Details on donations, budget, and travel plans

Budget Stuff:
We are still working out our PNG budget with Word Made Flesh.
Right now, we are looking at raising approximately $3,200 a month - this will cover all of our expenses for travel, living, utilities/supplies, medical, retirement, etc. as well as the costs for starting up or participating in the various projects that we hope to put together in country.
If any of you are interested in seeing our budget/giving us feedback (much appreciated) please email me and let me know.
WMF would like us to have %100 of this budget pledged plus two months of actual income. This would be in addition to having our initial airfare to and from PNG covered (something we will probably put together out of pocket).
In addition to our PNG budget, we need to put aside a separate fund for our time training in Romania.
It looks like we will be spending less time there than we originally thought. The field director in Romania has suggested about 3 weeks.
Travel Plans: 
We are looking at going to Romania in the 2nd week of February, and would appreciate your prayers and advice regarding this decision. The trip should cost about $3,500 (covering living in country + airfare).
It's cheaper to fly to and from Romania and then fly to PNG from the states than it is to fly to PNG from Romania, so y'all will see us for a brief visit before we head to PNG. We are looking at about 9 months to a year for our first stay in country. The majority of that time will be dedicated to language learning and relationship building. We will also be assessing what kinds of tools, resources, etc. we might need to bring in when we return.
Donation Details:
Just a heads up, the organization takes out a 13% processing and administration fee, so part of our estimated $3,000 a month includes that as well as tithing (our choice).
There are three ways to donate to us through Word Made Flesh:

• Automatic Withdrawal from Checking - Print off and fill out the from in this link, and mail it with a voided check to P.O. Box 70, Wilmore, KY 40390. Alternatively you can scan and email the form and voided check to ken.dean@wordmadeflesh.com. 
• Check - made payable to Word Made Flesh and sent to P.O. Box 70, Wilmore, KY 40390. Include a note designating who you are donating it to
• Credit Card - you can click on this link to make a one time or recurring donation. Please don't click on the 'pay by check' option on this page. 

These donation options are listed in order of most preferable to least. As I said, WMF takes out a 13% processing and administration fee. If you donate by Credit Card the processing account Pure Charity takes out 7% so WMF only takes 6%. In short, more money goes directly to helping Word Made Flesh run the organization if they process one transaction (an automatic withdrawal form) directly through their own organization. But, by all means do what makes the most sense to you. One way or another, God provides for us and for this organization. :)

Finally, if you haven't had a chance to see it, here is our Word Made Flesh web page. Photo courtesy of my last trip to the Sepik Region of PNG in 2008.

As always, we covet your prayers, appreciate your feedback, and would love to hear from you regarding questions, prayer requests, concerns, advice, etc. We both have email accounts with Word Made Flesh if you would like to email us: benjamin.grimm@wordmadeflesh.com and mary.grimm@wordmadeflesh.com.

Thank you all for your continued love and prayers!
Love,
The Grimm Crowd

July Update

Hello everybody,
A lot has been happening in the last few months. Once again, I am behind on updating y'all. I won't bore you with all the little chance encounters, awesome conversations with random missionary people, and details of getting instated with Word Made Flesh.
News:
The two biggest things that have happened are that:
       We are officially members of Oikos Fellowship and have been enjoying getting to know our new  Church family.
       We are officially staff with Word Made Flesh. We have a webpage now!
For those of you who are hoping to support us in our mission, that means that you can donate through WMF now. I'll put info on that in a separate post. We're still working on the best way to get newsletters and prayer updates to everyone.
On the home front: we have been growing green things in our garden (no crop yield yet, since we started late); Ben has been going a little nuts with pickling all the things I am bringing home from working at the bamboo/organic food farm; the berry harvest is in full swing, so Ben's been blessed with plentiful hours - working 12 hour days, 6 days a week; and the Grimmling is growing strong and very squirmy!
Thanks: 
We are thankful for all of your prayers for us as a couple (now family) and for our path into the mission field. We have been so blessed to see God at work in our relationship and to see His provision for our spiritual growth and direction through fellowship with a number of beautiful Church communities.
Prayer Needs: 
Moving forward, we could use your prayers as we navigate fundraising. Neither of us is good at this aspect of support raising. Ben would also like prayer for possibly being able to learn from/model an organization that has done some incredible work in sustainable agriculture and community development in South America. 
I also ask for your prayers for my dear friends the Scotts as they mourn the loss of their son and brother. In a season otherwise so overflowing with blessing for our family, this has been a very difficult reality to wrap my head and heart around. It is an ache of grief that doesn't go away but ebbs and flows throughout the days. I know that my friend is truly ALIVE and well, but that doesn't erase the gaping hole he has left behind. It is hard to stomach how briskly life keeps moving, how the responsibilities and needs keep pressing in, but they do. 

Thank you all again for your love and support. We are so blessed to know each of you.
May God bless and keep you.
Love,
The Grimms

Turn My Mourning Into Dancing

The month of June is well over but it is still lingering with me.
The days were too long, passing too quickly.
On the morning of the 8th one of my closest friends called to tell me her brother was gone.
He died suddenly in an accident in Yellowstone, June 7th. He was 23 years old.
Even now, my mind and heart rebel at the words. It is too unreal, too bizarre, too cruel.
In all my memories, he is very much alive, an integral part of his family, his community, this world.

I have wished a hundred times over that there was a way to bypass the stilted inadequacy of words and even presence in such a time of grief. Ones own body and mind are inadequate to the task of grief. The mind surges with pain and then ebbs in forgetfulness. At times the body simply refuses to produce more tears or register the ache. What can one offer as comfort out of this state?
My heart breaks for Colin's mother, his father, and his siblings - my friends.
I have nothing to give them that can temper the jagged trauma of his loss or shorten the long days that will stretch into years of grief and longing.

In the depths of grief there is a place where none can follow or approach.
Christ alone waits there.
Yet even He does not close up the gaping hole that is left in this world in the wake of such a life.
Colin lived wholeheartedly, generously, boldly.
He left a mark everywhere he went, and now there are so many broken threads.
I am still in shock.
I have trudged through anger and suspicion towards God and been given not an answer but an assurance that Colin is truly and gloriously well.
God gives no answers, no reasons. When we stand before Him at last, the terrible beautiful truth is that we will not even ask Him for a reckoning.
Death has truly lost its sting... for the one who dies, the one who passes from death into glorious life.
For the rest of us, the wait is lengthened by the longing.