Passed Out, Ice, and LIFE!!!

It has been a busy couple of months for us. We have had several new supporters who joined our ministry team and we learned a few weeks ago that Lindsay is pregnant with our 5th child. As you can imagine, it has been a whirlwind for us and we are loving every minute of it.

We had a little fun trying to figure out how to tell everyone the 

GREAT news!

The passed out Dad from the news pic...

even the kids were in shock!

OR

A little "Ice..Ice..Baby" to go pic.

At any way you look at it, the Lord has blessed us with another life to raise and nurture in the admonition of the Lord.

Psalms 127:3-5

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed  When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Lindsay is 10 weeks.  Thank you Lord!

We want to thank everyone that has prayed for us, partnered with us financial, and given encouragement along the way. We wish each of you a Merry Christmas and want to let you know; we love you and pray that you have a blessed Christmas and New Year. 

May our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ be exalted and glorified this season and forever 

more.

GRACE & PEACE

An Open Letter to the Anonymous Contributor

Dear Anonymous,

     I make every effort to send "thank you" notes to each person who has contributed to our ministry. Those "thank you" notes may not always be sent as promptly as they should and sometimes I struggle with having the right words to adequately express our thankfulness but I believe that in every case, a "thank you" is in order.

     For quite some time now, I have considered the most effective way to thank you for your unsigned gift. I know it is long overdue, but I think I have finally come up with an adequate solution.

THANK YOU!!

    

     I have been truly blessed by your anonymous gift, led to worship actually, as my thoughts often drift off and I wonder who you are. And I pray for you specifically, because I know that He who hears my prayers knows exactly who I am praying for. Then, at times, I think about all the possible things you might enjoy and how you could have spent your money: possibly a new outfit, a new electronic, perhaps a video game, or maybe even a cup of coffee with friends. And I rejoice because you see the value in taking the Good News to those who have yet to hear. Many times I wonder if I pass by you without even knowing you are the one who I am so often thinking about. And if so, I hope that as you observe my actions, my words, my life, that I am representing our King well and that you are reassured of your decision to partner with me. I realize that there are many, many great ministries you could have given to, so please know that I am daily reminded of and burdened to make sure that every single dollar that has been given to our ministry is maximized for the advancement of the Gospel, to the glory of Christ. There are times when I lie awake at night and consider how you may have felt once the excitement of giving anonymously had passed. I imagine that, quite possibly, you secretly may have wished that someone knew of the sacrifice you just made. And I yearn for the day when you stand before the Father and are rewarded for every act of obedience, whether it was done in public or in secret. And then sometimes -- well, ok, every time -- I find my thoughts roaming back to my circumstances and how I am living each day by faith. The days of living paycheck-to-paycheck are but a memory that has been traded in for a lifestyle of complete and total dependence on The Lord for every need, every desire, every hope. He has been characteristically faithful to provide all that we need exactly when we need it. And we praise Him, thanking Him for each of our support partners. And I want you to know, Anonymous, that we never forget to thank Him for you.

Grace & peace,

~lindsay

Faith...

Many of you know but I will give an update on Dylan.  He is doing GREAT and we are praising the Lord.  His last check up was awesome and he is finally back to being an 11 year old.  God has been doing many things in our lives since our last update back in June and we want to share some of them with you.  Yes, we sold our house within 3 days and 2 weeks later I resigned from the Memphis Police Department.  Can you say FAITH!  We are certainly relying on God during this time.  

We are living in Lindsay's Grandmother's house until September 1st.  On September 1st we will be moving to the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home missionary house and will reside there until January 1st, 2015.  We thought we would have enough support raised to be able and leave for language school in Costa Rica but that will not be the case.  We are currently at 13% of our budget of 5,000 a month. We are rejoicing in the Lord for being at 13% but it is not enough for us to attend language school and keep a family of 6 afloat.  So we are pressing on fully relying on God in moments like these.  


We have been provided with many opportunities to share our ministry with individuals and with churches.  Thanking God for these opportunities to do our presentation and actually preach at some churches.  

Reaching and Teaching had their first ever career missionary orientation in Henryville, Indiana last month.  Lindsay and I attended the orientation with 3 other missionary families for 3 days of training in cultural, theological, organizational, and medicine on the mission field.  It was a great privilege to meet other missionary families and to make bonds that will last a life time. 

We want to thank those who have invested in us thus far.  You are a blessing beyond words.  We are still in need of monthly supporters to come beside us so that we can reach Ecuador with the Gospel. 

Would you pray over joining us? Maybe your church, sunday school class, or business would like to co-labor with us to advance the Kingdom of God. 

Below you will find How to donate to us:

Your monthly financial gift is tax deductible and can be made by:


Mailing a check or money order to:

Reaching and Teaching International Ministries
PO Box 122
Wheaton, IL 60187

Place our name (Godsey Family) on the memo portion of the check.

OR

Give online at:

www.reachingandteaching.org/missionaries.html

Our name will be in the drop down box.


Thank you for following our blog.

Grace and Peace,

David

Healing and Dealing...God's Way

April was a month where we took off from support raising due to Dylan having surgery. The surgery was to repair a defect where his chest bone had grown inward and had displaced his heart and put pressure on his lungs. 

On April 3^rd Dylan went into surgery and the surgery lasted about 3 hours. It went well and Dylan stayed at Le Bonheur hospital for 4 days. The first few weeks were rough for us all but the Lord supplied us with His mercy and grace to get through. We are thanking Him for healing Dylan the way He has. 6 weeks later Dylan is doing great and is able to be an 11 year old again. Thank you Lord.

The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health. Psalms 41:3

Although there was no support raising God allowed us to move forward with other things we needed to get accomplished. We put our house on the market and in God's providence we sold it within 3 days. Who does that?

                           That's right, only GOD!

For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

We have most likely determined a roundabout date for me to quit work so that I can focus all of my attention on support raising and we are looking at January 2015 for language school in Costa Rica, Lord willing.

Please continue to pray whether God would have you come along side us as supporters. Below you will find out how to support us financially.



HOW TO DONATE:

Your monthly financial gift is tax deductible and can be made by:


Mailing a check or money order to:

Reaching and Teaching International Ministries
PO Box 122
Wheaton, IL 60187

Place our name (Godsey Family) on the memo portion of the check.

OR

Give online at:

www.reachingandteaching.org/missionaries.html

Our name will be in the drop down box.

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19


Thank you for your prayers and support as we step out in faith doing what the Lord has called us to do.



Grace and Peace,

David

Pressing On!

Recently, the Lord has blessed us by allowing us to speak at two churches in Kentucky at the end of March. Sunnyside Baptist and Parkwood Baptist in Louisville were very gracious and accepted us as family. The love of Christ was demonstrated to my family through these two churches. 

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,  always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,  in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 

Philippians 1:3-5

On April 3rd our oldest son, Dylan, had surgery to repair a defect in his chest known as Pectus Excavatum.

Basically, his sternum had grown inward and had started causing him breathing and heart problems. The surgery went well and took around 3 hours to complete. Dylan was in the hospital for 4 days but is finally home. We want to thank each of you for your prayers during this time and also want to thank our church family at New Life Church Eads for showing the love of Christ to us. By God's mercy Dylan is slowly starting to feel better and get his strength back. We will start back pressing forward toward the call on our lives as missionaries to Ecuador. 

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of  it  yet; but one thing I do:  forgetting what  lies behind and reaching forward to what  lies  ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

For those who have begun to give toward our ministry, Thank You!  May God bless you and your family. 

If you are interested in supporting us as missionaries, you can click the link below and it will take you to the donate page of Reaching and Teaching International Ministries. 

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?  How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things !" 

Romans 10:14-15

Grace and Peace,

David

The Near and the Far.....

Since the last time we updated we have presented our ministry vision and mission to New Life Church (the near) and now we are preparing to head to Kentucky to visit two churches to do the same (the far).  The Lord has blessed us with a few supporters and two churches thus far and we are so thankful for them.  

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,  always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,  in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 

Philippians 1:3-5

The Lord has allowed me to schedule a couple more churches coming up in April.  I will be slowing down for a bit in April, since our oldest son, Dylan, will be having surgery to correct a chest deformity.  I am praying the Lord allows for individuals to contribute to our mission ministry during this time as it would be difficult to travel.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers during this time. 

www.reachingandteaching.org/missionaries.html

Hear it and Rejoice!

Each time I sit down to a blank screen, I feel so inadequate. My thoughts are so simple and God is working in such a way that even if I describe these blessings with the most accurate of adjectives, I still would fail miserably at describing the goodness and faithfulness God has shown to our family over the past couple of weeks.  But I know you want more to read of His blessings than my inadequacies, so to the best of my ability, I will share.

My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together.  ~Psalm 34:2-3

On Monday, February 10, our family had a meeting with the pastor's council of our church. It was a precious time with the men of our church as they prayed for us, encouraged us,  and asked the hard questions about the current condition of our spiritual lives in order to provide accountability.  We, in turn, had the opportunity to really talk about the mission and vision we have to reach the people of Ecuador for Christ. After the meeting, we were called and notified that we had the full support of our church leadership and we had their blessing to begin our support raising efforts!

I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.       ~Psalm 34:4

Can I be honest and say that, for me, receiving the "go ahead" from our church to start raising support was exciting for all of 5 minutes? Once it finally sunk in that this is where the "rubber meets the road" so to speak, the fear slowly started to creep in. I began having thoughts like: How are we possibly going to raise the amount of financial support needed to make this happen? Neither of us are great public speakers and we only have so many friends to reach out to. What if I start to lose friends because they fear that every time they see me they think I am going to ask them for financial support? And to make matters worse, I had these thoughts all the while realizing that this is the calling God has placed on our lives and knowing that He already knows how He will provide for our needs. I was slipping into Satan's trap; I was overcome with worry and fear; I was in sin and I had to repent.

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.       ~Psalm 34:15, 17

We are now in our second full week of support raising and indeed the Lord has heard my cry and has delivered me from my trouble of worry and fear. God is providing us with a sweet group of partners who have committed to pray for and support our family as we make arrangements to move to another country. These partners are as excited as we are about the advancement of the Gospel and will likely never realize the degree to which God has used them to be a blessing in my life, specifically. They are a vital part to the success of our ministry. Without their support, whether prayerfully or financially, our vision for Ecuador would remain just that - a vision.

O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.       ~Psalm 34:9

In addition to the very first ministry partners that the Lord has blessed us with, He has also provided David with a few churches that have graciously scheduled him to speak to their congregations about the need in Ecuador. We are prayerful that these opportunities help us connect with other like-minded Believers who desire to partner with us. As of now, we have two local churches scheduled and one church in Kentucky! Please continue to pray for us as the dates for these speaking opportunities approach. You could pray specifically that David would not be nervous, that we would represent Christ well, that the congregations would be eager to hear about the ministry, and that God would already be preparing the hearts of those whom He would have to partner with us. In return, we commit to keep you updated via newsletters and blog entries. We also would love to pray for you (please feel free to email us specific requests you may have so that we can pray specifically for you).

O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! ~Psalm 34:8

Grace and Peace,
~Lindsay
That Family [that's not quite yet] in Ecuador
godseyfamily@reachingandteaching.org

And we are off.....

As I am writing this post the Scripture that comes to mind is Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!"  We are rejoicing in the Lord as we set out to obey Him and His call on our lives to become missionaries in Ecuador.  Recently, we had a meeting with the pastoral council at New Life Church, presenting our call, His mission, and vision to them.  It was a sweet sweet time of fellowship, prayer, and a desire to exalt the name of Christ.  With that being said, we have been approved by our church body to go forth with the Gospel to Ecuador.  We are off and starting our support raising so that we can Go and make disciples in Ecuador. 

 So why do we need support?

We are a faith based missionary family, which means that we do not receive a regular paycheck, instead we are dependent on committed monthly supporters to meet our financial needs. We have faith that God will provide for our needs as we seek to be obedient to His call to missions. When you give financially to our ministry, you are allowing us to focus on taking the Gospel to the people of Ecuador and to train pastors and lay leaders there to do the same. You are not only meeting a need of ours, but you are partnering to meet the spiritual needs of many who otherwise might never hear Truth. Thank you for prayerfully considering how the Lord might be leading you to Give so that we can Go.

We know the Lord has called us and now we need monthly financial partners

to accomplish His task that He has laid on our hearts. 

How to support us:

If the Lord has moved you to partner with us we would like to share with

you how to donate to our ministry.

For online donations:  Reaching and Teaching International Ministries has

an online giving portal which allows you to give both by credit card and digital

check online.

Go to www.reachingandteaching.org/support.html and click on the Donate

Now button to begin your monthly donations. Make sure to scroll to our name,

David and Lindsay Godsey, to designate who the support is for.

*** A donation from your checking or savings account is preferred as it

eliminates a 6% fee charged by the credit card company on every

donation. ***

For mailed donations: Please send to Reaching and Teaching International

Ministries, and include a note indicating that it is for David and Lindsay

Godsey.

The address is:

Reaching and Teaching International Ministries P.O. Box 122 Wheaton,

IL 60187

We want to thank you for your partnership through prayer and donations as

we seek to be obedient to the One who called us. 

If you have any questions about our ministry please do not hesitate to call me

At 901-292-4680 or email us at godseyfamily@reachingandteaching.org

Life Continues Forward....

Well since the last post we are continuing to prepare for launch with support raising, Lord willing, in February. We pray that the Lord is preparing hearts that are willing to partner with us in our ministry to the Ecuadorians. Our presentation of our mission and vision is almost complete and we are very excited about it. Why? Because we will be living this out in Ecuador!!

 From one generation to another may our God be glorified.

Our mission statement is below:

Our mission is for the peoples of Ecuador to know God's way and salvation, so that, they may praise Him.
We understand and fully believe ALL authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus Christ and in that authority we are going to make disciples. We want to entrust the Gospel to faithful men who will be able to teach others and make the manifold wisdom of God known. We will proclaim Him, teaching all men and admonishing all men, in all wisdom, so that, we may present all men complete in Christ.

Looking forward:

May God provide us faithful men who will be able to teach others!

Looking unto HIM

David

Preparation....

We are still in the midst of preparing ourselves for support raising. As I put the finishing touches on the presentation of our calling, I thought of this song that we sing so often at New Life Church Eads. It's called "Lead on O King Eternal" The first stanza is below:

Lead on, O King eternal,
The day of march has come;
Henceforth in fields of conquest
Thy tents shall be our home:
Thro' days of preparation
Thy grace has made us strong,
And now, O King Eternal,
We lift our battle song.

What a beautiful song! 

When I think of all the preparation it takes a missionary to become ready for support raising, these lyrics that Ernest Shurtleff wrote in 1887 seem so appropriate. It is God's grace that makes us strong as we prepare for His work. The fields of conquest, no matter where they are: Ecuador, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Peru, to the ends of the earth, God is our home. As the day of march comes and we are ready, there is One who is in front leading the way, O King Eternal. 

Praise Him for never leaving us!!

Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we finish our preparation as the day of march comes near.

In Christ,

David

Word.

 



2014.

A new year

which means:

Time

for a new

resolution.

...

Or not.

...

I mean

after all,

I did 

change my name

to Oxymoron

a couple of years

ago 

when I resolved

"to resolve no more".

Remember?

So instead,

I choose 

one

single

word.

In 2012, I chose

discernment.

In 2013, it was

still.
 

This year,

in light of 

our call

to missions,

and our

desire

to be obedient

to that call,

I see

nothing

more fitting

for our

family

than to

choose

the word

faith

to meditate on

in 2014.

So there you have it, "faith" is my word for 2014. What about you? Do you have a word of the year? Perhaps you stick with the traditional New Year's resolution. Whatever you do, feel free to share in the comment section. I'd love to hear what changes, if any, the new year means for you. Who knows? We might end up holding one another accountable! :)

Thanks for dropping by to check on us!

~Lindsay
 That Family [who is not quite, but soon to be] in Ecuador