Living a life of walking on faith is both terrifying and exhilarating. Mentally, I can tell myself “God brought us here, He’s not going to leave us.” But when we look at our freezer, or the gas gauge on our truck or upcoming events and the practical and financial aspects are uncertain or don’t seem to make logical sense, it can be hard to make that head knowledge, heart knowledge. I’m sure anyone who has lived a missional life can relate. I find myself preaching to my own heart, as much as I preach to my family when I say “Eyes on Jesus.” This last week, I got a phone call that a payment was due for the class we are working on, with no means to pay it. Then as I drove home in our pick up the AC stopped working. I then arrived home and I looked around my kitchen trying to figure out what we could make for dinner with the food we had available(we buy a month at a time, we have food but sometimes figuring out how to make it stretch on a budget is hard). We were planning to go grocery shopping sometime this week but I was stuck trying to decide if I need to stretch things out to last a week longer(try some meatless meals?). I began to feel overwhelmed. I took a breath and start to quietly pray.

Gabe, seeing the wheels in my head turn, walks over and asks what I’m thinking. I tell him what happened, as I begin to verbalize the needs, I start to feel a peace in my heart. I tell Gabe: I can’t figure out how the practical parts will work out, but I know they will. I see our needs and sometimes I think to myself “did we make the wrong decision? Should we just go back to a 9-5?” It was so comfortable owning our own businesses and feeling like we had control of our situation. I also know God sees our needs and I’m confident that this is where God called us. So I am confident that He will not leave us. He has confirmed that this is where we are supposed to be so many times I know the practical aspects will work out. I just need to align my faith and my emotions right now, so I keep my eyes off the waves and put them on Jesus.

Gabe and I continued to talk, we prayed, and we came up with a plan, while intentionally keeping our hands open to God setting our direction. We can now look forward to how God will answer our prayers.

Building and property update

This month we have made some awesome progress on the building of the A-frame. We had a good friend come down and help us finish install the floor. Now that we have completed that, our next steps will be to get the beams purchased.

If you want to hear some of John’s takeaways from his time here; he shared a great message at church this past Sunday. Take a listen!

Or go to YouTube and find it By searching Waikiki Beach Gathering “trusting God pastor John German”

We also took the first step towards establishing a sports field. This will be an ongoing project with many practical things needing to be accomplished before it is operational. Primarily, figuring out a consistent source of water for the field and getting bathrooms set up. Gabe mowed down the area where we hope to put the field which gave us a good idea of what we are working with, land wise. We are in conversation with IMI founder, Rev. Thomas Stamman, to decide what course of action we should take to get this up and running.

Unfortunately, a few days after this photo was taken the radiator on the tractor blew. So we have been taking the time to fix it and working to get it up and running again. We are very thankful to Gabes parents for their generosity in allowing us, and our neighbors, to use their tractor and work with us to get it back to operational.

Vehicles

This month while driving to get water, Gabe found himself stranded on the side of the road just a couple miles from our house. He opened his hood, and found his idler pulley disintegrated.

It just so happened that he had accidentally purchased this part 3 years ago, and it had sat in his truck all this time. He called me asking for tools to be able to replace it. Miraculously his belt was completely intact. Once I arrived with the part he was able to quickly replace it.

Why do I share this? Gods timing is impeccable and perfect: The day before a friend had borrowed our truck. A couple days before that, Gabe had done a 12 hour round trip around the island picking up parts and tools. In either of those situations it would have been a huge ordeal you get the right tools, or even having someone skilled to fix the problem quickly. We had the part, and it broke down at a perfect time where it could be easily fixed. It’s never fun to have a broken down vehicle, but if you’re gonna have one break down this was the way to do it 🙂

Kellys Kitchen

We have been continuing to bake bread weekly and it is so much work but it has been such a fun time getting to work with Bella to bake on Tuesdays, and so many cool God moments and sweet conversations as we sell on Wednesday. We had and incredible answer to prayer happen this month. We officially got a commercial sized mixer!!

We had been praying for the last month for a larger mixer. First, because it has been taking us 16 hours to complete all our loaves for market. Second, as my poor 4.7 qt kitchen aid is just not built to handle the mass production and stress we have put it through each week, and no longer turns off unless it is unplugged. Commercial mixers are not cheap so we had been putting aside the profits from bread to save for a mixer that, brand new, can range from $700-$3000 depending on the size. Now add to that, Hawaii does not have very many options, and most places we had window shopped at “Do not ship to our area” or the shipping was estimated to be as much as the machine itself.

So after looking for a used machine, this 30qt one finally popped up on marketplace. It was priced at $1500, which was a steal(brand new they run $3500 not including shipping), however we did not have that much saved so I was prepared to keep scrolling past the listing when I felt God telling me to message them anyways. “You have not because you ask not” My heart was pounding as I decided to go with it and reach out to the owner, mostly because the ask I was making could have been perceived as insulting. I offered $300, our story, and complete honesty that I knew what I was asking would seem obscene. Then I waited for a response.

They counter offered saying that they loved our story and couldn’t go that low but they would take $750, which I couldn’t believe. However, It was still out of our financial reach, so I politely declined, and thanked them for even considering my request. They came back an hour later “We love your story, we know you could use it, and we would love for it to go to a great cause. Are you willing to barter?”

My heart leaped with the possibility that God was opening this door for us. I prayed and felt compelled to reach out to our close friends, and those who were on our newsletter list to share with them and ask them to join us in prayer for favor. The next morning, One of those people reached out to us and said they wanted to cover the difference to help us get the machine. I cried tears of joy at how God worked to get us this mixer. So that Monday we drove down picked up the mixer and set it up in our kitchen, and were able to make our bread in half the time.

We cannot wait to see how Jesus continues to use bread to bless the community.

Planting Hope Ministries

We have taken steps this month to begin forming a non profit. We are in the process of filling out the 1023 form to get tax exempt status but we are officially recognized by the state of HI and IRS as an organization. Although we don’t need a non profit to go out and fulfill the calling God has placed on us, we look at it as a tool that will give us more credibility as we establish ourselves here, and will give our financial supporters a tax break. It also has helped us to sit down and verbally formulate the calling we feel has been placed on our family. We pray that God uses us and this organization to plant seeds of hope wherever we go.

Friday night outreach

We are continuing to be involved in the Friday night youth outreach. There was a dip in attendance but this last week saw new surge of kids. This month they have been teaching kids how to play pickle ball on the tennis court. Also this past month 4 of the kids, who also attend church on Sunday, got water baptized, which was super exciting. Our favorite part of Friday is the energy of the kids.

Prayer Requests

Pray for financing, as we are moving forward into full time ministry we are seeking financial partners to come along side us and what God is building out here.

We had been presented with an opportunity to take part in an intensive through Transforming Hearts Ministries that would help to better equip us for this season of ministry. We are still taking steps towards that, However we are not sure how we will pay for this intensive. It’s $7200 due soon. So please join us in prayer that if we are supposed to take part in this that financing will be taken care of.

We are continuing to pray for steadfastness, wisdom and grace as we continue to take steps, trusting He will make a way. We want to be faithful to staying on the path God has set us on trusting what He has told us will happen in His timing.