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Sound the Trumpet

February 8th, 2017 7 comments

In this final week of preparation, we are amazed at God’s working on our behalf to prove Himself faithful.  In the course of the last few days, we have been overwhelmed at the favor He has shown us.

For starters, we have seen amazing improvement in Isaac’s development since the tonsillectomy just three weeks ago.  We believe that he is now sleeping restfully, potentially for the first time in his life.  His speech and behavior have Read more…

Mission and Purpose

January 20th, 2017 2 comments

As we have continued our farewell tour, it has occurred to me that we must have poorly communicated the details of our mission, and our purpose in going to Uganda.  Many people, even in the last week have asked what we will be doing when we arrive in Uganda.  I’m amazed at the outpouring of support, of how we have raised so much money to fund this effort, when it seems that so many are still unclear about our mission.  We are continually humbled by this transition to live our lives on the support of our friends and family.  We are even more humbled to see that people have generously contributed believing that God is at work, even though they may have been uncertain as to how exactly He was working.  Here’s an attempt to briefly explain Read more…

Last Minute Blessings

January 17th, 2017 4 comments

Team Sinkler in Bozeman

As I write this update, Team Sinkler is winding down another adventurous day, ready for rest.  Today we write from beautiful Bozeman, MT.  This is the place of our upbringing, a place full of friends and family, and a place that still elicits an emotional response as we round the last turn or see the Bridger Mountains on the horizon.  We pulled into town a week ago, pushing over the 7000 mile mark for our distance travelled in the Suburban since Thanksgiving.  That, of course, doesn’t include Read more…

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Christmas Thanks and Support Update

December 24th, 2016 6 comments

On this Christmas Eve, we’d like to take time to give thanks for all the workings of God in our path to missionary work.  We’d especially like to take the time to thank all of our supporters for helping us along the way.  We have humbly benefited from the outpouring of support from brothers and sisters in Christ from all parts of the country.  We have received your prayers, your financial contributions, and open doors to your families and homes.  We have received the benefit of deepened relationships, and know that we will also receive gifts according to the blessings with which you have been called to share.  Thank you so much for being willing to share in this journey with us.  It is so amazing to see the many parts of the body of Christ uniting in the work of glorifying Him, and it’s wonderful to see the truth of the gospel that the disciples of Christ would be known by the love they have for one another.

As we have travelled the country, we want to let our financial supporters know that contributions toward our mission have not been touched.  By the generosity of the people of my family company we continue to receive a paycheck through their donation of paid time off.  It is our hope that we will be able to continue on those wages until we depart for Uganda so that the support we raise will be used as we start our life overseas.

We wanted to provide an update on our current support, and remaining need.  We celebrate God’s amazing provision!

We are currently receiving approximately $3100 of monthly support, with $1400 left to achieve our target of $4500 per month.  It’s hard to nail down a number, since each month varies from the next.  Until we start in Uganda, those monthly funds are being ‘banked’ in our New Hope Uganda Ministries account.  Of the total monthly contribution, 7% goes to the administration of New Hope Uganda Ministries.  This helps with member care, support for children in Uganda, and for some of our great team members in the Unites States that help to support us.  Our monthly support goes to our living expenses, including things like health and life insurance.  We budget some of the monthly support for future travel home for furloughs, or in case of any kind of family emergency.  We also budget ahead, anticipating that we will have fluctuations in support over time.

Sinkler Home in Uganda

For our start-up costs, we have raised $63,000, at which we are truly humbled.  This total means that we have already raised the support needed for our home that we will move into on February 12th (Praise God!!).  We can also start applying this toward our training in Uganda.  We will be attending the New Hope Institute for five months where we will be trained in African culture, Biblical application in that context, and language training in Luganda.  We were also able to cover the import taxes on our bicycles, 4 wheeler, and homeschool supplies that were shipped to Uganda ahead of us.  Our target is to reach a total of $97,000 for our travel expenses, the purchase of our home, our training, and our vehicle.

We rejoice in the Lord for the generosity of the saints and those who have felt led to give.  Our only remaining hurdle is the sale of our home, which we trust that the Lord will take care of as He continues to remain faithful to us in all ways.

This Christmas I cannot escape the thought of what Christ gave up in order to come and live a life on earth, denying His rightful place.  He left the very throne of God to humble Himself and become a man.  As if that wasn’t humbling enough, He died the worst of all deaths, rejected by those He came to save.  He did this for us because His love for us is so great, not because of anything that we accomplished for Him.  In response to that love, He asks for obedience to His calling and a life set apart to Him.  With His example of obedience to the Father, we are committed in obedience to Him.  We are blessed to find this true of all those who are saved by the grace of God’s gift which was sent to us at Christmas.  Thanks for being God’s gift to us.

The Unplanned Exit

November 14th, 2016 2 comments

In business we often talk of goals and even exit strategies.  They are normally referred to as exit plans, but this exit was anything but planned.

This is my last week of work.  Just over five years ago I broke free from my cubicle at Visa in Denver to participate in the family venture in the Bakken.  In those five years I experienced things that I never could have imagined.  I operated salt water disposal facilities, participated in the construction of them, eventually became the general contractor of new construction, and engineered new tank design and facility layouts.  I have great memories of Read more…

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That’s it! We’re leaving the country!

November 9th, 2016 3 comments

What an election season!  The divide between red and blue has never been greater, and so I find a piece of Abraham Lincoln’s speech in 1858 applicable.  In it, this Godly man referenced scripture as was typical of him to do.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 

It will become all one thing or all the other.

It is my estimation that our country is at no different place of impasse, and even the concept of slavery could be applied.  We are either slaves to self, or free to God and others.  The difference is not red and blue, but instead the difference is self and selflessness.  I made my vote for the candidate that I felt best suited to lead this country into the future, and I have many close friends that I love and respect who voted for the other.  There are many good people with good character on each wing of our country’s political preference.

In the months leading up to the election, and now in the early hours of aftermath, I have witnessed the force that drives the wedge of division in the country.  It is worship of self.  My preference, my company, my success, my kids, my way of life, my circumstance, my victory is all that matters.  In this way, the representatives for each wing of political philosophy were a very accurate representation of who the people of this country have become.  Our differences could be our greatest strength if we could just learn from each other and humbly esteem others more highly than ourselves.

For the record, we booked our one-way tickets to Uganda on the eve of the election.  The outcome, of course, had nothing to do with our leaving.  We are leaving because God said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  We are leaving because God said that the second greatest commandment is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself.  We are leaving because we feel strongly that while we could accomplish these things here, He has called us to go.  We are obedient to Him because before I could ever fathom quitting a successful career to follow Him, He left his throne and became flesh to die for me.  My God lovingly and sacrificially made a way for me to restore my relationship with Him in spite of my sin, and loved me before I could even begin to conceive of who He is.  He convinces me every day to give up my love of self and continue to cleanse myself from the sin of worshipping myself in favor of worshipping Him.  I am so imperfect and broken, and yet He works in me to heal me and bring me closer to being just like Him.  He is a loving God who loves first and rightly judges, but only after He has offered to pay the penalty for the verdict.  God has so distinctly, so clearly called us that we finally had to give in and say, “That’s it!  We’re leaving the country!”

That’s it!  We’re leaving the country!

As we go to Uganda, I hope the people of this nation, especially those who claim Christ as King, can humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways, pray and seek His face, so that He might heal and restore this land.  If those who would call themselves Christian will truly follow Him, they will sacrificially love one another as He did.  They will place the needs of others above their own, especially when it is not deserved.  They will extend a hand to those who have opposing views, and those who live their lives in complete disobedience to God will see this love as a testimony of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside the hearts of those who claim faith in Christ.

As Abraham Lincoln’s quote suggests, if we do not turn soon, our nation will not continue to be divided.  We will become one or the other.  We will be a people who honor God and others first, or we will become a nation only capable of honoring ourselves.

My family will choose not place our trust in men.  We believe that the restoration of a people governed by the people, starts with the hearts and motives of the people.  We will endeavor to follow Christ and love with complete abandon to self in as much as He helps us to accomplish it.  My family is not worthy of praise or honor because anything we do that could be perceived as honorable or righteous was done through His power, that not of ourselves.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord… in Uganda.

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Musana Camps: Video

October 31st, 2016 3 comments

As we prepare to serve at Musana Camps, the camp director has put together a video to help explain the story of Musana Camps, and why there is such a need for additional support.  The video was designed to inform those who will be attending our annual Giving Thanks Banquet at Evangelical Bible Church (EBC).  We found the video to be such a blessing that we couldn’t help but to post it here for those who will not be in Dickinson for this event.  If you will be attending the banquet on November 12th at EBC, you get a sneak peek!

Please take the time to watch the video, and thanks for your prayerful support of this ministry.  As we approach our time to leave, we are in need of monthly support to sustain us as we shut down our lives here and prepare for our new normal.  Gifts of any size are a blessing to the ministry, and we only ask that you would seek God’s guidance on this.  Instructions for monthly support are found on the Donate tab on this page.

Also, if you haven’t yet, please subscribe to this blog to receive regular updates as we get closer to our time to join those in the mission field.

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The path of obedience, the journey to Uganda.

September 26th, 2016 No comments
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Jarid & Staci: Sept 22, 2001

As we near the end of September we would like to update you on our journey, and how God is preparing us for Uganda.  Before we get into all of that, we praise God this week for the gift of 15 years of marriage.  On Thursday we celebrated this day that that has come upon us so quickly.  It’s hard to believe how fast time has gone to arrive at this milestone, and even more unbelievable how God has worked in our lives over that time.  We are very different people today than we were 15 years ago, and surely it is the work of the Lord.  I thank God for this woman that I love, my perfect help, designed and created specifically for me.  How humbling it is to know that God loved me enough to send her into my life and to sanctify us for His purpose.

While we celebrate the anniversary, we obviously have many things yet to accomplish.  To begin, would you continue to pray that our home would sell, and at a reasonable price?  As we lift this up in prayer, we also pray that God would bring the right family that would find value in this home and be blessed by it.  The sale of the home is obviously an important step to financially free us up to move. Read more…

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