A full, fulfilling, and fun summer!

This summer was a great start to Follow The Call Missions. The trip to Latvia with Mauldin First Baptist that started it off was great. This is the third year leading a team over there to help with Eagle’s Wings camp. The first one officially as FTCM. The team did great connecting with the leaders and campers over there. The two new guys jumped right in and were hanging out with the leaders and campers. The returning crew were able to deepen the relationships we have with people over there. It’s great seeing their leaders and our teams connect so well. We do appreciate and love what they are doing over there and look forward to continuing the relationship we have. Next summer we’re in discussion about bringing some high school students from the US to help with a younger kid’s camp before bringing the older crew to help with teen camp. This will be a huge advantage to these teens in developing their faith and providing an experience to see God show up in amazing ways. We’re also looking at bringing some teens over from Latvia to help with ministry here in the Upstate or beyond. I’ve got to discuss and finalize things with some churches in Greenville. But if those plans don’t work out, I’ve got a few other connections in other parts of the US we could work with.

During my time in Europe, I hopped over to England to spend a few days talking with Mike Taylor who runs UK-USA Ministries. You can check out his ministry here: www.uk-usaministries.com. He’s been connecting churches and young people in the US and England for many years. It was great seeing how he has the same passion for connecting churches and ministries for a deeper relationship than just doing some mission trips. To be able to connect groups across the ocean helps broaden the churches vision for what it means to be a global church. It also raises awareness to the great need in Europe for missions. There are so few believers in Europe that they need people to come help spread the the Good News of God’s love for them. Be praying for his team and him as they continue to make connections and build relationships between churches in the US and England.

After the trip to Latvia and England, I came back and helped out with Mauldin First Baptist’s Vacation Bible School. It’s always a great week to be a part of. The crew there goes all out decorating and making sure it’s a lot of fun. But there’s definitely solid Biblical teaching and learning that happens as well. My thought is if you have fun, they will come back and continue to learn more about God. If it sucks, the chance of sharing God’s love with them again will be very slim. Fun also breaks down walls to be able to share the Gospel with them. If you can’t let your hair down and have fun with kids and teens, good luck getting them to open up, come back, and hear about God.

The week after that I had the opportunity to run a VBS for Reedy River Baptist. That was a lot of fun working with a new church and being a part of their ministry. I was able to recruit a crew from Mauldin First Baptist to help out with it. Seeing people from two different churches working together was so cool. This is what I want to do on a wider scale across the ocean. Bring two churches or ministries together to accomplish God’s call to share the Gospel with the world. Not only can we get more done when we work together, but we see God working on a bigger scale while getting us out of our bubbles. Would love to do more with Reedy River in the future. Maybe we can bring some people from overseas to help us out next year!

The rest of the summer has been networking and focusing on the business side of the ministry. There’s so many little things that still need to be done. I feel like I’m finding new things that need to get done while trying to accomplish one task. Like this week I’m working on my getting onto a donor platform that an accountant told me to get on. Well in order to do that I have to be listed on GuideStar. Which is now called something else. So waiting on them to get me listed so I can finish setting up GiveButter and update my site to take donations through there and be able to handle donor care and finances better. It’s a learning process. While also trying to get the next trip planned.

This October I’m working on getting a team together to go help fix up my friend’s church. He needs some serious work done on this room to allow it to be used for more things like youth gathering and community outreach. The trip will be from 7-19 October. We’ll be staying and working with Salvation Temple in Riga. There’s ceiling and flooring repairs that need to be done as well as putting in a wood pellet stove for heating and a new kitchenette. It will be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. If you’re interested in being a part of it, let me know. We’ll need about 8-10 people to be a part of it. The cost will be between $2500-3500 depending on if you want a room to yourself or not.

Think that’s it for this update. Will do another one talking about the ministry opportunity in October early next week.

Exciting News This Week!

This week is quite exciting! It’s a short post because I need to get some sleep before flying out tomorrow. Tomorrow, or actually today, we have a team headed to Latvia to work alongside the Eagle’s Wings (Ergla Sparni) leaders for teen camp. This will be some of the team’s third year going, some their second, and the first time for a couple of them. We love continuing to develop relationships with the team over there and will be talking with one of the pastors about a work trip for the fall. Do be praying for safe travels, great conversations, and good health.

On another note, we’re excited to announce that we have received word from the IRS concerning our tax deductible status. They have given us an approval and we are official! With that said, it’s time to start talking with the tax guy, figure out what needs to be done now, and start raising some support to help get me through this start up time. Several good friends who have started businesses and organizations have told me that the first couple of years are the toughest. I need to keep my head to the grindstone and keep pushing forward.

Alright, time to hit the bed before flying out in about 8 hours. Thanks for the prayers and encouraging words. If you’d like to help out financially, please check out the donate page.

Working on all the details…

Starting something from scratch means figuring out all the details. While I’m not starting completely from scratch because I understand the trip aspect of the business, the getting all the other things figured out is so much fun. Today I’ve spent a bit of time working on setting up the newsletter option on the website. And just as I figure out one thing, it’s another thing that needs to be dealt with. But using my web hosting platform will save me a lot of money instead of using Mailchimp. Some of the other things I’ve been working on is a promotional flyer to be able to hand out to churches, groups, and individuals. Think that’s finalized and now I can work on a fundraising flyer. There have been a few things on the website I’ve been trying to tighten up and work on the design a bit. There’s always something.

As for things coming up with trips and networking, I’ve got a few things in the pipeline. One of the big things I’m excited about is a work trip to Riga to help a pastor friend fix up his church for their 100 year celebration in the spring. Will need about 6-8 people to join in on that one. Being in October it’ll be cheaper than the upcoming summer trip. A local church has also reached out to me about running their Vacation Bible School the end of July. Their children’s person and VBS director randomly decided to step back from helping out. So I’m working with them to pull off a few days of activities and learning with the kids. Will need to find some local teens and adults to help out with that. Not only will it help provide some income, but it’ll be a great networking opportunity to connect with a small local church who may need some trips organized for them. Some final details are coming together for the trip in June. Met with the team last night and will meet again before we go. It’s such a good team going. Looking forward to seeing God working through them at camp this summer.

Couple things to be praying about. Getting into a routine has been a little difficult. It’s been a struggle saying goodbye to my old position at the church. Feel like I need some time to mourn that season of my life to move on and haven’t taken the time to do that. It’s kinda weird stepping out of position at a church and then sticking around. But I’m glad there’s nothing that happened to make it where I had to or wanted to leave. And they are very supportive of where God has led me. But I need to get into a new rhythm, soon. Also pray for some good fundraising connections. I’ve been reaching out to some of the people who have helped in the past and who have mentioned they would like to help. But with grad season, Memorial Day, and holidays starting up, it’s been tough making those connections.

Going to go finish up this newsletter stuff…make sure to sign up for it! I promise not to blast your emails constantly.

Successful trip to Europe!

One friend called it a reconnoissance trip. Another called it a vacation. Whatever you want to call it, it was two and a half week trip to meet with missionaries, organizations, and pastors in the Netherlands, Latvia, and Czech Republic. While there I was able to attend a conference Bridge Builders International puts on called Prayer Days. There were groups and individuals from all over the Baltics who came together to share what’s going on in their ministry while also being able to have some time to rest and find fellowship with other people doing similar work for Christ.

My time in Amsterdam was really good. It was great to connect with former classmates and colleagues, hear what they are up to, and make some contacts for potential ministry partners. While some things I thought might work out that didn’t, there were other surprises that happened to open up other opportunities.

The Prayer Days were great to connect with our current ministry partners while also meeting some potential new ones. One that isn’t even in Latvia but in the UK! I’m always amazed on the new people God brings into my path and stories I get to hear about what God is doing throughout the world. One lady runs a camp for underprivileged youth and kids. There may be some opportunities to not only help with camp, but also connect with some of these families and do some work/handyman trips.

In Prague I got to catch up with an old classmate from seminary who has been working in Prague for over a decade. Hearing what God is doing in his life and ministry as well as the people he’s working with was so good. It really is a blessing to hear from missionaries that are doing great things. I had the chance to grab a meal or coffee with several missionaries and pastors there. Excited to hear how there could be some great camp opportunities to help out with.

Now it’s time to start processing all this information, reach out to those I got to meet with, and begin praying about the direction to head in not only 2027, but potentially in the fall of 2026.

It’s happening!

Slowly but surely this ministry is getting off the ground. For those who don’t know, I’m currently wrapping up my position as a student pastor while working on all the details to start taking multiple trips with youth groups and young adults to Europe next summer. Many have asked where things stand so I figured let’s add a blog to the website so people can stay up to date.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been contacting friends, missionaries, and contacts people have shared with me in Europe. The purpose for contacting them is to sit down and do a face to face with people to share the vision and mission of the ministry and see who would like to partner up with us. So far I’ve connections in the Netherlands, Prague, and the Baltics that want to discuss what it looks like to bring small, intentional teams over to help assist with their ministry. One of the common things I’m hearing from missionaries and churches in Europe is that they lack the man power to accomplish want they want to do or to do it on a greater scale than they currently do.

I’m looking forward to heading over in a few weeks to start sharing the vision and making plans for summer 2027!

Here’s some things you can be praying about at the moment:

• Finish well at my current position

• Funding to cover the cost of this trip in April

• Clarity for who to work with in the coming year