Greetings to all our loved ones from Noah & Emma!
We miss and love you all!
The latest news from us is that we are moving to SE Asia this fall as missionaries with Adventist Frontier Missions! Yes, we have already made it past the one-year mark of marriage, and now it’s time to go back to Asia.
This mission call is an answer to prayer. One Thursday evening last September, we were together on our knees earnestly asking God to lead us to where we should go to serve Him. Friday morning we woke up to an email from Philip & Hope Kiwi asking if we would consider becoming partners with them to reach the Muslim Great River people. A few weeks later, AFM officially asked us to go to the Great River people.
God gave us two special gifts: we get to go to a country where one of us (Noah) already speaks the language, and we are going to be working with Muslims. When a Muslim finds Christ, it is the sweetest, most jubilant experience of their life.
Emma quit her job at Amazing Facts in December. She is going to miss her friends and coworkers there. Noah’s job ended at the end of March, so now we will both be full-time fundraising and getting ready to go to Asia. We have three months of Missions Institute this summer in Berrien Springs, Michigan, then we’ll spend some time in Tennessee with Noah’s mom and sisters and leave for Asia probably from Atlanta.
In November, Emma started taking pictures of all our things and posting them to a Facebook yard sale site in our town. There was so much to do in a short time because we were moving to Walla Walla, Washington, at Christmas to spend some time with Emma’s mom. There was so much sorting, packing and cleaning! We felt overwhelmed, so we prayed for peace. We prayed if this was God’s will, He would sell our things for us. That is how our faith-building journey began.
God sent a steady stream of treasure seekers until every last thing was gone! He sold a lamp for $15 dollars that Noah found beside the dumpster at our apartment. We were only asking $5 for it, but the lady insisted on giving us $15 because it was the exact lamp she had been seeking for years. We even sold the items we had “bought” at IKEA and only used for a short while. We say “bought” because the person in line in front of us was accidentally charged for our items. He was reimbursed, and we never had to pay. One IKEA dresser (the one we got for free) went to an elderly lady. When she found out why we were selling, she gave us an extra $60 above the full, new price. We really have enough miracles to fill a book.
While preparing to launch to the field, most AFM missionaries keep their regular jobs and fundraise on the side. This can take several years. We only started fundraising around Christmastime, and we needed to have 70% of our funds in by April 1 in order to attend training this summer. So we knew that making it to summer 2017 training would be a huge miracle that only God could accomplish.
Even before Emma left Amazing Facts, a coworker came up to her and gave her a donation of $100. He said a stranger at the grocery store had given it to him the day before, and after hearing our worship that morning he felt convicted to give it to us.
Through experiences like these, we knew God was confirming to us that He was in control and He would take care of us. In Walla Walla, He even gave us a place to house-sit that is close walking distance from Emma’s mom. What an awesome God we serve!
In January we took our second mission trip to SE Asia and spent 2.5 weeks building a mission school. Emma was picking up on the language nicely. Upon returning to the U.S., we hit the ground running. We have our schedule packed until training starts on May 22, with speaking appointments and visits with friends and loved ones.
We stepped out in faith, and God blessed us more than we can say! Thank you so much to everyone who has given, prayed for us and shared our excitement. Thank you all!!! You are God’s gift to us and more encouraging than we can express. If you want to be one of the sponsors that pushes us past the finish line, please call AFM at (269) 437 4250 or find us at www.afmonline.org under our pen names, Noah and Emma Roberts. You can be the headlines of our next newsletter!
Love from us!
Noah & Emma
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