Monday, August 29, 2011

For the Glory of it All!

"Oh the Glory of it all is:
he came here
for the rescue of us all
that we may live
for the glory of it all

oh he is here
for redemption from the fall
that we may live
for the glory of it all
oh the glory of it all
the glory of it all
oh the glory of it all"

Brandon started the night of "Music and Missions" with this song, "For the Glory of it All" by Dave Crowder.  It is for His glory that we met together for this night of worship.  It is also for His glory that we are asking people to support our call.  Here are the three ways that you can support us...

Ways that YOU can partner with us…

1.  Prayer Support- Sign up to receive our newsletters so that you can know how to specifically pray.

2.  Community Support- Feel free to send birthday cards, notes, emails, etc to encourage our family as we are far from home.

3.  Fund-Raising Support- Find out more about how you can be a part of fulfilling our financial needs through monthly or one-time gifts.
    I added a section on the top left of the blog that should take you directly to the "Giving" page on the World Team website.  There are also some simple instructions on how to fill out the form.  I have had several people say that they could not find where to go and how to give, so hopefully this will make it easier for you.  I welcome any feedback on if this helps.  Finally, Brandon and I wanted to thank John Finley, pastor at Bartlett Hills Baptist Church, Steve McPherson and the missions committee at BHBC for giving us this opportunity and supporting us through it, Leslie Tisdale and Linda Reed for helping us get all the copies of our information sheets.  It was way more complicated than it looked!  We are so thankful for this opportunity and look forward to how God is going to continue to work through it!




Tuesday, August 23, 2011

August 2011 Newsletter...     

       It's hard to believe, but a new school year has begun and what we tend to call "summer" has come and gone. God is doing some neat things regarding our pursuit of the mission field and we wanted to keep you up to date so that you may rejoice with us and continue to pray for His guidance and provision.


Current Progress

Things are progressing slower than we'd like but we know that God's timing is perfect and that He loves to create circumstances that will bring Him the most glory!
And so we rejoice in faith that He's doing just that in our case as well. (If you want to read more about my thoughts on this, check out my blog post entitled, "Obstacles, or Opportunities?") Our current monthly support is around 8% of what we'll need and our outgoing/moving costs sits at around 1%. This does not include the many of you that have verbally expressed to us your desire to partner with us but have not yet given that information to World Team. We are so thankful for the verbal support and encouragement we have receieved from you week by week and we will be glad to help you in this process if you're not sure how to begin. Find out more about our progress by clicking here.

What's up ahead?

Watch the caller ID... It's our desire to connect with each of you soon to share our heart and to hear yours as well. Michelle and I (or possibly some of our close friends and family that make up our accountability team) hope to speak to each of you over the phone over the next several weeks. Please feel free to voice any questions or concerns that you may have and let us know what God's doing in each of your lives as well! We look forward to speaking with you!

We are excited ... for the opportunity to share during the Sunday Night service at Bartlett Hills Baptist Church this Sunday, the 28th, at 5:30 P.M. It will be our first chance to share with many of you in person about our call to France. I'll also have a couple of video to share and they even talked me into singing some that night. Following the service we'll be available to answer any of your questions.

We are thankful

We want to again express our gratitude for each of you! We value your input and are desparate for your prayers. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you as well.


Check out the website for World Team









Micah, Asher, and Karis












Please join us!



at 5:30 Sunday night,
August 28th for
Music and Missions!
I'll be singing and sharing
about God's call to
plant churches in France.
We hope to see you there!













Want to find out more
about World Team?




Check out World Team’s
Statement of faith at

http://www.worldteam.org/
about?page_id=52




or



Check out a 2010
recap video of

World Team’s missions
at our blog:

www.michelleburch.blogspot.com

Until next time!

Brandon & Michelle Burch



P.S. You can also check out our blog: www.michelleburch.blogspot.com or World Team’s website: www.worldteam.org. We'd also love to hear from you and share more about what God has placed on our heart. Feel free to call or simply reply to this email. Thanks!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Music and Missions Anyone???

Hey all!  This will be a short post to make you aware of an upcoming event.  On Sunday night, August 28th Brandon will be leading a worship concert and sharing a testimony of our calling to missions in France.  We invite anyone who wants to know more about our timeline and how you can be a part, to join us at Bartlett Hills Baptist Church at 5:30 pm.  We hope to see you there!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Obstacles, or Opportunities?

     Hello to all.  Normally Michelle will be the one to chime in on our blog, but I (Brandon) may occasionally check in as well to share the things God has been showing me during this journey.  I've actually thought about posting a couple of times before this, but this time, I simply couldn't resist.  As most of you know, our goal is to leave for our pre-field training in the spring, and then leave for France in the summer of next year.  For this to happen, God would have to move in an incredible way!  And that's exactly how I'd want it, and I think God does to.  Isn't that just the way our God works?
      I just read again recently the story of Gideon, and then saw it presented again during the children's musical at BHBC.  That story illustrates such a great truth about God.  God directs certain circumstances in such a way as to bring Him the most glory!  32,000 Israelites against an army of 135,000 Midianites?  That's too many.  10,000?  Still too many.  Take 300 men Gideon, so that Israel will not be boastful and let me (God) show the world what I can do.  I love this about God.  And He does it over and over again throughout scripture and throughout history.
     You can see our little "progress thermometers" over there in the sidebar.  When Michelle was setting them up, I told her that I thought we should only publish the percentages and not focus on the actual numbers that we need so that people won't be scared of the amount of money that it will take to make this happen.  But I think that was a little misguided.  Yes, the numbers are big.  As the rates continue to go up each year, we now require $8,400 in monthly support while our moving/set-up costs now exceed $88,000.  In addition to that, we also have student loans in excess of $25,000 (not part of our support raising)  that we must still have a plan in place to pay off while serving in France.  In addition to that, both of our main support bases come from two Southern Baptist Churches that already systematically give money to the International Mission Board through the Cooperative Program in a bad economy.  Add in to that the fact that we have three kids under the age of 4 and that I'm working two part-time jobs in the meantime, and yes, the odds don't look so good.  Almost as bad as 300 men against an army of 135,000.  Praise God that when we finally touch down in France and look back at the road it took to get there, there will be no way for me to be boastful or think that I could have in any way pulled this off on my own, but I can only say "may God receive all glory for the great things that He's done!"  I have a feeling He will continue to operate the same way once we're ministering to the French as well...So I ask myself, and I ask you:  Are there really obstacles in our lives?  Or are they really just opportunities for God to demonstrate His greatness to us and the world around us.  I think faith says the latter.  Thanks for praying with us and being a part of what God is doing in France!

I (Michelle) couldn't let Brandon post this without a few pics! :)

Monday, August 1, 2011

No gift too small...

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we are currently raising our support to get to France.  That means that we are asking people to give.  Whether that is in the form of a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, we are asking you to share our passion for the French people and to  help send us to share Christ with them.  So many of you have already expressed your intention to give in some capacity and we thank you for that.  There have been a few people who have shared a desire to support us, but can only give "a small amount".  We want you to know that there is no gift too small.  In fact, we welcome the small gifts because that means that we have even more people directly connected to our cause, praying for us and those we are reaching, and keeping up with how God is working.  I am reminded of the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with only the lunch of a small boy.  We trust that God is able to take any small amount that you can give and use it to His glory.  Its great that there are those who have more to give and are willing to do so, but we know that God has a plan for every cent that goes into our account and how it will be used.  We have been called to go.  Maybe you have been called to give.  We are excited about how God is already working.  As I said, we have already had many people express a desire to be a part, whether financially or prayerfully.  We are in the process of planning some exciting events over the next few months so stay tuned for more info!