Calling, Mission & Adventure

Thought I’d post a copy of the support letter Brian & I wrote here just in case we missed any of you who have been journeying along with us up to this point.

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As you likely know, we have been through a roller coaster of restoration, healing, learning, transition and more over the last 2 years.

In late August, we were invited to meet and interview at Paseo Christian Church in El Paso, Texas. It’s a wonderful, gospel centered, growing church plant. After spending five days there with the leadership and the community, we returned home feeling a strong call from God to walk away from our comforts in Oregon.

We know the next year+ of our lives are about to change. After much prayer, fasting and counsel, we have decided as a family, to answer a call to go to El Paso and become a part of the team at Paseo. Jenni has accepted the offer as the Worship & Creative Arts Pastor and Brian will be joining the leadership team as the Family Ministries Pastor. We are moving to Texas the last weekend of January 2011.

Paseo is a 4 year old church plant that not only values community, family, truth and renewal, but they purposefully integrate into the community to engage those in need. Paseo emphasizes life-on-life ministry. Sunday services are for teaching, engaging, worshiping and being in communion…but the real ministry happens outside of Sunday, during the week when many home groups gather and ministry teams are sent out to be a part of the community within the city of El Paso.

We’re impressed that Paseo isn’t a Sunday church. Not only does Paseo have a close-knit relationship with Casas Por Cristo, but they have committed themselves to supply resources to multiple schools, single mother facilities and to the homeless community. This church body, though smaller in size, has been making and will continue to make a huge impact on the city and community of El Paso. We not only want to participate in this movement, but we want our children to experience the compassion in these acts. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, God has given us each a purpose in life and we desire to be in the middle of ours. Nothing is more important to us than to be faithful stewards of the time we’ve been given.

Because Paseo is presently a ‘church plant’, it presents the opportunity for us to have another level of trust with the Lord – this is where you come in.

Our family needs to raise 75% of our income in order to serve Paseo and move forward in the call we are receiving. A list of our specific needs are posted HERE. We know that the Lord will provide for us according to his promise found in Ephesians 3:20.

Jenni has always felt called to ministry and has spent the past 7 years (since 2003) in full or part-time ministry with some breaks to be a stay-at-home-mom. The call to be a Mom is still first and foremost, but God has ingrained a strong passion and desire for leading worship and developing leadership. Though Brian has been focused on supporting the family the last 10 years, he has heavily been invested in serving as a small group leader for adults as well as students. However, Brian has felt a personal calling in the past several years to minister to men and their marriages. Brian will continue pursuing outside employment once we’re in El Paso, but wants to primarily focus on building God’s kingdom and being a great husband and father.

“Restoration” is our life word as we move into this new turn on our journey. God has given us a fresh understanding of how deep His love is for us. He has blessed our marriage and taught us what restoration truly looks like. Restoration doesn’t ever return to what was, but it turns to what the Restorer intends… better, more beautiful than it ever was before. Our Restorer has shown us that He is trustworthy and faithful in all His promises even when our world was completely turned over. We want to use all we have learned and been blessed with to expand His Kingdom and bring hope to the hopeless.

If you feel ready to give your tax-deductible donation now, please CLICK HERE to see the break-down of our support and partnership needs. We’d also love to keep you updated on our lives here via our newsletter. You can subscribe by adding your email address to the “subscribe” section on the left column of this website.

We are so thankful for your time in reading our letter and hope you’ll feel led to support our family in our mission in this next year. God is in the business of miracles… and we’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg of His glory.

Humbly,

Brian & Jenni