First Prayer Letter...and Visas!

September 12th is quickly approaching, and I just wanted to write another quick update to share my first prayer letter...and let you know that our team got our visas last week!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers. It's been so amazing to trust God with this situation and to watch Him respond according to His time. 

Here's the prayer letter, and please email me (Elizabeth.Bostwick@uscm.org) if you'd be interested in being added to my prayer update email list.

STINT Briefing and A Visa Update

Last night, I got back to Little Rock after a week-long training conference in Chicago. My team and I joined about 400 STINTers going to over 50 different countries for the week. I think we all came away refreshed and encouraged... and eager to get to Bologna. It was a great experience to be together as a team (minus Emily, our teammate from the UK) and celebrate God's provision while preparing for the upcoming year. Most of our time was spent in meetings and seminars over different aspects of living and working overseas. As many of you know, our team is still without visas. Though the situation is looking better, we still need prayer that God would provide these visas in time for us to leave on our planned departure date. It was amazing to be in a community of people where the 70 STINTers from our region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc.) actually came together to pray specifically over our visa situation.

Our STINT team minus Emily Spicer (me, Matt and Ashley Walton, and our directors, Jesse and Tricia Marcos)

The conference was eye-opening. God is doing so many things around the world. We took shuttles from the airport to the hotel, and it was crazy to be surrounded by hundreds of people talking about going to so many different places...Slovenia, Australia, France, Venezuela...just to name a few. My roommates were two girls from a team going to Ioannina, Greece who I had met at our Intern Kickoff Weekend in April. We had a great time catching up and talking about what God had done over the summer.

On our last night at the conference, Crusade staff commissioned us and prayed over us in a native language from the area of the world we are going to. Being prayed over in Italian was a crazy experience--the reality of going back overseas is still sinking in for me. At the end of our time together, we watched this short video:

It really captured my heart. It's so easy to get tunnel vision and forget about the greater purpose of what God is doing around the world. Looking forward to staying in touch with those of you reading and excited to write to you from Bologna!

Thank you for your prayers, and here are a few new requests:

• Praise God for providing for everyone on our team and for blessing us with time together in the U.S. before we go overseas.
• Please continue to pray for the visa situation. Things are moving forward, but we still need prayer that we will be able to get our visas by our planned departure date, September 12.
• Please pray for our team as we transition overseas and begin searching for apartments. Pray that we would be unified and that God would work in and through us on campus.
• Pray for the students in Bologna. Pray that God would continue to prepare their hearts and orchestrate interactions with the people He would have us meet. 

Fully Funded, Abundantly Blessed.

What a journey the last three and a half months have been, and what a delight to be able to write a post with this title!! And this is only the beginning. God has truly done some incredible things in my life over the last few months--this process has been as much about developing my character and my relationship with Him as it has been about working in Italy. I'm thrilled to write you today to let you know that my team and I have reached our goal of full support for Italy by August 1. There were certainly more than a few moments throughout the summer where I sat down to look at support goal numbers and thought to myself... there is absolutely no way I can make this happen. There is absolutely no way I can raise $50,000 in three and a half months in one of the worst economic times in U.S. history. And those are true statements... I could not come up with $50,000 in three and half months. But God could. And He did... abundantly.

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

                                                                                                                Philippians 4:19

I have no doubt that many of us have heard this verse before, but it now has, for me, a deeper significance. God provides. He really, truly does. My greatest fear upon committing to STINT was, quite honestly, raising support. I love to travel, and I'm not really afraid of finding my way around in or adapting to a new culture. I like languages. But placing myself in a situation of total dependence and faith in relation to finances... that is terrifying. Calling people I hardly know to present them with an opportunity to support the ministry in Italy... asking people I  hardly know for money... that is terrifying. Sure, it shouldn't be. Sure, this is a great cause. And, yes, I saw the need. But something about me being the one to sacrifice my perceived independence for this... seemed so scary. The thing is, though, that we never really do have control over our finances like we think we do. If God wants you somewhere, He's going to provide the resources to get you there. And what I've found with God, and something I'm still learning about Him, is that He doesn't like to do things halfway... God is a God of abundance. He loves His people jealously, He lavishes His grace upon them. He is a detailed and extravagant God. He has supplied for my needs and more.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.

                                                                                                                                     John 10:10


I've also learned--in a new way--the importance of prayer. God is so dynamic. He longs for us to come before Him in prayer, and He wants the glory for answering those prayers. We must recognize Him as the source of these blessings. During my junior year of high school, I had one teacher who repeatedly emphasized part of the Westminster Shorter Catechism in our morning devotional time...a statement that has stuck with me over the last several years..."Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." God longs for us to enjoy His blessings and glorify Him for His work.

This has been a longer post, but I just wanted to take the time to let you in on a few of the things God has been teaching me (sometimes re-teaching me) over the summer. Thank you again for your prayers--I know those played a tremendous role in my experience this summer, and I know they will continue to play a tremendous role in my team's experience in Italy.

Prayer requests...

• Please praise God for how He has worked in providing financially this summer! Matt and Ashley Walton, a couple on my team, went from 70% of their support to 100% support in about two weeks. Visit their blog for more of this story. It's been amazing to watch this take place.
• Please continue to praise God and pray for new believers in Bologna.
• Please continue to pray for our visa situation. We've begun to move forward with this process, but we still need prayer.
• Pray for STINT briefing. From August 13-19, my team and I will join STINTers from all across the  country going all over the world for a training conference in Chicago. Pray that God would bless our time and that He would continue to prepare our hearts for our time overseas.

Lake Como, Italy
Fall 2010