Welcome to my first-ever missions update.

As some of you might have read, after eight years in Turkiye, I will be moving to the Philippines. This coming school year, I will begin a new post serving as a Bible and religious education teacher for high school students near Manila, Philippines. One of the biggest challenges for me is that I will be moving from an almost fully self-supporting role to a place where I need to raise almost all of my support. While in Turkiye, to maintain my visa, I was working as an English teacher and this helped finance the ministry of running an English club and, prior to Covid19, a home church. Now as I move to the Philippines, I need your prayers, and I need your help.

Here in Gaziantep, spring is in full swing. The winter coats are put away and, since it is the rainy season, we are getting showers a few times every week. This is about the time schools begin talking about contracts for next year and so I have officially let the school principal know that I will not be returning next school year. Of course, things like that never stay secret for long and so by now most of the teachers (but no students) are well aware that I will be heading to the Philippines next year. This has opened up opportunities for faith conversations once they learn that I am not leaving for economic or earthquake reasons. Over the past couple of weeks, the head of the school has come up more than once to say, “are you sure you are leaving? Is there anything I can do to change your mind?” It is nice to know that I am leaving on good terms and my time here, even if it was only a job to maintain my visa, has been appreciated and fruitful.

I have a house! It is not necessarily this one, but I was informed that I can take over the rent for a missionary teacher who will not be returning. Because of this, I will have much of my furnishing already complete and it will save a lot on moving costs and the hassle of finding a place and setting up utilities.

How you can pray:

1. Pray that I will have continued opportunities to witness and share my Faith during my time remaining in Gaziantep.
2. Pray for my degree completion. I am currently taking two classes at Liberty University, and will have four more remaining either this summer or in the fall.
3. Pray for continued recovery for the community in Southeast Turkiye. These past two months have been devestating and even though the news has moved on, there is still a lot of healing and recovery that must take place. The church was able to shine brilliantly through this time and it has been noticed by many Muslims. Pray that this will have lasting, eternal effects.
4. Pray for Faith Academy. This is a missionary school primarily serving missionary kids. Their school calendar is slightly different and so there is just less than two months of school remaining.
5. Pray that I will be able to continue raising the support I will need both in prayer and funding.