March 2020 Volume 5 Issue 2
Dear Pastor and praying friends:
As I write this, it will most likely be our final Prayer Letter of Deputation. Lord willing, we will finish our last meeting the end of this month, and then prepare to leave for Language School.
We are starting the process of getting the visas and all the paperwork that is required to go.
Amidst all the joy and excitement of coming to an end of Deputation, I can truly say that we are fighting to get there. In January we were getting ready to go to a meeting, our travel trailer was towed and impounded 20 mins before we arrived where it was parked to hook it up for travel. It required us travelling (200 miles one direction) to a meeting, then returning to our home church, getting the trailer out of impound, and then back to the meeting. We left from that meeting to fly to the Northwest for some more meetings, only to have one of the meetings cancelled due to weather. After returning to my parents’ home, we were able to go through much of our belongings and prepare to get things ready to leave the states. Needless to say, the fight was not over, we left on the 6th of February to travel east for our final 2 months of meetings. Three hours into the trip, our truck broke down. We got it into a shop, but it has been in the shop for 3 weeks now and we have had to cancel two meetings, fly to be in 2 days of a Missions Conference and move another meeting by a few days. I pray that by the time you get this letter we will have our truck and be back on the road.
Even though all of these set back could get us down, I praise the Lord for his provision and grace. We broke down 15 miles from a supporting church that has allowed us to stay in their parking lot in our trailer, instead of in the middle of nowhere. We were able to still participate in one of the missed meetings through a video presentation, another of the churches flew me to the meeting, and one of the churches took up a love offering to help with the expense of our truck repairs.
We had a splendid time in the 9 churches we visited January through February. We made new friends and prayer partners, enjoyed their generosity, hospitality, support, and friendship. Each church greatly blessed us. Grace Baptist Church (Surrey, BC), First Baptist Church (Geneseo, IL), Berean Baptist Church (Rockford, IL), Montecito Baptist Church (Ontario, CA) and Fellowship Baptist Church (Selmer, TN) voted to partner with us in reaching Mozambique. We also had a family commit to support us, and a church that already supports us increased their monthly support. We are currently at 97% committed support and praying that God will raise our support to 100% quickly. I praise God for the safety He has provided as we have traveled over 9,000 miles since our last prayer letter.
Please Pray for God to provide for the truck repairs as we are not capable of covering the cost of them by ourselves. Pray that God will quickly allow everything to fall into place that is needed for us to leave for language school.
Family Updates by Lorin
Deacon (5) He is fearless and has a newfound love of jumping off swinging swings, ziplining, and jumping off of beds and couches. We are blessed with outdoor parks that allow him to run all that energy off. He loves his little brother and loves to pick him up, throw him (on the bed), and tackle him. (Pray for safety for little Enoch.) Life is never dull with this guy around. He has a new chore chart to help with around the trailer. He has been enjoying it so far, he’s learning to sweep, take out trash and so on.
Eden (3) is her girlie self. These past 2 months have been crazy for her. She ended up with a bad case of head lice, and had to have her head shaved, there is a first time for everything. (the lice are gone now PTL) we got her some pretty little hats and headbands. She likes it because she doesn’t have to get her hair brushed or styled. Her hair is growing back slowly, and we have been taking weekly pictures to see how long her hair gets and how fast. She is still her sweet self.
Enoch (13m) He is BUSY!! climbing on things, and has a love for food, blocks, and toy balls. He loves to chase them around. He also loves to mess up what his siblings are building, a toy castle or house, no matter, he is over in a flash tearing it to pieces. He is developing his personality and he is a character. He loves to be funny and make us laugh. He is also very curious and likes to see what people are doing and how to do it. He definitely keeps us on our toes.
I Thessalonians 5:25 “Brethren, pray for us.”
Prayer Requests:
- We need one of these, either 2 churches to take us on for $100, 4 churches at $50, or 1 church at $100 + 2 churches at $50 or some combination that will get us to 100%
- Safety as we continue traveling
- For the many Churches that have said they would like to take us on for support, pray God would enable them to have the finances to support us.
- For our current supporting churches as some are having financial struggles.
- We will raise the support needed to go to the field, and that we can be done with deputation quickly.
- For the People of Mozambique that God would work even now in the hearts and lives of the people to prepare them for the Gospel.
- For our ability to learn quickly as we begin to study Portuguese and as we continue a course in Biblical Studies to complete our required classes.
- For our continued good health, so that there will be no setbacks on the Deputation Trail.
- That our Spiritual lives will remain close to God, for us to grow each day closer to him, and not stray from His will or be caught up in the snares of the Devil.
- For our Truck that God would continue to allow it to run and get us from meeting to meeting safely.
