| Ministry News “Thank you, God, for allowing all of this to happen.” For me, that’s hard to say following the recent events in our lives. However, God’s plan is perfect, and he is in control. On Friday, August 19th, Susan gave me some very surprising news. You guessed it. She’s pregnant with #5! Gulp. This was a shock, and our stress level started to rise. Later that night, I got a phone call from Rick Hudson, V.P. at EBM. He told me about a rumor going around in the church we were going to be in Sunday that EBM is closing. He assured me that this was not an official decision, but was a possibility, and to direct any questions about EBM to the mission. He also informed me that Dr. Culver, president of EBM had been laid off. I saw the hand writing on the wall. The stress level went up a notch. On Tuesday, September 23rd, we found out that Susan was rejected for a credit card because her credit had been hurt by the EBT(our previous health insurance provider) fiasco. We have about $18,000 in medical bills that EBT still has not paid from 2009. The creditors are coming after us, and hurting our credit instead of going to EBT. Any time we would get a letter from a creditor, we would forward it to EBM, and they were handling it with their lawyer. However, it didn’t do much good. We also received a letter from another creditor saying that they were going to report us if the bill was not paid. The stress level goes up another notch. On Wednesday, we found out the official news that our family, EBM, was closing, we had to find another agency right away, we wouldn’t be receiving money from our expense report, which was quite a bit, we wouldn’t be paid in September, and we no longer have access to any of the funds we had at the mission. The stress level goes up another notch. The following morning, since we were in Indianapolis, we went over to EBM to talk with Rick Hudson, who was the head guy at EBM at the time. Rick didn’t give us comforting news and no silver lining. However, when we left, we had a peace about the whole situation. Many others are hurting in EBM as well. Most of the home office is without a job. Some short term missionaries had all of their support in the mission for the whole year, and have lost it all. Some may have to return to the U.S. from the field. We experienced a multitude of emotions from anger to sorrow throughout this whole situation. In Mexico, I do a lot of counseling. One of the things I teach is on how to handle problems from Philippians 4. I got to put it into practice more than I ever have before. Honestly, it was difficult to do at times. However, God is perfect, and he is teaching us. The biggest thing he is teaching me is total trust in Him, and not to rely on myself. We can already see God working through this. Before this ordeal, I was planning on finishing my master’s degree from Baptist Bible Seminary. However, with this situation, I put that on hold. Then, I got a call from our home church pastor saying that they are going to pay for my classes for this semester! This past week, I drove down to Allentown, PA to meet with Fellowship International Mission. FIM graciously agreed to accept all EBM missionaries immediately without going through all of the process a normal candidate would have to go through before joining. Our meeting went well. They are a smaller mission organization with 118 missionaries(that’s total, not units), but they seem to be going in the right direction. They helped me get set up, so they can take donations immediately, and we’ll be able to receive a paycheck in October. This is a temporary relationship that could turn into a permanent one. I’ve also started to contact other mission agencies. I am planning on driving down to Harrisburg later this month to meet with ABWE. I’ve sent emails to other organizations and talked by phone with others. Our plans as far as our ministry in Mexico is concerned have stayed the same. The only thing that should change through this process is the name of our mission agency. Yesterday, I went to the Wyoming County Fair, where I spent the afternoon/evening helping the Fellowship of Christian Farmers by sharing the gospel through the wordless book. I was there mostly to interact with the Spanish speakers, although there were very few that I came in contact with(One family from Mexico and another from Ecuador). I did have the opportunity to share the gospel several times, and one lady accepted Christ as her Savior. I hope that she will accept the invitation to attend church on Sunday. Others also accepted Christ with other people. Family News Josh and Caleb have started school, and they love it! It’s the first time that they have been to a school. Also, our neighbors are missionaries from Mexico! They have two kids Josh and Caleb’s age, so they spend a lot of time playing together. Abby started kindergarten with Susan. Aaron is growing up so fast. It’s fun to watch him grow and learn new things. |
A printable version can be downloaded here. Praises
Prayer Requests
Thank you so much for your prayers and support of the ministry in Mexico, especially during this time! You are an important part of our team! If you have ANY questions, please feel free to call or send an email! For donations to our ministry, they can be sent to: |
Several missionaries we support and others we have met use Central Missionary Clearinghouse in Houston, TX. The primary reason they do is that the mission agency has low overhead; thus the missionaries can get on the field so much quicker because they are not having to raise as much support.
One of the families we support was just here last week. They work in Baja California Sur. (They have 12 children.) Another is a couple we support work in the Juarez area.
I think that a family just here that we don’t at the present time also uses the same agency. Their field is South Africa. Another family (have been at our church) also using CMC is working in Campeche, Mexico.
I don’t know if you have settled yet on an agency permanently, but maybe you will add this one to your list.
http://cmc.missions.net/