"FINAL FOUR" Jan-March 2017: 3 Measures Newsletter

January-March 2017

Prayer Needs

FINAL FOUR March Madness is over and we are preparing for the Final Four. No, this is not a reference to college basketball. I am talking about a busy March and our final four months before our work permits expire and we have to leave Namibia for about a year. As we shared in our last newsletter, we'll be headed to the States to serve as resident missionaries for Central Christian College of the Bible and plan to return to Namibia on new work permits after the 2017-2018 school year. Leaving for an extended time means a lot of preparations. That is what we've been busy with this last quarter.

 Spiritual growth for the members of our Thrive communities  Preparation for Restoration Seminar in Opuwo

Preparing Leaders In January we began getting very intentional about preparing our Thrive communities for our departure. We had a guest skype in and lead us in a lesson on mentoring and passing the mantle of leadership. Since that Sunday we have been exploring what the group feels they need in order to take on the necessary responsibilities and we have directly been addressing those issues in our weekly Bible studies. Please pray that in the coming months God will rise up the right leaders within these groups.

 Work Permit/Future work in Namibia

 Sandy's Green Card application

Special Dates 

April 2017— - Restoration Seminar in Opuwo

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End of May— - 2016 intern, Sharon, will return for 2 weeks with her husband Jake

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July 31— - Work Permits Expire

Eric Stevens giving one of our Thrive communities a lesson via Skype

In one of our younger groups we have been focusing on the basics of discipleship and challenging those who are ready to make decisions for Christ. On the first of April two of our young men, Ronald and Muhammed, were baptized into Christ. Please pray for your new brothers.

Sandy is still in the early phases with her Young Women's Thrive. She just finished another Young & Pregnant course and is carrying on with those girls. One recently has had her baby and the others should come soon. Please pray for the seeds that Sandy has been planted in these girls' lives.

David & Sandy Echols – 3940 Oberding Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80911 –david@3measur.es

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www.3measur.es

Preparing for Sustainability As we have been doing our best to prepare the Thrive communities to carry on without us, we are doing the same with Hope Cafe. The goal is for the cafe to be fully run by Namibians and sustained by local resources. The latter could prove to be a challenge with our time frame, but we are doing what we can. Our greatest need is to find a Namibian internet service provider who will be willing to donate the internet. Please pray for this to happen.

We are also busy forming a local leadership team to make decisions for the cafe and are hoping to identify someone to manage the cafe while we're away.

Again, we are asking you to pray for this process to go as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Preparing Ourselves We are still busy with Sandy's green card. So far the process has been very slow and there is no real telling how soon it may be finished. At this point it looks like we'll be spending at least the month of August in South Africa. So, in addition to working on Sandy's US residency, we are also trying to make plans for South Africa (i.e. where to stay, what we'll do, etc). Our goal is to get back to the USA as soon as possible after we leave Namibia, so please pray for this process to move along quickly.

We are looking ahead to the States, trying to find a place to stay in Missouri (if you have any ideas, PLEASE let us know!) and a car for the family. Looking forward to our work with CCCB and getting ready to make plans to visit all of you at your churches.

Before all of that, we still have much to do to wrap up all our personal affairs in Namibia. We're starting to sell furniture, looking for storage facilities for the things we do not sell, deciding what to do with our cars for a year, trying to find a new family for our dog, Reese is finishing up school in a couple of weeks, making the most of our medical insurance before we have to cancel it, and the list goes on longer than we can see.

In summary, we are really, really busy and we are asking you to pray for us as we prepare in all of these areas.

Thanks for your prayers and support, David, Sandy, Reese & Avi Echols

Support We will keep our budget as it is through the remainder of this mission term, although we do have some one time needs coming up as we plan our transitions (Airplane tickets, accomodation in South Africa, etc).

Our hope is that we can continue on the same support throughout our year in the United States. We will, however, make it a priority to raise our support level before the start of our next term in Namibia.

The main reasons for this being that our rent will be more expensive and we will have to pay school fees for both of our kids.

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    

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 $3,500 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