January 2021: It's a NEw Year!
We had a PACKED December this year! It was filled with all kinds of Christmas fun! It’s hard to tell from the picture here, but taking a good Christmas picture with five kids which include a toddler, a baby and a Silas was a bit difficult. This was the best one!
Mission meeting wise, things slowed considerably in the month of December, as it seems many were busy preparing for Christmas related activities and end of the year preparations, but the month was filled none the less with other types of mission planning. For starters, a lot of time was spent clearing out the homestead little by little via Facebook Marketplace and garage sale, while we did apartment shopping. After apartment research in November, we finally narrowed it down to the one in December! It looks like we will be receiving the keys to our new apartment in Waller, TX on January 2nd. It’s a big change as its only about 1300 sqft for us seven.
After we receive our keys, we will begin to move small items over that week, but are in need of hands to help us move our larger items into the apartment on the 8th & 9th of January if anyone may be available.
After getting everything moved, we are planning to have our last big garage sale to clear things out on January 16th. We are selling all sorts of furniture, childrens’s items, books, home school items, essential oils, etc. We have many items posted on Facebook Marketplace should anyone be interested.
We did put a small 5×5 storage unit in Cypress on hold for a few items while we live in the apartment, but still need while living here. We also have been sorting and packing storage boxes for those items we want to make sure to keep. These boxes will be stored near my parents house in Santa Fe for safe keeping.
Status Updates
In January, we are looking at hitting our 40% mark in our attempts to being fully funded with our monthly support by July 31st, 2021. It was a big goal, but we are working hard to get there. With hitting this goal in January, it puts us on track for where we need to be. We want to thank those who joined Clan Stellhorn in December, and those who have committed to joining us in January! A big chunk of support is coming from our home church at Cypress Crossings Christian Church, who are joining us as partners in our ministry in Scotland by financially taking on 20% of our needs. In January, we should hit about 20% of our upfront costs budget as well. We are so blessed and thankful for each and everyone who has committed to joining us as partners in the work we are so excited to do in northern Scotland.
Sometime in the Spring of 2021, we will transition to living off our support, so we may continue support raising full time. Shannon has begun the down hill transition with her business, with her last clients set to deliver in July.
We are on track to attend orientation with New International in February. It’s up in the air as of yet whether this will be in-person in Florida or held virtually. We also have hopes of traveling to Scotland in March as we prepare for our future service over there for a planning trip, but COVID restrictions have that on hold for the moment.
We are also looking forward to a month of mission meetings as well! If we haven’t connected yet, but you are interested in hearing more, please let us know! We would love to connect with you over coffee or lunch and share our vision and plans if it is on your heart to be one of our partners for the work we plan to do in Scotland.
Give a Listen...
On December 27th, Christopher shared our part of our story at C4 and preached out of Luke 4. Give a listen if you want! Christopher begins speaking at about 35:25 mark.
Christopher preached on December 13th as well. Starts at about 31:30. If link will not play here from blog, then click to head over to youtube!
