We're going to Africa!

Dear friends and family,

As many of you know Carlin and I have both spent some time overseas before getting married: Carlin in El Salvador and Guatemala and me in Japan and the Philippines. Serving God’s people in other countries as well as here at home is something very near and dear to our hearts. That is why we are excited to share with you that we are heading to North Africa on a missions trip for three weeks next summer! We feel that God is calling us to take a step of faith together as a couple and experience something a little bit outside our comfort zone. We are not sure what God holds in store for our long term future, but we believe and trust that this experience will have a profound impact on our lives as a couple. Perhaps this will be the first step towards full time mission work overseas, or perhaps God has something to show us that we will bring back and live out in Calgary. Either way we are taking this step of obedience and trusting God to do the rest. 

We will be working alongside a missionary couple in Africa, experiencing life with them and the people they interact with on a daily basis. We have been in contact with them and are excited at the numerous ministries that we will get to experience while we are there – it will be quite the smorgasbord of different experiences. We also hope to provide support to them as a couple by spending time with their children while they have a chance to reconnect as a couple. It is one of my hopes to be able to visit an international school that is close by, as I spent the majority of my time in Japan at a missionary school.

We would love to meet with many of you before we leave and share in more detail what we will be doing and what we believe God has in store for us.

We cannot do this by ourselves. This is something that we have learned very quickly (and to be quite honest are still learning), that God is the one calling the shots. While we sometimes wish we had more control, we know that He works all things together for good (even if we can’t always see that right away). Along with this, we know that we need the support of our friends and family in order to undertake something like this. We would ask that you keep us in your prayers.

Please pray for us as we plan and prepare to leave. We have to book fights, get shots and visas, as well as raise enough support to be able to go. Please pray for us while we are there. Pray that our hearts would be open to what God has to show us, that the people we will interact with would be blessed by our presence and would experience His love through us. Pray that they will come to follow Him too. Pray for our missionary friends that we are partnering with –that we would be a good support and encouragement to them and their children.

We will be going as Centre Street Church missionaries. If any of you would like to partner with us in prayer or by financial support, please let us know and we'll send you details on how you can do that. In order to go we will need to raise approximately $6000. Please consider us as you plan for your year-end charitable donations.

We hope this experience will open our eyes to see God’s heart for His people and how He may use us to serve Him as a family. 

In Christ,

Stephen and Carlin Anquist

“Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5