Last summer the three of us went on a mission trip to Thailand to work at a missions conference. We also traveled to spend time with our good friends, Shane and Jenny, who are missionaries to an un-reached people group. At the end of the week we were sitting in the tiny airport of their city waiting for our flight. Shane turned to Dave and then looked around the room and said, “None of these people know anything about Jesus unless I have told them.” God has been moving our hearts toward missions for the last several years, but this trip and this conversation were defining moments for us. During our long journey home, we knew clearly that God was calling us to be career missionaries. There were countless unknowns, but there were a few things that we were sure of:

1) That 40% of the world, roughly 2.5 billion people, are un-reached and have never heard the good news of Jesus. This broke our hearts and fuelled our passion to reach the field as quickly as possible.

2) We love our church and decided that being sent by Covenant Chapel was a priority to us.

3) We wanted to serve with a team, and in a large city were there were un-reached university students.

With that information we started a year long journey of prayer and research. God allowed us the amazing opportunity to go to Hungary in Eastern Europe this spring in order to see if this might be where God was calling our family to serve. This vision trip gave us the opportunity to experience the overwhelming need in the city of Budapest and the incredible opportunity to share the gospel with students. The Lord used that trip and many of you to lead us to these details.

 

· We are called to Budapest, Hungary to share the gospel with university students.

· Our church fully supports our decision to become missionaries. Our sending agency is World Outreach, and we will be partnering with a ministry team with Campus Crusade for Christ.

· Our goal is to leave for the field early summer of 2009.

 

We are so excited about all that God is doing in our lives through this call. We are also a little overwhelmed with all that needs to be accomplished in the next 10 months. Our biggest desire is that our lives would enjoy bringing glory to God and that we would share His story with as many as possible. Next to that is the desire that you would be apart of this journey with us. We will be in regular contact with you as we cannot do this alone. Thanks for loving us so much!

We are truly blessed by your love and friendship.

 

Dave, Rivers, Joy & Lydia Partin