July-September 2015
UNEXPECTED Ready for Change One evening in July I received a simple but very unexpected text message from a young man in our Thrive ministry. It read: "I need to seriously talk to you about baptism. I am ready for a change in me." I haven't seen him much since he got a job earlier this year, but we spent some time talking together a couple of days later & he was sincere. He was ready to make a change once and for all and to be a positive example to others around him. He said, "I've always wanted to follow God, but I've never been born again. I want to be born again." On July 26th, in an inflatable pool in our backyard, our new brother was buried and rose again as a new man!
Work Permit Answer As you know, we applied for a two year extension on our work permits in March and have been waiting as patiently as possible ever since. They finally came back to us & the answer
was a little unexpected. We received the two year extension we asked for (valid until July 31, 2017), but we were also told that it is not renewable at the end of those two years. This is a big surprise to us and we are now looking into what this means for the future. We will see what we can do to appeal & what is the likelihood of winning an appeal. In the mean time, Sandy and I are praying about this and seeking out God's direction. We want to be careful to follow His lead and make sure we are listening to what He might have to say. Please pray with us during this time as well. Pray for wisdom, guidance and peace for our family. What we do know is that we have at least the next two years in Namibia. There is still a lot of work to be done and we will carry on by doing what we've been doing all along... Discipling and empowering Namibians & establishing sustainable church planting/community development programs. David & Sandy Echols – 3940 Oberding Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80911 –david@3measur.es
Prayer Needs For new believers as they strive to grow in Christ Pray with us about our work permit For us to find a good car Pray that we find a preschool for Reese Please continue to pray for the young ladies that Sandy is working with. They have all had their babies by now. Pray for volunteers to come join us in Namibia For our continued evelopment efforts in Sonder Water
Special Dates
Oct 7— Reese's test
Jan 15-May 17— - Estimated dates for Melissa to volunteer
To keep up with us between these newsletters, check out our new website and blog:
www.3measur.es
Sandy's Car
Support
Maybe we should have expected it (because it seems that short term missions and car trouble go hand in hand), but when we picked our intern up from the airport in May, Sandy's car broke down. What
came as a complete surprise was the fact that the car was deemed unfixable by the mechanics.
But as can always be expected, God is good and is faithful to meet our needs. We found someone willing to buy our car and a number of our supporting churches have come together to provide the remainder of what we need to purchase another vehicle. We have been car shopping this week.
Preschool It is amazing how fast time flies! This January Reese is ready to begin school. We knew that in Namibia it is important to begin with grade 0 when you turn four in order to get placement in an elementary school.
What we had not expected was that it would be so hard to find placement in a preschool. It has proven very difficult and at times seems hopeless, but this week we received a callback and Reese tested for a spot yesterday. Please pray for him to be accepted.
Thank you so much to all of you who support our work here in Namibia! So many of you have given regularly throughout the years and have helped out with special needs and projects. We are so happy to share with you all that we have finally reached 100% of our budget. That includes ministry funds, administration costs and keeping the Echols in Namibia. This is the first time we've reached full support since entering Namibia in 2010. Eventually our budget will need to increase again, as schooling is very expensive here. When Reese gets into a school it will cost somewhere around $400 monthly. But for now, we are very excited and thankful to all of you who have invested in God's work in Namibia!
If you have any questions about our budget or about joining our support team, simply email us at support@3measur.es or visit www.3measur.es/donate.
Melissa Melissa left Namibia on August 4th as planned. She surprised us
with some exciting news in September. She is already planning her return. She plans to be back in Namibia from January until May 2016!
Thanks for your prayers and support, David, Sandy, Reese & Avi Echols
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 $3,450
Want to know more? Email us at david@3measur.es
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 Mission-Strategic Frontiers, or YWAM-SF. All gifts