January-March 2016
Prayer Needs
MOVING This year has started in a hurry. There has been a lot of movement in the ministry and in our personal lives. Here are some of the moves taking place.
From the Farm to Town First of all, we as a family made a physical move from our house on the YWAM base, to a new house in town. For the past four years we stayed on the base which is on a farm about 20-30 minutes outside of Windhoek. We recently, for a number of reasons, decided that it was time for us to move back into town (If you would like to hear more about why we made this decision, please ask). God provided us a great little place at a good price and we feel very confident that it was the right move. Our family has been experiencing a great sense of peace and believe we will be very happy in our new home.
Pray for full time/long term volunteers to come join us in Namibia Work Permit/Future work in Namibia Spiritual growth for the members of our Thrive communities Training & implementation of CHE ministry
Special Dates
March 4— - Avi's birthday
March 31-Apr 4— - All Africa Missionary Retreat in Cape Town, SA
April 11-15— - CHE Training of Trainers
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May 6-8— Thrive Retreat
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June 11— Sandy's Birthday
From Young & Pregnant to Young Mothers In March, 3 Measures ran our second Young & Pregnant course in partnership with Beautiful Kidz. We had between 16-20 girls this time around as word seems to be spreading about the program. Now, as the girls who have gone through the pregnancy course are moving into motherhood, we are starting a new Young Mothers program. In this course Sandy, Umoyo and the BK staff will teach these ladies how to raise a child who is healthy physically, socially & spiritually. In addition to this course, Sandy is also beginning a new Thrive Community for these mothers and mothers to be. Please be in prayer for these two new ministries as we reach out to these young women. David & Sandy Echols – 3940 Oberding Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80911 –david@3measur.es
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www.3measur.es
From Research to Training
Support
In our last newsletter we mentioned that we have been working on starting up a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) course. For a while now you have also heard about a small community called Sonderwater, we've been doing surveys and assessments and have decided that this seems to be a community ready for a CHE program. Starting on April 11th we will move from simply researching for CHE to training our team for it. We have coordinated a training in Windhoek which will be taught by the Southern Africa regional coordinators for Medical Ambassadors International, Kevin and Erica Pippert (South Africa). Three Measures will be joined by two other ministries, one more from Namibia and another from the country of Losotho. Please pray for us to successfully host this training, to get everything we can out of the training and for us to make valuable relationships with these other ministries.
From Uncertainty to Assurance We just returned from a trip to Cape Town, South Africa where we were blessed to be a part of the All Africa Missions Retreat. The AAMR brings together Restoration Movement missionaries from all over the continent for teaching, fellowship and spiritual refreshment. For our family, it could not have been more of a success. The speaker, Monte Cox, challenged us with a great message all week about adjusting our sails to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Since we received the news about our non-renewable work permits last year, we have been faced with a level of uncertainty about what the future holds. Although we still intend to be in Namibia long into the future, we have no guarantee. With this uncertainty comes a lot of pressure, but after this week of focusing on the One who called us, we move forward with a peace that surpasses understanding. We know that whatever the future holds, we are in His hands. As long as we follow the guidance of the Great Counselor, God will accomplish what He desires. And our souls can find rest in that.
Thank you so much to all of you who support our work here in Namibia! In our last newsletter we were able to share that we reached 100% of our budget. That includes ministry funds, admin costs and keeping the Echols in Namibia. This marked the first time we've reached full support since entering Namibia in 2010. We will however
need to increase this budget again, as we have added school fees and an increase in rent. In January we started paying $300 per month for Reese's school fees and in March we moved into a house that costs about $800 per month. We have made a number of budget cuts to make this possible for the time being. We will evaluate our new budget in a a few months, then let you all know how much of an increase will truly be necessary. As for now, we continue to thank the Lord for all of you who have invested in God's work in Namibia! If you would like to join the work of Three Measures in Namibia through a monthly commitment or one-time gift, simply go to www.3measur.es/donate OR return the included response card OR contact us at support@3measur.es.
Budget
A lot has happened these last three months. Some has been good, some difficult, but I am happy to say that our Lord has been moving.
Thanks for your prayers and support, David, Sandy, Reese & Avi Echols
Personal (including food, housing, etc)………..….$1,500 Ministry……………..……$1,250 Benefits (Health Insurance, Savings)…………….……….$500 Administration……….….$150
Total Monthly Need $3,400 -Current Monthly Raised $3,400 Total Remaining Need $0 Contributions are solicited with the understanding that YWAM-SF has complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds. Please make checks payable to Youth With A MissionStrategic Frontiers, or YWAM-SF. All gifts are tax deductable and are requested and/or received with the understanding that YWAM-SF has complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds