All our adventures as missionaries, past and present.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-25-2006

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Greetings! We had a weekend off due to a rescheduling (a good reschedule – it got us into a missions conference in the same church in Februrary). Our meeting in South Campbell Ave. Baptist Church went well. Turns out their Pastor, Joe Decker, has heard of BBTI (Baptist Bible Translators International), the school we'll be attending in Fall of 2007. He would like to attend also, but his duties as Pastor preclude this. However, his heart is in bringing accurate Bible translations to groups who lack them, as are our hearts. We are of one heart on this matter.

We'll be heading to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lebanon, MO with Pastor Don Ball on Saturday afternoon for their missions conference. Pray for the conference that God will be involved, and we'll be used of Him to be a blessing, and an encouragement to the church, particularly as it pertains to His children answering the call to preach or to missions. Pray for our travelling. The weather has been unseasonably warm so far (good thing), but we do have a trip up to Sioux City, IA in February to make, so pray for our safety in travelling. We have a pretty full schedule ahead of us (also a good thing), but I still need to schedule some more meetings in July and August, so pray I'll be able to line those out, meaning, God lines them out.

Pray for my friend, Kyle Guimon. He and his wife, Debbie, are the two-term missionaries in Uganda we'll be working with. The Guimons are home in America to get some badly needed rest, and, as it turns out, one of the reasons he's been so exhausted is that he has some serious blockages in his heart. A routine checkup revealed significant blockage in three major arteries, and a mitral valve prolapse. He will be in surgery in Jonesboro, AR on Monday to remove the blockages, as well as to replace the malfunctioning valve. It's open heart surgery, so be in prayer for him and his family during the surgery, and the fairly lengthy recovery time in which he'll be involved. He is still planning on being in some conferences with us in March, so apparently if he takes it easy, the risk must not be great enough to forbid travel. Pray for him and his health. He wasn't planning on being here for the long-term, but evidently, God had other plans. We love Kyle and Debbie, and we'd like his health to do well.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-05-2006

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Greetings, once again! I hope everyone had a pleasant Christmas, and, the beginning, I trust, of a very happy New Year. We had a good break, got some good rest, and spent some time with family and with our home church. Now we’re forging ahead into 2006. Our first meeting will be this Sunday at Temple Baptist Church, in Marshfield, MO with Pastor Tim Auten. Pray that it will go well, and that God will bless. Lots of missionaries, including us, will be on the road in the next few months, so pray for our safety as we have to get out and drive in the snow and ice those months usually bring. I’m working on getting our itinerary up on the website, so check back periodically so you can be praying as we travel.

I have some great news. God moved someone to send us enough money to buy a laptop computer. We’ve been needing one for awhile, and now we get to start the year with one! Thanks for praying about this. If you were still wanting to help with our computer needs, we still need to replace Anna’s six year old Macintosh, which is what we use for all our page layout and design. A newish IMac G5 usually runs about $1500, and the software we would need for desktop publishing would be about $350.

We’re looking forward to what God will do this year. Please pray that our support will increase dramatically in the next few months, and that the churches we will be with this year will be able to support us.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 12-08-2005

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Greetings! We had a great meeting in Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, KS with Pastor Scott Hanks. They put us up in this great prophet's apartment, so we got good rest, and were able to get to church in the morning in seconds. Sunday school went well. I taught the Teen Boys (9th – 12th grade), from Acts 17 and Paul on Mars Hill, and we talked about strategies for reaching the unchurched in an increasingly pagan culture. The services went well, and our presentation was well received. Pray for Heritage Baptist Church. They're trying to expand their main building, but some obstinate (translation: crooked) county inspectors are making them engage in all manner of bureaucratic gymnastics, and, every time they think they've achieved compliance, they move the finish line. So, be in prayer that God will move the heart of the king to stop this foolishness and let them build. They also have a growing printing ministry, and a bunch of books printed that need to be sold, so pray that those will sell.

Our Christmas break has begun, so no more meetings 'til 2006. Good thing, too, because a big snowstorm moved in on our heels in Topeka, KS, and has made its way to St. Louis today, so the snow is falling here and the kids are loving it. We've decorated for Christmas and are busy enjoying the holidays. The kids are learning their Christmas parts for Sunday and our church's Christmas program. We've started some of our Christmas shopping, and have already lined out the presents we'll be giving the kids. Everything is going great. Pray for next year that the schedule will fill, that Pastors will be willing to have us in for meetings, and that I'll be able to get in touch with them (not their answering machines – a useless device, since no one responds to its messages, and not their secretaries) in a relatively timely manner. Pray that our support will come up in the new year. It's trending that way at the moment, but pray that the trend will continue and we'll have the support we need to, you know, live and all. Pray that I'll be able to get a laptop soon, and that the money will be there to start buying the language tutorials I need to be prepared for when we get to the field. I need to get some Sign Language materials from Silent Word ministries, a French language tutorial from Rosetta Stone, and a host of Hebrew and Greek tools and books to help me polish my skill with those languages to prepare for language training at BBTI in Fall, 2007. The laptop is for running these, and so I can work on them on the road. Thanks for all your prayers!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-28-2005

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Our LORD's day went great yesterday. We were in Faith Baptist Church in Bridgeton, MO (Pastor Dan Gonnerman). The Adult Sunday School and morning service went very well. I enjoy teaching and preaching, and it's always a privilege to get to do it. We're winding down for 2005. Next week, we'll be in Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, KS (Pastor Scott Hanks). Then, it's time for Christmas break. I'll still be making phone calls and what not, but we'll be home, and attending our home church for the month of December. Our kids will get to be in the Christmas program, and we'll be home to visit with family around the holidays. Continue to pray for me as I schedule meetings, that I'll be able to get in touch with the Pastors I'm trying to reach, and that they'll schedule us, and that their churches will eventually support us. Pray that the churches where we've been will also be able to eventually support us, and that God will prosper them to that end. Pray that our support will come up dramatically in the next fewmonths, and that the money will be there for Christmas. Thanks for all your prayers, and for your kind concern.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-21-2005

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Howdy! Our LORD's Day went well yesterday. Our meeting in Winfield, MO was in the evening, so we got to be in our home church. Yesterday was Heritage Sunday, where folks can wear old-fashioned clothes if they like (or jeans, if they like 😉 ). Afterwards, we had a pre-Thanksgiving meal, which was excellent as always. We sat and socialized with an Englishman who's been coming to our church for a bit, and it dawned on me as I asked about English holidays how unique America is in this respect: we celebrate everything! England has bank holidays, and Christmas and Easter, but with the exception of Remembrance Day (their version of Veteran's Day), they have no nationalistic holidays. We have multiple holidays that commemorate different aspects of being American. Thanksgiving reminds us of our ancestors and how they almost didn't make it through the first winter, but how, with some assistance from the Indians, and God's providence, they lived to have the first Thanksgiving, where they took the time to give thanks to God for His provision and care. We do likewise today, and have since Lincoln formally inaugurated the holiday back in 1863. We have the Fourth of July, where we put up patriotic decorations, have parades, barbecues (wouldn't be a holiday without food, right?), set off fireworks, and just generally glory in being an American. We have Veteran's Day to honor our soldiers. We have Father's and Mother's Day to honor our parents. We have President's Day, to honor our founding fathers. We have all these traditional, and uniquely American days of celebration, where we simply take pleasure in this great country in which God blessed us to let us be born, or become citizens. It really struck home to me how great we have it here, and how very thankful to God I am to be a citizen of the United States of America.

We drove about 45 minutes away to Winfield, MO to Mid-America Baptist Church with Pastor Rick Koonce. It's a young, but growing church, about 14 miles from Troy. It's always a blessing to have meetings in these young, church plants, and an encouragement to know that there are still Baptist churches being planted around America. If there's one thing America needs these days, it's New Testament churches where sound doctrine is preached. We had some more food after church (yeehaw), and got to spend some time with the folks at church. Great day, indeed.