June/July 2024 Newsletter - Ethan & Baylee

 Hello everyone, 

We (Ethan and Baylee) pray that you are all soaking in summer, seeing the gospel come to life, and are reveling in the Word of God in new ways! We are so excited not only to be writing to you as a couple for the first time, but also to be merging our lives together as we live out this season of engagement and move toward marriage! In this letter, we will be informing you of important personal and ministry updates, sharing about what our summer has held so far, and giving you a glimpse of the vision God has given us for the next year! We are so blessed to share our lives with you, and we hope you are encouraged by all the ways God has shown Himself faithful to us! 

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS!

In case you didn’t pick up on it in the introduction to this newsletter, we are engaged!!! Ethan proposed on June 15th, 2024, and our plan is to get married on October 5th, 2024! During our season of engagement, we felt the Lord inviting us into some extended time to spend with each other and our families in our home states. We will detail our time with our families later in this letter, but for now, it’s sufficient to say that we have been deeply enjoying extended time with our families and hometown friends! Not only are these personal updates new and exciting, we also have fresh ministry updates as well! When Ethan came off of the field after just about a year, he accepted the invitation to be part of the Adventures in Missions admissions department! In this way, he ministers to young people all around the world through walking them through interview processes and sharing his powerful testimony of Jesus’ life-changing love! Similarly, the Lord opened up the door for Baylee to move from an intern role into an advising role at Adventures in Missions! In this role, she will continue to minister to young missionaries by equipping them as Jesus equipped His disciples, aiding the stateside staff in sending missionaries around the world, and by holding logistical responsibilities for various trips. Both of us are thankful and eager to step into new ministry roles and to begin our life together in Gainesville, Georgia in September! 

WHERE HAVE WE BEEN? WHERE ARE WE NOW? WHERE ARE WE GOING? 

As we mentioned before, we have been blessed with the opportunity to share the summer with our families, so for the month of July, we spent our time on the west coast, mainly in Washington! We had several events which we were honored to be a part of, including briefly speaking with Ethan’s missionary grandparents at their church in Oregon, Ethan’s sister’s graduation party, our own surprise engagement party, and Ethan was a groomsman in his friend’s wedding! We also had the opportunity to meet up with many people who have been faithfully supporting us, host a worship night at George Fox University in Oregon, and create new ministry partnerships! After a fruitful and busy month, we made our way to Minnesota, where we will again have the opportunity to spend time with Baylee’s family, connect with ministry partners, and make some final steps in planning our wedding! In early September, we will make our way back to Georgia where we will continue working with Adventures in Missions, prepare for our wedding, and begin our new life together! We plan to remain stateside for at least a year while we establish our marriage, receive vision from the Lord, and follow His guidance into the future! While we have been presented with a few opportunities to step into leadership overseas, we haven’t felt the Lord give us the green light yet. We are eager to establish His Kingdom in the US as we continue to seek Him this year! 

PRAYER REQUESTS: 

• Pray that we would remain present in this season of engagement and that our time with family and friends would be fruitful!

• Please pray that we would have hearts that are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and that we would remain faithful to be obedient to Him daily! 

• Pray for our upcoming marriage, that our relationship would be a holy representation of Christ and His Church! 

In closing, we want to thank all of you for your continued love, support, encouragement, and blessings! It is a privilege to share our lives and the work the Lord is doing through us with you! We pray that you are encouraged by His unending love and faithfulness displayed in this letter. Please respond to this email with your prayer requests as well, we love to pray for you! 

If you feel led to support us prayerfully or financially, please see the “Join Our Team” page or contact us personally! We’d love to connect! 

May the Lord bless you and keep you all!

All our love, 

Ethan and Baylee