Wow. Where do I begin?
I'll start in January. José & I finished up the requirements for serving overseas with the CMA and received the list of places in January. We had hoped that Spain would be on that list, but it was not. We'd spent the last three years dreaming of serving in that country. So we prayed through the options set before us.
We can see God's grace and gentleness to us even in the fact that He had been guiding us from Latin America to Spain, and then from Spain to Europe.
We prepared our applications and our church sent us on a vision trip to Europe in March. Upon our return we began the first of a series of interviews and then waited once more for the outcome.
It's been a "hurry up and wait" kind of process for us.
We had our second interview in May, and then were blessed to be able to go to Council (the general meeting of the CMA which happens every other year). We had the awesome opportunity to meet some fantastic people (and spend a little more time with some we had just met in March) who will be our future teammates.
So, as July is quickly approaching we asked people to pray for our third interview and then the board meeting which is in October. You can imagine our surprise when we got a phone call (out of the blue) asking if we'd be willing to go to Berlin, Germany in January! Yes, that's right. Berlin. January 2012.
We are super excited. We can see God's fingerprints all over this. Our church family has graciously agreed to release us early (we would have been heading out in August of 2012, so this is 6 months early). And a multitude of other details are falling into place.
So, having completed the things from our end, we wait now for the board's decision for our official appointment which will be moved up to July. Pray that the board will be of one mind and that they would hear God's voice clearly in this matter.
We are still "pre" appointment at the moment, but have been given the go ahead to share these details. We are so thankful that you are along for the journey with us. Thank you for praying!
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| José & Melanie at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany in March 2011 |
