So. Close.
Hi friends!
Since the last time we talked (that’s how I feel when I write these updates - like talking to an old friend), we’ve been burning the midnight oil. I’m writing this on the heels of returning back from a week at Hume. Jeremy went with West Hills Youth Group to Hume Lake to be a middle school counselor (ask him about it) - the kids and I tagged along and got to celebrate Emery’s birthday up there.
Back in June, I got a few days away to celebrate the end of the homeschool year by going on a girls trip to Tahoe. While I was in Tahoe, Jeremy had the privilege to share his testimony at the West Hills Men’s Breakfast. Before leaving for Hume, Jeremy also threw a poker night fundraiser and unfortunately won… I deliberately told him not to. I held three nights of mini photography sessions to raise funds right before we left for Hume so I’m currently up to my neck in work. We also got to attend the Missionary West Coast Conference in Walnut Creek. It was a fantastic event, and a wealth of knowledge and encouragement to us. We left feeling reminded of our call, as it’s so easy to get caught up in all of the moving pieces to make the call happen. The resources and information was priceless, and we highly recommend it to anyone looking to do missionary work.
Honorable mentions:
Emery had her first dance recital :’)
The 5th annual Camp Kastle commenced to kick off the Summer
Jeremy’s faithful truck died :( BUT the Lord provided an old car almost immediately at no cost!! :D
We got to visit with our missionary friends from Thailand. You HAVE to check out the work they’re doing with Free Burma Rangers.
After just two months of support raising, we are currently at 75%!! for monthly support and 71%!! for one-time start up costs! If you read our last update, you would know this is no small feat as we have biiiig numbers to fill. In that short amount of time, we’ve had 25 faithful independent supporters and 2 church partnerships come alongside us. We are feeling so encouraged and seeing God provide in the most unexpected ways has been such a cool part of this journey. We still have a long way to go, though, and are still reaching out to churches and personal friends to partner with us on a monthly basis. Pray for stamina as we’re losing steam 😅
I have a small update in regards to our visa. As soon as I posted our last update, we immediately ran into visa problems (literally two hours after I posted our update…) which was comical because I specifically asked for prayer to NOT have visa problems. But I should’ve known better because when is anything simple and unproblematic when the government is involved, am I right? Our update stated we needed $32,000 for our start-up bucket and because of the visa issues, that changed to $44,000. Oof. That hurt. But for a moment, and then we pushed on because the Lord has all the money. And now we’re almost there. So, we got a bit delayed on our visa applications and now we are still waiting for application approval.
It would be easy for us to stress over this but if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the four years since starting down this road of missions, it’s that in the waiting, there’s lessons to be learned, growing to be had, experiences to be attained to better set us up for success overseas. The Lord always has something for us in the waiting. We may be eager to start our work on the island but we don’t want miss what the Lord is showing us while we’re still stateside. And so we continue to wait well, pray expectantly, and see how we can continue to be used wherever we are at the moment.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” -Psalms 91:2
If this is your first time visiting our website, take a look around. We have links to the different ministries we will be apart of, a vision tab walking through Ireland’s need for the Gospel, and a page for partnership with us. If you have not yet thought about it, we ask that you may consider prayer in partnering with us and the work in Ireland. We’re so close to our financial needs being met and are trusting the Lord in the process to get us to 100%. We would be overjoyed if you joined us.
Well, that’s all we have for now. The next time we share an update, we pray it includes a date for departure! Until next time..
The Kastles