We are entering the home stretch—or perhaps more appropriately, the “away” stretch—of our journey to LCC International University in Klaipėda, Lithuania. This update will be more concise, but we have many important moments and decisions coming up in the next few weeks for which we covet your prayers.

Our tentative date to shift our “home base” from our Lansdale apartment to Corrie’s parents’ home in Perkasie is June 7. That gives us less than three weeks to make many of our packing decisions, which is stressful. We have been in contact with several families who recently moved to LCC, and they have counseled us to take as little as possible this time around because of the size of our on-campus apartment. If we need more space or more things, we can reassess our housing situation and our things when we come back to the States next May.

We will be getting rid of most of our furniture. Please pray that everything will sell quickly. If you live close and would like to come by for a look at anything (bookshelves, bedroom set, kitchen table and chairs, dressers, ottoman, and more), please let us know!

Our flights from Newark to Klaipėda via Copenhagen are booked: August 11-12. Shipping our items by boat takes 6-7 weeks, so we hope to send much of our luggage ahead of us in early July.

MINISTRY

Corrie’s teaching and ministry responsibilities are finishing up, one by one. My responsibilities at Lansdale Presbyterian Church conclude on June 15. In the meantime, I’m scrambling to leave the administrative details of the music ministry in reasonably good shape for my successor. Pray that God would provide the right person to lead LPC’s music ministry permanently.

Pray for me as I preach one more time at Preakness Valley United Reformed Church in Wayne, NJ, on June 8.

Please also pray for me as I begin gradually to take up the administrative and teaching responsibilities of a full-time faculty member. I have three classes to prepare, as well as constant dialogue with the other faculty about curricula and departmental tasks. I hope to be able to devote more time to these tasks once our move from Lansdale to Perkasie is complete and my LPC responsibilities have concluded.

SUPPORT

Our support for Year One at LCC (one-time gifts and regular supporters) stands at 41%. It is humbling and encouraging to see how God provides through His people.

A couple of weeks ago, just after we booked our flight to Klaipėda, I dreamed that—suddenly, it was August, and we were still only 20% funded. I woke up in a cold sweat, and settled back into a fitful sleep, wondering how I would come up with all this money. Later that morning, we received an email from a couple, pledging support that amounted to roughly 11% of our total first-year need! I was humbled, encouraged, and ashamed that I had usurped (in my mind, anyway) sovereignty over this mission.

Please pray that our financial support would continue to grow. We have meetings coming up with several missions committees at local churches. At one such meeting this week, dear brothers and sisters in Christ whom we had never met previously gave us a generous gift and committed to pray for us. God continues to flabbergast us with His provision.

______________

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Stay tuned for further updates; be sure to follow us on the web and join (and share) our Facebook group. To receive monthly updates about happenings at LCC, you may wish to sign up for the university’s newsletter, Transformations.

In Christ,

Benj Giffone (for Corrie, Daniel and Elizabeth)