Sarah and Keane

A number of people have been asking us how they can financially support us over the next two years. This is a wonderfully encouraging question, because you know and we know that the next two years at Black Forest Academy will be dependent on the monetary gifts of brothers and sisters. We are really hoping this blog can primarily be a place of sharing about what God is doing in and around us, educating people about Missionary Kids and the experience of growing up overseas, and staying connected with lots of people while we’re living on a different continent. But right now, we’re in support-raising season, and so here we are, feeling a little self-conscious and hesitant as we write about different types of support, including that most awkwardly, emotionally triggering of things, money.

But first, for the non-triggering thing–PRAYER! I would really appreciate your prayers as we start making this big transition. Many of you know that I grew up overseas, living in four different countries within a ten-year time span. Since 2003, I’ve been putting down roots in the Chicagoland area, and I have a feeling that moving overseas as an adult is going to be a lot harder than moving overseas as a kid. The goodbyes, the luggage restrictions, the cultural shifts, the vaccinations. As excited and happy as I am about working at Black Forest Academy, as a missionary kid, I can’t help but have all these other thoughts floating around in my head. I’m a worrier, and whether you’re also a worrier or you’ve got some worriers in your life, you know I need prayer. 🙂 I want to honor God with how I live the next moment, the next day, the next two years.

We also want the next five months specifically to bring glory to God. Whether we’re sharing about BFA, packing our suitcases, or wrapping things up at work, we want God to be honored in our interactions with each other, with those around us, and in our correspondence with staff at BFA and at TeachBeyond. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would convict us of sin, that we would regularly spend time in prayer and in the Word, that we would make wise financial and logistical decisions, and that we would be able to prioritize our time in a way that strengthens our marriage, develops our friendships, and prepares us for BFA.

As for financial support, it is an interesting thing to move to a country with a stronger currency than the dollar! This means that we have to raise much more money to live in Germany than we currently need to live comfortably in Chicago. TeachBeyond has communicated with us that we need to raise roughly $4700 in monthly support, and an additional $8000 in start-up costs. That $8000 will be used to buy plane tickets, a car, and to furnish our German apartment. (Fun fact: Did you know that apartments, or flats, in Germany come completely UN-furnished? You bring your own oven, refrigerator, sometimes even your own cabinets! Thus the $8000 in start-up costs…)

If you would like to give monthly or make a one-time donation, please visit give.teachbeyond.org. The site will walk you through the options of mailing checks, using PayPal or credit cards, or making electronic transfers. If you choose to send a check, please don’t put our names on the memo line; instead, please write Project # 40307.

If you have any questions about anything I’ve shared here, please don’t hesitate to comment or send us an email at keaneandsarah@gmail.com. It is a staggeringly sobering thing to ask people to donate from their hard-earned money, and we want to be as transparent as possible in how these funds will be spent.

Thank you for all the encouraging comments, messages, and emails we have received over the last week. We are so grateful for such a community of people.

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We’ve gotten some great questions about when electronic donations begin if you use the online sign-up option. Here’s the answer! If you choose the EFT (which goes directly from a bank account to TeachBeyond), you can clearly indicate when you want the donations to begin. If you choose to donate monthly via credit card or PayPal, the withdrawals begin immediately; since we don’t leave until August, anything given before August goes automatically into our “Start-Up Fund” account, which is used to pay for the initial costs of moving to Germany, such as plane tickets and buying a car.

Keep your questions coming!