Help our Family Ministry "Go Mobile!"
Hey guys!
Well, we've prayed and talked about it for years and feel like it's finally time for us to take steps to "Go Mobile!" by getting a ministry CAMPER big enough for our family, and a VEHICLE big enough to pull it. Our ministry vision has always been missional - to follow the trails of Creator far and wide to take His sound and message of freedom, restoration and reconciliation to every nation, tribe and tongue - and we believe that this is a big part of what that looks like for us.
We are putting this need out before our God-family, because we are just crazy enough (at this point) to believe that our Papa can do absolutely anything HE wants, and that HE DOES make ways where there seems to be no way when His purposes are at stake. So, we just want to "make room" for Him to do whatever He wants to do with this...
OUR VISION:
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Our vision is to travel across the nations to churches and communities to play our instruments, sing our songs, serve the needs of people, and bring honor unto Creator God (YAHWEH), while creating atmospheres for people to have life-changing personal encounters with HIM by way of His Son, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ). People are hurting and dying (spiritually and physically) and need the SALVATION, HOPE, HEALING AND FREEDOM found ONLY in HIS presence now more than ever! We consider ourselves "musicionaries" - music missionaries - worship warriors on a mission. We've come to realize it's our created calling, woven into the very fabric of our spiritual DNA, to go and stir up that same awareness of created purpose in others! Papa has called us to release and embrace His ancient and prophetic sounds of truth and freedom on earth for such a time as this - to live and love in a way that compels others to seek and find their own freedom in HIS love and will for their lives. We especially have an intense connection and heart for the work of restoration among our First Nations brothers and sisters. Abba has opened paths for us to take our worship into many native circles since 2017, and in doing so, He has widely-awakened our own native roots (Alex - Arawak Taino of Puerto Rico) and ignited our hearts with a deep desire to continue to take His love and hope to EVERY TRIBE in America and beyond...as a family.
THE STORY LEADING UP:
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Many of you know that we sold our house last year as a part of the greatest spiritual shift of our life – we also changed our jobs around and put our boys in homeschool to free ourselves up to be able to say YES to His invitations to GO wherever He made the way for us to share His love in music and ministry! Well, we had no idea where we would end up when we sold our house, but 2 weeks before we had to be out, God graciously provided a lil’ church house (literally a little house next door to our church that was for sale) for us to stay in temporarily. That was 6 months ago.
The lil’ church house has been on the market ever since we moved in, but as much as we have loved being so close to our church, we knew it just wasn’t ours to buy. A couple of weeks ago, God strongly reminded Alex and I both separately NOT to let ourselves get too settled, because He wasn’t done shifting us – He’d provided this little house as a landing spot to help us transition, but it wasn’t our final destination. Well, it was no surprise when we found out a week later that the house SOLD!
THE “FUN” PART:
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Closing for the lil’ church house sale is on March 29th, but we need to try to be out by March 18th, before we leave for an extended ministry trip to Carlisle, PA for the Arrows of Glory: War Cry conference (because we may not be back from PA in time to get out before closing)…and YES that is less than 3 weeks from today…and NO we do not have a place to go yet…but that’s ok, because God brought us this far and He surely has a place prepared for us.
So…even though we aren’t sure about our next “house” yet, we just keep feeling (and have had a couple of significant confirmations from trusted counsel) that it really may be time for us to “GO MOBILE” – meaning, time to get that camper we've talked about for years! Not only could this serve as an interim home for us if/when we need it to, but this has been a vital part of our ministry vision from the beginning – to have a camper giving us the mobility to travel as far and stay as long as God leads us to on our mission trips.
ABOUT THE NEED:
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A CAMPER and a VEHICLE to pull it.
We have visited camper lots and our whole family actually agreed on the same pull-behind camper design (miracle #1! : ) – the layout of a Forest River Salem Bunkhouse 31KQBTS gives the boys their own personal bunkhouse space (which is important to them & Mama Bear ; ). We have heard that we may want a better quality than Forest River though, so we aren't stuck on that particular brand, but we really like the layout of the bunkhouse with 2 rear slides.
We feel like a pull behind offers us the most of what we need at the most affordable price.
We will have to upgrade our Tacoma accordingly to a vehicle that can pull the camper.
We are considering financing options and ways that we could reasonably step out into making all this happen, but considering that the shift to a "missionary” lifestyle has significantly decreased our income, that makes us super hesitant to add any monthly payments to our budget (which we are still trying to constantly decrease actually, not increase). So, with the encouragement of dear friends and counsel, we felt that we should make this need known to the body first and just give God this space in case He wants to do this a different way...
THE INVITATION:
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That being said, we’d like to invite any adventurous souls who feel moved by this to give toward the costs of getting a camper/vehicle combo on the road for our family’s mission. (*If you need your gift to be tax-deductible, please contact us directly for alternate instructions on giving.)
THE NITTY GRITTY:
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~CAMPER~ The NEW camper that we all felt "fit" our family costs approx $26-28K here
(less up north). However, we have seen nice USED comparable campers online for sale by owners $15-20K cash - those could be awesome too (as long as someone who knows campers helps us inspect them for issues : )
~VEHICLE~ We really like DEISEL EXCURSIONS a LOT because of the towing capacity and covered-cargo space still available for gear when we park the camper and have to carry equipment to and fro, but we are open to options. Seeing good USED Excursions/Trucks fluctuating from $15-25K online for sale by owners. This size camper weighs about 8 or 9K lbs empty, so we would at least need a vehicle that could pull approx 10-11Klbs with contents.
~OTHER~ If you have any other ideas, offerings, thoughts (including housing options, used campers, vehicles, etc that you’d like to offer up for consideration in the need), we’d love to hear from you also via email, phone or in person as we literally and prayerfully consider all options.
IN CONCLUSION:
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Words cannot express our gratitude for YOU for taking this journey in faith with us and allowing us to present this need before you as friends and family. Thank you SO, SO MUCH for your constant prayers and support undergirding and sending us out as we do our best to just obey His voice and follow His calling over us.
God has this, so please feel TOTAL FREEDOM – no pressure at all! – to do only what you feel led of His Spirit to do and no more (or less ; )
Love and blessings <3
Alex, Brandi, Eli and Ethan
