Missionary Blogs

The apartment

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:43:00 +0000

Just about 450 metres from our flat is the tram stop Carle Vernet. 100 metres beyond that is an old warehouse that used to be the premises of "Bordeaux Termites". The business has moved to the inner ring road. Alongside it and occupying a corner is a run-down échoppe - the small single-storey railworkers' houses that have become so popular.

On both of these buildings is attached a notice of planning permission. They will soon be replaced by a building housing 25 apartments, with a garage on the ground floor, three storeys of apartments and a roof garden.

On the second floor of this building, with two bedrooms with windows facing south and a living room with its balcony facing the setting sun, is to be found our future home. We signed for it today.

Our TEAM is Complete!

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 12:58:33 +0000

October 13, 2021 - As of this past Monday, we have hired our last staff member to help us operate our stores. (Thanks for all your prayers about this) God has given us an amazing team. We have a gal who this is her first job, we have a retired person who wanted to get out and do something. Our latest hire (working with us part-time) has got degrees in African cultural studies and Arabic languages. He is at our Ann Arbor location where we have multiethnic shoppers coming in daily. (Can’t wait to see how God is going to use this hire!)

Each time we have needed a hire we spent much time in prayer asking God to bring us what we needed at that moment. And He has! Maybe not as fast as we had hoped but in His timing nonetheless.

This past week in our Jackson store a lady came in who was telling our team about her sister whom she had not heard from and was worried about. The lady was from the senior low-income housing apartments in our building. As she was sharing her concern tears began to appear on her face and our team asked if she wanted prayer and then - right there in the middle of the store - stopped and prayed for the shopper.

We are more than a store, we are a ministry business that is committed to helping folks be they the poor, persecuted, disenfranchised, disable or unemployed when and where we can. For many it is financial but for others, it is a listening ear, a hug, and especially prayers.

When you support us you are helping us create this movement that is touching lives here and around the world.

This week pray for…

… the training of our new staff members

… the arrival of products coming internationally - Bulgaria, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, and places around the US

… the plans and funding for the Virtual Christmas Gift Box program we are sponsoring.

… Funding for the new livelihood Groups we have talked about and our own support too!

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To give to the Virtual Christmas Gift Box Program Click Here - https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/3138219

To give to our Development fund Click here - https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/3138219

To give to our Support Account Click Here https://www.aplos.com/aws/give/MissionIgniter/Mellinger

Update #15: 17Sep 22:45

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 02:50:00 +0000

A better day in rehab today.

I didn’t expect that Jennifer’s comment about her situation being a “dystopian reality show” would result in a response which would transform her bleak room into a floral sanctuary. Thanks all.

Physical therapy worked a lot with her today on balance and movement. She’s moving better, but still needs a wheelchair or walker to go even short distances (e.g., the bathroom). The NeuroPsych doc spent over an hour with her giving both encouragement about the possibility of full recovery as well as speaking frankly about how it is impossible to predict what the timeline will look like. It’s looking like it’s possible that we might be able to transition out of the inpatient rehab in the middle of next week and move her home to our little farm house. Then we would begin outpatient rehab visits. It’s beginning to become clear how we are going to be moving continuously from one follow-up visit to another—PT, OT, TBI Clinic, Eye Clinic, PMR…

Meanwhile here at the Farm — or as the kids call it, “Bag End”, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo’s little corner of the Shire—we are preparing for her return. Setting up a bedroom on the first floor which requires bringing a bed downstairs—through the window because the stairs are so narrow. Julia and Caleb worked themselves to exhaustion today…cleaning, moving Jennifer’s clothing downstairs, baking cookies, sorting and trashing. And Jack and Luke (and Botu, their Golden Retriever) are doing a marathon 30-hour drive from Salt Lake City to Buckhannon. Oh my.

She’s a force of nature

Sun, 17 Oct 2021 10:25:00 +0000

Yes, of course, we all know that Jennifer is a force of nature, but today I speak of Julia Myhre.

Julia flew out from Salt Lake City where she is studying for an MBA at the University of Utah to spend her week-long October break with us. It’s the first time we have ever had the privilege of spending such an extended period with her alone. What a delight.

The Aylestock family treasures a long tradition of making apple butter in the fall—a sweet thickened sort of apple sauce cooked down from raw apples in a massive copper kettle over the course of an entire day. Having been grafted into this Aylestock tradition over 40 years ago (long before our marriage), my experience would say that this requires the labors of at least two or three whole families who contribute to the huge task of peeling, coring, slicing and dicing bushels (usually five bushels—like 150 pounds) of several varieties of apples to garner the final 20 gallons of apple butter which are jarred and divided up amongst the families.

Julia fears no task and gathered a group of friends to make apple butter last year. Undaunted by the prospect of her final result being compared to that of the memory of years gone by, she moved ahead strengthened by Voltaire’s maxim: Perfection is the enemy of good. Her 2020 batch was declared a success by the matriarch of the clan and has been enjoyed throughout 2021.

When Julia finally locked in on visiting this week, we began to strategize for making apple butter, but colliding calendars prohibited any possible collaboration of families. Again undaunted, Julia assured me that “Yes, we can!” She managed to persuade her former housemate from the Greensboro Fellows Program, Bethany, to join up for the project. And so she began to plan—a new apple peeler arrived in the mail. We downsized our project and bought two bushels (Golden Delicous and Winesap) from Crazy Harry in Elkins. Julia and Jennifer peeled and processed all the apples last Sunday. Monday became Apple Butter Day.

Roughly five hours were spent stirring the apples in the copper kettle over the crackling fire with the seven foot long wooden paddle. The final process of measuring the thick brown paste into boiled mason jars—Jennifer and I completely missed it because of a Neurosurgery follow-up appointment in Morgantown. That appointment was as close to perfunctory as we could have hoped. Jennifer did get to glimpse some images of her brain scans which she had not previously seen, but mostly the young neurosurgeon wanted to talk about her six week neurosurgical rotation at Mbarara University in Uganda. We left with lots of reassurance that Jennifer is on an excellent trajectory in recovery—but also a reminder that her recovery may take up to a year.

We returned to find 36 jars of apple butter (the final tally totaled 4.5 gallons). And Julia and Bethany added their own touch with a hints of ginger and nutmeg added to their batch—time will tell how the clan will judge that.

But beyond apple butter, every time I turned around Julia was baking sourdough, scones, or cookies. She washed, she cleaned, she scrubbed. She did a beautiful puzzle with Jennifer and Bethany (check out https://www.libertypuzzles.com/about —thanks to Bill & Sheila Marty!). And lots of walking and talking…

Jennifer continues to make progress. The walker has been relegated to the garage. She still holds on to a hand or arm of someone when outside walking but inside she moves around completely independently. She has grown more steady and more confident. She attends Physical Therapy twice a week in Bridgeport. Her therapists there are wonderful. They astutely observe her weaknesses and then hone in with lots of creative exercises to strengthen and stabilize her. They had her hopping over the rungs of a rope ladder laid on the ground this week. She pedaled a mile on the stationery bike in 8 minutes. She bends, balances, lifts, steps…

With regard to her eye, she is now spending a couple of hours twice a day unpatched. While before, she could hold her conjugate gaze for a few seconds, now it is for several minutes. So there are longer and longer periods for which she has “single vision.” She managed to read a few pages with binocular vision this week. That is major progress.

One final prayer request. Jennifer has had persistent diarrhea since her discharge from rehab. That’ s nearly three weeks. She’s had a complete battery of stool tests which have all been negative. It seems to be resolving — but very slowly. She still has loose stools at least once or twice a day (down from 5-6x). It’s draining. We are hoping that this completely resolves this week. The next step would be a gastroenterologist— which we’re hoping to avoid.

October Update

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 19:58:00 +0000

I can't believe it's been three months since I've written on our blog! But that is just a sign of how full life has been and I mean that in every beautiful way. In August we finally got to move into our home in South Carolina and two weeks later the three big boys started public school. It's quite a difference from what they're used to in Kenya but they've adjusted so well and we're really proud of how they've jumped all in - joining a soccer league, taking classes that aren't offered at Rift Valley Academy, attending youth group at our church, etc. They have grown a lot in these last few months - I think we all have.

We spent the month of September trying to develop some normalcy in our lives. The boys were in school, Eli continued with dissertation work, building projects at our home church here in Columbia, and touching base with his colleagues in Uganda who are keeping the ministry running.

Carson and I have been enjoying lots of play dates. I can't tell you how special it's been to reconnect with dear friends and for our kids to play together. It's been such a blessing. Carson is growing like a weed and constantly surprising us with how smart he is. He can remember Bible stories and re-tell them and his new favorite skill is riding a bicycle without training wheels!

We are still on target to head back to Uganda on Dec 31, just in time for the new year - 2022!

We have not been matched yet with another child so we're not sure if it's going to happen or not. We will wait for one more month to see what God has in store. We'd appreciate your prayers in our adoption journey because it's been a hard emotional road, especially for me. But we want God's best and are waiting to see what that is.

As always thank you for praying for our family and following us on our many adventures.

Flu jab

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:24:00 +0000

The letter came last week and told me to go and get myself vaccinated against the 'flu from 26th October.

I made a mental note. Yesterday evening I recalled my mental note and decided to call the pharmacy to arrange a vaccination. So this morning at about 9am I took action on my decision.

"Hallo. It's for the anti-'flu vaccinations. It starts next week. Do I need to make an appointment?"

"We've started today. They've brought the date forward and you can just come in with your letter."

So in went I went and in went the needle. No blood, so no sticking plaster.

Off I went again.

Words to Go Around Baby Pictures

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 18:02:00 +0000

When talking about today’s blog post, Trish told me I didn’t have to work too hard on the actual writing of the post because the post also contains a lot of baby pictures. Cool, huh? And these aren’t pictures of just any baby. These are pictures of Allen and Trish’s latest grandchild. The fifth one, to be precise!!

Rachel and Brandy’s much awaited second son arrived a bit early on 10/7, but not scary early. Michael Samuel made his appearance at 36 weeks and didn’t have to spend extra time in the hospital. Michael is pronounced in the English way and Samuel is pronounced “SamWELL” in the Spanish way. The tradition of giving one North American name and one Honduran name began with Michael’s big brother, Nathan Josue (Many Honduran kids have a Gringo name and a Honduran name, even if both parents are Honduran). Michael weighed in at a very respectable 6 lbs. As you can see from the photos, he has that full-term look about him even though the actual due date was November 1.

Rachel says Daddy is just a little smitten

With our Tia Paula!

As you likely recall, most of the Sowers family was in Seattle during the first week in September. A visibly pregnant Rachel made the 10-12 hour flight from Honduras and kept up with all of the family activities. The only thing she didn’t participate in was a mountain hike. The day she returned home, Rachel received a call from her landlord. Their house had been sold. Honduran law required the landlord to give them two months to find a new house. The clock was ticking. Since their ministry operates out of their home, they have some specific needs. They house college-age girls so it was important to find a house in a safe neighborhood that’s near the university. The house also needed to have a lot of room for their growing family, plus the ever-changing number of girls living with them.

Cue Rachel’s early contractions because this story needs more drama! Yes, Rachel began having significant contractions and was put on bedrest. This is probably a good place to discuss the Honduran healthcare system, which essentially consists of three levels. While Honduras technically has free healthcare for all, the hospitals and clinics tend to be poorly supplied and staffed. Depending on the area of the facility, it might also be less than clean. The next level consists of military hospitals. Since Brandy is in the military this is what Rachel used when Nathan was born. It was clean and the staff was well-trained, but it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. There were issues like nurses continuing to give Nathan bottles on a regular schedule even though Rachel was breastfeeding. The third level in the healthcare system is private-pay. Healthcare costs aren’t as exorbitant as they are in the U.S., so a procedure that might cost hundreds of thousands in the U.S. might cost $30,000 in Honduras. (Think back to Allen’s heart procedures.) Rachel decided to use private care this time.

When she began having contractions way too early, her private doctor suggested she go to a military hospital in case she was hospitalized for several weeks. Fortunately, she was only in the military hospital for one night and they were able to stop the contractions. They sent her home and ordered bed rest. When the contractions started again, she called her private doctor who again directed her to the military hospital to get checked out. At the hospital, she wasn’t taken seriously. They sent her home like she was someone who kept going in with false labor. When she made it to 36 weeks she was finally able to get up and ride around as Brandy drove her to look at some potential places to move. They found a home. The following day she went into the non-military hospital. Mother and baby were able to go home after one night!

Kirstin drove to Rachel’s home last Monday. She’s helping with the packing, keeping Nathan occupied, grabbing all of the baby time she can get, and just generally being a big help to Rachel. She’s like Mary Poppins except, instead of an umbrella and a carpet bag, she arrived with a pickup truck to help haul boxes.

We're not sure how we feel
about all this

Word is that big brother Nathan is mostly in love with the baby. Before he heads off to bed, he reminds Rachel and Brandy to take care of the baby at night. He is only a little disappointed that the baby cries and isn’t more fun at this stage.

Just to add to the drama, Rachel and Brandy just found out the house they were hoping to move to had some issues that would make it less adequate they originally thought, so they are now back to rental hunting. Rachel isn't (too) worried, however - she knows God's got this, same as everything else! Please pray with her and the fam, that something adequate will show up soon. In the meantime, they are packing up in preparation, and enjoying lots of baby snuggles.

- posted by Christi.

More From Liberia

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 11:52:00 +0000

I've really been enjoying being busy helping with the MAF flight operations in Liberia.

Shortly after I landed at a remote location one day, our other aircraft, piloted by Ulrich Müeller, also landed (below) at the same airstrip.

I was about to load up two medical patients into my aircraft. But since Uli had just arrived, he gratefully offered to help with the loading, so that I could take some photos. Don't worry... we had previously already acquired permissions from all involved to be photographed. Personally I do not like to 'stage' photos, and I don't like to ask people to slow down, or pose, or whatever. It just feels fake. So if I'm photographing, I like to do my best to blend into the background, or at least out of the way, and then just shoot whatever is truly happening, as it happens in real time.

Practically speaking, that means that it's often very difficult or impossible for me to get good photos of the activities around a plane, when I'm the only pilot--because my first priority is of course always the safety and security of the plane/flight. So it's a rare but great opportunity when I have the chance to photograph another one of our pilots in action. And again, just in case you might think it would be awkward for a patient, or medical personnel to be photographed, I'll put your mind at ease by saying that we always explain that MAF is a not-for-profit mission, and there are many people who pray and give to help make these flights possible. It is important that we can also share with those folks how the aircraft are being used to bless people in remote locations. And most people are very understanding of that, and very thankful for the help, and very happy to be in the photographs. Even-so, I always try to be respectful and discreet in the way I photograph or show people (especially patients) and of course, that we always do have their permission first. So don't worry. ;-)

There was an additional patient, already loaded, and seated in front of the stretcher patient. Here, Uli is carefully strapping in the 2nd patient for the 1.5 hour flight that I would make to take both patients and the medical personnel accompanying them, to the capital city for treatment.

Upon landing in Monrovia, I was met and assisted, as usual, by the very capable MAF team.

Most patients are very happy for us to pray with/for them, which we did both before and after this flight. Here, the serving MAF country director, Leon Prinsloo, prays with the two medical patients after they have been loaded into the ambulance, and before they go to the hospital. It's worth noting that I had previously asked some of the local people in the remote town where I had picked up these two patients, "how long would it take to drive from there to Monrovia?" They laughed at the question and told me that it is not even possible to do that--not at this time of year anyway--not during the rainy season. They said that sometimes it might be possible, but it would be many days of tough travel, but right now they said the jungle roads are totally impassible. And it's also worth noting that both of these patients were actually in quite serious condition. I was very glad that MAF was able to provide help to transport them!

Switching gears... here is a shot of downtown Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia.

And here's a shot from just nearby the above one, which shows markets along the roads where people are buying and selling stuff.

This is not at all an unusual scene on departure from our 'home' airport here. The rainy season offers some challenging flying!

But it has the potential to look like this!... although, in the past 5 weeks of flying here, I've only had about 2 days like this.

Here's a few more shots from the air showing the remote and rugged terrain over which we fly...

And I'll end with a nice sunset after the rains cleared out a few nights ago...

日本語のニュースレター「Dear Friends in Japan」vol.11

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 00:52:30 +0000

いつもありがとうございます。最新のニュースレターをこちらのリンク通してダウンロードができます：

https://drive.google.com/file/d/166R-5f5PypfMnpdopRa1tNF5THxkplEk/view?usp=sharing

お祈りをよろしくお願いします。

Upcoming

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 23:31:22 +0000

I haven’t stopped by for a while, and the common excuse is that things have been very busy. And it’s true! Part of the reason is that we’re preparing for some big events. One of them is the 5th Anniversary of the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas! Pretty exciting! Lord willing we’ll be […]

It's a man's life in France

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:57:00 +0000

At the pharmacy :

"Do you have anything for when your ear is blocked with cerumen, some drops, perhaps ?"

The assistant went to a small display of assorted drops for when your ear is blocked with cerumen, including cotton buds and alarming rubber spiral gizmos for drilling into your lughole.

I gulped.

"This is what you need. These drops. The instructions are on the box."

"And do I need any cotton wool* to block up my ear with the drops in?"

(I said ouâte de cellulose, I hope this is correct, I have a vague memory of this word and I can't be bothered to look it up having spent a week looking up words like Rückfahrkarte and Putenschnitzel - this latter is not rude.)

"You have to rinse it."

"Rinse it?"

"Yes, rinse it" showing me the box which said, "il faut le rincer" = you have to rinse it.

"With what shall I rinse it?" quoth I, "with tepid water?"

"Yes, with tepid water. Do you have one of these at home?"

I stared blankly at the rubber bulb designed for squirting water into your aural orifice.

"No, we don't have one of those at home."

"You suck up the tepid water and, hop, squirt it in your ear."

"Ah good ? In England they say you must never put anything in your ear except your elbow."

"Really?" I could see her thinking, "They're nuts these English".

So I left the pharmacy with a home ear-syringing kit.

Update #12: 14Sep 7:45pm EDT

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 23:40:00 +0000

Another day of watching and waiting.

We continue to wait to hear about a transfer to an inpatient rehab facility—and it all seems dependent on the insurance authorization.

And today…nothing. No word. And pretty much nothing happening for Jennifer in this hospital now. Only vital signs and continuing respiratory therapy.

She did have the 10 staples removed from the 3 inch laceration in the back of her head—which occurred UNDER her helmet. Difficult to understand how that happened. Seems like severe shearing forces as the helmet hit the pavement. So many things we probably won’t ever understand.

The morning started off pretty rough. Jennifer feeling despondent about life in general. Hearing details about what is going on in our teams in Africa—which were meant to encourage—just caused distress.

However, good FaceTime with our kids, Jennifer’s mom, and Ree’L & Jason buoyed her spirit.

And while no therapist came, Caleb took matters into his own hands. He got her behind the walker and they walked twice as far as the day before. She felt the paradox of liberation and general exhaustion. Then back to bed to recover and watch Ted Lasso while I ran some errands.

Please continue to pray we can get into the rehab facility tomorrow and get the next step going.

We’re Busy

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 02:09:38 +0000

Join Mel and Monica for an unedited phone conversation about everything from idols in our lives to senior graduation. It’s fun and thought provoking. Come chat with us!

I'm not alright

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:30:00 +0000

“We could have never written this song 10 years ago.” These words were spoken by Dustin Lolli, lead singer of Sanctus Real at the relaunch event of Ichthus here in Wilmore, KY. I was a volunteer at Ichthus at the prayer tent this year and only slightly listening to Sanctus Real when that sentence stopped me in my tracks. What was he talking about? The song in question (also the title of this post) is called “I’m not alright.” Dustin went on to explain how in many Christian circles, it has been taboo to admit struggles. Far too many of us can think of times when eyes widened, and mouths opened larger than normal when we dared to share a struggle. We can think of people who began avoiding us or whispered with another as we walked by after sharing openly. Thankfully, the tide is shifting.

Over the past decade or so I have gone through a personal struggle of battling depression and at the same time realizing a deep passion for discipleship. What do these two things have in common, you ask? Well, let’s start with the latter. What is discipleship? Well, a disciple is a follower. Discipleship then is the teaching a follower sits under. In their book Discovering Discipleship: Dynamics of Christian Education Dean G. Blevins and Mark A. Maddix say that “Didache, the Greek term for teaching, serves as a conceptual framework for discipleship…”[i] They go on to say that “Discipleship is the older concept of a particular way of living as learners and teachers in rhythm with the Holy Spirit.”[ii]Finally, while discussing that discipleship certainly can look a lot like our education processes today, Blevins and Maddix say, “It includes spiritual formation, catechetical guidance, pastoral leadership, compassionate service, and missional engagement.”[iii] Discipleship sounds a lot more robust to me than a Sunday school classroom or a small group meeting on Wednesday night. Those things are included, but there can and should be much more to it. My understanding of discipleship is learning to live a life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit that looks like that of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, when an opportunity arose for The Francis Asbury Society to partner with Ichthus by sponsoring the prayer tent, I viewed this as a perfect opportunity to engage in active discipleship. I wrote to our team of volunteers saying, “We have no idea what will come our way on Saturday. However, I do know that people will come with needs, and it is a pleasure to journey with them for even just a few minutes." And while the line was not a mile long waiting to pray with us at the tent, we did indeed have the opportunity to engage in discipleship with a few people. One girl timidly came with her friends a few paces behind and bravely stated, "I need to grow in my prayer life." A 30-year-old man came carrying a heavy burden which could be seen by the sadness in his eyes. “I need to surrender. I wanted to be married by now and I don’t know how it will ever happen. I am addicted to pornography. I have racist tendencies. I don’t want these things in my life anymore!” What an honor to sit with these two, and others, and to walk for just a few minutes with them and then cover them in prayer. The girl was handed off to her youth leaders to continue walking with her in deepening her prayer life. The 30-year-old man shared his phone number with one of our volunteers who offered to continue walking with him while he waits for God to send him someone closer to his home who could journey with him. If I were to go strictly by Blevins and Maddix, I would say that we participated in spiritual formation, catechetical guidance, pastoral leadership, compassionate service, and missional engagement in those few short moments on Saturday. And it was so good!

OK but what about that personal piece I mentioned? Don't worry, I'll tie it in. Again, for about a decade I have engaged in a battle with depression. I thank God that it is not a serious battle and thus far by His mercy, I have been able to combat it with counseling and staying active. But as I watched the young lady and the 30-year-old man come to the prayer tent on Saturday I saw something familiar in their eyes. Fear. They were afraid of what was going to happen if they opened up about their struggle. They were determined to do so because the Holy Spirit was prompting them. Praise God for His grace! And yet the fear of opening up was real. I remember sitting in a counselor’s office in 2016 and reaching my breaking point. “Something is wrong with me, and I don’t know what it is!” It seemed I could not find joy in anything. Not being a husband, a father, a missionary, or a friend. I just constantly felt like someone had placed a weight on my chest and refused to take it off. It took me so long to get to that breaking point because I was afraid to admit that I was not alright. Then as the dam broke and I reached out for help I realized something special; people were willing to walk with me. Brokenness and all. My wife didn't run away. The rest of my family didn't run away. And I began to realize that I had friends going through similar struggles and they counted it a joy to walk with me.

And so, what is discipleship? I think it's walking with another – brokenness and all. It's being willing to admit to someone, "I'm not alright" and letting them carry your burden. It's also being ready at any moment to receive the burden of another as they face their fear and admit to you, "I'm not alright." As we carry each other's burdens, we turn our face to the one who offers to carry them Himself. Peter tells us in I Peter 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (NIV)

I am so glad the tide is turning and it is OK to admit "I'm not alright." I believe this will open tremendous discipleship opportunities for those of us who call ourselves a disciple of Christ. Such joy can be found in journeying together to the feet of the one who cares so deeply for us.

Link to I'm Not Alright by Sanctus Real

[i]Blevins, Dean G. and Maddix, Mark A. Discovering Discipleship: Dynamics of Christian Education, (Kansas City, Beacon Hill Press, 2010), 17.

[ii]ibid

[iii]ibid

Throwback Thursday!

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 19:31:00 +0000

5 years is a big milestone. As a ministry, Manna 4 Lempira began six years ago in Mercedes, with the Tablon and Betania programs beginning 5 years ago, and the Quelacasque program opening 4 years ago. That means that our programs are an average of 5 years old, and we think that is something to celebrate!

5 years of ministry means:

5 years of knowing the children and building relationships.
5 years of growth, as the program serves 10 times the original number of children!
5 years of letters exchanged between children and sponsors.
5 years of getting to know wonderful sponsors around the world, who encourage us as a ministry team and make this great mission possible through their prayers and support.
5 years of celebrations—holidays, birthdays, anniversaries!
5 years of support in hard times, including the deaths of beneficiaries and their family members, illnesses, as well as the economic, emotional challenges produced by COVID.
5 years of backpacks and shoes, which equals 5 more years of education for each beneficiary.
5 years encouraged by God’s Word through the Sunday School programs.
5 years of training, encouragement, and support for pastors and teachers in our partner churches.
5 years blessed by the inspiring faith of the families and churches that we serve.

While we rejoice in these successes, we know that the work as far from finished. As we have reached the goal of seeing our programs firmly established and worked out many growing pains, we are in the process of setting new goals. Our time ministering in the churches and communities has given us insight into how we can better support the work of each partner in reaching children and families with the gospel of Christ.

So what might the next 5 years bring? Here are some of our future goals:

We hope to visit the homes of even more beneficiaries, especially those considered at risk or of children with special needs to evaluate how we can best serve these families.

Focus on growth in our youth programs is critical, as many of our beneficiaries are now adolescents.
Providing more training for teachers and pastors in how to use the tools we provide for ministry so we can wisely use resources.
Continually improving the ministry of letter writing between sponsors and children is a perpetual goal.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to serve children, families, churches, communities, and sponsors to the glory of God and His Kingdom!

This Sunday, the Tablon partner church has planned a party to celebrate the children. We hope you enjoy the “Glow-up” photos of the children we serve, showing their first program photo and the most recent program photo!

-posted by Kim

First follow-up appt

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 02:16:00 +0000

The days since discharge from the rehab center have fallen into a certain rhythm. Morning coffee with Luke, Abby and Jack. Some sort of outing, usually organized by Luke, which involves getting Jennifer into the (rental) Jeep and going somewhere for a short walk. Coming back for scrumptious food made by Abby—or sent by friends. A nap for Jennifer. Repeat.

Today, Luke flew back to Salt Lake City. And we headed back to the WVU Medical Campus for our first outpatient follow-up with the ophthamologist. Jennifer has a “third cranial nerve injury”—not sure exactly where the nerve is injured along its pathway from the midbrain to the eye, but it is a serious injury which has resulted in a droopy eyelid, a dilated pupil, and impaired ability to move the eye upwards, inwards, and downwards—which is causing double vision. They were able to document some improvement in the eye movements since she was in the ICU, but we heard for the first time today that the wide dilatation of the pupil is likely to be a permanent outcome (it seems that the pupillary function is controlled by sympathetic fibers running along the outside of CNIII which are more vulnerable to traumatic injury). That is disappointing on a number of levels. A permanently dilated pupil makes bright light uncomfortable. The accommodation reflex of the eye which causes the lens to thicken bringing near objects into focus—will not be possible now. And the asymmetric appearance of the eyes will be disconcerting to Jennifer.

We are still asking for prayer for the extraocular muscle function (governing eye movements) to fully return. That is our hope and prayer. We will be returning monthly to the WVU Eye Center to monitor the progress—and they expect that the improvement may continue over the next 6-9 months. There are surgical options we would rather avoid if recovery of function is inadequate.

This is hard news to hear. We continue to be thankful for the preservation of Jennifer’s life and look forward to “seeing” how this unfolds for the God’s purposes.

Update #14 - 16Sep 23:05

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 03:09:00 +0000

DAY 1 - Encompass Rehab

Long day for Jennifer. They woke her for her first shower in eight days. She described it as “life giving.” That said, the next comment was that “I feel like I’m in a movie set of a dystopian reality show.”

She participated in speech and cognitive evaluations, recumbent bicycling with the occupational therapist, as well as an evaluation from the rehab attending doctor.

To be honest, it’s been a pretty slow start, with today being primarily just an evaluation day. While we’ve heard good reports about this facility, we’re concerned that we are heading into a WVU Football weekend (VA Tech, a big rival)—which we experienced last weekend when the entire hospital basically shut down for the event. Jennifer is also not really being given the space and quietness to get the restful sleep she desperately needs. Lots of phones ringing and nurse call alarms are really disturbing her. It’s not what we had hoped for.

So we need wisdom and patience—pray for that. Julia gave us a comprehensive report on her 8-hour day with Jennifer. And then we (Julia, Abby, Caleb and I) strategized for the weekend travel logistics and our plan for advocacy for Jennifer at her facility.

Closing with another quote of the day-

Occupational Therapist: What was your occupation?

Jennifer: You mean What IS my occupation? I am a pediatrician.

Pray in November

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 03:06:07 +0000

PRAISE We have been really encouraged in locating a home church this month. Nothing but good news. PRAY Several weeks ago John got an invite to attend the Global Church Planting Network (GCPN) global facilitators gathering in London this month. John will be representing the East Asia region which includes Japan. This came as a short notice as travel is now starting to open up. This will mean more ministry opportunities. Our partner is South…

Last 90 Days Most Popular Posts (30 September 2021)

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 01:20:00 +0000

September 2021 is almost a memory. So here we are again – a look back at the most popular Finding direction posts from the past 90 days! As always, these are in chronological order, with the most popular post in bold. The Christian and the Government: Thoughts on Romans 13 (index) – Still in my […]

Faithfulness

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 19:02:04 +0000

Missions depends on faithfulness. All of God’s promises in Scripture are faithful and true. Then there is human faithfulness, something we must each address in our own lives.God’s mission is accomplished by those who are faithful to His call. Saying “yes” and going is only the beginning. Afterward, there is the faithfulness of staying. GodContinue reading

We’ve Arrived!

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 17:44:48 +0000

Since July of 2019, we have been looking forward to saying that phrase. Although we took on our role as Area Directors at that time, there was an anticipation of the day when our leadership would not be remote, when we would actually be living in the country of Mexico. That anticipation took us through our year of itineration until June of 2020 and sustained us during the pandemic that seemed to swallow up the months that followed. Finally, however, we can say, “We’ve arrived in Mexico City!”

Yes, on September 28th, at 6:00 AM, we were met by members of our small group from Central Assembly of God to help us check in our five action packers, our dog, and ourselves to American Airlines flight 3822. Then, after some tough good-byes to our kids, we were on our way by 8:22 AM and on the ground in Mexico City by 1:00 PM. A trip of 1,435 miles in half a day!

Early morning goodbyes in Springfield, MO and Parque Alameda del Sur, Fuente de los Coyotes, Coyoacán, Cuidad de México

Now, if you’ve followed our ministry for the past few years, you may have noticed a change of venue for us in Mexico. For 13 years, our base of operations was the city of Merida on the Yucatan peninsula. Now, however, because of our role as area directors, we’ve relocated to Mexico City, home to a population of 9.2 million in the city proper and 21.8 million in the greater metropolitan area. It’s also strategic for us as it is the location of the national offices of the Assemblies of God of Mexico, a direct flight to any of our missionaries throughout the country, and an international travel hub.

We’re living in Coyoacan (translated from the Nahuatl language as “place of the coyotes”), a neighborhood south of the city center that was the original capital of Hernan Cortez’s governorship of New Spain and the home of creatives such as Octavio Paz, the author of the Labyrinth of Solitude, and artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. From our location, we’re roughly a 4-mile walk from the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco to the east and a 10k away from the nation’s largest university, UNAM, where over 350,000 students attend classes.

We’re excited to be starting this new chapter of our lives and ministry, but our arrival is not without its share of challenges, like our adaptation to life in the big city now as empty nesters or our kids’ abrupt entrance into adulthood. Still, we know that with your prayers and continued support, we’ll not only survive but thrive in this new role and new setting.

The Field, Honor, CV, Vitoria, Madalena, Manuel…

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 10:23:25 +0000

With every death in our hospital, at least several weekly, I have the opportunity to reassess my attitude and effort on the behalf of those seeking my help and putting their trust in my care. There is a saying tossed around in sports that I think is applicable to life with Jesus. You will hear […]

3 Major Global & Asia Events

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 21:07:43 +0000

John has been involved in global and regional networks for church multiplication for several years. Now with his new role in the Asia Impact Team these connections become even more crucial as we seek to mobilize leaders to planting churches among Asia’s Unreached People Groups (UPG). October is a crucial month in seeing the big picture and properly aligning for the future. Global Alliance for Church Planting (GACX) Global Forum, September 28-30. The Global Forum…

What a day!

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:41:00 +0000

After I crawled into bed last night, the realization that I had missed my nap highlighted to me the busyness of my day.

On days when the schedule allows, I spend a bit of time after lunch to connect with the Lord and enjoy a short snooze to help reset my day, protect my margin, prevent my communication skills from deteriorating, and provide a bit of processing time.

We started the day with a bit of school and life skills.

Cory headed to a bulk food store for some shopping, and my Dad hung out with Fritzlin while I joined Mom for Bible study.

As soon as I completed the study time I needed to reconnect with Fritz, talk with Anna about some plans, and noticed a text from Cory letting me know that a TV reporter would be arriving in one hour to interview us!!

We had not contacted any reporters or pursued opportunities to speak on the current hostage situation in Haiti.

We realize with our long history in Haiti we can speak from an educated perspective and we wish to use God given occasions to testify to His power and love.

We intentionally remain careful about what we say and post as we want to share a truthful picture of our Haitian friends and the complicated situation in Haiti.

Lunch time became a busy time of preparing and finishing up the conversation with Anna, praying all the while that the Lord would protect us and that our words would glorify Him, speak the truth that would not get twisted in any way, and stir up people to pray.

I shot off a short Facebook post asking for folks to pray for us and Anna without many details.

I can't express enough how encouraging it is to see that 84 people took the time to tap an emote and even more the 60 friends who commented on that post letting us know that not only did they read it but that they were covering us in active prayer! WOW!

In this crazy, complicated, painful life it takes the family of God to lift each other up, and we can make a difference by reaching out to folks and letting them know we care.

THANK YOU!!!

After the interview we continued to pray for the editing process. I again connected with Fritz and Anna finishing up our school day.

I exercised and shortly afterwards enjoyed a bit of soup for supper, as well as cleaning up my email inbox.

Gathering my computer, notebook and pen, I joined a very informative lecture series about the treatment of trauma by the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine.

Cory and I learn a lot from these presentations and I take detailed notes, especially this week while Cory kept a watch on the news to see what the reporter actually presented from our time together.

At this point my brain protested the ups and downs of the day so I gave myself permission to play some computer games and watch some TV with Mom.

Thankful to have my feet on the Rock. To be able to lean into the Prince of Peace's promises that He is always present, all powerful, all knowing, and LOVE.

We join the Haitian church praying for all those held in bondage in Haiti, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.

Link to TV interview

Fall Update 2021

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 16:07:00 +0000

Fall Update 2021

-Finally reunited! We were so happy to have our whole family together again after such a long time.

-Our travel to the States looked so different this time. There was a lot of room on the plane going to LA though. Face shields and face masks the whole flight was very challenging.

-First stop is always a Tucson classic. Eegee's!

Short Trip Back

As you might recall, we traveled back to the States for 2 months last May. It was a whirlwind trip and we praise God we were able to do it.

Left just in time before Julie's visa expired.
Finally got to see Nhaya after WAY too long. (we missed so much- High School Graduation, her 18th Birthday, going to college for the first time)
Able to spend time with Julie's family in the States. We even got to attend a family reunion.
Visited many of our supporting churches and friends even with limited time.
Sent Caleb off to his first overseas short-term missions trip with Royal Servants.
Did medical check-ups and got vaccinated.

So much squeezed into a short time. It felt like we were making up for a whole year of being trapped at home in just 2 short months.

Good old Arizona does not disappoint. Boys were in heaven!

Family reunion in Colorado was a highlight!

That's a lot of cousins, and not even all of them!

Cowboys for a day!

Family bonding time. ;)

Gilmer had the privilege of speaking at our sending church, CCC.

Driving practice.

A little hiking time.

Feeling a bit buffetted

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 05:07:00 +0000

I think it's been nearly four months since I rode to the big park to the south of us. I made it there on Wednesday for a solo picnic. I’ve had a lot of Zoom time in the second half of this month. So when it dawned on me on Wednesday morning that I had a small window where I could escape from the house (and work), I seized it.

Even though we’ve had some hot days this week, the season is definitely early autumn. Nights have cooled down. In the park some of the leaves are starting to change. And though Wednesday was a warm day, it was a tad cool in the shade at times.

As I always do before going on a longer ride, I'd checked the weather and there was no forecast of rain. But as I got closer to the park, the sky got greyer and the wind stronger. Had the forecasters made a mistake? When I arrived, I pulled up my trusty weather app and looked at the radar. There was a small thunderstorm headed my way! So I parked myself at a table near a small non-ornate gazebo and ate lunch.

Thankfully it never did rain, though it looked like it could for quite some time. The sky eventually cleared to the white puffy clouds we’d started the day with.

If I'd hung around longer, I might have gotten
better captures of these two bugs who were
very intent on harvesting the remains of this
past-its-prime flower. I think they are Middle-east
flower scarabs.

After I ate I read for a while and then took some time searching for photos, having been inspired by a nature photography seminar I participated in the day before. The seminar encouraged us to take our time, to breathe, to be renewed as we looked for things to photograph. I have for some years now been on the lookout for things to capture, often small or unusual things or angles, but mostly opportunistic things. That is, as I’m out and about doing other things. It was good to take a few minutes to change focus a little bit, to feel like it’s more than okay to do that. In the midst of so many video calls and intense interaction, it was very good to be out in the fresh air, and away from buildings and people.

But this morning, as I sat in my relaxing chair in our lounge room, rotating between various activities: Scrabble, game on phone, Japanese vocab and kanji (character) review, I’ve been reflecting on the last couple of weeks and wondering why I’m feeling a bit buffetted. I think it’s not just the busyness of those days, but also the emotional highs and lows. And a list is good to help explain that, so in the last two weeks I’ve—

Light was difficult for capturing this ant,
but I tried.

Led nine hours of meetings with my magazine team over two days. This was an emotional high, but also a heavy responsibility that exhausts me.
Sat through two days of online field conference, during which we farewelled ten colleagues who are retiring in the coming year and brought tears.
Interacted in person, via text, and on video calls with a handful of friends and colleagues who wanted to know how I really was, and I got mixed responses. One of which really disappointed me and others that really lifted me up.
Had to share briefly in a small group of OMF colleagues about the challenges of the last 18 months. I know none of these people well, and wasn’t sure how much to share. It turns out my brief summary was enough to make them feel like they had nothing significant to share :-( So I felt that perhaps I did have reason to be feeling a bit overwhelmed and tired, if other people, who hadn't heard most of the details, are taken aback.
Made a small step forward in planning for the next few months for a member of our family. It was a small, but significant step that had me feeling elated.
Low-key celebrations of a birthday and our wedding anniversary.
Led a prayer meeting online for our mission. At night, which is a challenge for me.
Had an article published in the US that was quite personal (it’s here). It was great to have a writing opportunity, but also emotional to get my thoughts out there.

That’s probably enough! Yes, I think there are a few reasons there to feel like I’m a bit depleted. So in retrospect I see that the couple of hours I was able to spend in the park on Wednesday was a real gift from God. As is this quiet weekend. And no, I’m not going to be an overachiever today. I think sitting quietly is really okay, otherwise I’m probably going to end up saying someone to someone that I really will regret (a classic sign of exhaustion for me).

So, here are a few photos from my God-given time out.

Summer cypress

Balloon flower.

Not exactly where I sat to eat and read, but close by. You get the idea that this park has
some lovely tall trees, and more than a few.

A dahlia, I think, reaching for the sky.

Weddings

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:35:00 +0000

So tomorrow is the civil wedding of two of our church members. I am the groom's witness, so we'll scuttle off to the Charente, the neighbouring department to the north of us, about an hour's drive to the village of Messac, rendez-vous at the town hall at 4.

Next week is the wedding ceremony for Catrin, our daughter. It's going to be EXHAUSTING!

It starts with a "hendo" - in French "the burial of the life of the young girl". This means Catrin and her girlie friends rampaging around and having girly fun. All day.

Thursday is the barbers. I am relying on Clement to produce the best possible version of myself.

Friday is when my involvement starts. I have some folk to collect from the airport and then a team goes to decorate the room.

Saturday is THE BIG DAY. I have to walk about 10 yards while looking as elegant as I can without upstaging my daughter. My son-in-law, of course, is fair game.

Sunday is THE BIG SLEEP. Rory is preaching. Thanks, Rory!

Random September Moments 2021

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 14:58:00 +0000

We had a full schedule of speaking engagements during the month of September. We were in seven different churches sharing about our family, our work, and the IMB. We promoted the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and raised prayer support for Guatemala. We took a long road trip to Alto, GA, Newnan, GA, and Wetumpka,AL to visit ministry partners. We were also busy with homeschool. In addition to all of this, here are some miscellaneous photos of things we did this past month.

It is my favorite time of the year and also my favorite baking season. I made my first batch of chocolate chip pumpkin bread recently. It made my little crew very happy.

We have enjoyed our pet turtle, Luke, but decided to set him loose. We were a little sad but, at the same time, happy to return him to his natural environment.

the boys with their Mimi

They like visiting my brother's house and seeing all of his animals. The goats are their favorite.

Ben picking me a flower.

feeding the ducks at Lake Hazle

We made this fall cake for a recent family gathering.

It has not cooled off much but we have had a few cooler evenings. We built our first outdoor fire and roasted marshmallows. We enjoy sitting outside and watching the beautiful sunsets that we have been having.

enjoying the fire

We had Sunday lunch with David's sister and she took our picture on her porch. She always has the prettiest decorations out for the holidays.

Tennis is our current favorite activity. Many evenings after supper we drive over to the courts and spend at least an hour playing together. We are definitely amateurs but we sure have fun trying.

We met my dad for supper one evening at Dump's BBQ in Wesson. It was our first time to eat there and it was delicious. Afterwards, we walked over to the park and let the boys play while we visited.

On a recent shopping trip, I picked up this pack of paper plates. When I returned home I noticed the quantity was listed as 64 count. I thought that was the oddest number to package something. Anyone else think that is quirky?

One of the highlights of Ben's month is going to the dentist and picking out a new rubberband color. It brings him much joy. His teeth are moving nicely into place. He will have x-rays done at his next visit to see if his permanent teeth are coming in. This round of braces for him was short term and just to move his teeth to make room for his permanent teeth. He should have them off before we return to Guatemala.

Any other footfall fans reading? We love spending our Saturdays on the couch watching SEC games. I make a list of all the games, times, and channels, and we watch all day and night.

A former missionary friend was traveling recently and sent me this photo she took while in Texas. I showed it to Ben and it made him smile.

We ended the month speaking to the 1st- 6th graders at FBC Summit, MS.

Cruz did a wonderful job sharing about Guatemala and doing Q&A. He loves doing the presentation and we feel that it is much more impactful coming from him than us.

I had the joy of sharing with the 1st- 4th grade GA girls. I grew up going to GA on Wednesday nights so this type of sharing is extra special to me.

Our family with the Spanglers. Trey is the children's minister at FBC Summit. He was one of our former youth ministry students. It makes our hearts happy to see him serving the Lord in ministry. Every Stateside Assignment we have had he has invited us to speak wherever he was serving. We always look forward to time with his family.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with our family even while we are in the States. We are enjoying these days so much!! Our time here is passing quickly and it is starting to make my heart sad. I am going to miss all this fun when we return to the field.

Who needs a walker?

Sat, 23 Oct 2021 17:34:00 +0000

We continue to thank God for Jennifer's progress.

This week:

1. We moved back up to our bedroom upstairs. Jennifer is navigating the stairs confidently-but does hold on to the railing going each way.

2. We moved out the upright piano we inherited from Jennifer's mother (dozens of keys had stopped working) and brought in a digital piano (with weighted, hammer-style key feel). So, Jennifer is playing the piano again.

3. Her diarrhea is slowly improving. Not yet gone, but less than last week.

4. She is doing some reading without her eye patch. With a lot of effort, she can bring the double vision into single focus. She spends a few hours a day without the patch, trying to get more minutes of conjugate (non-double) vision. We head back to WVU Eye Center on Friday for her second (monthly) ophthalmology follow-up appointment. Don't expect much in terms of treatment, just getting some more data on her curve of recovery.

5. She's routinely walking a couple of miles a day, sometimes on the gravel road and sometimes up through our woods. Yesterday, I took all of the disability equipment (a wheelchair, a walker, and a tub bench) to GoodWill for donation --hopefully, someone else will find those things useful which we no longer need.

Just a shout out to the Africa Area Regional Supervisor and Team Leaders who have picked up every ball which we dropped in September. Life marches on without us and it's fantastic to see people step into the gap without needing to be asked. I am slowly beginning to reconnect with our Africa-based Serge leaders, but every conversation I have with them reveals what capable leaders we have.

A little good news.

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 02:18:00 +0000

Five more appointments since Monday. Mostly pretty good news.

Tuesday- Speech Therapy (which includes a neuro-psych/cognition component). The therapist repeated two mental status and cognitive tests in which Jennifer achieved perfect scores. They saw no reason for her to need to return to this clinic — so she was discharged with no need for further follow up. Yay.

Thursday- Turns out that no one noticed that Jennifer had an abnormal urine culture result from the rehab facility (sample sent because of the long period of the in dwelling urinary catheter in the ICU). We had to sort that out with a primary care provider this morning. They repeated the urinalysis which is still abnormal—and she is mildly symptomatic— so then there’s the trip to the pharmacy to pick up an antibiotic prescription.

Then to follow-up with the Trauma Surgery Team in Morgantown (90 mins north). A chest X-ray showed her pulmonary contusions and rib fractures are mostly healed — so she was released from any further follow-up here, too.

Then a quick drive 30mins south to Bridgeport to United Rehab for evaluations with Occupational Therapy (OT) and Physical Therapy (PT). In broad strokes, OT deals more with upper extremities issues and how they relate to issues of daily living (eating, dressing, bathing, etc) while PT deals more with lower extremities and ambulation. Today, Jennifer demonstrated excellent upper extremity strength and dexterity—and was released from any further follow up with OT. PT was a different story. Jennifer has quite a bit of weakness in her legs and core (abdomen/back) which are the result of both the brain injury and being immobile for 3 weeks. Additionally, balance is a real problem—a brain problem and also related to her right eye problem. She needs support to walk—an arm to lean on, a walker or something like a doorframe or railing to steady herself. We have twice weekly appointments —and lots of homework workout routines—for the coming month. Pray for progress with her strength, ability to walk independently, and safety (freedom from falls). Thanks.

Baptized in Jesus name!

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:52:42 +0000

What a privilege to baptize 2 sweet children in Jesus name yesterday! Keila and her brother, Israel, both received the Holy Ghost a few months ago, and yesterday went down in the water in Jesus name! It was so beautiful and I’m so proud of them!

I’m so thankful for all that the Lord has already done in their lives, and so anxious to see what they will become for Him! Lord, use them! Rejoice with me for all that God is doing in Ecuador!!

A long hike

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 02:17:00 +0000

Jennifer and I are listening to Kate Bowler read her newly released book (on Audible), No Cure for Being Human. It’s her story of being diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer (metastatic — spread to her liver, etc) at age 35. She’s a poetic, poignant writer — with a sense of humor (and we love her because she teaches in the Divinity School at Duke). We’re only 3 chapters in, but the pain of her diagnosis, the acute detail of the indignities, and the real and potential losses counted— all reverberate with familiarity around this little farmhouse in West Virginia.

In Chapter 3 she talks about her time with a psychologist…

he tells me that he learned a secret from hikers of the Appalachian Trail. People who dare to attempt the whole trail face down more than six months of lugging their belongings over more than two thousand miles of daunting terrain. Because eager beginners start their trek carrying heavy packs brimming with tarps and tents, cooking utensils and flasks and granola bars, that first stop on this long journey is the most important one. The hiker is already starting to flag, but they have only just begun. They have reached a moment of decision, the moment to ask, “What can I set down?” The extra cooking pot. The fleece hoodie. “This will be a hard journey,” he says. “Is there anything you can set down?”

This challenge whirls around us. What things do we need to set down? How long will this journey of healing take? Two thousand miles? It feels like that today. Jennifer and I had an animated discussion this evening (some fly on the wall might have called it an argument). What should we say to those who we supervise? Do we set out some hypothetical timeline, imperfect though it may be? Or do we just ask for grace, live one day at a time and admit that we have no idea? The fact of the matter is the human penchant for control leads us to self-deception. We don’t order our steps. But that realization may not come to light until our plans are turned upside down and emptied out on the pavement in tiny little pieces. So tempting to try to put those little pieces back together.

Kate Bowler again…

“It’s easy to imagine letting go when we forget that choices are luxuries, allowing us to maintain our illusion of control. But until those choices are plucked from our hands—someone dies, someone leaves, something breaks—we are only playing at surrender…

Ah, Surrender. Set it down. Still thinking—the pot or the hoodie…

Autumnal Updates (our latest newsletter)

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 11:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone,

Autumn is upon us! Guess that means it’s time for another quarterly newsletter. Please follow this link to view, download or print the PDF:

Autumnal Updates

Thank you!

HMA #16 – “The Trip”

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 16:44:25 +0000

One of our major decisions for this year’s home ministry assignment (HMA) has been whether or not we should make a trip out to the western half of the USA. We don’t have a lot of ministry partners out West, but we do have some, and we very rarely get to visit with them in person. In fact, we’ve only traveled out West on one occasion which was 11 years ago in 2010.

Given our current HMA is the first one in which we’ve committed to coming to the USA for an entire year and not just a couple of months as in all of our prior HMAs, and considering our age is creeping into the mid-50s, it seems that if we’re ever going to make this trip and those visits, there won’t be a better time or opportunity than this HMA. So, with some extra funds still available to us in our work account for some of our travel expenses, we decided to give it a go.

I will share some photos of the trip in one or more future posts, but I will start with this post giving a rundown of the circuitous route we have ended up taking. BTW, we’re still on the trip, but now that we’re in west Texas in El Paso, the big loop out West is completed and we’re in the “final stretch” as we head back east starting this coming Monday.

Here we go!

On July 30 we left Manton, MI and headed south to visit with friends/ministry partners (in Xenia, OH, Pickens, SC, Dayton, TN, and Chattanooga, TN), to take Dayton to an MK Transitions Retreat (helping MKs understand the American culture and way of life since they’ve missed many of even some of the most basic experiences of growing up and living in the USA), and subsequently taking him to Longview, TX to begin his education and experience at LeTourneau University beginning there as a sophomore with 39 online credit hours already applied to his Computer Science degree requirements.

One other important reason for taking this trip has been to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We didn’t really get to celebrate our 25th anniversary due to that being the year I suffered a near fatal heart attack and was still recovering throughout that summer. Come to think of it, over these 17 years of ministry in Mexico, we’ve never really been able to celebrate our anniversary because we were either involved with summer work teams, traveling on a summer home ministry assignment, always had the boys with us, and just didn’t have time for more than maybe a quick meal out somewhere. So, with this being our first major trip without our boys and with some extra time on our side, we decided to be sure to take some days here and there along the route to enjoy the scenery and call it a celebration! Others may take a cruise or trip to Disney or whatever floats their boat, but this seems to fit us even though we aren’t what anyone would call “outdoorsy.”

From the Dallas area we headed north and stayed a couple nights with ministry partners in Kansas City, MO and then headed north to Minnesota where we met up with Kristin and her son Justin who had only been in the USA for about two months after years of efforts to return to the USA from San Juan del Río. Her husband Jason hopes to be able to join them in the next couple of years pending the legal process to make that happen. It was great to see her again and to see Justin adapt to life in the USA as a quiet young teenager.

We made our way to Grand Rapids, MN way up north and enjoyed visiting with ministry partners there who we haven’t seen since our last visit there in 2009. We enjoyed a couple of days with their family on a relatively secluded lake at their rustic cabin. The scenery was beautiful and we appreciated the opportunity to rest, relax, and enjoy conversation and laughter together. We also shared a ministry update in Grace Chapel there which is officially a partnering church with us.

From northern MN we pushed off and headed west, west, west. We enjoyed lunch with ministry partners who have retired to Fargo, ND and then kept pushing westward. Along the route, we were able to take a couple hours off from the road grind and make a quick pass through Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This made first use of our America the Beautiful National Parks Pass that cost us $80 and allows us unlimited free entries into national parks across the USA. So, we recouped $25 and were hoping we’d eventually make the $80 investment pay off before the year is over!

After our 2nd day of driving to the west, we were in Livingston, MT and were ready to dive down into Yellowstone National Park ($35 more recouped from our pass!) for a reminiscent tour of our 2010 visit with the boys. We stayed two nights a couple hours away in a relatively inexpensive Airbnb (if you don’t know this, it’s very expensive to stay near Yellowstone, so we ended up in Victor, ID on the back side of the Grand Tetons). We drove up and back out of the park and from Livingston, we headed west once again stopping for a couple nights with MK friends who grew up in our mission and knows Beth’s family very well. In fact, the husband was in 9th grade when he joined his parents and older brother by playing an instrument in our wedding! He is now the music pastor of a Bible church in Spokane Valley, WA.

From this musical interlude, we continued on to Goldendale, WA where we spent a night with a ministry partner who is one of Beth’s aunt. Sadly, her husband (a brother of Beth’s dad) had recently passed away from Covid (the second of her dad’s brothers to pass from Covid in the past few months). We shared a ministry update with her and her two sons and daughter and their families.

After our brief time in Goldendale, we passed by Multnomah Falls and enjoyed a brief visit with one of our former PCS students who just graduated this past May and is now attending a Bible college in Portland. It was great to see him and leave him with a little pizza money as we said goodbye. We remember what it’s like to be a poor college student, so we’re sure that was an appreciated gift.

We took a slight detour from Portland and traveled up to historic and scenic Astoria for night overlooking the Columbia River before heading south down US 101 and taking in the Oregon coastline. We added a couple of nights to our anniversary celebration near Newport and enjoyed the ocean air and the lighthouse and tidal pools at what is now a national recreation area (instead of a state park; this saved us $7 more toward our America the Beautiful pass price…we’re up to $67 saved so far!).

From Newport, we headed south to visit with ministry partners and co-workers in central California. I had planned on just following the coastal highway so we could drive through the Redwoods and enjoy the beauty of the drive, so we ended up needing two days to make it to Lodi, Tracy, and Delhi, California where we met with them all. In Delhi, we were able to spend two nights and enjoy visiting with all four kids that we had worked with for years as homeschooling MKs in Querétaro. It was so good to see them all again. All adults and three of them now married. You know you’re getting old when your former students have kids who are students!

At that point, the trip was pretty at the midpoint and at the end of all but one of our West-based ministry partners. We drove south around the mountains and east across the desert and stopped in for one more day of anniversary celebration with a quick drive through along the southern rim of the Grand Canyon (another $35 saved…we’re now up to $102 worth of park fees saved…we’re making money now! haha). Driving south from there we passed through a couple of beautiful national forests and arrived at Tucson, AZ where we have a ministry partner we haven’t seen in 20 years! Unfortunately, we had trouble connecting with her and despite our hopes that she would be home, we came up empty on the attempt to stop by on the fly. She lives within a few minutes of Saguaro National Park (another $25 saved!), so we drove through the park and were no worse for the wear as we were heading on to El Paso from there anyway, and we had a “day to burn” before needing to be in El Paso.

That’s the “short version” of the long trip. At this point, since arriving from Mexico to the USA and purchasing a car here in El Paso, we’ve passed through 27 states and racked up 13,000 miles of driving. We’ve seen many of our ministry partners and most of them are ones we rarely get to see, so that has been especially gratifying. We’ve celebrated our 30th anniversary, visited a couple days with our son Cameron and have been able to see Dayton start his university and USA experiences.

From here, we’ll be heading to stop by LeTourneau and check in on Dayton and encourage him with some homecooked meals while staying in a special apartment for missionaries to visit with their students there. We’ll be heading back to Dayton, TN where our alma mater will be having homecoming during the first weekend of October. We missed our 25 year homecomings, but this year is Beth’s 30th which may be nice for catching up with old friends. We’ll be sharing a ministry update with a partnering church there, Westminster PCA. We’ve also been invited to participate in a special meeting with those in missions ministry with the purpose of developing ideas for involving Bryan College students with ministry overseas.

From Dayton, TN, we’ll head north with a couple of visits in Indiana and maybe a chance to see Cameron on a weekend and then finally arriving back to Manton, MI a full 77 days after departing from there. Isn’t it great that we have a full year to rest and relax up here in the USA?! Well, this is the life we signed up for, so we’re content with what it takes to follow Jesus wherever he leads. There is certainly joy in the journey, and we’re grateful we’ve been able to have a safe and enjoyable trip. May the Lord see us safely back to Michigan and eventually back to Puebla, Mexico next year. Until then, there are many miles to go before we sleep…many miles to go.

Pics to come later! (I need a break from the screen for now.)

We went, we saw, we considered

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 07:09:00 +0000

Well we went along to the office of the property developer that is building the new flats. Two charming women wrestled powerfully with technology before giving up on large-screen projection and augmented reality headsets and showing us the models of the flats on a laptop. It all sounded quite promising. They explained the eligibility criteria for the prix maitrisé - to have not been property owners within two years of the purchase, and to have an income below a certain threshold - we met the criteria. They explained the timetable for payment for the flats. (In France you pay in stages as the place is built. This can be crippling if you are repaying a growing loan as well as your rent, especially when construction is delayed.)

Then we came away and discussed it all in the tram, over lunch and while walking round the building site where the flats will be in a few short years' time. We came to the conclusion that this isn't the moment for us.

1) Our savings are in schemes that mature in 2026, just a little late for this project.

2) We would be committing ourselves once again to living in an apartment in the middle of a building site as the gardens are laid below and the adjoining roads and buildings are put in place.

3) We discussed, too, whether sinking everything into a flat is the right approach, or whether it is better to rent and to keep our flexibility. The big consideration is the prospect of passing on money to our kids, rather than blowing it all on our characteristic playboy lifestyle.

She's home (West Virginia home)...

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 18:34:00 +0000

We have been desperately scheming how to get Jennifer home from rehab.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, the WV Dept of Health has shut down visitation to chronic care facilities--definitely related to COVID spikes in the state.

So, the facility recognized that Jennifer was a candidate for early release--and let her go even earlier than we expected.

Sigh of relief...

Urgent Need

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:39:46 +0000

Last week while traveling home on the highway, Caleb had to brake quickly to avoid hitting a Kangaroo. Tamara and Jessica were also in the vehicle. Caleb did a fantastic job at stopping and managed to barely hit the kangaroo, which jumped up and hopped away. While still in the vehicle and at a complete stop, they were then hit from behind by a large 4×4 ute (‘pickup truck’ for North Americans), travelling at 90 km/h.

The ute hit with so much force that it crushed in the back of our car and propelled Tamara, Caleb, and Jessica about 75 metres down the road. The damage to our one and only car was significant, and it has been assessed as a write off. Tamara, Caleb, and Jessica were pretty banged up with all three having whiplash, and Tamara having significantly increased head and neck pain with some accompanying post-concussion symptoms. An impact at 90 km/h can cause a lot of injury, so although all three of them are needing follow up medical and physiotherapy appointments, we feel blessed that it wasn’t worse.

We have received a payout for our car, but now only have another week to find a replacement. Unfortunately, the payout for our car is less than half of what we need to replace it when looking for a car of comparable size and specs. Prices for used cars have gone up A LOT in the last few years with Covid and supply issues around the world. We are a one car family and need something that is reliable, large enough to fit all five of us in and is safe. Finding one is proving to be a challenge …

Everyone in Youth With A Mission, from the newest student to the International Founders, are all full-time volunteers and are responsible for raising their own support and finance to do the ministry that God has called them to. We are supported by churches, family, and friends like you who want to partner with us in this ministry. It has been a long time since we have made a major financial appeal, but the urgency of this need has prompted us to reach out and ask for your financial support.

With the payout for our old car along with some of our savings, we are needing to raise another $11,000 for a replacement car. This car would be about 4-years old, have under 100,000km, and be large enough to fit us all in the vehicle for short or medium length drives.

If you would like to donate towards our new vehicle please check out our donation page, or contact me to ask me any questions, and find out how you can help.

Thank you for your prayers and consideration.

The post Urgent Need first appeared on Bill Hutchison.

September 2021 Prayer Letter

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 18:33:35 +0000

As Daniel and I sat on the couch in Lidia’s house after a meal of homemade mac ‘n cheese, she told me that she has a gift for Jesus that she is working on. “It’s a song that I plan … Continue reading →

mid-week bonus

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 00:39:00 +0000

On 9/11, five days after Jennifer's accident, one of the former teachers of our kids in Bundibugyo (Michelle Lee) sent me a link to a song which she and her kids learned at a YoungLives camp last summer. I wept while listening to this song over and over and over...

Take a couple of minutes and listen to this beautiful song HERE...

Jennifer has been playing this on the piano this week --which is a spine-tingling experience.

Hope and Memory in Hidden Valleys

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 12:03:28 +0000

Dear friends,

Our latest print-friendly newsletter is linked below and will be appearing in mailboxes soon. (Click on the image to view it full-size in your browser.)

We also sent out an email with a few announcements and prayer requests that you won’t see posted publicly here or on our social media accounts. If you’d like to receive these email updates, please sign up here.

Thank you for your faithful partnership and for praying with us. It’s always great to hear from you, too, so please stay in touch!

With much love and appreciation,

Blair, Dina and Josiah

The post Hope and Memory in Hidden Valleys appeared first on Bonins in Belgium.

More progress

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 03:30:00 +0000

To my surprise, I see that it has been 5 days since I last posted any progress report. It’s hard because the day-to-day progress is so subtle. At the end of the day, I think to myself, “Nothing much to report today.” Just that same old rhythm of Jennifer doing her little self-guided physical therapy on the floor with her yoga mat and her iPhone with the little videos she’s been instructed to imitate. Not surprisingly, she’s super serious about it. Anything to get better. And while she’s never been a napped, now she regularly lays down in the mid-afternoon, partly because she’s exhausted by the slightest routine and partly because she has been convinced that it is part of the healing process.

So, it’s Saturday, and now it seems so normal that she moves freely without her walker. When we go out of the house for a walk in the woods or on the gravel road, I hold her hand, but the walker is feeling quite neglected.

The most exciting thing, however, is the incremental improvement in her right eye function. In the morning (when her body and brain is most rested), she can intensely concentrate and focus on a distant object and consciously bring the two images of her double vision together into one image. And as I watch her do this, her two eyes appear to be in normal conjugate gaze (aligned with one another). When she first realized she could consciously do this, she could only accomplish it for a couple of seconds. She would concentrate intensely (like Milly Bobby Brown does on Stranger Things when she wants to throw a car across the street) — and then almost collapse because of the effort. Now she can hold the images together for longer periods and is practicing doing this throughout the day. She must always return to the eye patch (her pirate look) because the double vision is otherwise constant. Her eyelid is less droopy and the pupil might be slightly less dilated than at the beginning—though this seems less dramatic to me.

The implications of this are HUGE! If she continues on this trajectory, she has a real hope of leaving the double vision behind and avoiding corrective eye surgery—both for aligning the eyes and propping up the lid. Here is a picture of her this morning (she is not going to be super happy about me posting this)—but it seems only fair to give this feedback to all of you who have prayed for her healing and will be so encouraged to see the evidence of it happening.

We continue to listen to Kate Bowler’s book No Cure for Being Human. In our chapter today, she struggles with the possibility that her cancer might be in remission as a result of the immunotherapy. But it is a strange place. She has been living in a fearful and hyper-vigilant state, wondering if she might die this year. It’s felt like that for us as well. In those early days, I wondered what would Jennifer be able to do in the coming months and years—walk, bathe, type, read, bike, swim? All things that we took for granted in our “before the accident” life. But now with these improvements, can we dare hope for a full recovery? For a normal life? Kate Bowler asks her psychotherapist, “Is there a reasonable time for me to stop being afraid?” I don’t think we are there yet.

Kate Bowler’s academic niche in the Duke Divinity School is the Prosperity Gospel. She doesn’t believe in it—she studies it. It’s primarily an American phenomenon and she comes at if from a Canadian perspective. Jennifer remarked today, that Bowler is a really a modern day Job. She got colon cancer at age 35 and like Job’s friends, many want to assign some explanation of why she got this cancer — and like the prosperity gospel enthusiasts—how she can be rid of it and make the best of it. At least she can go out ticking off a profligate Bucket List (of this she says… “The problem with aspirational lists, of course, is that they often skip the point entirely. Instead of helping us grapple with our finitude, they have approximated infinity”).

She struggles (and I think we all do) in light of the painful reality of not knowing the future and our outcome—and what that means for how we should then live? How do we live under the burden of not seeing our future? We wait. We walk. We pray.

Road Trip to Alabama and Georgia Post 1: Visiting Ms. Jane

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 01:39:00 +0000

We recently took a road trip to Alabama and Georgia to visit ministry friends and three churches. We left Mississippi on a Friday afternoon heading to Alto, GA.

We always like to stop at rest areas when traveling, especially this one in Alabama.

Here we are in the same spot back in 2013 and 2017 while traveling on Stateside Assignment.

We made our first visit to Buc-ee's. We stopped at the one in Leeds, AL.

We arrived at Ms. Jane's house on Saturday. She is a retired IMB missionary who helped mentor us during our first term on the field. We spent the weekend with her. It was a joy to sit and talk and catch up with her in person. She is a precious lady who is loved by many.

me and Ms. Jane

That evening we had supper at the Duckett's house. Mrs. Brenda cooked a delicious meal! We spent the evening visiting and enjoying their fellowship.

The boys spent a lot of time playing on Ms. Jane's piano over the weekend. This is a photo of them on Sunday morning before we left for church.

I love the photo of Mr. Wendall sitting above. We miss him!

We went to church on Sunday morning with Ms. Jane. She attends Harmony Baptist in Baldwin, GA. I shared in her Sunday School class and David preached during the morning service.

us with Ms. Jane after church

She cooked a delicious Sunday lunch for us, the Ducketts, and her pastor and his wife. We ate and talked around the table about a possible volunteer team coming down from their church in 2022.

playing cards on Monday before we left

We are very thankful to have had that visit with Ms. Jane. She is very dear to our hearts. I left feeling very loved and encouraged. Having her and Mr. Wendell's influence will always be a highlight of our missionary service.

Road Trip to Alabama and Georgia Post 2: Visiting the Pearsons

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:11:00 +0000

After a wonderful visit with Ms. Jane, we left Alto, GA headed to Newnan, GA to spend a few days with the Pearsons. We arrived mid-afternoon just in time for coffee. We spent some time catching up and getting settled in before heading out for supper at the Beasons.

When we arrived at the Beasons, we saw this on their sidewalk. Mr. John had made us a welcome sign. How sweet is that!!

While we visited, the boys enjoyed looking at Mr. John's tractor collection.

the boys with Mr. John

He soon took them outside to his shop to show them around. He had planned a wood class for them to make an ink pen. They were excited!

teaching them about his tools

Cruz with the pen he made.

Ben working with Mr. John

So fun!!

They also got to do a little fishing while there.

We enjoyed a delicious meal around the table. Mrs. Diana is a wonderful cook! We also spent some time reminiscing our times together in Guatemala. The Pearsons and Beasons were on our very first mission team that we hosted in Guatemala back in March of 2007. It was four couples from their church, Flat Creek Baptist in Fayetteville, GA. They have been our sweet friends and encouragers ever since. We have plans to host their church again in 2022. Yay!!

our family with the Beasons

On Tuesday morning I spoke to the WMU ladies at Flat Creek Baptist. Many of them have been on mission teams in Guatemala over the years.

me and Mrs. Joyce at the WMU meeting

Tonya is another person at Flat Creek that I love. She is the Pearson's daughter-in-law. She has served with us in Guatemala too. She has a huge heart for missions both in her local community and around the world.

One of the boys favorite things about staying with the Pearsons is their basement pool table. They passed a lot of time there during our visit. It was also a good incentive for them to get their school work done.

On Tuesday night we were gifted tickets to see the Atlanta Braves. It was the boy's first baseball game and they were excited.

Go Braves!

It was such a fun night!

The Pearson's son, Tabb, joined us at the game. We loved spending a little time with him.

On Wednesday night we were back at Flat Creek to share with the adults and kids. Cruz had initially planned to help me do a presentation to the elementary students but after we got everything set up and ready he decided he wanted to do it by himself. We did a quick practice run before supper.

For the Wednesday night meal at Flat Creek, the Hispanic ministry group cooked a taco supper. It was delicious. We enjoyed getting to talk with several of them before the service.

A Tribute to Marilyn Laszlo (copied with permission from a Facebook post)

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 15:57:05 +0000

“My Aunt Marilyn Laszlo passed away on Thursday, September 9, 2021. The work she accomplished in her life was amazing and she inspired so many people. I would encourage you to read her story.
Marilyn Joyce Laszlo went to be with her Lord and Savior on September 9, 2021. She was 88.

She was born on July 20, 1933, in Gary, Indiana. She was the daughter of Martin and Lois (Jewell) Laszlo, who preceded her in death.

Marilyn was raised on the Laszlo Family Farm in Liberty Township, and she loved helping her dad in the fields. In 1951, she graduated from Liberty Township High School. Starting in 1949, her sophomore year in high school, Marilyn began to play on the championship softball team of the Valparaiso Strongbow Queens and continued with the team through 1960. In 1959, she received her Bachelor’s Degree from Bryan College in History and her Master’s Degree in Education from Indiana University in 1961. In 1986, Marilyn was awarded the Alumni of the Year Award from Bryan College, and in 2003 Bryan College bestowed their honorary Doctorate of Letters upon her.

Marilyn started her professional career as a high school teacher in Michigan and Indiana. Soon after beginning her teaching career, she answered the call of God to become a missionary. In 1965, Marilyn joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and studied linguistics at the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. Wycliffe chose Marilyn to be a Bible Translator, and in 1968, Marilyn and her translation partner arrived in Hauna Village. Hauna is located deep in the jungles on the East Sepik River in Papua New Guinea.

Marilyn, along with her original translation partner, had to take the unwritten language of Hauna, which is the Sepik Iwam language, and create a written language. Developing the language entailed creating an alphabet while also learning how to speak the language. Unfortunately, Marilyn’s original translation partner left after five years for another assignment. Marilyn was then joined by her sister Shirley Killosky. As Marilyn translated the Bible, Shirley taught the people of Hauna to read and write their language. Together, Marilyn and Shirley also did medical work and trained the people of Hauna to operate a local school, store, medical clinic, and church.

Marilyn completed the Bible translation in 1990, and the Bible was dedicated in 1991. One of Marilyn’s most memorable moments during this time was bringing a team of six men from Hauna for a speaking tour throughout the United States. They even spoke at a Billy Graham Crusade.

Marilyn retired as a translator in 1991 and became a national speaker for Wycliffe through 2003. In 2003, Marilyn started Laszlo Mission League. She continued as a national speaker and raised money for special projects around the world and in Papua New Guinea. In 2012, Marilyn retired from speaking due to the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2013, Marilyn returned to Hauna to say her final goodbyes to the people of Hauna.
During her lifetime, Marilyn recorded four record albums, with her singing partner Beverly Entz, at Pinebrook Recording Studios (owned by Gaither Music Group and now called Gaither Studios) in Alexandria, Indiana. In addition, she had three books written about her work in Hauna: Miracle in Cannibal Country; Mission Possible; and A is for Airstrip. She also had three movies created about her work: Mountain of Light, Come By Here (Angel Award winner), and Return to Hauna (Angel Award winner).

Marilyn was passionate about: her work in Hauna, the importance of missionary work, helping young people discover their career path, her family, her Hungarian heritage, and her upbringing in Liberty Township. Today, there are thousands of missionaries on the mission field worldwide because of the impact of hearing Marilyn speak, reading her books, or watching her films. She was a true inspiration. Marilyn’s work is continuing in the Sepik River region through her organization Laszlo Mission League.

Marilyn is survived by her sisters Shirley Killosky of Garden City, ID and Fay (Lou) Popp of Chesterton and her nieces and nephews, James Killosky of Porter; Lisa (Jim) Holm of Boise, ID; Don Killosky of Garden City, ID; Lorelei Weimer of Chesterton; Robert (Carla) Laszlo of Issaquah, WA; Tracy Popp of Key West, FL.; Martin (Brandi) Miller of Murrells Inlet, SC; Carrie (Steve) Cieliesz of Valparaiso; Jody (Tom Barrineau) Miller of Murrells Inlet, SC; Suzanne (Michael) Olson of Knoxville, TN; and Leo (Natalie) Miller of Chesterton.
She was preceded in death by her parents, sister Carolyn Miller Prosser, and niece Michele Weimer Tribole.

The family wants to extend a special thank you to Glenna Amburgey, Karen Garza, and Audrey Swieczkowski for taking such wonderful, loving care of Marilyn during her final years.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on October 5, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. at Liberty Bible Church at 824 North Calumet, Chesterton, Indiana. Topher Philgreen will officiate. The service will also be livestreamed. Visit http://www.laszlomissionleague.com
for information on the livestream.

Donations in memory of Marilyn can be made to Laszlo Mission League for the Marilyn Laszlo Legacy Fund. This fund will endow a perpetual scholarship to women pursuing mission work or Bible translation. You can donate at http://www.laszlomissionleague.com.
Edmonds and Evans Funeral Home made arrangements.”

Equipping Equippers

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 03:17:00 +0000

*|MC:SUBJECT|*

No we did not relocate to Latin America!

However, in 2021, a missionary's impact is not limited by geography.

We have been involved in the Go To Nations' Equipping Department for almost the entirety of our missionary career. We have done this by directing the Timothy Internship Program here in Asia. We are also the International Directors for the internship programs in the GTN world. Go To Nations is currently conducting the first post pandemic internship in Honduras. While Asia maintains a level of travel lockdown, other parts of the world are opening up.

Pictured below are the new interns with Jenice Hardester and Yolanda Ortega. Jenice is the internship director in Honduras and Yolanda is the assistant director. These are two missionaries we trained and mentored for several years when they were part of the GTN Asia team. Yolanda was our internship assistant director in Thailand. We continue to equip and train Jenice and Yolanda with regular online meetings, offering counsel, advice, and knowledge from our experience as they direct this internship.

We will always be missionary equippers. We are blessed to now be raising up and equipping new equippers. The GTN Timothy Internship Program is a boot camp to train believers to become full time missionaries, we are a product of this internship. We know that these new interns will be changed, impacted and released to achieve their missionary destiny and calling.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go bear fruit, fruit that will last.
John 15:16

Been a couple of weeks already so my apologies to those who check regularly.

The first week since the last blog was more of the same.

We did visit the Allegan County Fair, sent out an update by email which if you did not receive but would like to read just let us know!

Since last Wednesday we spent many hours in the car.

Thursday morning we loaded the car in the garage due to the cold rain falling and headed north.

We were able to spend a few hours visiting with Fritz's first foster family who lived with him in Haiti for 2.5 years.

Then we continued north to visit Fort Michilimackinac.

On Friday Fritz crossed the Mackinaw Bridge before we ferried to Mackinaw Island for most of the day soaking up lots of beautiful views and trees along with more history at the fort.

Back in the car to Marquette where I showed them some significant locations from my medical school years, including the spot on the beach near the lighthouse I used to read Cory's letters.

Fritz took our picture.

Saturday we continued west to Minong. We enjoyed our stay at a lake side cottage.

We shared on Sunday morning at the River Church; close to 10 hours after lunch we returned to Michigan.

Monday Cory's folks brought him to the airport and by 5 p.m. on Tuesday he arrived home at Délice.

The house is OK other than the internet not working. A plastic bag around the receiver deteriorated letting water into the works. Cory doesn't know if it can be fixed-so a prayer request.

Thankfully he can use the internet during good weather by using the router like we did before.

He plans to work on preparing the second water retention pond as it only holds water 1/2 way up.

Cory also brought up all the fence and enough poles to hold the fence in place around the new land.

He will be visiting the school director and the Agape kids in the next couple of days.

Thank you for your interest and for those of you praying for your support.

So far Fritz and I have done well with school, appointments, and even a library visit this week.

Video: Important Drawbridge Update

Sat, 02 Oct 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Thank you for being a part of our ministry through your prayers and giving! Please take two minutes to watch this short video for an important update on Drawbridge Creations.

As we said in the video, we are hoping to raise the rest of our project fund before the end of this year. If we can get this fund fully raised, we’ll be able to keep producing and sharing new content at Waypoints.jp until at least the end of 2023. This chart shows where we’re at in our fundraising:

Here’s a basic breakdown of our budget:

$21,160 — Artists
$800 — Website hosting, etc
$5,440 — Promo, printing, shipping
$2,600 — Office equipment
$4,091 — Admin fees

The amount we pay artists depends on the length of the story they illustrate, but you could average it out to about $1200 per story, meaning if a person or church gives that much they are essentially helping us create one more Bible-based manga.

Please consider us in your church missions budget or personal end-of-year giving! And at the very least, please pray for us as we pursue this goal!

Giving method info is below. If you have any questions, please let us know! Thank you!

office@wesleyan.ca

To invest in Drawbridge Creations, please give as outlined below:

American supporters can give online HERE. // Or, make checks payable and mail to Global Partners, 13300 Olio Road Suite 400, Fishers, IN 46037. Note that it is for Fund # WM06-1575 (The GP Manga Project).

Canadian supporters can give online HERE. In the “To” section, choose “Drawbridge Creations – evangelism publications.” // Donations can also be made by e-transfer to office@wesleyan.ca. // Or, to give offline, make cheques payable and mail to The Wesleyan Church of Canada, PO Box 4458, Sussex, NB, E4E 5L6. Note that it is for Fund # GMF09 — WM06-1575 (Drawbridge Creations).

Thanks again, and God bless you!