And Our Official Placement Is...

Official Placement

At Candidate School, our official placement was confirmed by the Assistant Director of Village Missions, but we needed to wait until it had been announced both at that church and at Liberty Chapel before making an official public announcement. We are excited to announce that in two weeks, we will be moving to Volga, Iowa!

Picture taken from http://www.volgacityiowa.com/

About Volga

Volga is located in the northeast corner of Iowa, in the scenic Volga Valley through which winds the Volga River (you can see their website at http://www.volgacityiowa.com). The population is approximately 208. Calvary Bible Church has been waiting for a pastor for about a year now.

We will actually be the second VM couple to be placed in Volga; the previous missionaries were Jeremy and Mindi Sarver, the daughter and son-in-law of our current mentors. Jeremy and Mindi moved to Ohio last summer to fill a vacancy in a church there, but before that they had been Village Missionaries in Volga for eight years. A video about Volga featuring Jeremy and Mindi can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkmDHf-p4x4&feature=youtu.be.

We are excited to be heading to Volga for a number of reasons. It’s not too far from our hometown (about an 8-hour drive to Fort Wayne; not bad at all when you consider the open VM fields on the east and west coasts)! Since Jeremy and Mindi were missionaries there, and since they both grew up in Liberty Chapel, LC has taken a number of mission trips there to serve the church and community. Because of those experiences, many people from LC are acquainted with people from Volga and have a special place in their hearts for that town. We are excited to be able to continue that connection with Liberty Chapel and the people that have poured into us during this past year.

We’re thankful to be placed in a small town (as opposed to a large farming community where everything is spread out). The town occupies only about 0.78 square mile, so most of the people and buildings are close together. There is no school in town; children go to Elkader, a neighboring community (population 1273) for school. The nearest Wal-Mart is close to an hour away. Welcome to Rural America! J

“Vacation”

We were told by Village Missions to take a vacation before moving since we won’t be able to take one during our first year because we will be entering a new field and will be concerned with getting to know the people and the culture there. We decided to spend our time in Fort Wayne to say goodbye to friends and family before moving; we arrived yesterday and will leave next Tuesday morning. Hopefully we will be able to get some alone time away as well and feel at least a little bit rested before returning to Crawfordsville to finish packing!

This coming Sunday, we will be sharing an update with a Sunday School class at Grace Point Church of the Nazarene in Fort Wayne during the first service. In the afternoon, Chris will be preaching at Centro Internacional de Alabanza Renovacion, which is the (Latino) Missionary church plant we were a part of before beginning our internship with Village Missions. We are excited to reconnect and share updates with our friends and supporters in both places. J

Our last Sunday at Liberty Chapel will be May 24^th. Chris will preach his last sermon as an intern; after that, he will be preaching for the foreseeable future as a pastor. It’s kind of weird (but so exciting!) to finally be at this point!

Bittersweet Transitions

We will be moving from Crawfordsville, IN to Volga, IA on Wednesday, May 27^th. It really is going to be hard to say goodbye to our families and the people who have embraced us so warmly here in Crawfordsville, but at the same time we are excited as we look ahead to what God has in store for the future. Bittersweet, for sure!