Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for the ‘Our Website Headlines’ Category

  If you have been keeping up with how quickly and easily our possessions have sold, this story won’t surprise you. Our last big item to sell is our 2001 Honda Civic.  We put a small ad on the back page of our 2nd quarter newsletter that was sent out at the beginning of this week.  Within two days we had numerous inquiries with the very first one being a serious one.  Well, that person came and looked at the car this morning and decided to buy it for our asking price. God is really enabling us to make this missionary move.  There hasn’t been a single possession of which we’ve had ANY difficulty selling.  It’s all Him. 

   This is an opportunity for you to Help Us Live In Africa. There are many purchases we have to make for our life and ministry in Tanzania. You can be a part by choosing to directly sponsor one or more of these purchases. We have received sponsorships for small items like sunscreen (~ $5) all the way up to a 1000-watt generator ($750) for Jonathan’s recording projects in remote villages. There’s no minimum or limit as to how you can sponsor!

   This idea gives our partners an extremely specific way to get directly involved with us in Africa. The program provides a personal connection to the work God is doing through us in the lives of the Tanzanian people.

   You can find a complete list of our needs on our website under NEEDS on the navigation toolbar. Sponsorships can be tax-deductible. 

Come see us April 18 at Hickory Grove Main Campus for the Global Missions Celebration.  Each year our home church holds a Global Missions Week which culminates in a night of celebration at the end.  The celebration is this coming Wednesday and we’d love to see you and/or meet you for the first time.  When you walk in to the Worship Center lobby, we’ll be directly to your left.  The service starts at 6:45pm so come early enough for us to spend some time with you.  Hope to see you there!

I finished cleaning up the RV (1999 Jayco Eagle 302FK) this afternoon and it is primed for selling!  Actually, when I finished my last task of mopping the floors and had a chance to look around at it, I kinda wanted to keep it.  Only long enough to take it to the beach for a week!  Now that all of our personal day-to-day possessions are out of it, it once again has taken on full-form RV.

I washed it with RV Wash and wax mixed with some good ol’ Clorox.  I didn’t know it was white!  It is actually the cleanest it has ever been in our possession.  But, its gotta go.  Our first potential buyers are coming to look at it tomorrow so if you’re interested in it, let me know soon.  Here are some details about it:

These are the upgrades/additions we’ve made since we bought it in late 2006:
Standard Queen-size mattress and box spring
Closet rebuilt to double-level cross-bars making room for a lot of hanging clothes
Home-style shower curtain
Shower shelf system
Additional 20-amp circuit wired into entertainment center
Wired for telephone
Wired for digital satellite with prepaid dish and receiver
White wire shelving in almost all the cabinets
Entertainment center modified for larger televisions
Overhead RV stereo system wired to play as surround sound for entertainment center
Inline Watts water pressure regulator
Inline high-capacity whole-house water filter
New city water inlet
New kitchen faucet with detachable head w/hose
New 30-lb. LPG tanks
Vinyl tank cover
LPG gauge
Awning tie-downs
Vinyl wheel covers
Patio mat
Extended rain spouts

We’ve taken good care of it ensuring it has many great trips and years left on it.  The LPG floor-ducted heat will choke you it runs so good (you can keep it turned down) and the ceiling-ducted A/C will turn it into a 30’x’8’ refrigerator!!
Here are other highlights:
3-burner LPG stove & oven
LPG/110V Refrigerator
Microwave w/turntable
Anti-sway bars for stable towing
LPG hot water heater – gets it HOT enough for 2 good showers back-to-back
Dining room table converts to a bed
40-gallon fresh water tank w/high-pressure 12V pump
Detachable shower head w/hose

That’s how far we traveled last week on our trip to Florida. We started out with a 12-hour adventure to St. Petersburg long before the sun came up. The drive was supposed to be only 10 hours but once we arrived at our reserved hotel, well… it was, let’s say, not as we had hoped. Sparing the details of why we decided not to stay there, I quickly got on the phone with our credit card’s concierge service through whom we were using our rewards points. They ended up booking us at The Pier Hotel right in downtown St. Pete. I would HIGHLY recommend this hotel to anybody. Check out their website and you’ll see why. What you see online doesn’t even do justice to how nice it really is in person.

We spent a few days site seeing and bird watching before visiting an afternoon with my Aunt Lois in Lake Wales. We were greeted with freshly squeezed orange juice and a box full of beautiful pink grapefruit. Thanks Aunt Lois!!!

We left there to try to catch a glimpse of a painted bunting on the way to our second overnight destination of the trip, Palm Coast. We stayed at another awesome hotel there, the Microtel Inn & Suites.

We swung by Anastasia State Park on our way out of town and saw quite a few warblers and Cedar Waxwings high in the trees along the park’s nature trail. Watching those little boogers is hard on your neck!  Then, our 7-hour drive home finished at 9 hours due to the heavy Easter traffic. All-in-all it was a great trip. It was great to get away for a little while to recharge and get our second wind for more partnership development. We’re still 43% short so tomorrow will be busy with e-mails and phone calls!

One of the common questions we are asked is, “If I decide to support you, how do I do it?” It is usually followed by, “Once I send in money, how does make its way to you?” I’m going to help you understand the process as it is a fairly easy one once you hear/read it.
First, there are multiple ways to support us but all of them have one thing in common; all funds make their way to Wycliffe Headquarters in Orlando, FL. I’ll explain below what happens from that point but let’s cover your options on how to get your support to Orlando. There are three options:

1. Go to www.wycliffe.org/give and click on ‘Missionary Ministries’ on the right hand side. Another window will open to a form. Here is all the information you need to fill in:
Last Name = McCall
First Name / Spouse = Jonathan / Dana
Amount = $(your contribution amount)
Click ‘Add to Cart’, that window will close and you’ll see your cart at the top right of the page.
Click ‘Checkout’ and a new window with your cart will open.
Click ‘Continue to Step 2′ in the middle of the page.
The next screen will allow you to enter all of your information.
Click ‘Submit’ at the bottom.

2. Fill out the response card you received when you attended one of our presentations at your church, group, Sunday School class, etc. meeting. Mail it with your contribution amount in the provided envelope or one of your own addressed to the Wycliffe Orlando address on the response card.

3. Enclose your contribution and a separate note stating ‘For the ministry of Jonathan and Dana McCall’ in an envelope addressed to Wycliffe Bible Translators, P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200

4. Click on ‘CONTACT’ at the top of this page, fill in your contact information, and request a copy of an automatic bank draft form to be sent to you. Fill it out and send it to the above Wycliffe address.

After your contribution arrives at Wycliffe Orlando, it is processed. Deductions for health insurance, taxes, administration fees, etc. are taken and the remainder is deposited into our personal account. This could be a bank or the country branch under which we work (Uganda-Tanzania Branch).
We have sole responsibility to budget and spend your gifts wisely as they cover both our personal and ministry expenses.
It is very OK for you to have questions about this subject and even more OK for you to ask them. So, please don’t hesitate if you’d like to shoot a question over to us. Thanks!

~ Jonathan

Our website has honestly gotten a ton more response than we could of even hoped for at this point of our journey. Believe it or not, the whole scheme of a website is a new venture for us. Especially with it more than likely being our primary mean of communicating up-to-date information. But, we need you. We need your feedback. The purpose of this website is to expose you as much as possible to the things God is doing in our lives. We want to be as transparent as possible so you can see God’s every McCall move even from the other side of the planet. The technology age is blessing us with astonishing abilities and we want to take full advantage of them.
So, if there is anything you’d like to see on or off the site, let us know. If there is a certain perspective you’d like to have on what happens in the lives of missionaries, send it to us in an e-mail at us@jonathananddana.com or just click on CONTACT on the main navigation bar.
Even if there is nothing you’d change, let us know what you like most about the website and what you like least. We want to hear from as many people as possible and contour content to be as effective, informative and pleasing as possible.

Please take the time just to leave us a line or two of feedback. It means more to us than you think!

Jonathan and I have just entered the full-time support-raising phase of our ministry.  But what does that look like?  That’s a very good question.  I know it’s a good question because I wondered that myself.  The first day of this, we sat down and made some decisions about how we would now be spending our time.
Here’s what we’re doing:
First thing in the morning we check our email, fix the coffee, and then sit down to spend some quality time with God.
The rest of the morning we make phone calls, send emails, and write letters to find as many speaking opportunities as possible.  We’re also trying to take advantage of this time before we leave by seeing as much of our friends as possible, so we work out our calendars with everyone else’s and set up a lunch or dinner here and there.
After lunch, we get notes and cards ready to be mailed.  Then we prepare partnership development materials such as prayer cards, bookmarks, and brochures.  To plan for upcoming speaking engagements, we brainstorm about the content of the message based on the time we’re given to speak.
Just before dinner, we go to the PO box to get the mail and send the cards and letters we’ve prepared that day.
During the evening we try to relax but the work never really ends.  We update the website, write on our blogs, and make a few more phone calls or write another letter.
Outside of all this, I am attending a ladies’ Bible study at Hickory Grove – North Campus every other Monday night on 1 John.  I am also volunteering some at Elevation Church, helping them with their accounting.  Jonathan volunteers at Elevation by putting the sermons online each week.  We are both doing some small tasks for an upcoming 5-week training class here at JAARS.
It sounds like we’re super busy but we are managing our time well, spreading things out as much as we need to.  I still sneak a moment in here or there to read my books.  Jonathan enjoys the computer so much that he works on the website, blogs, newsletters, and stuff for Elevation all while watching the big championship game (Go Gators!), NFL playoffs (Go Chargers!), or other important sporting events (Nascar… how bad have you got it?).  And since this is our last American Idol season in the States, we’ll pencil that into our schedule for sure.

Originally Posted October 2, 2006 – It seems as though we just met yesterday yet here we are two years after getting married.  Our story is a unique one and in the context of how marriage is treated, even in the body of Christ, it is one of wonder.  We met at the end of May 2004 and ended up exchanging vows just over four months later on a beach at Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI.  It was a storybook destination wedding with God doing all of the decorating for us!  We took a good minister friend of ours, James Weddington, down with us to perform the ceremony.  We also, flew our parents down for a little getaway.  And, yes, we did put them up in the Marriott on St. Thomas while we honeymooned in St. John.  The ceremony could not have gone better.  It being so amazingly beautiful there coupled with marrying the one you love made our wedding like a dream.
To see more of our wedding and honeymoon, click on 'PHOTOS' on our main page and then on the wedding and honeymoon picture to take you to the gallery.