Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Moving Progress

Published on August 21, 2009 in Email Updates. 0 Comments

Hola Everyone!

We’re getting so excited about our move! We can’t believe that we’re only 3 days away from getting on a plane and heading to Barcelona! We can’t wait to get there and see what God will do through and in us as we strive to extend the Kingdom of God. Our desire is to live out what Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 2:8…”that we would not only share the Gospel of God, but our very lives as well.”

We wanted to give you a heads up on a few of the biggest issues that we’re facing so that you can pray about them over the weekend. Cleverly, they all start with an ‘F’!

1. Finding an apartment

We’re still looking for a place to land when we first get to Barcelona. I’ve made appointments to look at places for our long term needs, which will be even easier to do on the ground, but finding a place for a week has proved harder to lock down! Pray that we’ll be able to find something central and affordable before we leave!

2. Finances

We are so grateful for the many of you that sacrifice so greatly on our behalf. We are always so blown away by God’s provision in our times of greater need. We are currently facing two issues in this regard:

-The increasing strength of the Euro will effect our living costs in Barcelona. While we have already made the commitment to live below our means as best we can (which may just be a reality!), the change in the exchange rate will play a factor for us. Despite all of this, God is already at work and providing for us. We’ve had 5 new supporters start supporting us this week and even more that have expressed some sort of commitment! It seems that God always meets us when we step out in faith! Reminds me of the story (Joshua 3) of the Priests of Israel stepping into the Jordan in faith that God would hold up the water…While our miracles are not quite that fantastic, we are blessed to experience ‘simple miracles’ that build our faith in the same way!

-The other financial matter at hand is one of our overall financial picture. Our traveling to and settling in Barcelona is a big expense and will take a big bite out of our support account. We are still praying that God would provide an additional $3,500. This money will go to our: Apartment Deposit, Residency Fees, and to provide a support reserve in our account in case of emergency, sudden loss of support, or months of shortage. Our desire is to land in Barcelona and be able to focus solely on the work at hand, and to not give unnecessary attention to our finances. Would you pray about this for us? Would you pray about how you may be able to help us with this need? If you have any questions, please contact us!

One great bit of news is that we were able to get our banking situation figured out Stateside. We’ve opened a new account that allows us to manage our account online and will interface well with the account we’ll open in Barcelona. Little things like this can be complicated in our situation, so we are grateful all went so well!

3. Fitting everything in our bags!

We have 5 big suitcases, 4 carry-ons, 1 guitar, a car seat, and a stroller! A big weekend task is going to be making sure we can fit everything we need and keep it all within the weight limits! We’ve become good at packing and moving (maybe too good!) so I think we’re up for the challenge!

Oh, and one last thing:

4. Family!

Jen, Maisie, and I are doing good, and so is baby boy Powell. Our spirits are up and we’re excited to go. Maisie has grasped the concept of flying to Barcelona and is excited because she knows that her brother is going to ‘be in Barcelona’ sometime after we get there.

Jason, Amy, and the Kids continue to be gracious hosts. None of us expected that we would have been living in their living room for 5 weeks! But God has given us much grace and we all still love each other!

Finally…

Here’s a quick list of things to pray for:

Pray that:

  • We get Maisie’s visa soon!
  • Our weekend is productive and we are able to wrap up any loose ends
  • Our flight is uneventful and we get some good sleep
  • Even our goodbyes will be times of joy
  • We’ll find an apartment very soon!
  • Our last bit of funding will be provided and that God will continue to Bring new financial partners! (yeah God!)

Thanks so much for your encouragement and prayers! It was so great to hear from so many of you after our last update! We are so thankful for you and we are grateful for the passion that each of you have for Europe and the people there! Lives will be changed for the good of this world and to the glory of God!

We’ll write one more time before we head out…talk to you soon!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie


On Our Way to Barcelona!

Published on August 15, 2009 in News. 0 Comments

¡Hola Everyone!

Yes you are reading the subject right! We are moving to Barcelona in 10 days!

Thanks so much for your prayers for us over the past few weeks and specifically your prayers for our visa situation. The email that I sent to the consulate two days ago was received really well. The Chancellor of the Consulate is giving us permission to have a family member pick up Maisie’s visa when it arrives in Los Angeles (hopefully not ‘if’ it arrives!). So, in the meantime we can move to Spain and wait for Maisie’s visa there.

We are thrilled to get over and begin this next chapter of our lives and ministry. It has been a long time coming for all of us. To the point where I almost feel like it is surreal! But we trust that God’s timing is good and we are happy to have waited on it regardless of how difficult it was at times. We’re looking forward to sharing videos, pictures, and stories from Barcelona where we know that the good work of God in our lives will continue to work and serve the many in Barcelona who do know the hope of Jesus.

We found a really great deal on our tickets too! We leave on Monday the 24th of August. The tickets that we found were nearly $1000 cheaper than the days before and after. Before taxes they were less that $300 each! This is the cheapest we’ve ever been able to fly to Europe! (Check out http://www.yayama.com to see the site we used). We’ll have two layovers on the journey, which is nice to have the trip broken up a bit with a little one. It is weird to think that this will be our last flight with only one child!

Our bags have been packed for nearly a month now, but in the next ten days we’ll be working with more urgency on many of the things we’ve been doing over the past couple of months:

  • Studying Spanish
  • Looking for apartments in Barcelona
  • Final fundraising efforts (we’re almost there!)
  • Getting banking set-up stateside
  • Last minute organizing and packing up
  • Getting extra pages in our passports
  • Connecting with people in Barcelona
  • Wrapping up life here
  • Saying Goodbyes

There are many things that we could use your prayers for! Here’s another list for all of you ‘list types’:

Pray that:

  • we find a temporary place to live when we first arrive.
  • we find a good apartment to live in for our first year.
  • we can get a bank account, phones, and other things like that without any holdups
  • our travel will be uneventful and everything makes it ok
  • we get Maisie’s visa before we leave!
  • God gives us courage, grace, and peace as we settle in
  • God will provide the funds we need to move and settle well

We’ll send out another email soon and let you know how things are going.

***Please take a moment before finishing reading this to give thanks to God on our behalf for all that He has, is, and will provide!

Psalm 126:2-3

Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.

We’re so grateful for you all and for your prayers for us during this time. We’ve learned and experienced things that have made us more resilient, determined, and ultimately more faithful. Thanks for your partnership!

Talk to you soon!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie Powell


Newest Visa Update

Published on August 13, 2009 in Email Updates. 0 Comments

¡Hola Todos!

We hope that you are all doing well and living in the freedom that we have in Jesus (Gal. 5:1)

A lot has been going on since we have written last. We wanted to update you on what is going on with our visas and some decisions that we have coming up for which we could really use your prayers.

Since writing last, I’ve visited the consulate in Los Angeles twice, called numerous times, written a number of emails, and all three of us went this morning. The fruit of all of this has been us learning that there is no new information on Maisie’s visa. To say that this is frustrating is an understatement! I don’t remember if we’ve communicated this or not, but we moved out of our apartment on July 18th and have been living with our family since then. We expected to get our visas a month ago and to be living in Barcelona already! There are a few other things that complicate our situation even more than it is…

The Spanish Consulate doesn’t know why Maisie’s visa is being held up and they don’t have a timeline for when it could be granted. It could be tomorrow, or it could be another month. This uncertainty makes it really difficult to make plans and it seems like even they are at the mercy of the Immigration Authorities in Spain. From what we learned today, the only way we could communicate directly with this office would be if we were to ask someone in Madrid to go to the office on our behalf. This may become a legitimate option if we don’t hear something soon. We drove up to the consulate today to try to come up with some creative solutions to our problem. There aren’t many options and it may be hard to be given a loophole in a very structured system. I am going to be emailing the head of the consulate again today and asking him to consider some options for us.

In addition to this, Jen is approaching her sixth month of pregnancy. This puts a different type of deadline on our need/desire to move. Our window to move soon is shrinking as we need to fly before Jen isn’t allowed to fly anymore. We also need time to learn the logistics of the medical system in Spain once we get there. Jen has been doing a lot of reading and communicating with people about this, but there is only so much we can do from here.

One of the biggest bummers of us not getting our visas is that we will be missing our annual staff conference called ‘Connect’. We’re really sad to be missing this time of community with our friends and coworkers as we only see most them once a year. This is the first one we’ve missed in our 5 years of being on staff. I still have a little bit of hope that we could go, but as the days go by we are increasingly letting go of our sadness to miss this and moving on.

Because of these things, we are going to be forced to make some big decisions about when we will be able to move to Barcelona. Our hope is that we’ll get Maisie’s visa and be able to go ASAP. That is what we are praying for, working towards, and is our best case scenario. But we’ve learned that God’s timing is not ours and we have to trust that His is better. So, please pray about this for us.

Considering all things, life is going really well. I can definitely see how our struggles have helped increase our prayer life and we’re feeling a very real dependence on God. (Which is one of the best aspects of being missional people!)

Jen and I celebrated our 8th year of marriage Monday! She surprised me with a really romantic picnic and we had a great time spending a few hours just the two of us. She is such an amazing wife and I’m so thankful for her partnership in the craziness of our lives. The pregnancy is coming along and Jen’s belly is quickly growing. The baby’s kicks and punches are a lot more obvious now and Maisie is getting excited about having a baby brother. Her due date is November 28th in case you were wondering.

Despite living in such close quarters, we are enjoying living with the Edwards’. Maisie and Avery play so well together and we are so glad that they are connecting in such a special way. Our time with family is precious and we enjoy laughing, talking, processing, and praying for all that is going on in our lives together.

Here is a quick list of things that we can use prayer for:

  • Maisie’s visa to come quickly!
  • That we receive a positive response from the consulate in regards to our email
  • God to give us wisdom and faith in the decisions that we need to make
  • Continued financial provision
  • God to continue to fill us with hope, vision, and passion (Proverbs 13:21)
  • Jen and baby to remain healthy
  • That we’ll be able to move soon and the logistics to all come together

Thanks for your prayers, support, and encouragement. We are so grateful that we have a team of people that are passionate about Europe, love us, and believe along with that God is working all things for good through our lives…despite how lost we may feel from time to time. We are thankful for you all!

Please feel free to share any thoughts and words that the Lord has given you! We could really use encouragement and any wisdom you have to share!

Grace and Peace,

Justin, Jen, and Maisie Powell