Greetings to you from sunny Long Beach, California. It has been a very busy and intense 6 weeks and I wanted to let you know about some big changes for me and our family.
Because of some restructuring at Encompass World Partners, the role that I have served in since 2013 will not have funding after December 31st of this year. I fund raise a portion of my role (and thanks for many of your help with that!), but it’s not enough to sustain the salary/support needs. The mission is fine financially, but a combination of investment income and other special gifts being down this past year meant that projected income was not where it needed to be to sustain the current budget for the coming year, therefore my role and a few other cuts were instituted in October.
For me personally, as you recall, we were seeking to make efforts at church planting here in Long Beach, with Circles of Grace. It has been a joy to engage with a new spiritual family, but unfortunately, this work isn’t financially viable and our part-time support/salary projections will not last to the end of 2019 either.
These two items are enough to have us seeking what the Lord wants but there is more stirring in our family…
Through this fall Katja has recovered from her summertime concussion and is back to no restrictions on computer screens in high school and feeling healthy. In September, she requested to transition out of public school into homeschooling after this semester, for various reasons. In addition, Dr. Mindi ’s chiropractic practice lease is up at the end of December and she hasn’t been able to find another suitable space. Our two boys, Korey (who married Kaelyn in June) and Kevin are both living in Indiana going to Grace College, so they are out of the house. Our oldest daughter, Kayla is in Chiropractic school in Whittier, CA and getting married to Zach Sagester on December 21st. They have been living with us, yet they will need to remain in SoCal for Kayla to graduate with her Doctorate in December of 2020.
As this convergence of scenarios came together, the Lord and our consciences freed us so that we would be seeking to find our next place anywhere in the USA and would seek to leave no stone unturned ~ ministry, missions, secular employment, etc.
We have decided it is time for us to take a huge leap of faith by moving to Raleigh, North Carolina where we will be closer to our children and Mindi’s family.
Just days ago, we received confirmation that Mindi has received her Chiropractic License approval from the state of North Carolina. This was the last hurdle for her to accept a great job offer to be an Associate Doctor at Atlas Chiropractic of Raleigh, NC www.atlaschiroraleigh.com where she will be starting on January 20, 2020.
Our family will be moving cross country the week before, starting January 13 to be to Raleigh on time for her to start her new role (Lord Willing!). Her patients started receiving letters this week about the closing her office in Los Alamitos and our faith journey to NC ( https://briowellness.com/2019/12/a-december-to-remember/ ).
Mindi’s parents and her sister’s family are in Wilmington, NC and we will be glad to be close to them. We are all hustling in these last few weeks before Kayla’s wedding is there on December 21st!
Please pray for Kayla and Zach as they were in a bad car accident in mid November and are still recovering from injuries. This accident was with a City of Long Beach garbage truck and will result in a lawsuit, so we have been unable to share in social media settings about this difficulty. Zach has a significant back injury, is in a back brace is unable to work or drive as of yet. They still need to secure a vehicle, and now housing in January because of our move.
About me, I don’t have a job yet in Raleigh, but have a variety of applications out and some conversations, but nothing is solid yet. Please pray for and with me about the Lord’s leading for the right position.
We have been in SoCal since 2008 and to the left is a picture of our family on December 27, 2008 compared to the pic in June 22 of this year to see how much our crew has changed!
We hope you will pray for the Lord’s provision for our family and the many choices we have to make in this transition.
A Way to Send a Parting Gift:
If you would like to donate to support the Jentes family in our transition, the Los Altos Grace Church as made a way:
Give Online – select “Church Plant/Circles of Grace” from dropdown box ( https://losaltosgrace.breezechms.com/give/online )
If you feel more comfortable, you are welcome to send/drop off a check to:
“Los Altos Grace Church”
6565 E. Stearns Street
Long Beach, CA 90815
Please designate “Circles Of Grace” on the Memo Line.
How to Reach Out:
My current ministry email’s will be vacated soon, so you I invited you to use the following email going forward: MissionMikeJentes [at] gmail.com
My cell # will stay the same so if you have it, keep reaching out that way!
Thank you for your prayers and support for us over the years. We do ask that you continue to pray for us during this transition.