So what now? Here's a quick time line of our future plans:
May 20th - appointed by the IMB to serve as missionaries
June 8th - We load our crate which will be heading to Botswana
June 10th - We leave Raleigh, and will be moving between family, friends, and the beach.
July 27th - Headed to Richmond, VA for two months of training.
October 7th - Leaving-flight from Dulles to London, England then to Johannesburg, South Africa and then final arrival in Gaborone, Botswana on October 9th.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Our Call
So why are we going? We have heard this question a few times and we wanted to tell you all about our call into missions. Sorry there are no pictures but please read the following info, we think that it is worth the read.
Brent
During my freshman year at Liberty University I was asked to be a prayer leader by my RA and he asked a question that would change my life. He simply asked, where do you see yourself after 4 years? I tried to think of the best, most spiritual answer that I could think of, and said, well if God gives me 4 good years of school, I will give Him a year overseas. The truth however was different, I had no intentions of being a missionary but wow it was a great answer, really spiritual. I did not care about missions, missionaries, or the people of the world. I took a required mission course and said great, we need missionaries but not me Lord, but God was working on my heart. I finally gave into the call of full time Christian service my second year in school but thought that I would be a youth pastor, not a missionary. I was traveling with a ministry team called Youth Quest and a friend of mine was telling me about the Journeyman program, which is a program for single, graduated college students, to serve for two years. All of a sudden God started to remind me of my promise that I had made my Freshman year and I knew that it was what God wanted me to do.
During my time as a Journeyman I was able to serve as a sports evangelist in Mombasa Kenya. I had been working on my high school basketball team and God had really started to work. When I first started when we did not have practice my team would come to the house and watch basketball tapes from the States. After a while they stopped coming because "He talks to much about Jesus" and started to watch the games at my assistant coach's house, a young man named Robert Mugabe and then God worked on His life and He was saved radically and started to preach Christ to them every time they came over. Well they stopped coming to his house and started to stay at home in a very hard to reach apartment complex downtown. We were all praying that God would work a miracle in order that they will also hear Christ in their homes, and GOD answered our prayers! It was during a school break one day I had two players come to my house, Emmual and Opery. Without even saying anything I knew that God had done something amazing in their lives! I could tell that they had met Christ by simply looking at there eyes. In Kenya there is not much hope for young men, a huge unemployment rate, college very hard to get into, and a large drug and AIDS culture, eyes simply had no hope. But when I looked into their eyes, I could see that they HAD THE HOPE OF CHRIST in their eyes! God had saved them and now they were preaching Christ in the apartment complex that we had been praying for! God is GREAT!
Amanda
I went on my first missions trip between my junior and senior year in high school. I knew at that moment that I wanted to do missions one day. I started praying that God would provide me with a husband who was called to missions. While attending Liberty University getting my BS degree in Biology I took several elective courses in missions and worked in the missions office. After college I went on a short term mission trip to Haiti; I knew this is what I wanted to do but just didn't know where God was specifically leading me. At that time Brent and I started dating, and He told me about his call to go as a Journeyman to go to Africa. A year and a half later I found myself stepping off of the plane onto African soil in Kenya and knowing this is what God had in store for me. We didn't know where God would send us but we both knew one day God would bring us back to Africa and so our journey starts.
Many people don't understand how we can just pack up and take our 2 year old so far away. Honestly all I can say is that when God calls you to do something you have to do it. God calls people to serve in many different areas and this is what God has for our family, so we ask that you would pray for us and pray how God can use you as well.
People need the Lord. Missions is God's heart, He desires everyone, every tribe, every tongue, every people to know Him. Pray how God will use you, is He calling you to pray for the lost tribes of the world, give to missions, reach your unsaved neighbor, or even go and serve overseas? God will answer your prayers! God is Good!
Brent
During my freshman year at Liberty University I was asked to be a prayer leader by my RA and he asked a question that would change my life. He simply asked, where do you see yourself after 4 years? I tried to think of the best, most spiritual answer that I could think of, and said, well if God gives me 4 good years of school, I will give Him a year overseas. The truth however was different, I had no intentions of being a missionary but wow it was a great answer, really spiritual. I did not care about missions, missionaries, or the people of the world. I took a required mission course and said great, we need missionaries but not me Lord, but God was working on my heart. I finally gave into the call of full time Christian service my second year in school but thought that I would be a youth pastor, not a missionary. I was traveling with a ministry team called Youth Quest and a friend of mine was telling me about the Journeyman program, which is a program for single, graduated college students, to serve for two years. All of a sudden God started to remind me of my promise that I had made my Freshman year and I knew that it was what God wanted me to do.
During my time as a Journeyman I was able to serve as a sports evangelist in Mombasa Kenya. I had been working on my high school basketball team and God had really started to work. When I first started when we did not have practice my team would come to the house and watch basketball tapes from the States. After a while they stopped coming because "He talks to much about Jesus" and started to watch the games at my assistant coach's house, a young man named Robert Mugabe and then God worked on His life and He was saved radically and started to preach Christ to them every time they came over. Well they stopped coming to his house and started to stay at home in a very hard to reach apartment complex downtown. We were all praying that God would work a miracle in order that they will also hear Christ in their homes, and GOD answered our prayers! It was during a school break one day I had two players come to my house, Emmual and Opery. Without even saying anything I knew that God had done something amazing in their lives! I could tell that they had met Christ by simply looking at there eyes. In Kenya there is not much hope for young men, a huge unemployment rate, college very hard to get into, and a large drug and AIDS culture, eyes simply had no hope. But when I looked into their eyes, I could see that they HAD THE HOPE OF CHRIST in their eyes! God had saved them and now they were preaching Christ in the apartment complex that we had been praying for! God is GREAT!
Amanda
I went on my first missions trip between my junior and senior year in high school. I knew at that moment that I wanted to do missions one day. I started praying that God would provide me with a husband who was called to missions. While attending Liberty University getting my BS degree in Biology I took several elective courses in missions and worked in the missions office. After college I went on a short term mission trip to Haiti; I knew this is what I wanted to do but just didn't know where God was specifically leading me. At that time Brent and I started dating, and He told me about his call to go as a Journeyman to go to Africa. A year and a half later I found myself stepping off of the plane onto African soil in Kenya and knowing this is what God had in store for me. We didn't know where God would send us but we both knew one day God would bring us back to Africa and so our journey starts.
Many people don't understand how we can just pack up and take our 2 year old so far away. Honestly all I can say is that when God calls you to do something you have to do it. God calls people to serve in many different areas and this is what God has for our family, so we ask that you would pray for us and pray how God can use you as well.
People need the Lord. Missions is God's heart, He desires everyone, every tribe, every tongue, every people to know Him. Pray how God will use you, is He calling you to pray for the lost tribes of the world, give to missions, reach your unsaved neighbor, or even go and serve overseas? God will answer your prayers! God is Good!
Appointed!
We have been appointed by the International Mission Board. We will be serving the Lord in Botswana for three years as Apprentice Missionaries.
We were appointed at Riverside Baptist Church in Denver, CO.
Here we are with two other missionary couples that will also be serving in Sub-Saharan Africa.
We were able to get into the Rockies which were gorgeous!
We even saw an elk, which was huge, it was as large as a horse but looked like a deer, way too cool! Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Our New Niece
We were able to travel to WV this past weekend to meet the newest addition to the Martin Clan. A beautiful little girl named Kali Anne.
She was born on May 1, 2009.
This is her at 9 days old.
This is her with her big sister, Jaiden, and cousin Taylor.
Taylor playing outside.
The family picture, look at all the girls.Saving Money!
Ok, so this blog will not be about saving money but we have to say, we are loving saving money. We have been doing it for a while now, stocking up for Botswana, and just wanted to pass on a few tips, we are truly addicted to saving!
Monday, Brent went to food lion and harris teeter and saved over 110 dollars! It was amazing, and it was the best that we have ever done, we saved 70.35 dollars at Harris Teeter alone!
Example - We picked up Tylenol 8 hour, usally 8.49 for 50 caplets, we got 3 bottles, 150 caplets for only $6.15, and we had coupons for 4 dollars off, bringing the grand total for 150 caplets for only $2.15!!!! That's a savings of 22.45!!! You can see why we are addicted!
So how do we do it, well we visit 2 web sights and they are amazing, it takes a little bit of time to save money but it's so worth it.
The first is the grocery game, This is a service that we pay 15 dollars every 2 months but as you see it pays for it's self in 1 trip to the store, check it out at http://thegrocerygame.com/
The basics of the game is to clip every coupon that you receive and than sign up for the stores that you visit the most and the grocery game will tell you the best time to use the coupon. Your first month is just $1 for as many stores as you would like.The second web sight is done by our friend, Miranda, and she does a great job, before we spend money or go out to eat, we check out her websight, check it out at
Other saving tips
Red Box - We love movies and we love Red Box, only a dollar a night and free movie monday's, it's super easy and super fast to do, and you can even reserve movies online before going to a red box, and drop them off at any location, it makes travel so easy!
Sell it your self - So in the process of heading overseas we have had to sell alot of our own stuff, including our home and our truck and for both of them we sold them ourselves. It was amazing and it truly saved us thousands of dollars! It seems hard but it just takes a little bit of leg work but it's so worth it.
Home - When we sold our home, we saved, almost 10 thousand dollars, by not having to pay a realtor and the buyers realtor. We were able to lower the price, still get the amount of money we hoped for, and get a young couple in that would not have been able to afford our house with a typical realtor cost. It was alot of paper work but the buyers bank and lawyer did almost everything and with a few phone calls, double checking everything, we sold our home ourselves, even in this market we were able to make money!
Sell your car yourself - We took Brent's work truck to auction direct and they offered 2,100 dollars for the truck. We came home, took 2 cell phone pictures, posted it on craigslist, and sold it the next day for 4,800 dollars! That's a savings of 2,700 Dollars! that's HUGE! yes, we did have 1 no show, 2 test drives, but it sold the next day. Signed over the title and we were done, just like that.