Friday, August 17, 2007

please join us through your support/prayer

Please pray as we sort out how to best honor God through our situation. Pray that God would direct us to share our need with the right people. Pray that we will not be too proud to ask people to join in our ministry through their finances and prayer. Pray that we will be content in our current state and not covet.

Donations can be made online here. Select "Mike Jolly" from the pull down menu on the AFES donation page. AFES manages the donations by receiving the funds and then redirecting it into our account.

Below is our most recent supporters' update:

Dear friends

It's not often that I feel the need to beg. Work this year has been a tremendously humbling experience, having to ask people for money in order to live and get by. So many people have been amazingly generous to me in providing the majority of my salary. But as the year hurtles towards its end I'm again asking for support. I'm approximately $5000 short of my target for the year.

As many of you may know I got married over the mid-semester break in Germany to the lovely Christine. I enjoyed the break from work and being able to get away from the worries and pressures of ministry. We arrived back from our honeymoon just in time for FOCUS' annual Mid Year Conference. This was an amazing time of spiritual renewal for both the students and us.

With married life now thrown into the mix I've realized just how little the MTS wage is. Christine and I look set to have real financial troubles over the next year and half, even with my full wage. Please keep Christine and I in your prayers as we work through this most difficult part of marriage. She is currently not able to work until her visa is approved (a massive process).

The semester began with a bang as we ran the worldview survey in week 3. The first couple of weeks were spent recovering from MYC and preparing the students for the survey. The worldview survey is, in my view, one of the best evangelistic tools out there. Students answer multiple choice questions before being analysed by a computer which tells them their worldview. This then leads to evangelistic conversations as the Christian explains the ins and outs of various worldviews. I spent 3 hours talking non-stop in just one day and had some awesome conversations. I don't say this to boast but to demonstrate just how effective a tool it really is.

I've also been excited by the prospect of running an evangelistic small group up at Jane Franklin Hall. This has flowed out of a small group that I started there in the middle of last semester (with help from others). It's been encouraging to see students in this group growing and being challenged in their faith.

I'll be preaching on Titus later in the semester. Please keep me in your prayers as it will be a struggle to get these talks completed in time. On top of all this Christine and I have recently moved to a new flat and continue to settle into sharing a home for the first time.

Although there are challenges ahead for the year we have every confidence in God and his ability to provide for us. Please feel free to check out my blog for updates on my progress (the link is below). You can also now donate to me online via my blog. May God Bless you especially through his son Jesus.

Mike and Christine Jolly

5 comments:

Laura said...

Praying, praying, praying.

Laura said...

Linked on my blog. Is there anything else I can do to help? Other than pray, obviously.

gina said...

I'm praying, too. Remember the birds of the air and the lilies of the field....

Shawna said...

As one American married to an Australian to another. About 4 years ago I went through the Visa process...trying to convince the government to give me a working visa while waiting for my Spousal Visa to process becaue we couldn't afford to live off one wage (I had brought to the marriage my massive American college debt)while also convincing them that they could give me a spousal visa because we could afford to support ourselves...if that makes sense. But be encouraged because when you are at your most desperate (money probelms are never very nice in a new marriage)God does the most amazing blessings. We ended up paying off my college debt, going back to the states to visit my family, and blessed those around us (and when i say blessed I mean in the financial sense too) and all of that in 3 years (and our figures didn't add up...God's economy is quite amazing), so if you are walking down the path He has laid out for you He will always make sure you have enough (we went for a year without a car and at one point had three in our driveway for us to use...we had to tell God to tone it down a little becaue we didn't have enough room for all His blessing:)) The other great thing about it is God gave my husband and I some really great together times in our lack of cash flow to grow together and to encourage one another..but I'll stop now cause I could go on and on

january said...

i mentioned your concerns to the women's small group at my church this morning as a prayer request - the group is made up of some awesome prayer warriors who are praying for you and Mike.

they even asked me to pass on donation information, so i forwarded them this post and the donation link.

may you both glorify God through your faith, patient waiting and trust in Him.