Our
New Address until
March 20,
2009:
Matt and Rachel
Floreen
852
Sun Grove Drive
Camarillo CA
93010
www.AfricaStories.com
info@africastories.com
January
2009
Issue
#3
Please direct
all
financial
support to:
Grace
Ministries Int’l
Grace Community Church
13248 Roscoe Blvd.
Sun
Valley, CA 91352
(818)
909-5700
www.gracechurch.org/ma
gmi@gracechurch.org
Prayer
Requests
We
know that prayer is an essential part
of joining the ministry in Malawi and
faithfully pursing the gifts, talents,
and opportunities the Lord has given
us. Please pray with us!
-
Praise the Lord for giving us such a
wonderful opportunity to serve Him and
love the church!
-
Please pray that we would love Jesus
more every day. This is critical
to everything that we hope to be
involved with in Malawi and the
USA.
-
Pray that we would be able to raise all
the financial support we would need to
be able to depart in March.
-
Pray for safety as we travel over the
next couple of months.
-
Pray for rest! We’ll be busy, but
we want to be effective and useful to
the Lord, both as we meet with people
and churches here in the States, and as
we transition to life in Malawi.
-
Pray for our time with family and
friends in these months, that we can
ministry to them and enjoy the great
opportunities to be loved by them!
Preparation
for Ministry - Sitting under the
Preaching of the Word
In
the last couple weeks, the brevity of
our time here in the States has fueled
our grateful hearts to soak up every
opportunity to sit under the teaching
of God’s Word and to enjoy the
fellowship of the Church. We will
be able to sit under the teaching of
God’s Word and enjoy fellowship while
we’re in Malawi, but the opportunities
here are countless and the
relationships here are deep and of
long-standing.
This past
Sunday we were encouraged in Sunday
School to strive for unity by following
Christ’s example in Philippians 2, and
then in main service we were reminded
from Matthew 7 that the evidence of
true conversion is a life of
obedience. These were powerful
messages and good reminders to us as we
look forward to striving for unity
within the body of Christ, living a
life of obedience, and spurring others
on to obedience. We are so
blessed to receive this training and
encouragement as we prepare to go to
Malawi!
|
The Great
Floreen Roadtrips!
The
time has come - as of today, January
21st, we’re on the road and want to see
you! We’re driving north along the
coast all the way to the Canadian boarder
and will be back in the Santa Clarita
area on Wednesday, February 4th.
After a few days to catch our breath -
and catch up with a couple churches in
the area - we’ll be back on the road on
Tuesday, February 10th, when we’ll drive
as far east as Kansas, to return on
Thursday, February 26th. Along the
way we’ll be connecting with as many
people as we can and speaking at a few
churches. If you’re in the area,
please come and say Hi! or send us an
email and we’ll do our best to find a
time to connect with you!
January 25
Grace
Baptist Fellowship - Lynden,
WA
6-9pm
February 1
First
Baptist Church of San Lorenzo Valley -
Felton, CA
1-3pm
February 8
Grace
Community Church (Foundry Fellowship
Group) - Sun Valley, CA
8:30-10:00am
Placerita Baptist
Church (Missions Committee) - Newhall,
CA
1-3pm
February 15
Girard Bible
Church - Girard, KS
9:30-10:30
February 22
Austin Bluffs
Evangelical Free Church - Colorado
Springs, CO
6-8pm
We
are so excited to share with these
churches, and look forward to seeing many
of you!
Support
We’ve
finished our
jobs
here in California, and
are now “full time missionary
candidates.” Our
salary is coming from the support we’ve
raised, but we still
have a significant amount to raise in the
next couple months. We have already
seen the Lord provide in amazing ways
through many of you, and it’s been such a
blessing to see His provision over the
last couple months. Between our
outgoing (one-time) costs and making sure
we have the monthly support we’ll need,
we’re raising close to $48,000 before we
leave. We’re about 25 to 35% of the
way there, and so excited to see how the
Lord provides the
remainder!
Want
to jump in and partner with us!?
Our greatest need financially is monthly
support. Join us in taking a step
of faith that the Lord will
provide. You can get started by
clicking
here to visit the Support page
on our website.
Shipping
Containers and All Our Earthly
Possessions
There
is something about shipping all of your
earthly possessions to Africa that
suddenly makes an upcoming move much more
real. Over the last couple days, we
have had packers putting all of our stuff
in boxes, wrapping items with large
sheets of paper, and trying to get as
much in the boxes as possible and as many
boxes in the container as possible.
It’s an amazing process!
We
have received a lot of counsel
on this move to Malawi, and everyone
has said: ship all your household
goods. It’s very difficult to get
household items in Malawi, and our
next best option was to purchase
these things in South Africa and
ship them to Malawi. With
purchase prices, shipping fees, and
duty on all new items, that option
is cost-prohibitive.
So,
we’ve spent the last couple weeks making
sure we have everything we’ll need in
Malawi. We’ve bought a few things -
an extra filing cabinet, a new desk
chair, a safe, lots of laundry detergent,
extra toothpaste, new shoes... Just
imagine trying to move to a place that
you knew didn’t have most of the items
you are used to, and the items you can
find there are only found
intermittently. Now imagine trying
to pack for that move. That’s what
our life has been like for the past
couple weeks. “Do they have
dishwashing soap? Will it work
well, or will that be one of the items I
ask short-term groups to bring every
summer? Will I get used to soap
that doesn’t work well?” All that
thinking goes into the simple decision of
whether or not I should buy a large
bottle of dishwashing soap!
But
the decisions are made, the boxes are
packed, the container is on 
its way! We’re homeless for now,
but so loved by friends and family who
are opening up their homes over the next
couple months. Now off on the Great
Floreen Roadtrips!
Want to Know
More?
We’re
keeping up with the blog series on our
website. To see more packing
pictures, read about the funny things
that happen to us along the way and the
deeper theological things we’re thinking
about, and hear about the Great Floreen
Roadtrips, keep an eye on
our blog!
-
Matt and Rachel
|
Floreen
Newsletter Update