Julie and I believe that God has us here; in His time, and to do a work that He has set for us. This page is a sensitive subject for us since we firmly believe that God is able to supply all our needs before we even know they exist. Reading Philippians 4:19 might have lead Hudson Taylor to say "God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supply” At the same time we believe that God loves to use His children to accomplish His tasks. He can use a donkey or a jawbone if He chooses, but instead He has chosen us and you. So we have built this page to present specific needs that we have here on the field. This gives you the opportunity to get involved if you feel God moving you to do so.

William Carey might have said “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."  after reading Jude 1:24 "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior..." The same goes for David Livingstone who said "If we wait till we run no risk, the gospel will never be introduced into the interior."  Many of the amounts listed below don't add up... like how can we have an operating budget of $25 and still be getting things done? or show translation expenses for a dubbing project when we don't have the money to pay for the licensing fees... We know that God wants us to bring His word to a lost world and that He will provide for our needs. So we are going to step out and count on God to make the water firm.

Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel" is a well known missionary verse. BUT the context for this verse is a rebuke for "unbelief and hardness of heart" so we should treat this as a command to practice what we believe even before we see an easy way to do it. So then it is Faith, "acting upon what you believe, not what you can physically prove", that is the basis for the carrying out of the "Great Commission”. “Nothing so clears the vision and lifts up the life, as a decision to move forward in what you know to be entirely the will of the Lord." (John Paton)

Some of these items are things we are managing without... some are things that we can't even start without.

Finances

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Current financial monthly personal support $1,325 (commited monthly amount from 2 churches and three individuals)
Needed financial monthly personal support $1,400 This has increased this year from $1,200 to cover $100 a month savings and to cover increased childbirth costs since we are going to be having our babies here in Mex. ($100 per month)
Current operating buget for project expenses -$75 (Used for travel expenses, dubbing fees, translation fees, equipment purchase and replacement etc.)
Needed monthly operating budget $500 (the diference is currently being taken out of personal)
Audio NT $5,000 ea This covers; studio fees, reader's wages (8usd per day), transportation, and room and board. We have already started recording the Zoque and Ch'ol NT, with volunteers recording here in my office's closet. Besides those two there are several other languages that we would like to record. Expenses so far have been coming out of personal $.
Home Construction $10,000 We are adding 3 bedrooms to our house here. Right now we have 1 and 1/2 bedrooms (the girls room is more of a closet than a bedroom) We are building the addition upstairs, basically doubling the total size of our house. My dad has gotten us started by building the roof and main support structures. Now we just need to add walls, flooring, plumbing and electric!

Equipment and vehicle needs

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23-26 foot travel trailer $6-8k As a mobile base for work in villages and at recording sites, this would allow us to travel together as a family as well as extend Nathan's time spent in the field
Truck or Van 4x4 3/4 or 1 ton $8-$9k We need to be able to tow a small travel trailer and our little Pathfinder is too small and the Yukon's transmission is not built for the weight.
Simple digital cameras various We need 3 or 4 simple (ie cheap) digital cameras for our guys on the field.  Joel, Gregorio, and Jacobo could all really use one for their time in the jungle. It would be really nice to have pictures to go along with their reports. (we have just been given one of these! PTL!)
Portable CD players various Since the people we are bringing the Gospel to don't read we bring it to them in an audio format. To do that we sometimes need to provide CD players for them to use.
Small motorcycle or scooter. $1500 We live in a very old colonial city and the streets were made for horses or foot trafic, so parking and traffic are insane. We would like to get a small scooter to run erands in town and thus save on time, gas and parking fees.
Shock absorbers $450 We need to replace the shocks in our little gas saver car. Model #s pages 1 and 2

Personel

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Shipping and recieving Long term We need someone near the USA/Mexico border who can recieve and store shipped items and then release them to fellow missionaries coming through for delivery to us. TX, NM and AZ are preferred.
Contruction team Short term (2 weeks) There are several short term construction opportunities here. The most pressing on our calendar is the need for more space in our home. The bedroom (closet) that all 3 girls need to fit into is just super tiny. Other projects include the mission base in San Fernando.
Web design Long term We are not pro web designers, we would love to have someone who we can call or email questions to! If you understand flash, dreamweaver, CSS, etc we would love to pick your brain!
Storage space Long term We have been storing items that we are not bringing here at a friend's storage space in Pueblo CO... but we do feel that we've imposed on that friend long enough! So we need to find somewhere to store those items (grandma's rocking chair, Julie's wedding dress, and items that we have not had room to haul here yet.)

Personal items

Base furnishings

various The downstairs of our building has become a sort of base for short term mission teams and individuals. But it needs help. We need 1 oven/stove, a fridge, 6 twin size matresses and 1 full size mattress. We need to buy these items here since they are too large and bulky to bring from the USA.