Metropolitan Missionaries

Dear friends in the USA & Canada:

Furlough is a chance to come away from the field for a spell so as to reflect and pray and seek the Lord’s face.

Debbie and I just arrived to Texas to begin our furlough.  As we make our trek up to Canada and back, please remember us to the Lord:

·       For safe furlough travels.
·       For good connections  with family & friends & supporters.
·       For talk times with our mission board r/ on-going ministry in Honduras and elsewhere.
·       For lots of keen wisdom from above as we think about Patrick’s ongoing interest in Asia. (The Mission has given us the THUMBS UP for ongoing focused attention on ministry-related needs in India.)
·       For an end-of-the-furlough visit to INDIA for  DEBBIE  &  KATHRYN  with  PATRICK, so as to really look into ministry viability in INDIA.
·       For a good  &  positive & safe entry for SARAH as she starts with university (John Brown Univ in Arkansas) this month.
·       For Kathryn, as she continues to grow in the grace and knowledge of her Savior.

Patrick & Debbie O’Connor

Click the link below to read the Price Family Prayer Letter.

Price Family prayer letter for August/September 2008

Hi again Dear Friends,

We have just  finished our July SIMCO and we have much to thank the Lord for.

PRAISE for 2 teachers (summer off!) who came to help us, as well as an SIM couple who worked with our older kids and led them in daily Bible Studies. (Our last class of older kids said they would like to learn how to study the Bible on their own!)

PRAISE
-  That the kids spent time learning how to share their faith using the wordless book and  the Evangel
Cube.
-  They also made  DVDs about the countries they will be going to  (foods, transportation, housing…)
and  shared them with all the adults.
-  We also spent a day touring JAARS, and time at the Museum of York County. We also toured  SIM
International and spent time studying all the flags from the 50 countries SIM works in.
-  We were thankful for  the YMCA in Fort Mill.  They were very kind to us and let us bring the kids – often
25 of us –  2 to 3 times a week. The kids loved it – great slides etc!!

So our 3 weeks went by fairly quickly with no real problems and no one got sick!   PTL!
THANKS for praying.  God does hear and answer and He gave the needed love and strength! J

As I write this email I have 5 kids  playing Monopoly on the floor beside my desk!! They are from families coming home for “Home Assignment” (furlough). So the kids are over here in the SIMKIDS House while their parents are having their end of term debriefs, medicals and updates on support, health insurance etc!
It is rather loud in here…. J

Do PRAY for the 30 family units that just finished Candidate Orientation  and became SIM Appointees!
Now they begin “Resource Development  Ministries” (deputation) and the  task of raising support. They are looking forward to going to minister in the countries of Liberia, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Sudan, Niger, India, Ecuador, Peru, Nigeria, Peru, Zambia, Ethiopia, and a few couples  are still “open”!
It was wonderful and exciting, as well as such an encouragement, to hear how the Lord had lead them to serve with SIM.

PRAY  for the 23 high school graduates who will be starting college this fall. It is a time of transitions!  It means a loss of old friends, familiar surroundings and leaving family!
PRAY that the MKs will make good new friends,  find peace in the transitions.
PRAY they will seek the Lord’s wisdom to make wise choices.

Now for a personal PRAYER REQUEST.  I will be having a total knee replacement on August 21. I have put it off for as long as possible!!  I am not really looking forward to this but I have a great doctor and the good Lord!!  SO pray I will do all the exercises and bending I am supposed to do after surgery!!  J
I’ll be able to keep up with my SIM college kids at home  - they LOVE email!!

THANK YOU dear ones for standing with me.
How I thank the Lord for your faithfulness as team members.
Your love and support mean so much to me…

Serving Him with you,
Elizabeth Howard
SIM College MK Care Facilitator

Dear Praying Friends,

Even though I will be sending out a prayer letter tomorrow, there were a number of time-sensitive prayer requests and praises which I wanted to share with you.

*    PRAISE that we made it safely to Bosnia and that all of our luggage came through with nothing lost and no charges for customs.
*    PRAISE that we were able to get Daniel and Kirsten’s medical checkups done so that we can apply for their annual visas.   PRAY for Kirsten to get her annual visa and for the authorities to allow her to get a permanent visa next year.    PRAY for Daniel to be able to get his first annual visa.
*    PRAY for Timothy, Jonathan and Matthew to get the new visa stickers in their passports and that the authorities will still honor that as a permanent residence visa for the 3 boys, even though we were out of the country for some time.
*    PRAY that we will be able to find a van to purchase.  PRAY that it will be in good condition, have low mileage, and get good gas mileage.  PRAY for wisdom where to look as there are many different options.
*    PRAISE God for another family who is letting us use their van for this month while they are gone on furlough.
*    Although there were rumors that our landlord was going to sell the house, PRAISE GOD that he is not going to and that we have a signed contract for this house, from this August through July of next year.
*    PRAISE for a good recent meeting of the Bosnian Bible Society Board.   PRAY for wisdom as they choose which Christian books (biographies, sermons, Christian life books) to translate along with the Bible.
*    PRAY for speed and accuracy to get a lot of Bible Translation done and that one of the former team members will rejoin the team for translation.
*    PRAY for the spiritual health of the churches in Sarajevo.  We have heard discouraging news of small numbers such as 10-20 in attendance, and discouragement on the part of some of the Christian workers.
*    PRAY for us to find a church home to worship where we could be a blessing, and could also be fed as a family.
*    PRAY for a certain brother who used to be an elder in the church plant where we worked.  We’ve gotten word that he is struggling with alchoholism.  Neither he nor his wife have been to church for a few years, and are hurt from past church experiences.

I know that these are a lot of prayer requests and praises, but I really wanted to share them with you as I feel a great need for the body of Christ to join together in prayer for these needs.

Thank you so much to each of you who were such an encouragement to us while we were in the States for a year.  Thank you for your help in many ways as we packed up and returned to Bosnia.  We are grateful for you.

In Christ,

Todd

Our dear faithful Partners in Prayer,

Greetings, dear ones, from green, rainy Bangui.  Bangui is the capitol city of the Central African Republic (CAR).  As you know, we have visited Bangui twice a year over the last three years.  Now we are living here.  You may be asking, “How did that happen?  When we last heard from you, you were in Brazzaville getting ready to go to International Conference.”  We are deeply grateful for the way you follow where God sends us through your faithful prayers.

The end of April we went to Thailand for the International Conference of the Wycliffe Family of Organizations that we belong to.  Larry was a director delegate.  He also served as a small group facilitator. I was on the French simultaneous translation team.  The Lord gave us the mental strength we needed and the conference was an encouragement and blessing to us both.

After conference we continued on around the world to the U.S. to visit our families.  We started in Dallas.  As you can imagine, we arrived totally exhausted in every way.   It was sweetly refreshing to our spirits to love on our amazing grandson, Creed Elijah.   God gave us the delightful gift of seeing our grandson take his first steps J. During our time in the States we also visited my (Cami) family in Indiana.  We had the fun of helping out with VBS at our church there.  We visited some of our Central Africa Group members who were on home ministry in the States.  We also visited new members who haven’t left the States yet.  We praise God for the precious people He is sending to work with us in central Africa.

July 15 we left Dallas on the three day journey to Bangui.  We had an adventure in Paris because our visa for CAR had the wrong date on it so Air France would not issue us a boarding pass to get on the plane for Bangui!  Thankfully we were able to contact our colleagues in Bangui.  Things were already in motion to obtain a visa with the right date, scan it and send it by email to us.  At 4:00 in the afternoon Air France allowed us to access email on their computer and print out the visa.  Then they issued our boarding passes.   Whew!  We waited seven hours for the visa to come through and during that time we thanked God for you many times!  We knew that you were standing with us in prayer.

We arrived safely in Bangui on July 17, with all our luggage.  We have a very small group in Bangui who are here to serve the Central African Bible Translation and Literacy Organization (ACATBA).  We moved here in order to be a support and encouragement to this group and to the work they are doing and to strengthen our partnerships in this country.  We are at the bottom of the learning curve here.  Please pray for us as we get to know our way around here, get to know the precious Central Africans working here in Bible Translation, and see how we can best serve our colleagues.  Right now they are ministering to us and mentoring us!

ACATBA is fixing up a little house for us on the ACATBA Center.  Please pray that it would be ready soon for us to move into.  We are grateful to have a lovely place to stay in the meantime!

Did you know that my parents were missionaries in the Central African Republic?  I grew up here until I was 16 years old.  My older brother, Kim Cone, and his family are missionaries out in the western part of CAR close to the Cameroon border.  We hope to be able to visit them.

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers!  You are very dear to us!

Cami and Larry

Thank you for praying for us. We arrived yesterday in Sarajevo, and after a delay of several hours, all of our luggage reached us (23 checked bags). There were no customs charges and the luggage was delivered to our door. Kirsten (4) and Daniel (4 mos.) did well on the flights.  We were very tired when we arrived but have had a good night of sleep and are doing well and everyone is healthy.  Our teammate, Joy, has been such a great help in having everything ready for us, feeding us, and helping us by running errands.

Thank you for your prayer.

Todd for all of us

Hello from Tom and Lynn,

Greetings in the name of our great God and Savior Jesus.  As we abide in Him, we trust him to bear fruit in and through us.

It’s been a busy couple of months:

We were in Pennsylvania for meetings with the LifeQuality leadership team in May. Several things happened there that moved us away from that ministry. We are disappointed, but we trust that God will open another door for us.

We vacationed in Utah (Zion National Park), Arizona (north rim of the Grand Canyon), and Colorado (a cabin near Durango).  We both experienced renewal as we were active in God’s great creation.

We were discussion leaders for a 6 week marriage seminar at our church.  We are grateful for the relationship we have, and the opportunity to assist others in their relational issues.
Lynn continues her job- which really is a ministry- with children and teens on the psychiatric unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital.   She is also active with the “The Sibling Support Project”, a national effort dedicated to the life-long concerns of brothers and sisters of people who have special health, developmental, or mental health concerns.  You can see details about at- http://www.siblingsupport.org/

Tom is active in leader development efforts with Greater Europe Mission.  The latest Leader Coaching group has their final conference call next week, and another group is forming for the fall.

As we look to the weeks ahead, we ask you to pray for us in these areas:

Tom as he moves toward completing his PhD dissertation, doing research into the leader development process in the lives of emerging leaders in GEM who went through a 2-year leader development process that Tom helped facilitate.  He hopes to finish by the end of the year.

The two of us in our desire to be used in ministry together

Financial support.  This month, the ministry account went to the negative side. We trust that our Great Provider will supply the finances we need to continue.

In closing, I’m musing about leadership and poison ivy. What else am I going to do to keep my mind off the terrible itch? Leaders tend to have terrible itches, especially the ones who start movements. And just like the stuff I am fighting on one leg and both arms, not much is effective in soothing the discomfort. Certainly not the recommended oatmeal bath (is that with or without raisins?).

Rejoicing in God’s goodness,

Tom and Lynn

Dear Praying Friends, July 21, 2008

In 1978 Paula and I had a wonderful honeymoon in Shangri la…now 30 years later we
found ourselves celebrating our wedding anniversary in another paradise - Honolulu! (Did
I mention that Shangri la was a small resort near Afton, Oklahoma?) We spent one week in
the guest room of a retired minister’s wife on the north shore of Oauhu (Tim and Lydia
had honeymooned in the same guest room in August 2007…also the price was right –
only $95!).

When we arrived at the north shore we had some time to kill and decided to get a snack.
We stopped at a nondescript bakery and I went inside to order sandwiches. Meanwhile,
Paula went to find a table outside. As I emerged from the bakery I found Paula sitting with
four high school girls in bikinis…I thought “Oh boy, I get to sit with five hot babes.”
(notice I said five babes). What followed was a wonderful opportunity to share our
testimonies and gospel with these young ladies. As we talked, Paula asked about local
foods and added, “Our neighbor in Pasadena is from this area and told us to make sure
and eat at a “hole in the wall” restaurant called Ted’s which may not look like much, but is
a favorite with the natives and has great burgers. One of the girls interrupted, “Lady, that
is the place you are eating at RIGHT NOW.” Up to then I thought we were doing well
relating to the younger generation…from that point they must have wondered how these
geriatrics ever made it to the north shore.

As I climbed to the top of Diamond Head I overheard what I thought was a family
speaking Thai (turned out to be Lao). They turned out to be a older Lao grandpa and
grandma with their daughter and grandkids. They had left from Laos in 1979 and had
moved to Hawaii with their 7 kids. The grandpa said that it was the first time he had ever
climbed Diamond Head and that a few years ago he had moved to the mainland. “Where?”
I asked. He said, “Coweta, Oklahoma.” I was amazed that anyone would leave Oaohu for
Coweta. The other thing that amazed me was that he wasn’t Buddhist…he was Jehovah
Witness. It reminded me how important it is to reach newly arrived immigrants with the
gospel. If we don’t act quickly then the cults will snatch them up. Pray that Mr. En and his
family can hear the true gospel while there is still time.

Titus informed us that his eardrum (that was burst) is healing nicely. Amber is finishing
up her time working in Colorado and asks prayer as she begins to teach 3rd grade this fall.
Lydia has been diagnosed with mono and gallstones (may need an operation for the
stones). Since she is off work she has started a wonderful website…be sure to check it out
http://ladylydia.wordpress.com/ Tim and Lydia are busy with Jr. High ministry and leading
our home church. Andy is working 40 hour weeks and is trying to finish up the last
requirements for his masters.

Paula would appreciate prayer for her neuropathy in her feet. Both feet have been numb
for months but it seems to be getting worse. Also, all the travel has made her backache
much more acute. This has served as a prayer reminder for all of us.

I continue to prepare for two mission classes in the fall. The trip to Germany did not come
about as we first thought. However, I will be preaching and doing workshops throughout
August and have a very full fall schedule.

In Him,

Larry and Paula Dinkins

Click the link to read our July 2008 Update. Brewer Update July 2008

Dear Friends,

We want you to know that we pray for you.

Here is our new prayer letter for you. Perhaps you will find time to pray for us? Thank you!

Czeslaw and Helena Bassara

Proclaiming then Word!

Click the Link to Read our latest Prayer Letter. Proclaiming the Word July 2008