Nunes Family Update August 2023

Hello Everyone!

We are excited to share with you our update video. We know it has been a while since we made an update video for you all and we apologize for that. This video though is a bit of a long one, and it gives a lot of context around what has been happening and what is coming up in the future for our family and our ministry. If you don’t have time to watch the video, below there will be a short written summary of what is in the video. Thank you all for your prayers and support! We love you! – The Nunes Family

Click Here To Watch the Update Video

Hello, For those of you who just want a quick update here it is. There are three main things we talk about in the video.

What’s Been Happening?

We have been in a season of waiting for the past year. As many of you know we went back to the states to raise support in an effort to move into the city of Aberdeen. When we returned from the trip our support took a nose dive. We ended up not being able to move into the city and so we began to pray and ask God what He had for us here. We were then approached by the pastor and his wife at the Baptist Church here in Peterhead and we were asked to pray about planting a church in Cruden Bay (a town about 15 minutes from Peterhead). Since a church that has existed there for almost two hundred would be closing its doors and disbanding. We agreed to pray and began making trips into Cruden Bay. During this time the only church in Cruden Bay was closing its doors and after there would be no town church within Cruden Bay. Our hearts were made heavy for this place, we began to sense that God was leading us to do something in Cruden Bay. We continued going into Cruden Bay and praying and seeking the next steps. We connected with the closing church to enquire about their plans for their building. They told us that they were intent on selling, but ultimately changed their minds and donated the building to the local council. This reads quickly, but this was a back-and-forth with them, us, and the Baptist Church for around 6 months. Feeling disheartened we took some time to pray and seek the Lord for wisdom for the next steps. I (Cody) eventually contacted the local council directly to inquire about their plans for the building. They responded that they would not be making functional plans for some time and that the building would be left vacant until the local council and tenants decided what to use the building for. They did offer to show us their communal hall which is located just up the street from the church building. We met and agreed to rent the space for 15 GBP an hour for our future outreaches and services. This was a major blessing and a step into the community in Cruden Bay. (Obviously there is a lot of nuance that is missed in this quick summary, so if you want more context you can watch the video).

What’s Happening/ Coming Up

We are still investing in Peterhead, as a chaplain to the local high school, as well as serving in the Baptist Church as worship team members and in their warm spaces service to the needy. We also are continuing to go into Cruden Bay and pray for the town and invest in being present and doing activities around the community. While continuing to do that we have some major things approaching on the horizon. The first of which is our visa extension. We were granted a three-year tier 2 religious workers visa, which allowed us to live here for three years. Now that is approaching its termination we have to apply for an extension, which will grant us another three years here. The cost of the visa extension application is approximately $8,000.00- 9,000.00 USD. In addition to the conversion rate. The reason for the high cost is that applicants are required to pay for 3 years of health coverage at the time of the application. So that cost is the total cost for all four of us to have three more years of life here in Scotland, as well as having three more years of health coverage in the United Kingdom. This is a huge financial cost and it is not lost on us that the current economy and cost of living are at an all-time high. The first time we applied for our visas, we saved for years and we were able to pay for it. Now we are asking you to pray for us to once again undertake this cost. Also, we are asking if you would be willing to pray about supporting us to pay for the visa extension. That would be an amazing blessing. While applying for visas, the UK government requires a minimum amount of financial stability for the application to be approved. We have currently been living on less than the required amount. For our visa application to be approved we have to raise more monthly financial support. We are asking that you would come alongside us in prayer for the Lord to provide for us and if you can be supporting us financially monthly we would be very grateful and very blessed. Karissa and I after much prayer have decided that it would be irresponsible for our family to walk blindly into the possibility of us having to return to the US if we are unable to meet the required amount of monthly support or the amount needed to pay for the visa application. So we have decided to wait upon the Lord and continue seeking Him in hopes that he would provide, but if we haven’t received what we need by September we will begin planning our exit from Scotland. This is not what our hearts desire, we have spent the last two years building a foundation within the community. We feel as if the doors have finally opened for us to plant a church while having meaningful roots and partnerships here in Scotland. The truth is that we would be heartbroken to leave, but we trust that following the Lord is better than following ourselves. If the Lord provides and we get to stay we can all rejoice together, but if he guides us to come back to the US then we will still rejoice in His goodness.  

A Jesus Mission

Throughout the past year, Karissa and I have been praying and talking about joining a missions organization. We felt that having an organization to help us with things like support, connection, therapy, and so many other things was very important. We found A Jesus Mission through my (Cody) work on the podcast. I interviewed some of the members and was overwhelmed by their work all over the world. After several months of talking with them, we have finally decided to take a step of faith and join their mission organization. What this means for us is that we can get more support in our ministry and our family. What this means for our supporters is that they can now access supporting us through A Jesus Mission. For all of the work they put into missionary care, they have admin costs for every missionary of 12% of support to be taken and used for covering the admin costs. I say that too because we want to be honorable and support AJM in having all of our support go through them so that we can be properly supporting them as they support us. If you have been giving to one of the several churches that support us we would like to say thank you. Your support has kept us on the mission field for the last three years and we are so blessed that you partnered with us! We are excited for this next season with AJM and can’t wait to see what the Lord is going to do.