It is almost December….WOW! Another year has flown by, and 2015 is just around the corner. We wanted to share with you a few things: what have we been doing in 2014? What does 2015 look like for the Randerson Ohana? And we’ve even included some references, to validate our family’s work here in Kona.
Here’s a recap of some of the things we’ve been up to in 2014:
- Training and sending over 1,000 young people as missionaries to the nations. Our role has been to train students and staff to be effective in the area of finances (budgeting, stewardship, reporting), as they have taken the good news of Jesus Christ to people who may have never heard his name before.
- More than Sport giving away backpacks full of school supplies to needy kids of Kona. Here’s one of the pro triathletes smiling for the camera with a little girl who just received some much-needed, new, school supplies.
- Paul serving on both the A-team (focusing on improving our short-term outreach effectiveness) and campus circle leadership team
- Justice Water drilling to provide water for a community in Togo, West Africa. Here’s a video of the drilling and a picture of the dedication ceremony:
Financial Update
We are so grateful to our team of supporters who make it possible for us to be here, serving the Lord with Youth With A Mission. Without our faithful partners teaming up with us through financial and prayer support, we could not be here! It’s that simple. A huge “Mahalo” to our supporters – you know who you are!!
Our monthly support doesn’t always cover our monthly outgoings. As a result, we do rely quite heavily on year-end donations. As you consider year-end giving as part of your tax planning, would you consider giving to our family’s work? Information on how to give can be found on our partner page, or just give us a call.
In 2014, when we compared our income versus our expenses, our expenses exceeded our income by almost $4,000 (through October 31st). In ten months, that equates to around $400 per month for us to break-even, and not have to dip into savings. Would you consider joining our support team? If 4 individuals or families would give an average of $100 per month, our family’s needs would be met. We do try to live frugally, but the reality is this: we have a family of six, and our boys are growing. Just the rent of our 3-bedroom condo and power bill amounts to $1,750 per month. Hawaii is not a cheap place to live!
Dreams
Here are some of our goals for 2015, that we wanted you to be aware of:
- We hope to make a visit back to Whatcom County to visit family, friends and church. We originally planned on coming back to Washington state once every 2 years. Summer of 2015 will be 2 years since we moved to work with YWAM Kona!!
- We will be part-time staff of the “Justice DTS” which starts on January 8th. For more info on this school, click here.
- We are praying about Josiah and Lynnette going on a short-term outreach to Cambodia. A local family runs a Christian school in Phnom Penh, that educates 200 children. They hope to pioneer a second school in another part of the country. So, the outreach would be for the purpose of seeing that school established. God is doing awesome things in Cambodia, redeeming them from a torrid past. Here is a new video from U of N Battambang (one of 450 U of N locations around the world):
- Buying home: as part of our desire to establish long-term roots here in Kona, we are believing the Lord to own our own home! Owning a home here isn’t cheap, however! Our home in Lynden that sold for $250K would go for over $400K here. In order to own a home, we need to increase our down-payment. We do have some funds from the house we sold in Lynden, but not enough to avoid private mortgage insurance. Cost-wise, owning a home would be similar to renting, assuming mortgage rates remain low….except we would be building equity instead of paying someone else’s mortgage.
References
Click here to read two references that those we work most closely with have written about our family.
Randerson Ohana 