8.13.15 Family Photo & Moving to Nashville, TN

 

This is a bit long, but PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ THE WHOLE NEWSLETTER as it contains a lot of amazing changes within our ministry! Praise God! 

 

Much has happened since our last newsletter in April, including the finalization of our adoption from Ethiopia! To start, you should have received a postcard inviting you to a welcome-home party and baby dedication for Yodit, however, we need to postpone that event till later in the fall/winter. Although we were really looking forward to everyone meeting her, this postponement is actually a GOOD thing…

Jeremy has been asked to travel with Carman again throughout the fall for ChildFund International, and all of these dates were just announced and interfere with our planned date. In addition, Jeremy was recently invited by Steven Curtis Chapman to travel and speak on his upcoming Christmas Tour, sit with a creative team in Nashville to develop a child sponsorship campaign, and also travel with Show Hope to China in 2016 to produce a short-film for upcoming tours! Therefore, we made the tough decision to postpone the welcome-home party (date TBD.) This is actually all connected to a much bigger picture of what God is doing!

Through the summer, God has done several key things in our life:  

1. Pruned away branches of some past ministry involvement to give life to a new season of ministry: After receiving our travel dates for our adoption, Jeremy made the tough decision to cancel Willet Band’s 2015 Summer Tour to be able to stay in Ethiopia as a family through the adoption process. This move was also part of an intentional step to reduce the # of Willet Tour dates going into 2016 to focus on the Million Meal Goal and new areas of missions…

2. Called us to a new season and vision of ministry:  Although pruning is never easy and always requires a transition, God used our time in Ethiopia and Jeremy’s paternity leave to allow us to hear God’s voice clearly regarding our next phase of ministry. This new calling involves expanding on opportunities that God started to bring to us late last year. Starting this month, Jeremy will continue his ministry with NMSI by moving into a new role in Child Sponsorship.  Jeremy will be creating partnerships while providing program development and public speaking advocacy on tours for child sponsorship organizations such as ChildFund International, Food for the Hungry, Feed the Children, World Vision and Show Hope. Through these opportunities, Jeremy will connect these organizations to international marketplace ministries within NMSI and also hopes to invite Christians to join NMSI through short-term projects, internships and career-missions.

3. Increased our territory:  Shortly after understanding our new calling, God began to quickly increase our territory! These are some of the recent developments:

• Over 2,700 Kenyan children sponsored through ChildFund International on the May 2015 Bible Tour that Jeremy spoke on w/ Steven Curtis Chapman.
•    Jeremy traveled to Kenya, Zambia and Malawi with Ends of the Earth Cycling and developed a partnership with ChildFund International to see youth from Kenya and India sponsored on the upcoming BlueGrass Bike Ride in August and the Mid-Atlantic Bike Ride in September.
• Kat began working in the Hospitality Department at NMSI to help missionaries coming off the field and has already served 2 families from the Ukraine and Turkey!
• Developed partnership between Stop Hunger Now and ChildFund International to begin integrating child sponsorship into meal packaging events nationwide. Jeremy will begin a pilot-program through the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh warehouses later this year.
• Developed partnership between NMSI affiliate, Team Rock Ministry and ChildFund International. Team Rock is traveling to State Fairs across the country encouraging the audience to sponsor children, and has already seen over 100 children sponsored!
• Jeremy received invitations to speak & travel on the following tours/trips:

• 8.17 – 8.20 NICARAGUA – w/ Feed the Children 
• 9.10 MO – CARMAN TOUR for ChildFund International 
• 9.11 – 9.14 MD/PA – w/ Ends of the Earth Cycling for ChildFund International 
• 9.15 – 9.24 WEST COAST – CARMAN TOUR for ChildFund International 
• 9.25 – 9.26 Fullerton, CA – “CHRISTIAN MUSIC SUMMIT” for ChildFund International
• 10.15 – 11.8 West Coast – “THE DIGITAL AGE TOUR” (David Crowder’s former band) for Feed the Children   
• DECEMBER 2015 – STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN CHRISTMAS TOUR for Show Hope
• 2016 CHINA –  SHOW HOPE ORPHAN CARE CENTER 

 

4. Affirmed our calling to child sponsorship: 

His name is Arefayne and he grew up in poverty in Ethiopia, Africa. In 2007, my brothers and I decided to sponsor him through Food for the Hungry and sponsored him for over 8 years! From 2007 until 2013, I traveled extensively leading worship in Willet, and advocating for child sponsorship. Most of 2013 and 2014, I unfortunately began to listen to the lies that child sponsorship “didn’t work” and that the U.S. Church was only interested in “taking care of our own.” This was obviously spiritual warfare, and it appeared to have defeated me because I took a long break from advocating for any child sponsorship. At the end of 2014, through the encouragement of a friend, I was invited back to public-speaking on behalf of children living in poverty on the Donny & Marie Christmas Tour. This began to renew a passion in me to return to my original calling to be a voice for the poor. Just a few months ago in Ethiopia during our adoption, I met back up with Arefayne for the first time in over 6 years and learned that he is graduating and becoming an engineer! The enemy had not won. I like to believe that our sponsorship had a small impact on Arefayne’s life, but, now I know that God used Arefayne to affirm a calling on my life, and it helped me make a decision that I could give the next 30 years of my life to.

So, because of all of this, Kat and I began to ask the question of, “Are we in the best position geographically to fully live out the vision for ministry that God has given us?” The answer to that was tricky, because we have deep relationships with many people at The Center for Global Outreach in Fort Myers, FL, but the reality of it is, our ministry is actually to the Christian Music Industry, and that industry is in Nashville, TN. Therefore, WE ARE MOVING TO NASHVILLE, TN… Spring, Hill, TN to be exact on 8/24. The offices for the artist programs of Show Hope, Feed the Children, Food for the Hungry and World Vision, as well as many relationships connected with ChildFund International are all located right in Franklin, TN, only 20 minutes from our new home! Over the past several weeks, God gave us a burden for the Nashville area… not so much in regards to evangelism, but more of a call to inspire artists that have a platform to encourage them to use their platform to be a voice for children living in poverty. Moving to the Nashville area will allow us to deepen relationships with the organizations that we serve, as well as develop new relationships with artists that we can partner with to help get children sponsored! We are also looking forward to living only 1/2 mile from some of our best friends, Neal and Jessica Haines! Finally, many of the tours that I travel on actually leave and return to Nashville, so this is going to cut down on the amount of flights I have to take per year, and actually INCREASE my time at home with the family. This is a step forward for the the health of our family as well as our ongoing effort to proclaim the name of Jesus to the nations. We value each of you very much, and are very thankful for your friendship and continued partnership in ministry. Please come visit us in Nashville soon.

Thank you for your continued support of our ministry and we look forward to sharing many more updates of transformation that is occurring in communities around the world!

Jeremy, Kat, Evans and Yodit Willet