June '20 Update
A Big Announcement: Transitioning to Full Time!
Tina and I have some big news! After 5 years in my role as part-time pastor and part-time missionary, I will be transitioning to full-time missionary in September. While it has been a great joy and privilege to be able to pastor at my home church and also train pastors overseas, we have felt God leading me to free up even more time to meet the ever-growing needs of indigenous pastors across the world.
The impact of producing biblically trained leaders who can exposit the Word of God accurately and effectively is so significant for sheep in need of the truth. Seeing these needs and opportunities has only increased my desire to give more time to pastoral training. And so, after much thought and prayer these last couple of years, Tina and I both felt this was the right time to make the change.
We plan on continuing to be based in the U.S., but I will be taking more trips and staying longer for each trip. This transition to full-time will allow me not only to do more training in the Philippines and Malawi but also to begin training in other areas, particularly in Southeast Asia. It will also allow me to have more time for grading and developing additional courses and for one-on-one mentoring of the pastors.
Our Next Steps to Make This Happen
In order to make this transition, we will need to reduce our monthly household expenses by moving to a more affordable area. So, we have put our house in Burbank up for sale and plan to move back to the Boise, Idaho area. This will allow us to only need to raise a modest amount of additional support in order to meet our budget requirements. We don’t know the exact amount needed until we move but we are expecting it to be about $500/month.
Speaking of support, words cannot express the gratitude we feel for you who have supported us financially. We know that it has been a sacrifice for you, especially in these challenging days with so many having work cut back or even eliminated. Know that we take very seriously the trust that you have placed in us to be good stewards of the resources you have provided and to maximize them in the training of pastors and church leaders overseas. Again, thank you!
We are also especially grateful for the many who support us in prayer. We would ask that you remember the following requests as you think of us.
Prayer Requests
Please continue to pray that the 3 weekly online workshops I teach via Zoom would be a helpful resource for the pastors that are attending.
Pray also for the many brothers and sisters overseas who are suffering greatly from the quarantines because of the lack of work. One pastor recently told me of church members making soup from tree bark because they had nothing else to eat.
Please pray for wisdom in the many decisions before us with moving.
We would appreciate pray for God’s provision of the additional support that will be needed to go to full time.
Pray also for comfort as we are saddened to be leaving so many of our close friends.
If you have any specific questions or would like to connect, please don’t hesitate to contact us any time by the many online methods we have now – text, email, Facebook message, Zoom, or just give us a call! We’d love to hear from you.
If You Wish to Support Us
If the Lord leads you to support this ministry, you can do in several different ways:
Credit Card: go to our GMI link. Note that GMI covers all online expenses so that 100% of your donation goes to our support.
Direct Deposit: print out the form from this link and follow its instructions. The missionary/project name is “Tim Carns”.
Check: make it payable to “GMI” and write “Tim Carns” on the memo line. Then mail it to Grace Ministries International, 13248 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley, CA 91352.