"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands." Psalm 90:17
Time is ticking away and the days are counting down to our family's upcoming furlough to the States. We are now less than 4 weeks (25 days) away from our departure date and even though our home is filled with excitement for the upcoming trip, we are also fighting off exhaustion as we continue to complete all the necessary preparations for the 2 months we will be spending in America. We ask you to please continue to lift us up in your prayers as our family is working to not only get everything packed and ready for our trip but also are busy prepping our house and ministry responsibilities so that they will be taken care of while we are away. On top of preparing things here in Thailand, we are also working on arranging necessary logistics for our stay in the States. That includes contacting and arranging times and locations to connect with family, friends, supporters and church bodies who have faithfully followed and invested in our family and ministry through the years. It has been challenging in contacting people because there is always the uncertainty of if they received our email or Facebook message, especially if we have not heard a reply from them. This is another area in which you can help our family by taking a few moments to email us or message us on Facebook and let us know if you would like to schedule a time to visit together. We would like to meet with as many people as possible during our short stay in the States and so in order to do that we are trying to schedule before hand as many times to connect with others as possible. Our current travel schedule looks like this, and if you live in any of the areas we will be visiting and would like to visit with our family, then please email me at dan.rutledge@gmail.com or heartsredeemed@gmail.com ASAP. (You can also connect with me through Facebook or this blog).
The Rutledge Family (Tentative) Travel Schedule for 2016
March 5th leave Thailand and arrive in Boise, Idaho on March 6th at 8PM. (We have a 6 hour layover in Seattle, if anyone would like to meet us near the airport for lunch, we would be willing or should I say thankful to get out of the airport for a bit and stretch our legs).
March 7th to March 12th: Rest and recovery time for Mam and the kids as I will be attending the Shepherd's conference in California from the 8th until the 12th.
Sunday March 13th. Our first Sunday in the States and still open. We would like to visit your church and also share about our ministry if you would be interested. So please contact me if you would like us to possibly visit and share with your church body. (This Sunday we are not sure where we will be at exactly, most likely in the Boise area but are waiting for confirmation).
March 14th to March 28th. In the Boise area and willing to meet with individuals, families, small group Bible studies, youth groups, mission boards, pastors, and even church bodies during this time to share about the ministry here and how God is working through Biblical counseling and discipleship here in Southeast Asia for His glory and the growth of His church.
March 28th -April 4th. In the Twin Falls area. Again willing to connect with anyone who would like to visit together.
April 4th -April 26th in the Pocatello Area (Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, Salt Lake City, etc.). We are really looking forward to this part of the trip since it will provide a special opportunity for the kids to visit with some of their friends from our time of living in the States 3 years ago.
April 26th - May 2nd In the Wood River Valley (Carey, Fairfield, Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley:)
May 2nd Back to Boise and then onto California sometime that week with the goal of arriving in California on the 5th of May to prep for my graduation ceremony on the 6th. Then on the 10th of May we fly back to Thailand because the kids start school on the 16th of May.
(During our stay in different locations, Mam is willing to not only cook Thai food for any who would enjoy it but also teach and train any who would be interested in learning. These Thai meal times can be in the context of a single family, a small group of friends, a bible study group, or even a church body. If you would be interested in hosting or participating in one of these Thai meals, then please let me know soon. Mam has prepared new dishes to share with those lucky enough to taste them.)
That is our tentative travel schedule and so if you would like to schedule a time to connect with our family, then please contact me as soon as possible. We are planning on being in the States a total of 9 Sundays, and we would like to visit with as many churches as we can during our time in hopes of sharing about God's work here in Thailand and how they can pray and partner with us as we continue to minister here full-time through our work with Hearts Redeemed Ministries. The good news for you is that there are 8 of the 9 Sundays still open, since we have not had anyone confirm yet, but that means the bad news for us is that we are still in need of trying to firm up dates and locations for those Sundays. Please pray for us and that we will be diligent in searching but also patient in waiting for the response from the different church bodies.
This short trip to the States is not only for our family's summer vacation, but it is for the purpose of:
1) Visiting with my parents and siblings as we evaluate and plan together ways to help care for my parents (especially my mom and her current health problems) for the next few years. I ask you to pray for my mom as she is still in a full-time care unit and they are not sure if she will be able to return home anytime in the near future. So that is stressful for her, scary for my dad, and something us kids want to discuss and workout together while I am in the States. Also it has been 3 years since my kids last visited their grandma and so we are trying to give them time to spend with her as much as possible during this visit because we are not guaranteed another chance to visit her the next time we come back to visit.
2) Attend my graduation ceremony for the completion of the Masters of Biblical Counseling program I have been working on the past 4 years. Originally it was planned that my parents would be joining us for the ceremony in California but due to my mom's current health problems, they will not be able to make the trip. But Mam and the kids are still excited to visit California and see me walk in the graduation ceremony. (They also would like to possibly visit Disneyland during our time there, but we will wait on that and see if we will have enough finances to cover a day visiting with Micky and his friends)
3) Visit with as many family, friends, current supporters, and supporting churches for the purpose of updating them on how God is using their financial gifts to help connect the hearts and homes of Southeast Asia with the redeeming truths of God's Word. We are grateful for everyone who gives financially to help support our family which allows us to serve in full-time ministry here in Thailand.
4) Connect with and invite others to join our support team as we are in need of increasing our support level to cover our day to day living expenses for our family and the ministry costs of Hearts Redeemed Ministry. In order to do this, it requires us being able to meet with people who would like to hear about our ministry work here and also how they can help.
Those are our four main goals of this upcoming trip, but there are other necessary things which need to be accomplished during our short time.
1)Updating my Drivers license
2) Purchasing quality clothes for our growing children. (Socks and Pants are the two most needed items for all of our kids and me as well)
3) Purchasing medical supplies which are not available in Thailand (Children's pepto, deodorant, etc)
4) Fellowship with like minded believers. Sometimes on the mission field it can become a lonely place as you are surrounded by people but very few of them you are able to communicate with a deep friendship and ministering level.) So for me especially I am looking forward to being able to sit down for a cup of coffee and a warm piece of pie and discuss the principles of Sanctification with a fellow brother in Christ. Also being able to attend a church where the Word of God is faithfully preached and there is child care so that your wife can attend service with me instead of having to lead Sunday School every Sunday.
5) REST and RELAXATION. I know that the next two month will not be too restful as we will be traveling a lot, but at least in America the freeways are wide and almost everyone drives in their own lane, so even driving in the States is more relaxing than driving here in Thailand.
These are some of the goals we have for our upcoming trip and we wanted to share them with you so that you could pray for us as we plan and also maybe offer to help meet some of the needs to help us complete these goals. One of the main needs is our financial support. God has been faithful and over the past year our monthly goal of $2,500 has been reached almost ever month throughout the year. But due to increase in educational expenses for our children and also living expenses for our family we are aiming to increase our support to $3,000 monthly. So if you could please pray that God will enable us to connect with those who would like to partner with our family and support us financially so that we can continue to serve the churches and families here in Southeast Asia through the ministries of biblical counseling and discipleship.
It is time to bring this blog to a close, and I urge you to continue to look for further post in the near future as we update you with more details on our upcoming trip to the States as well as current happenings in our ministry work here. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I trust that it will encourage you and also excite you as the time when we will visit face to face quickly draws near. God bless and thank you for your faithfulness in serving our family through your prayers and support. We are eternally grateful for you and are thankful we can partner together to bring the life changing truths of the gospel to the hearts and homes of Southeast Asia for God's glory and the growth of His church.
Your fellow servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Dan, Mam, Gracie, Joy, Hope, and Kyle Rutledge
Titus 2:11-14
