Praise and Prayer

We returned Friday from the Strategic Planning meetings for TouchGlobal Crisis Response staff, held at Trinity Church in Covington, Louisiana. While down there, we were told we needed to set a date to move as the need is great for us to be there. I will be the Media/Communications Manager with the responsibilities of maintaining the Katrina Project website, updating and editing the Relief Cast monthly newsletter, and contacting 150 new churches in the next year to promote awareness and encourage participation in the relief efforts. I will also be the On-boarding Coordinator responsible for connecting with new missionaries to Covington/New Orleans pre-deployment, providing them with resources to connect them with the missionary staff and the local church, and to pray with them as they make the transition. Phil will be working with supplies/tools and will also be a Field Coach to come alongside new missionaries in helping them assimilate to their new lives in Louisiana. That being said, we are moving to Covington, Louisiana on Sunday, October 21^st. (Phil’s 28^th birthday)

We are bringing a team with us from Lakeland EFC to serve that week in Covington/New Orleans. If you are interested, please contact us as soon as possible so we can get you connected with a team.

God has made it clear to us that this date is the one he wants us to move on. We are trusting Him that He will provide the financial support that we need committed in the next four weeks in order to make this move. We have seen God’s direction and provision with clarity and He has answered our prayers. Praise God! Within 24 hours of flying down to New Orleans, we had two more monthly supporters and 1 additional renter with another possible renter as well. God has provided!

Thursday morning on our way to the airport, I got really car sick. By the time we checked our bag and checked in, I felt worse. Walking made me sick. We decided it would be best to not fly out and to wait until I was feeling better. I was also having a terrible headache…extreme pain. I had been having headaches for two weeks straight with little to no relief. I woke up with one and went to bed with one.

Seven hours and two Dramamine later, we began to look into our travel options. Phil was told at the airport that it was going to cost $100/person to change our flights. He called the airline and they said it was going to be $176/person to fly out Friday. That would cost us over $350 that we weren’t prepared for. Phil then started to call car rental companies to see about renting a car and driving straight through the night. That would’ve cost ½ as much, but neither one of us were up to pulling an all-night driving marathon, plus we could only rent a vehicle from one airport and drop it off at another.

We decided that we would just eat the cost and pray that God would provide. As Phil once again called the airline, he prayed and asked God to intervene. He asked that God would provide the finances to cover the extra cost. Phil booked us on the first Friday flight to Chicago. Then I saw him kicking his feet in excitement as the person he spoke with told him the cost. He got off of the phone to tell me the good news. It was only going to cost $25/person to change our flight. YEA, GOD! There is no explanation other than God providing for us and hearing our prayers.

Encouraged by this, we settled back into the camper for the night. I decided that I was going to pray about my headache. I had been trying everything on my own to get rid of it, but hadn’t simply asked God to take it away. I told God that I knew I couldn’t get rid of it on my own, and that I was tired of relying on myself to fix it. I asked Him to take away my headache. Within seconds…yes, seconds…my headache that I had for TWO weeks was gone. COMPLETELY GONE!!! I woke up Friday still with no headache and today, no headache. GOD is AWESOME!!!! All I had to do was humble myself before Him and admit that I can’t do things on my own. Turning it over to the Lord was all He wanted of me.

As we prepare for this next season of ministry in our lives, we have many hurdles to jump. I need to tie things up at work, which will be very difficult for me. I have never grown to love an Employer, Manager and Co-workers as much as I have at Great Lakes Credit Union. It is going to be very difficult for me to leave there. But I know that I have their support in doing this so I ask that you pray for me emotionally as I transition out. Another difficult thing for us will be leaving the Crossing Sr. High youth group. This has been our ministry home and family for the past few years.

We will be packing up a lot of things in our house and will be looking to sell items and find temporary homes for items in the next few weeks. We will most likely have a garage sale on Saturday, September 29^th and if you have items to donate or would be willing to help us price the night before or sell that day, any help would be much appreciated. We will use the $ raised at the sale to cover our moving expenses and the drive down to Covington, where we will be moving into a small trailer in a trailer court a few miles away from Trinity Church.

We also humbly ask for prayer and financial support to help us be the Hands and Feet of Christ in serving Him by serving others as missionaries. If you have pledged to support us and have sent in your donation, please let us know as this past week we learned that if you do not designate correctly on a check which name and account # you are donating to, the support does not get applied to the correct account. Once a donation is made, you will receive a receipt in the mail with another envelope to continue to send in the monthly support. You can also look at the options to donate support on the right-hand side of our blog. We are updating our blog weekly, sometimes daily. Please visit for current prayer requests and updates of what the Lord is doing. http://www.iheartno.blogspot.com/

Please email us and feel free to forward this email to anyone that you think may want to join our prayer or financial support base. weheartno@gmail.com

My life lesson this week: God hears the needs of His children and blesses them.

God Bless and Bless God!

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Amy (for Phil and Amy Stokes)