UPDATE ON TODD IN SOUTH AFRICA!! First of all let me thank each and everyone of you who has prayed over this situation because we know that God has heard those prayers and has begun to answer them!! Yesterday, Todd was pretty exhausted and just mentally drained by the time we hung up and he went to bed. What a day he had and nothing like being stranded in a foreign country without all your passport and then lose $4,000+ of your important stuff to top it off! However, his faith in our Father is strong and nothing like a good nights sleep to make the sun shine brighter the next day. When I heard from him today, he said that he was feeling much better today and that he was overwhelmed by all the encouraging words and support he has received throughout this difficult time. Your texts and emails have been very uplifting to him and the encouragement has really helped him move past this and get focused on his mission there. He was able to go to church this morning and the sermon was on 1 Timothy 6 where Paul is teaching contentment and how he “learned” this. The service was closed with one of Todd’s favorite songs that we learned and sang at FBC Texarkana – 10,000 Reasons. He wanted me to be sure to remind everyone that the people of South Africa and around the world are good people, but Evil is part of our world and the enemy is real. However, he always forgets that OUR GOD is bigger and has already defeated him!! We have three specific needs at this time for everyone to pray over: 1. He meets with the consulate tomorrow morning at 7am (which is midnight our time) and we are praying that they will give him travel documents to be able to move on to Lesotho so that the mission God sent him on can be fulfilled. He said that he needed to get down there to share Jesus to make the enemy even more mad!! 2. That a new passport can be obtained in time for him to come home. This can be a very expensive and time consuming process – especially with him being in South Africa and there being a Holiday on next Monday. 3. For financial support. We lost $1,400 in cash which was earmarked for this trip and another $2,600 in items that will have to be replaced for the ministry and his travels. Praises: I was overwhelmingly blessed today in church at Vaughn Forest! From the moment I stepped into the door, I was hugged, loved on, and prayed over by just about every person I came in contact with. Then $400 was donated by several people to the ministry to help with these expenses – which just blew me away!! Many others of you asked how you could help and I could not express to Todd enough, how loved and prayed over we were today. It’s amazing to be in God’s will because you can always feel His love! We also have some other contributions coming from family members and others who have reached out to help! We are blessed to have each and every one of you in our lives to support God’s work. Jim and Teresa were able to get someone at the consulate on the phone tonight (Sunday night) and the person took all the information ahead of time and filled out the paperwork so that it would be a smoother transition in the morning and they could get Todd right in to see an agent and get the travel papers in order. Jim and Teresa have been truly Heaven sent during this time and have helped Todd take care of all his immediate needs. Teresa has some health issues and needs our prayers right now along with a huge Thank You for taking care of Todd! That’s all we know now. Tomorrow will hopefully give more answers and I will pass them along as I find out. Thank you again to everyone for your prayers, encouragement, support and love. Without you, we couldn’t do this!! Let all the glory go to God in this situation and may His name be praised always! Why We Go - To Share Jesus < Pat Carmichael
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 22:01:26 +0000