Hey all – welcome to a new feature on our blog, the PD Weekly! And now the question on your mind almost certainly is… “What’s a PD Weekly?!” So glad you asked!
“Partnership Development,” or ‘PD’ for short, is what we call this season of planning, packing, raising support, ministry, and sharing our vision for seeing Mexico’s unreached given access to God’s Word. And while we keep quite busy, for most people the vast majority of this work happens behind the scenes. So, how can we effectively communicate everything we’re doing? The answer to that question – we hope! – is the PD Weekly.
Amy and I will be writing short weekly summaries to keep you apprised of our activities. This will likely be quite simple: a paragraph of information, perhaps a photo, and a prayer request for the next week. Call it information, accountability, encouragement, or all of the above – but if you’d like to know how things are going, by all means come by and check them out! And never fear: we will also continue our previous practice of posting more involved ministry updates on the blog every two to three weeks.
You can read the PD Weekly right here on our blog, generally every Saturday. If you’d like to receive an automatic notification each time we post a new PD Weekly (or another blog post), please visit our Subscribe page and enter your email address! This will ensure you don’t miss a single update on what God is doing during this time of partnership development.
Now, on to the first edition!
Our first PD Weekly is double-sized, covering the two week period ending on August 24th (the time we’ve been back in Spokane following our recent PD trip to Seattle). It was a bit of an unusual time for our family, as we took a break from our usual practice of meeting with people individually. Instead, we focused our attention almost entirely on preparing for and running our pre-Mexico yard sale!
The sale (last Friday and Saturday) was a huge success: we were able to talk with many people in this area about the need for missionaries in Mexico, and along the way get rid of countless boxes of things we can’t take with us to Mexico! Beyond that, we are incredibly grateful that God provided over one thousand dollars through this sale – which will be an immense help with our visas, moving expenses, and other ministry start-up costs.
Amy and I also had the opportunity to meet with Peaceful Valley’s elders and missions committee, reporting to them on our progress and thanking them for how PVC is partnering with us in ministry. And finally, we’ve seen God providing unplanned (by us!) opportunities for discipling. At different times I ran into five of the kids Amy and I worked with at VBS, and was able to encourage them to continue trusting God when they are afraid (II Timothy 1:7). I also had an opportunity to encourage a brother in the Lord, as we discussed our freedom from the demands of the Law thanks to the finished work of Jesus.
During this two week period, our actual monthly support grew from 33% of our field budget to 37%. The level of total pledged support also grew, and is now between 46-49%.
Praising God: that He sustained us through the very exhausting yard sale!
Prayer Request: for wisdom, as I hope to put together a small discipleship group in the next few weeks.
Benjamin Davenport says
Keep up the good work!