this remains a need. God has been so good in keeping us safe on the many miles we have traveled thus far. We fly back to CA on the 25th of May, but have plans to do more traveling within California in June, so safety continues to be a request.

3. Spanish Residency / Visa issues: With the news of our pregnancy, and our continued need for support, we have decided that it would not be in our best interest for Tim to return to Spain for his visa. He would either need to fly back and forth twice or remain there for three months while waiting for it to be approved, and we do not have the money or time for that. Instead, we will reapply together as a family after the birth of our baby in November.

4. Housing / Transportation: While awaiting the birth of our first baby we will be continuing to pursue support to return to Spain. We are in need of a place to stay and a vehicle to drive for the remainder of the time we are in the US. We are looking at living in Austin, Tx for the summer and moving back to California in the fall to be near family. Of these two needs, the biggest and most urgent need is reliable transportation. Please pray for God’s provision.

Thank you for your prayers. Your encouragement is so much appreciated.

Well it’s been a while! We’ve gone many places and God has done lots of things we could not have anticipated. Lets see if I can sum it up.

After Memphis, we drove to North Carolina where we stayed with family about 30 minutes from Charlotte. We were there a total of three weeks, including Easter weekend. During that time I (Kirsten) flew back to California for a week to be with friends and family after the death of a friend, while Tim remained in North Carolina and had an opportunity to share about our ministry at a church meeting.

From Charlotte we drove to Raleigh, NC to connect with a friend we’d never met yet had been connected with through a totally divine way (it’s a long story!). We stayed the night there, then spent a weekend in Washington DC for a few days rest and some sightseeing. Unfortunately, it was really hot that weekend, so we didn’t do as much as we may have, had it been cooler.

Next we drove north to Cumberland, Maryland, and stayed with friends for a few days, on our way to Grove City, Pennsylvania. In Grove City we put together a Spanish tapas event for the inter-cultural club at Grove City College, which my brother attends. After Grove City we drove across the state to Allentown, PA, to speak at a church that Sunday and pursue other opportunities there.

After Allentown, we drove to Dayton, Ohio, have been here for the weekend, and will be driving out to Kansas City, MO in the morning, then on to Newton, KS the next day!

It has been one crazy ride God is taking us on, one that we could not have expected or planned ourselves. Please see our next post for even more news, and some prayer requests.

The difficult decision was made to remove Brittany’s respirator, as it was only prolonging the inevitable. She passed away quietly on the evening of April 4th, surrounded by friends and family. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday April 18th, details available on the following website: http://prayforbrittany.blogspot.com/.

All of this happened while we were traveling; we saw her in California in February, found out she was in the hospital while we were in Texas in March, prayed fervently while following her physical decline while in Tennessee, and heard of her passing the day after arriving in North Carolina. I have strived to be moral support and prayer support to her family and her closest friends who have stayed by her side each day of this difficult journey. I checked all electronic avenues of information available multiple times a day hoping to find a glimpse of good news from our friends who were with her at the hospital.

Helpless to help, yet not helpless at all.

I don’t know why I was meant to be traveling the other side of the US while a dear friend was dying in a California hospital bed. I do know that the support I was able to give, the fighting I was able to do on her behalf, was such that it could be done from anywhere in the world. Prayer, communicating the need to prayer partners around the world, and encouragement of friends can be done from anywhere. God was in control of the situation, regardless of my physical location. I know that. I know that now and I knew it then, as difficult as it was to understand.

God is a sovereign God. I don’t understand in my own knowledge why he chose to use me in a long-distance support role to her, but he indeed works in mysterious ways. Even thinking back, I realize this. When I first heard the diagnosis of the physical illnesses that would shadow Brittany’s bright life over the following six years, I was even then in another country - on the other side of the world from her and our group of friends, helpless to do anything but pray. I followed her ups and downs over the years, often from a distance, at times in person. Living in Europe for the past three years with a few trips back to the US made it difficult to culture friendships that were anything but long distance. That was something I had intended to make up for during our time back.

I thank God for the opportunities he gave me to show his love to Brittany. Praying for her time in YWAM while on the floor of our living room in Spain, chatting over instant messenger, occassional emails, a few bright sparks of personal interaction, fervent prayer and tears while on the floor of the guest room in Tennessee… although I in my flesh have wished for more time, I know that God used me and our relationship, and sovereignly planned the steps we would take.

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me. …

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Psalm 139

Trusting His Purposes

When realizing that God’s plan was not to leave her on this earth, I began to see that I was supposed to return to California for the memorial service, while Tim stayed here to pursue our support-raising endeavors. My role of long distance support will now be one of personal support. Tim and I were both in agreement, and started making plans in faith, knowing that if we have trusted God to provide and direct each step of this trip so far, he would not fail to do the same for what I had been convicted to do now.

Praise the Lord for two big answers and confirmations:

1. Tim is scheduled to speak at a church the day after I fly to California. (But what about me? Don’t I always do most of the talking?) Well, God planned it perfectly so that Tim would receive an enthusiastic offer to speak about our ministry for the duration of a men’s group meeting - which I would not be present for even if I had stayed! Yes, this will be the first time he has had to do something this involved, but I have confidence that he can do it, with God’s help.
2. Through a generous gift, God has provided two-thirds the cost of my plane ticket, within a day of our buying it!

Yes, I am going “home” for a week, and yes we are still here raising support. It just so happens that for one week my husband’s and my ministry will be moving in different directions, ordained by the same God.

Though our God is beyond my understanding, two things I will say: Yes and Amen.

Thank you to the many around the world who are praying for our dear friend Brittany. It means a lot to us to know that she is covered in prayer from Spain, Canada, and across the US, in addition to being surrounded by a group of loved ones at the hospital in California.

Below is a website where you can follow her status and show your support.

http://prayforbrittany.blogspot.com/