God is Good!

Only a few more days until I head out! (April 1st is my departure date.) And I am completely AMAZED at the goodness of God. He has confirmed and reconfirmed that this is His mission trip that I get to be a part of!

All the finances have been completely taken care of, thanks to many generous donors! God has completely overwhelmed me with financial, moral, and prayer support from His children.

A few Prayer Requests-

-Safe travels and no delayed flights
-That God would keep me healthy
-That the Love of God would shine through me
-Quick adjustments to time and culture changes
-That I would remain steadfast in His Word, and that I'd seek His direction in all things

-And most of all, that God would be Glorified in absolutely every aspect of this journey!

Thank you all for praying! I will try to update as often as possible, as the technology allows, and I will post pictures if I'm able.

Don't hesitate to contact me! (Go to my profile and click on 'email'.)

--Josh

A Few Things

A few updates since my last post...I got my 'official' job description, and I also got my financial account set up.

Here is a description of my assignment, as given by the missionaries I under whom I will serve:

"Josh will spend the first 7 weeks or so (April 3rd to about May 20th) working in connection to a German mission partner called DIGUNA. DIGUNA is based on our TEAM Koutou station in southern Chad and works alongside of TEAM and other missions within the network of missions serving with the Evangelical Church of Chad. DIGUNA specializes in bringing in teams of young people as a discipling/mentoring type of ministry and uses their teams to help the national church with youth outreach, evangelism, radio, music and any other opportunities they find with which they can help and encourage the national churches to grow and thrive. Josh's time with DIGUNA will be fully integrated with their current team of young people participating in team life and whatever activities and outreaches they have planned for the period of time that he is there. They will be doing a youth camp when he first arrives. Josh will also have contact and interaction with our own TEAM people there at Koutou station as well."


When the Downings return from HA (home assignment), he will join them in NDJ (the capital of Chad, N'Djamena) and travel to a village in the northern part of Chad with them (also called the Swamp.)


"While Josh is with us in the Swamp he will be helping us get our place set up again after a 10 month HA (this could include some solar power rewiring and rebuilding a refrigerator for our home). Also some trips into the bush to do follow up visits on wells we have drilled. Some hands on maintenance of hand pumps is likely and seeing how we interact with the village communities. If he's up to it we could get him into the private Christian school as a teacher's aide teaching English. This would be helping students practice speaking who have studied English for a couple years in the school. He wouldn't have to deal with classroom management as he would be working under a national teacher. It's possible there will be some home construction projects going on at our teammate's house that he could help with and supervise details. We'd also like to have Josh use his musical abilities and possibly teach some of the 12 MK's that are there in the Swamp. Regular daily life and visiting friends and contacts will consume much of this time as well as we will just be getting back. Exposure to market, peoples' homes and how we go about visiting people so the name of J may be known is all a part of it."

I am raising approximately $2,400 to pay for my expenses while I am in Chad (mainly food and transportation), and for the cost of the visa, etc. If you would like to donate online, you can do so at www.team.org Just click on the GIVE link, and then Give Now, and then the big box on the left that says give to TEAM, and then you can search for my name. (Hedstrom, Josh) Just follow the prompts from there. Other options for giving are below:



To Give by Mail
Please make your check payable to TEAM or The Evangelical Alliance Mission and mail to:

TEAM Stewardship Department
PO Box 969
Wheaton, IL 60187-0969

Please include a note stating the name of the missionary and the amount you are giving.


To Give by Phone

To make a credit card contribution by phone, please call TEAM's Stewardship Department toll free at (800) 343-3144
Office hours: 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. (Central Time).


Thanks for all your prayers and support!