2009 March - Summer Position/House for Sale

So…have you heard? The house is going up for sale. Ron is taking a leave of absence from work. We are going to Mexico for the summer! Okay, maybe I should start from the beginning.
We received a message that there was a need at the Tijuana Outreach Center for a head cook for ten weeks this summer. The full-time missionary that normally fills this position had to take a temporary leave of absence. We tossed around the idea of going down to work for the summer, and even half-joked about Ron quitting his job. But then we actually put some real thought and prayer into it. In order to fill the position, one would have to raise their own support – we’ve already got a head start on that. Ron would have to quit his job and find a new one when the summer is over – until he found out that he could take up to a 90-day leave of absence. We would have to leave the house for almost three months and pay a mortgage while we’re gone – or we could put the house up for sale.

So, there you have it. After much prayer, we spoke with a couple of people from YUGO to work out the details. We would not be considered full-time missionaries, because we do not have our full support raised. Ron will be filling the temporary position of Head Cook. He is definitely more comfortable managing a large kitchen than Kristy is. We are not certain what Kristy will be doing. There are a lot of options, one of which is Food Prep Coordinator. It basically entails the serving and cleaning up aspects of the meals. We ask that you would join us and pray how God will use Kristy this summer. Other opportunities may include worship team or photography, but will mostly likely involve menotoring and workly closely with the summer interns for both of us. They were very excited to learn that we have been working in college-age ministry, and that Kristy has been working with high school youth. That’s the same basic age group of the interns, so it sounds like God kind of knew what he was doing getting us prepared.

Ron will also have the opportunity to do some construction work. He may be working with a team of interns on a construction project the third week. This does not change the fact that we are raising support to go full-time in construction ministry. This is just a temporary position that we are filling. However, we pray that it would be in God’s timing that our financial support would be raised in full by the end of the summer. Finding a buyer for our house in Janesville is the other major prayer request. It would save us a lot of money over the summer, and it would also mean we wouldn’t have a house to sell when we officially go to Tijuana full-time. Ron is taking the leave of absence from work to ensure that he would still have a way to earn a living, if we need to come back to the states for a little while. Taking the leave does not guarantee him his current position if returns home. It guarantees him a position with the company, we just don’t know what position it would be, or where it would be located.

We have heard from many people that they are waiting to make a commitment to partner with us financially until we are ready to go. Our hope is that you will consider making this commitment in the near future. We ask that you would begin praying about this decision now. Next month we are going to include commitment cards with our letter. So please join us in praying for our house to sell and our support level to be where needed in order to go full-time in Tijuana by the end of the summer. We thank all of you for your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Ron & Kristy