We’ve prayed and wondered since before we officially started dating if God would be calling us to an overseas mission field someday. We tried to make choices that would leave us prepared for if/when God did say that it was time. When we left Kodiak, Alaska, we both felt that God was putting us near family for a few years before taking us overseas. We still didn’t know where that would be or what organization we’d be going under.
When we settled in Sequim, we rejoined the church I grew up in and I was soon on the missions committee and the regional missions board. That meant I was more involved with Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM), as they are the missions sending agency for our denomination (Evangelical Friends).
Fred began working full-time for the City of Sequim in the IT department. He also took over most of the video streaming for our church. We have enjoyed the time closer to family.
As we prayed about where to start in missions and when EFM seemed like the place to start. We began making connections and asking questions. EFM was just beginning to look at opening several new fields and was exploring where. We were interested in Eastern Europe, though willing to go anywhere, and ended up as the team leads for the Eastern Europe trip. EFM calls their scouting trips “Luke 10 Exploration Trips” after the passage where Jesus sends the disciples out. The goal is to follow the Spirit’s leading and see both where the needs are and where the Spirit is saying “You must work here.”
We went on that trip with several goals. We had the goal of seeing if God was calling EFM to that region, looking for a “no,” a “here,” or a “look a little wider but you’re on the right track.” We had the goal of discerning whether God was calling us personally to apply to EFM. And, we had the goal of discerning more clearly if God was calling us personally to that region.
God answered the first goal with “Look wider.” The second goal with, “Yes, apply to EFM.” The third goal with a growing feeling that we are drawn to this region, but as we have explained recently “We feel drawn to the Balkans but we feel called to EFM.”
After the trip, we started preparing to apply. Fred took the Perspectives course (I took it in college). We’ve been getting our affairs in order and looking at logistical issues with moving overseas. We have felt God’s gentle and increasing confirmation of this direction. We applied to EFM last summer, were accepted as candidates in April, and now are fundraising and discerning where exactly we’re going!
Updates on Our Candidacy
If you missed our candidacy announcement, you can read that online here!
Thank you for your prayers! For the last few weeks, we’ve been busy with startup tasks related to being candidates. Things like working out our support package, finding a missionary coach, prayer card contents and photo, lots of moving pieces. With that on top of normal life and other extra projects picking up right now, we’ve been busy and struggling a little to keep up with it all. But God is good and has been smoothing the way before us.
Now that those initial tasks are done, we will be moving into a stage of more intense preparation, with some reading homework and some additional training. We are also doing the parallel tasks of discerning our field (in conjunction with EFM personnel) and fundraising for our support on that field. EFM requires that their missionaries be fully funded before they go to their field, so this process of sharing what we’re doing and seeing how God provides will continue for the foreseeable future.
Hopefully, we will have more clarity about the “where” and “what” after our trip in June, but at this point we anticipate one to two years of initial language and culture learning, at the same time as we start building relationships and connecting to the community. What ministry looks like after that will depend somewhat on where we are. If we are in the region of the Balkans that we’re looking at, we expect to do a lot of one-on-one discipleship, Bible studies, and likely things like nursing home ministry and young adult game nights.
Luke 10 Exploration Trip
From June 7-22, we will be in Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzegovina on our second Luke 10 Exploration Trip. There will be two or three other adults on the team, along with the four of us. We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few weeks, booking airfare, housing, and rental cars for the trip. More exciting, we have several local pastors and a couple of missionaries in a few cities who are scheduled to meet with the team. We are very excited to learn more about how God is working in this region, what the challenges are, and where the opportunities to join his work might lie. Just a few weeks away, it’s coming fast!
Family Life
Recently we’ve been enjoying more involved stories from both kids. Alex’s stories are mostly intelligible and often feature dinosaurs, cars, and some blend of extended family members. He’s started incorporating those themes into songs too, though he often sings the original version of favorites such as Old MacDonald, Jesus Loves Me, Baby Shark, Going on a Rocket Ship, and Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus. Jael’s stories are almost entirely unintelligible but are told with great feeling. She also loves to sing but chooses her own melody regardless of the song that is playing.
The kids enjoy playing with each other more now, not just near each other, and can both participate in some games with us, which is great fun! They love playing “Roar,” where one of us (usually each of us in turn) is a dinosaur and chases the others while roaring. A favorite twist is when someone stops to ambush the others, causing the kids to collapse in a heap of giggles.
Prayer Requests
- Pray for this candidacy phase, that our preparation will be thorough, that our time here as we prepare will be good, and that we will draw nearer to Christ as life gets crazier.
- Pray for God to show us who we will be working with (the people group or region) and to give us a great love for those people.
Pray for God to increase our love for the people we are leaving and to help us leave well. - Pray for peace on our trip in June. That our conversations would be good both within our team and with the locals and workers we encounter. Pray that the kids would do well on the plane rides and transit as we go to and from Europe and drive around to different countries.
- Pray for our kids, that we would love them well, would have a home centered around Christ, and that we would ease their transitions as much as possible. Pray for them to love Christ early and to hold to him through everything.
Thank you again for your prayers and support!
Fred and Jonelle Liddell
Alex and Jael
| Partnering with Us!
If you would like to schedule a time to connect with our family, please email Jonelle at jonellel@friendsmission.com. We currently have 163 prayer partners and have a goal of raising it to 500. If you know anyone who would like to pray for our ministry, please forward this form to them. We are currently raising funds for our monthly needs. There are four ways to financially partner with us:
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