Welcome to the Baldwin Boomerang

We long to see people in every tribe, tongue and nation transformed for God's glory. Our mission is to share the gospel by producing effective, compelling media tools that people can understand in their own culture and language. We are preparing to serve as full-time media missionaries with Create International. Toward that end we completed an extensive missions training program called a Crossroads DTS at YWAM Perth, Australia and a secondary YWAM school called the School of Frontier Media in Thailand. We are currently on furlough in North America and hope to see you face-to-face in 2010!

Support Information: Our support goal is currently near 50%.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to our sending agency Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line without including our name on the check. You may then mail the check directly to:

Ripe for Harvest, P.O. Box 487, Monument, CO 80132

PLEASE note new address.

It can take up to a month and a half for us to see your donation show up on our report. Also, Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, but YWAM in Thailand is not.

If you want to be added to our newsletter list or have additional questions, email us at baldwinboomerang @ gmail dot com

Thursday, March 6, 2008

How You Can Help

Brad Spreads The Word!

Update (Or How You Can Help If You'd Like to Help)

The Baldwin's efforts to go to the mission field had an exciting and successful kick-off event at First Congregational Church in Hamilton on Sunday, February 24th. Thanks to all of you on this list who contributed to that event. We had a blast and are very grateful for the great encouragement you provided to us. We are now preparing to meet with other churches, organizations, families and individuals in an effort to spread the word about our exciting plans.

There is a threefold goal to these upcoming meetings:
1.) Raise awareness of missions work in general and our plans specifically, mobilizing and educating people about the exiting work God is doing in frontier missions today
2.) Build a network of supporters who will pray regularly and effectively for us both now and when we are on the field in January 2009
3.) Gather the necessary financial resources through a network of supporters to enable training and preparation for our mission effort.

Several people have gotten excited about this work and have asked how they can help. In response to that, the following are some tangible ways we would encourage you to consider being a part of this effort to answer God's call:

Attend:

We have some upcoming presentations scheduled, and we would love you and your family and friends to come out to these events. (It's not necessary to bring a snack, but it helps sometimes at the church meetings. We would rather have you come than not come.) We show about 10 minutes of video about our plans with Create International and answer questions. It's pretty low key. Keep an eye on our schedule, and please plan to attend one of these upcoming events when you can.

On that note, we are more than happy to have you make your own event! We are so excited about this work, we are available virtually morning, noon and night to talk to people about it, so feel free to request a time and we'll meet you and tell you the details of the story.

Save the date! We plan to have a big public event at First Congregational Church of Hamilton on Saturday, April 12th. Everyone is invited. It will open to the public and designed for a large crowd. There will be food and fun even.

Our next presentation is this Sunday, March 9th at North Shore Community Baptist Church following their seconrd service (about 12:15) downstairs in Friendship Hall. Come if you can.

We will keep a list of our upcoming presentations on our blog.

Blog

Please do bookmark our blog (http://baldwinboomerang.blogspot.com/) and keep an eye on it, too. We update it with key information every few days. It's a great way to know what's going on from week to week.

In general, our current time table for 2008:
Feb – May: Support Raising from the Hospitality House in Beverly Farms
June - August: YWAM Training School in Salem, Oregon
September - October: YWAM Outreach in Asia (Country to be determined)
Nov - December: Deputation Visits
January 2009: Arrive in Perth Australia!

Pray
Please pray for us a lot and regularly. This preparing for missions stuff is fraught with hazards and we have had a hard go of it already. We know we are only going to make it with a lot of prayer support from a network of people committed to praying for our success in this great endeavor. This is the most important thing you can do for us. Ask God to rule in our lives, to remain the focus of our efforts, and that He would enable us to overcome the many barriers and obstacles that have been thrown at us.

We've also been a bit overwhelmed trying to spread the word about our plans and raise the necessary support on top and in addition to life and work as usual. We are learning the hard way that raising support for missions is a full-time job on top of full-time jobs.

Support
Like most people we feel awkward asking for money, however, that is historically how God puts missionaries on the missions field. Basically, everyone shares a little and it all adds up and enables us to be sent by you to do this good work. This decision should be between you and God—we aren't going to twist your arm about it. All we ask is that you pray about supporting us financially, and ask God if he would enlist you to share your tithes or offerings in this way. No gift is too large or too small or will go unused or under appreciated. If you require more information first, feel free to ask—we are an open book.

We need a lot of supporters, and there is some real urgency for us to bring in pledges now in order to do the initial training in early June. Your financial contributions in partnership with our ministry will be contributing to a dynamic frontier missions effort that God is already blessing. We would love for you to be a part of that, because we genuinely believe God is going to use all of us in this work, increase our faith, show us the awesomeness of His great love and might, and bless people in remarkable ways out on the frontier of gospel expansion.

We really do understand this is a great opportunity for us to represent you on the cutting edge of the mission field. Sharing the good news is basic Christianity 101. In effect, your partnership enables us all to be contributing meaningfully in making a difference for those in the far reaches of the world who otherwise would not hear without our efforts to reach them for Jesus.

Lastly, we actually need regular donations starting now if we are going to amass the needed funds for the 5 month training period, two month deputation period and outgoing expenses to reach Australia in early 2009! Our in plain English, it's not too early for you to start with regular financial support.

Response Cards:
We would be really encouraged if you would return those Response Cards to us so we can responsibly track who is joining us in this effort in prayer and financial support. If you need one, we can send you one, just let us know. We are required to track this information ourselves, although you are able to send donations directly to our seconding agency at any time:
Ripe for Harvest
2824 N. Power Rd #113282
Mesa AZ 85215-1674
Designate Account #247 in the memo line
. (The IRS frowns on having our names in the memo line.)

Advocate
We have had a handful of people already helping us with our presentations at churches by either opening the door for us to come visit a church or supporting us there with snacks and set-up/clean-up support. We have a few upcoming events and it would be great if you could
- attend
- encourage others to attend and spread the word
- if you are able please contribute to set-up, clean-up or by providing food

We would also love to visit other people and places, and if you can take the initiative to make that happen, it would be much appreciated. At your church? Your small group? Your home?

We are also looking for some people willing to host desert nights where we could come and share our plans in a low key way. We can also host these events at our home if that is more convenient. Ask us if this an area you would like to be involved in, and no pressure!

Thank You
So many of you have already come alongside to encourage us and pray for us and we are very grateful for your love and support. You are a creative bunch and we have enjoyed your thoughts and ideas and just having some time to spend with you. We just give you a big list of stuff you can be doing for us, and in a spirit of reciprocal love we are eager to hear about your prayer requests and practical ways we can love you as our brothers and sisters, too. Please take us up on this!

Fondly,

Steve & Allyson Baldwin

1 comment:

BradKellyFilms said...

Hey, that's a surprise! Glad to see myself helping to spread the Baldwin word. A megaphone isn't the most high-tech method, but whatever works. Love you guys! ;-)