Luke Batchelor is a guest author on CONSTANTjourney and a future Canvas team member. We’re excited to get Luke here in Birmingham full-time and are always thrilled to watch his journey toward arriving here. Click here to learn more about Luke and the rest of the team, or take a look at Luke’s own website.

This is Luke.

Alright guys, things are really coming together for my departure!

Tentatively my team has set a goal of getting me on the field by October 1st. I can hardly believe it as I’m writing it, but I will be on a plane (having purchased a one way ticket!) crossing the Atlantic to begin a new life in Birmingham England, living among the students of the University and trying to build a ministry. It is all so mind blowing!

So here’s the deal. By the time I depart I hope to have raised $2100 of monthly commitments (I’m not there yet!). As you hopefully well know this is well under my total monthly goal of $5000. However, the team and I have arranged for me to arrive on the field under the temporary designation of “Short-Term Missionary.” The budgets for STMs are less than full-term missionaries. This provides to very big incentives for me to finish fundraising and achieve full term status. With a smaller budget both my salary as well as my contribution to the ministry itself are diminished. So, we have set the goal for me of raising $200 worth of new monthly comittments each month for the next year. This would put me extremely close to being a fully supported missionary within a year. With the added potential for more support raising during the summer and christmas months back home, I believe that within a year I will be a fully supported member of the team.

Please keep praying that new support will continue to roll in as I prepare for the beginning of a great ministry! Thanks for being with me on this! I couldn’t do it without you guys!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted some new photos; it’s time. A short while ago, Jason Tatum, a future Canvas team member visited us in Birmingham. We loved, absolutely loved hosting him here and are really, really excited about getting him over here to be a part of the team. While Jason was here, he was in charge of my camera and so this is, in essence, a look around Birmingham through his eyes.

Take a look at some of his snapshots and then pray for him as he’s finishing up his support raising efforts. Click here to learn a little more about Jason and the rest of the team.