After two years of prayers, planning, and preparation, our departure is nearly upon us. July my four sons, my wife and I will fly out of the Miami International Airport bound for Montevideo, Uruguay. We will arrive on the morning of August 1 with a whole new set of challenges and opportunities before us. We would like to express our deepest thanks and gratitude for the hundreds of people who have given their time, resources, and prayers to make this possible.

Two of our teammates are already on the ground in Montevideo. They arrived last Tuesday and will be assisting in our arrival next Thursday. For them, life and ministry in Uruguay has already begun! They are thrilled to be there, although they did find the very cold weather to be a bit of a shock. (Southern Hemisphere - opposite seasons) Three more of our teammates will come down when they possess all of their funding, which we expect to be later this fall. Please rejoice with me as I share with you two very specific ways in which the Lord has met our needs. Several weeks ago, after preaching at Trinity Baptist Church, a young couple came up to us after the service and informed us that they would like to purchase our plane tickets to Uruguay. My initial response was, “You are aware we are flying to South America and that we are a family of six, right?” To which they replied, “Of course!” A few weeks ago, we sat down with this couple to make this purchase, and afterward spent some time that evening praising Jesus for his loving care. One of the reasons why this is such an astounding story, is that this couple is very young and not exorbitantly wealthy. They simply decided to make a deep sacrifice for the kingdom of God and live out the example set before us in the book of Acts.

The second story displays how the Lord meets needs we don’t even know that we have. Our initial plan had been for me to fly down by myself and spend about two weeks scouting out an apartment and beginning the furnishing process. I would then return to the States, collect my family and fly back down. While we were formulating these plans, a missionary family currently serving in Uruguay was making plans for a four month visit to North America, during which their house and vehicle would sit, unused. Upon hearing of our imminent arrival, this family made their home and vehicle available to us for our initial weeks in Uruguay. This provides us with a fully furnished home and transportation while I begin the lengthy process of finding an apartment for my family. In the future, when I wonder if our needs will be met, I can recall these two simple stories which are but a few of the myriad of ways our God has taken care of us. I hope you are also reminded of God our Provider.

Jonathan (’06) Lindstam
http://www.avantministries.org

The Lindstams have raised funds by selling donated media items on Amazon. If you would like to see what they have for purchase, here is the link. www.amazon.com/shopMediaForMission. Please keep in mind that the things they are selling are donated and do not necessarily reflect their personal values.