Dear Friends,
It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, so I want to take advantage of this pause in the activity to give some updates.
Tim and I have been working long hours every day to sort all of our possessions and to place them in the appropriate "piles". We have about four of these "piles"; one is for Africa, one is for Michigan to move with us, the third is for items to sale, and the last pile is for storage here in Missouri.
Today we have officially gone through every room, closet, drawer, cabinet, the attic, shed and garage. We are having a huge moving sale on Saturday; we have several family members who will be helping us. It will be a long day but we hope it will be a rewarding day. Please pray that all of our items will sell.
We are weary in body and our emotions are a little stretched as well. This place has been our home for the past 6 years and we have so many wonderful memories here. But, we know the Lord has wonderful things ahead for us.
Please keep us in your prayers as we go through the next week; we will be staying with my Mom until we leave for Michigan early Thursday morning. Pray for our family we leave behind here in Missouri; especially Jenn and Sarah. This is a new road that the four of us will be traveling; the road is getting ready to branch off into three separate directions. Tim and I will be going one way, Jenn another way, and Sarah yet another way.
Blessings,
Joyce
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Together Again...
I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, AND AM CONVINCED THAT HE IS ABLE TO GUARD WHAT I HAVE ENTRUSTED TO HIM FOR THAT DAY. II TIMOTHY 1:12
Greetings to each of you!We have a lot of news to share with you. Most of you know that we have been living in Missouri and Tim has been traveling the roads alone during this year of itineration. Last Friday was Joyce’s last day working at Gospel Publishing House; we are in the process of getting our house ready to rent and moving to Lansing, MI for the remainder of the time it will take to raise our budget to return to Tanzania. It is time for us to trust Him completely to supply all of our needs! It will also be nice for Joyce to be able to join Tim in his travels.
Please note our new address as of OCTOBER 1:
TIM & JOYCE JARVIS
116 S ROSEMARY
LANSING MI 48917
PHONE: 417-353-0555
We would like to ask each of you to prayerfully consider an idea that we believe God has given us to help raise our support. We have been given until the end of November to raise $2,000 in monthly support. To us, this seems like a huge mountain looming in front of us; but “we know whom we have believed, and are convinced that HE is able to guard what we have entrusted to HIM”. We have placed our lives and our future in God’s hands many times in the past and know that we can do it again with confidence. We ask you to believe together with us that God is going to bring in these finances!
We believe God has given us a plan...we call it the 200x10 Plan. The plan God has given us is to ask 200 churches/individuals to increase their pledge or make a first time monthly pledge of $10 a month; it’s really such a small amount.
We believe God will bless us for stepping out in faith to return to Tanzania; we are giving up all other means of income, renting our home, selling all of our furniture, and believing God to supply all of our needs. Real faith is when you don’t have catch nets below you but you step out on the wire anyway. He will also bless you for making the step of faith too; so step out on the wire with us and make a $10 pledge to our ministry. Together, we can see God glorified and lost souls saved in Tanzania.
Thank you and God bless you for your help. We pray for God’s blessings for each of you who journey with us.
Friday, September 7, 2007
At the End of the Road...literally
I remember our first trip alone as new missionaries in East Africa; we ended up at the end of the road, in total darkness and completely lost.
We had been in Africa for about two months but had never been outside of Nairobi on our own; we had made a trial run with another missionary to Musoma, Tanzania where we would be attending language school. We were given a few rules that were to be strictly adhered to when we made the trip on our own to Musoma. Our missionary mentor, Bob McCulley, looked at us sternly and said: "Never be out on the road at night and never take the lower road through the Rift Valley."
We left Nairobi later in the day than we had planned but it was decided that we had time to get through the Rift Valley and arrive at the other end safely before nightfall. Tim, Sarah, and I had everything packed tightly in the Land Cruiser. So tightly, in fact, that Sarah had to sit in the front seat between us. We headed out on our new adventure, we took the turnoff for the Rift Valley and bounced merrily along. After several hours, a very uncomfortable realization hit us, we were looking "up" at the higher road. This meant, of course, that we had taken the wrong exit and were traveling the forbidden and frightening "lower road."
We had traveled to far to turn back, light was failing fast, and the road deteriorated as we continued. There were huge craters in the road that we literally drove down into and up the other side and we passed a number of large trucks turned over on the side of the road. We tried to stay calm so as not to frighten Sarah and prayed that the Lord would come to our rescue.
Eventually it was completely dark, no street lights or homes lined the side of the road; the only lights we saw were small specks of light in the distance that indicated homes sprinkled around the sides of the Rift Valley. The road continued to get narrower and narrower eventually came to a dead end marked by a road block. I cannot even tell you how the fear felt as it began to wrap itself around us making it seem even darker than it already was. We could not see any sign of civilization and since we were on our way to the language school we probably could not have communicated with anyone had they been nearby.
We sat there and prayed and eventually we saw a huge truck off to our left a good distance away that appeared to be traveling parallel with the route we had been taking. Tim took it as an answer to prayer and we set off across the flat land and began to follow the truck as it meandered across the valley floor. Slowly and in a snaking pattern the truck eventually lead us to the higher road and a small town where we were able to find a small hotel. We spent the night and finished our trip the next day without incident.
We are on a journey once again and at times we feel as if we are once again meandering around lost in the bottom of the valley trying to find our way to the high road. We are still a long way from the monthly support needed for us to reach our budget. Daylight is running out and we need your help to reach our goal; we need to raise about $2,000 in monthly support by the end of November. We would rejoice if some of you, our faithful friends and partners, would be like the truck that came out of the darkness and helped us find our way to the higher road.
You can click here to make a one-time gift or fill out a pledge for monthly support at our web site.
Thanks to all of you who are traveling along with us and helping us find our way back to Tanzania!
We had been in Africa for about two months but had never been outside of Nairobi on our own; we had made a trial run with another missionary to Musoma, Tanzania where we would be attending language school. We were given a few rules that were to be strictly adhered to when we made the trip on our own to Musoma. Our missionary mentor, Bob McCulley, looked at us sternly and said: "Never be out on the road at night and never take the lower road through the Rift Valley."
We left Nairobi later in the day than we had planned but it was decided that we had time to get through the Rift Valley and arrive at the other end safely before nightfall. Tim, Sarah, and I had everything packed tightly in the Land Cruiser. So tightly, in fact, that Sarah had to sit in the front seat between us. We headed out on our new adventure, we took the turnoff for the Rift Valley and bounced merrily along. After several hours, a very uncomfortable realization hit us, we were looking "up" at the higher road. This meant, of course, that we had taken the wrong exit and were traveling the forbidden and frightening "lower road."
We had traveled to far to turn back, light was failing fast, and the road deteriorated as we continued. There were huge craters in the road that we literally drove down into and up the other side and we passed a number of large trucks turned over on the side of the road. We tried to stay calm so as not to frighten Sarah and prayed that the Lord would come to our rescue.
Eventually it was completely dark, no street lights or homes lined the side of the road; the only lights we saw were small specks of light in the distance that indicated homes sprinkled around the sides of the Rift Valley. The road continued to get narrower and narrower eventually came to a dead end marked by a road block. I cannot even tell you how the fear felt as it began to wrap itself around us making it seem even darker than it already was. We could not see any sign of civilization and since we were on our way to the language school we probably could not have communicated with anyone had they been nearby.
We sat there and prayed and eventually we saw a huge truck off to our left a good distance away that appeared to be traveling parallel with the route we had been taking. Tim took it as an answer to prayer and we set off across the flat land and began to follow the truck as it meandered across the valley floor. Slowly and in a snaking pattern the truck eventually lead us to the higher road and a small town where we were able to find a small hotel. We spent the night and finished our trip the next day without incident.
We are on a journey once again and at times we feel as if we are once again meandering around lost in the bottom of the valley trying to find our way to the high road. We are still a long way from the monthly support needed for us to reach our budget. Daylight is running out and we need your help to reach our goal; we need to raise about $2,000 in monthly support by the end of November. We would rejoice if some of you, our faithful friends and partners, would be like the truck that came out of the darkness and helped us find our way to the higher road.
You can click here to make a one-time gift or fill out a pledge for monthly support at our web site.
Thanks to all of you who are traveling along with us and helping us find our way back to Tanzania!
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