Headed to St. Vincent- are you?

Dear WISE Partners:

As the time is approaching for our departure back to some warm weather (we have forgotten how cold it gets in the fall here!) to St. Vincent in late December, we wanted to give you an update as to where we are and what is happening.  We currently are starting to finish up our time at Ozark Christian College, which has been a tremendous blessing to our family and in ministry as well.  During our time thus far we have been blessed to have had the opportunity to visit around 50 churches across the U.S. and share what is happening at WISE and where we feel God may bless WISE in the future as well.  In a couple weeks we will be traveling to the National Missionary Convention which we are excited to see how God’s hands are moving throughout the world and have a chance to seen familiar faces as well and meet new people too!

During this time we also have been occupied by the fun that is involved in getting everything packed up, itemized and shipped to St. Vincent.  This process has been much more detailed than we ever anticipated, and much more challenging.  In order to ship everything it has to be itemized for the customs as well as a monetary value placed on every package for duty in St. Vincent.  This is much more expensive than we were hoping for and are in prayer for the Lord to provide for the needs of the mission as well as to help cover these expensive “one-time fees.”  We never like to ask supporters to help above their already sacrificial gifts and prayers, but we wanted to inform you as to where WISE is at and what has been taking place.  We trust the Lord will provide and are blessed to have all of you as a part of this ministry!

We do say a huge ”THANK YOU!” to all of you as we came into this earlier this year with the economy down and mission giving lower than it has been.  Yet, the mission is bringing on our family to serve there and help share with supporters here and there what WISE is and will be doing.  We have seen a jump in student enrollment this year too.  All this to say with all the added expenses, we have seen numerous ways God provides for WISE every day.  There are so many blessing stories we could share…and we’d love to….so come see us or call us or write!

Lastly if you desire to come to the tropics in the spring/early summer we would love to have you!  We have several big projects with the school needing help.    If you would be interested in coming, please contact us at wisemissions@gmail.com and we could get you plugged in!

We are so thankful for each of you and pray for the partners with WISE continually as a family.  Our desire was simply to inform you and let you know what has been happening with our departure coming and the needs that have arisen.  Thanks and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings,

Brice Wurdeman

Praying as we Prepare

"The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of His people.  They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown." Zechariah 9:16

     Love this verse!  Praying our family can shine there in St. Vincent! Soon and very soon we get to move!   This weekend is our big "get everything packed to ship out" weekend.  It is a little more complicated than just throwing everything in a box this time.  Customs for St. Vincent requires every box to be labeled with what is inside, so they can charge us for the value of everything once we get there.  I admit this seems a bit frustrating as everything we have mostly was donated or garage saled for, so the thought that it still has to have a value and they will charge for that when most of it was free seems crazy!  Even our jeans that are over 10 years old have to have a value on them to be charged!  In looking at it, we were blessed to get the items given, so that now we just pay for customs and we don't have to pay twice for each of everything.
    All of this has been new for Brice and I in the fact that we have always had so many incredibly supportive and praying partners while in Haiti that we raised an overabundance of support.  Yet, coming on as the directors of a mission that has not had a director in the last year and going through financial loss has been different.  We are having to raise much more than just for our family, but also for the students and staff at WISE to live and eat too. 
     At times it gets overwhelming thinking of the $8,000 for our family residencies, the moving expenses to get things to St. Vincent by ship, the customs fees, and the flights to get all 5 of us there.  As we wonder how it will all come in, a good reminder has been of Jesus praying for his daily bread, not for an overabundance from God.  We continue to grow and see God preparing us to serve there more than ever as we see each day God providing for that day.  Thank you, God!