At the end of our last blog, I told you to stay tuned for "Why in the world do they want to know that?". Well, let me just say we had to send a lot of information to SIM (www.sim.org). From a 6 hour psych evaluation, to a extensive doctrinal survey, training and experience form, physical forms, medical release forms, and personal reference forms, it is quite possible that Sim know more about us than we know ourselves. The good news is, all of that is behind us now, and apparently we haven't scared SIM off. We received word that our medical condition was approved for service overseas. Our psych evaluation was approved.(Or they want to tell us we are nuts to our face). Our doctrinal survey was met with good reviews, and our training evaluation suggested that we only have to take a few specific classes in preparation for cross cultural ministry and language acquisition. Then finally after the sea of paperwork, we got invited to attend SIMStart. SIMStart takes place on Sept. 7-11 in Charlotte, N.Carolina at SIM USA headquarters. It is at SIMStart that we get to know SIM better and they get to know us better, and together we seek the Lord in serving with them. If we feel God affirming our serving with SIM and they with us, we will leave that Sunday with final approval and a better idea of when and where we will be serving. We will begin some online courses and training and prepare to attend SIMCO in November, where we will get more extensive training and placement.
But here is the really cool part. Even though we have not officially been accepted by SIM, we felt like God was telling us to sell our house. For a few weeks we had talked about and at Velda's urging, I began to pray about it. At first I was apprehensive about selling before we were approved, but as we prayed, we believed God was telling us to sell now. We talked about how to sell the house and decided that we would not use a realtor and try to sell it ourselves and use the money we would save on realtor commission to drill a well in Africa; something we have always wanted to due but could never afford. So, off to sell a house we went. We had contacted a dear friend to ask if he knew of a Godly real estate agent before we decided not to use one, and he had expressed interest in buying our house when we decided to sell. We called our neighbors and told them we were going to sell our house. Then we asked another friend, who has investment property, to advise us on how to sell and he ended up interested and told us to give him a price. Just a couple of days later, we set a price and let our friends know. Two days later they both let us know that they were not going to be able to buy our house. I had just set the phone down from hearing from the second friend when it rang again. It was our neighbors daughter, and she wanted to know if we were still going to sell our house. To make a long story not so long, we agreed on a price and sold our house. they were getting ready to build on the other side of our neighbors and the timing of our selling our house was perfect. (God's timing always is) We close on September 23 and have already moved out, and moved in with my mother, where we will stay until we depart for the mission field. and the best part, in a few days, we will get to write a check to fully fund the drilling of a well that will bring life giving water to generations to come. Bad economy, slow housing market and uncertain futures are know match for God. i would highly recommend him as your real estate agent.
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