Redirection Here We Come

As you know, a few months ago I received an invitation to go on a mission trip to Argentina with the church I grew up in, Grace Brethren Church of Simi Valley. I was invited to come along and get some experience in leading short term mission trips. After some prayer, Ashley and I decided that this would be a great way to gain some practical wisdom that we would be able to bring back to our church in Fallbrook and utilize there. We were very excited about the opportunity—we announced it in church and began raising support.

That was in October. Since then, it seems that the Lord has put up a stop sign. The trip has changed in such a way that it is no longer what we originally thought it was going to be, and because of the new circumstances, Ashley and I have decided not to be a part of the trip. For a week or so, there was much question about whether the trip was still going to happen. Just this week it was decided that the trip will go on as planned, but with a new set of leaders. Because our purpose was to learn from the original leadership, and the nature of our role on the trip has changed, we decided that we would rather use our resources on a mission with our church here in Fallbrook. As you probably know, this was not in my plans, but we are confident that the Lord is working here and is in the process of redirecting.

Speaking of redirecting, Fallbrook First Baptist is in the process of lining up a trip to Nicaragua in June. We believe that God is redirecting our focus from Argentina to Nicaragua. For those of you who graciously donated your money to the Argentina trip, there are a couple options for you. First, you can ask for your money back. We will be able to return to you the exact amount of money that you donated for the mission trip. Second, we can redirect your donation to the Nicaragua trip in June. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll assume that your wish is for your donation to be applied to Nicaragua.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we turn our attentions to Nicaragua. Thank you so much for your generous support.

This was the letter I had to send out to everyone who had donated money toward our Argentina mission trip. I figured I'd post it up here so that you would all know why I'm still in California come mid-January, for those of you who were aware of the trip. Continue in prayer!