Nichole and I learned a lot about eachother during the long drives, and we got to listen to a lot of great audiobooks as well. Through it all, we felt God preparing our hearts for Africa and that made the trip supremely edifying.

Favorite Pictures from the Road Trip

Just want to clarify… We saved up money for this trip for several months, no mission donations were used to fund our vacation

Valley Christian Church

Valley is a church in Wilsonville Oregon that my dad pastors at. We were warmly welcomed by the leaders of their mission board, Jim and Ginger Fitch. As we reflected on our meeting we were taken back by how supportive the church was. We were meeting most of them for the first time, yet their hospitality and encouraging words were second to none.

Nexus House Church

Another church that we met with was also super hospitable and encouraging. Nexus is a house church that meets in Northwest Oregon and is part of a network of house churches there. We actually visited on a night that 3 different house churches were getting together so we got to talk to more people than expected. It was quite cool to find out that they were very familiar with All Nations and loved what they are doing.

Warrenton Christian Church

For those of you who don’t know, this is the church that I grew up in. It was quite the homecoming! The roads were a mess with slush and snow which is totally rare for Warrenton. Nevertheless we made our way around the city and visited friends and supporters and had an opportunity to speak to the church about our mission. The whole visit felt big and purposeful… Here we are headed to Africa, sitting with my preschool Sunday school teacher. I am incredibly grateful for the faithful followers of Christ who prayed for and supported me through some CRAZY years.

We are thrilled to be connected with and partnered with these churches and are very excited to take them all to South Africa with us!

EXCERPT (See Full Post Here)

“Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.“ 

Deeply impressed by his candor and honest observation, his atheism is some of the best theism I have seen in awhile. I read a similar post by Floyd McClung a ways back that really enhanced my thinking in this area.

 See All Photos Here

Be sure to follow us on Twitter (Aaron & Nichole). You can join us moment by moment as we make our way to Africa.

Road Trip Desitnations

For those of you who don’t know we will be driving across the country after thanksgiving to visit family and friends.

View Larger Map

Prayer Needs

Please pray for the following…

• Peace when dealing with logistical tasks, i.e. Visas, travel arrangements, insurance etc.
• Safe travel as we traverse the US over December and January.]
• Patience with each other and strength for our marriage
• Additional financial support (we are behind in our fund-raising)
• Focus and diligence to learn while we are in training
• The families and people that we will be living with
• The leaders, teachers and facilitators of CPx
• Swift adaptation to South African culture
• Our team in the training and outreach
• Formation of deep friendships and discipleship relationships
• Openness & sensitivity to God’s leading for our ministry focus. i.e. Specific people groups and ministry roles
• Comfort for our families as we part ways

Be sure to let us know that you are praying!

We knew that our decision would be tested, and we committed to walking faithfully through those times. Upon thoroughly processing these tests with mentors, family, friends and supporters we are even more convinced that Africa is where we want to be.

So here we go!

Thank you all who are standing behind us in this mission! We cherish your support and thank God for you.

Our Spur of the Moment Sojourn Seed Project

This was our Sunday with Sam & Riann Zink. It was a ton of fun. Most of the crews that we met were from out of state. Some of them had been sworn at by locals while others had experienced similar kindness from Louisvillians. We were inspired to do this after we found out most of these crews were working 15-18 hour shifts nearly 20 days straight. One of the major highlights was that we got to serve the crew that had a young fellow die. It was hard seeing the emotion as they were interviewed by Fox. Overall this was a fantastic experience, and we hope to have inspired more hospitality to these hard workers.

A Brief Moment on Local Fox News

Big thanks to…

All of the crews and workers in Louisville, from in state and out of state!

Special Thanks to…

Tyler McIntyre for providing a truck and grill

Kevin Rapp for providing a cooler

Dan Dumas for providing the Hot Dogs

Matt & Christy Harner for baking delicious cookies

On another note, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has invited me (Aaron) to work for the remaining months that we are in Louisville. I love the seminary and it has been God’s fulfillment of several life goals to do web communications for them. Here is a presentation I was asked to give to the faculty.

Three Frequently Asked Questions and New Features

FAQ #1 Are you Scared? Excited? Ready?

No, Yes and We Hope…

FAQ #2 When are you leaving?

This little widget off to the right will let you know the exact time to when we will be leaving. While you are over there, be sure to sign-up for our newsletter!

FAQ #3 How is the Fundraising Going?

We have created a Fundraising Report page that will tell you how much we have raised and how far we have to go.

Full Swing Fund Raising

We are prayerfully confident that God is preparing people to join our support team. If you are just dropping in and would like to see how you can support take a look around this site… You may have received a letter or some form of communication already. If you haven’t, don’t worry, we are communicating in increments so that we can answer all questions thoroughly.

Perspectives Changing and a Cool New Breakthrough

We signed of for a Perspectives class, which is an intensive 16 week study of the world christian movement and missions. There is a ton of studying, but we both had a recent breakthrough in our ability to study when we read this book. Both of us have doubled if not tripled our “Words Per Minute” with better comprehension.

Parting of the Red Seas, Full Steam Ahead!

When we decided to move to Africa it was literally like the Atlantic ocean split and made a walk way for us all the way to Africa. The unknowns flew out the window almost before we could fear them.Though the process is crazy and there are moments of “severe weather” this has been an incredible time of seeing God move tangibly and bring glory to Him.

Be sure to give us a shout in the comments below! We love hearing from you! Also see Nichole’s Blog or Aaron’s Blog

Make Disciples who Make Disciples who Make Disciples -Floyd McClung

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