Most of you know that we are here! Most of you do not know the awesome God who showed up and showed off last Wednesday night…so to rewind shall we?

Wed morning I got a call saying that The Crossing would match any gifts given on that day. We then had a Community of leaders meeting which in general was amazing! At the end our pastor prayed for us and asked the people to donate to us and that The Crossing would match it. So there was a lot of tears and people coming up to us saying goodbye and how we have inspired them to live by faith. Then Pastor Kelly came up to me and said “look at this, this is just the people donating to you guys” I Looked at the number and then looked again and then took it out of her hand…I could NOT believe my eyes. We had told Kelly and Eric we needed around 9000 more. Our actual number that I knew we needed but didnt even tell them was $9,471.00 That Number she showed me…$9471.44!!!! I know. He is SOOO dang faithful. We are still how many days later in shock about this all. We are stunned by the people of the Crossing’s generosity and obedience. I cannot even wrap my head around the fact that He wanted to show us He’s had this all from the beginning. We are still so shocked we cannot even start to be shocked that we are in New Zealand!! Thank you will not ever be enough… We received almost 12,000 dollars total!! He is so good there is nothing else to say.

We had a very long trip. All in all its been good though. Aubrey  has been a huge help thru the airports. Our 12 hour layover in LA was actually very good as we rented a room to sleep in for a few hours and that helped a lot. Our stopover in Arizona was interesting. We ate lunch and they said we had an hour. Well we didn’t really know an hour till we left not when we boarded…yeah our plane was to leave at 1015 and we asked to get on at 10:14!! They at first told us no..yeah you all know I wasnt taking that for answer.. They let us on and had already given our seats and we had to switch around. It was panic time for sure but God’s timing is perfect. The boys did well considering they were tired and hungry and lost. We got here last night at 7pm Nz time and we were dead tired. Today went great. It’s a weird thing, I feel so at peace here like I’ve been here before. Not like it’s a strange new place.  Ok its getting late…thank you for prayers. Please pray that the boys adjust to their school well this week. Pray that we make a difference in the lives of others.

G’night Mate

Angie & Samm

A lot of are you asking what we need as far as cash and I wanted to give a break down for the numbers.

The first phase(the first 3 months) we need 6000.00 more. This needs to be paid by the end of the first week. That covers accommodation, training, & food.

The second phase(the outreach phase) We need 3000.00 more we do not have to have this until we do the outreach.

We have people who will be helping us on monthly expenses, laundry, toiletries, etc.

HERES THE AMAZING  THING! OUR CHURCH THE CROSSING WILL MATCH ANY GIFTS GIVEN TODAY!

(until we reach our goal) AND GOD GETS ALL THE GLORY!!!!!!!! CLICK ON THE “DONATE” LINK ABOVE TO GIVE!

This is it! We are asking God that He will provide. We believe that He will. Thank you for supporting us!!

Love Samm & Angie

Trusting in an unseen power is so anti-culture, that even Christians get sucked into the lie that God “could” do that super amazing thing you are begging Him to do, but He probably won’t. Six months ago you could NOT have convinced me that we would sell all we own including our car and house, quit our jobs and oh I don’t know…go to New Zealand to tell people about Jesus. My first response would be right! now go tell my husband! However here we are. We are scared and nervous and excited! We are trusting that He will provide the rest. A lot of people are asking well what if you don’t get the money, you get over there and then what? Well we are praying and trusting He will come through. He has already brough in like 17,000 dollars! That’s crazy!!! Only Jesus Himself could do that! Our other answer is we need to have the first three months up front in cash…about 5300 more. That is the long and short of it. He sees what we are about to do. We are going to the airport and getting on that plane. Again this is radical faith that He has so clearly asked us to have. Our stomach’s are in constant knots, we cannot think of anything else. I search the bible and all I can find is one of two things. People that have radical faith who go on to accomplish great things in the world, and two, people who doubt and give in before the break thru. Id rather be obedient and fail than be disobedient and “succeed”.

We leave thursday 3am….FUN! We will be in LAX for a 11 hour layover. So…we are asking to Please be praying for us. That it will be a super smooth operation and that we can have the right mindset filled with His peace. Then goes the 19 hour flight. Please pray that the boys will do well and a supernatural peace will be over them as well. We are thinking we will be playing hide and seek, capture the flag and anything else you can think about in that giant airport!!

We just need to feel His presence in this all. Thank you again…all of you who have given and prayed. This could not be done without your support. We are so humbled and blessed!

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

I was showing the boys where we will stay and what our new home will look like. Its small and quaint and well apparently not fitting for Eli…

Me-See that big bed is where you two will sleep.

Eli- Looking at it less than impressed. “um mom where is max gonna sleep?”

Me- You guys get to share a bed! (trying to excite him)

Eli- “doubtful” LOL

Max pipes in ” ‘that’s right Eli you get the floor”

I’m dying with laughter and it occurred to me at their short life they have already been a little spoiled. No there isn’t anything wrong with all three kids to have their own rooms. Necessary? Probably not. Not wrong though, it’s just funny how at even five and four we have this sense of entitlement. Trust me so do I! Listen, between you and me sometimes I wonder if God has cracked up…we are not the “typical” missionary family. I like big houses and name brands and lavish dinners…the list goes on! In fact I hesitate to say “missionary’s” when telling people what we are doing. God is working on my heart. I pray and ask Him what is after this…He doesn’t answer. I do know that my whole life I haven’t shut up telling people about this great God who adores us. I also know I desire to know the father in a real more intimate way. If He says this is how I do it…well who am I to argue?

By the way, pray that my one of my boys doesn’t hog tie the other while “sharing” their bed. Thanks.

Angie

Hey everyone!

We wanted to thank you all for the hours I know you have prayed. The cash you have donated. With each person that has given we feel like our hearts are forever linked to you and its exactly the way it works now we are praying for you and you us. We are beyond bless. Thank you for your encouragement and telling YOUR friends and family about this and then they have given to it. We know that for many of you it was a step of faith to donate to this. We also have heard many stories of how God has blessed you because you gave and we say thank you for your obedience. One friend said to me ” I just cant wait to hear all the awesome conversion stories and the hope and restoration you guys will speak into others lives.” Wow! That is what it’s all about.

We leave in a week and we only need around $6000 more for the first three months. Then its $2500 more to do the outreach. We have figured about 25 people giving 300.00!! We started with a 100 people! Praise Jesus!!! We will go to the airport whether we have all the money or not. We have heard too many stories of God using strangers in an airport before a missionary was to leave and they give them exactly what they need. We know it boils into one thing God wants our trust and obedience in every manner. We have decided that we will not let life pass us by not acting in radical faith for whatever our needs are!!We believe He has brought us this far, by the way raising around $17,000 in two months is God in case you are wondering. He is faithful! Please be praying for health for our family as we all have been feeling very sick this week. Its been quite rough on us. Please continue to be praying over the flight and just smooth going the whole way. Please if you have felt to give, do so!! TRUST  that He is faithful to take care of you. Thank you again, our hearts are overflowing with gratitude.

Samm & Angie

I promised I would blog about it and well here I am. Samm wanted to wait till sunday and now I see why. He is blowing our socks off!!!

Rewind to last thursday. All week I was going between two travel agents trying to get the best price for tickets. They have literally went from 1400 to 2400 in less than two weeks per ticket!!! So I was mega stressed on the phone & on the computer trying to book these tickets. Oh wait rewind even farther. Samm and I had been feeling like we should be stepping out of faith and even though we had no other money except to buy our plane tickets we were supposed to have the crazy faith. However we were scared and afraid that the rest of the 15,000 would not come in. Then what? Well last week monday I got an email from a lady I have been in contact with in NZ. She is about our age and has three boys one named Eli…I know. Her husband did the same thing we are doing, selling it all and going to NZ I think like two years ago. Only God would line my heart up with someone doing the exact same thing. Anyways she emailed me monday and said….

“From our own experience we have found that  God sometimes makes us get out of the boat first, before he shows us we   can walk. I.e. Before coming back here to do our FMS we had no fees what  so ever two weeks before the school, not a single penny, just our flight  money. We were wanting to wait until everything was all in place, money  secured etc before we were willing to take the next step. However,  God challenged us that we were not fully trusting in Him and we felt that       God wanted us to book our flights anyway. This seemed utterly crazy from a worldly perspective, but once we obeyed and took the  next scary step of booking our flights we found that God then started to  provide the fees.

Lately we have been sorta holding our breath with God. Today that all changed for me. You see we are like $15,000 away from our Goal. Yes I know. Yes we are leaving in three weeks. Yes we need it all before we can leave. We have been battling for months what you are feeling right now…discouraged. We know He has called us. He has confirmed it dozens of times. We know He has also called us to radical faith. This is something we thought we had up until like four months ago, when we only started to see the tip of this kind of faith. Now as we immerse ourselves everyday in praying and reading His word we have begun to really see the Fathers heart. So what do you do when your Goal seems so out of reach, when people laugh and criticize you for your “ignorance”. We push in harder and we lean on Him fully. The deal is this isn’t “our” dream. It’s Gods! We never not once thought about going into the mission field. In fact I was on my first and only mission trip to Jamaica a few years back and it was…um..shall I say challenging? I remember praying when I got home “Lord please never make me do that again”.  Yeah well. Now I’m not so focused on the missionary part but seeing people’s lives changed because of the hope of Jesus will get me out of bed every single morning.

Samm and I both have cried, prayed and asked our guts out. We have done everything we know how.  It has consumed our thoughts day and night, and we have been holding our breath just waiting to see God move. Hoping. Wondering. Praying. The cool thing is that we have raised a lot of money already in a short amount of time. It gets hard to remember that and stay in a constant state of gratitude when you have so much more to raise.

A few nights ago everyone was gone which let me tell you when you are living with two families a total of 9 people this is a rare thing. Anyway I was sitting in the livingroom with the wind blowing thru the windows and it was soo peaceful. I grabbed my bible and asked God to speak to me thru His word(he totally does this) I opened up to Philippians. I started to read and not even absorbing ANYTHING I read I started to cry and I begged Him to speak to me. Guess what? He did. Read on:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

AMAZING I felt peace instantaneously! Then I began to ask Him to provide for us.

¹⁰ I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

I know it might not hit you the same. That’s what the Holy Spirit does though. I will never forget that day. This week we raised another 400.00! We are getting calls from people about the amazing cool God stories that are happening when they acted in radical faith and you know what I think? He is using them to strengthen our faith not just the givers. So starting again I will not be holding my breath until we go. I will be holding onto Jesus though.

Love you all!

Platts