What it's all about

Saviour He can move the mountains

My God is mighty to save

He is mighty to save

Forever author of salvation

He rose and conquered the grave

Jesus conquered the grave…

("Mighty to Save", Mighty to Save, Hillsong)

Below is a letter from our coworkers in the Philippines. After years of time in the tribe, Ray and Chris have begun teaching the Word of God for the first time this month!

We wanted to share their story with you because this is what it is all about. The Word is going out to those who have never had the chance to hear! Thank you to all of you that pray for us and support us and know that you are part of the team taking the Gospel to dark places!

As we celebrated Easter, I couldn’t get out of my mind the faces in these pictures. I was so overwhelmed with the fact that I so easily take the sacrifice of the cross for granted and even I forget that there are thousands who have never even had the chance to hear about our amazing Savior.

Please continue to pray for Ray and Chris and their coworkers Danny and Philippa as they send forth the good news.

Hi to all our co-workers.

Firstly, we just want to say a big thanks for all your prayers for us over the last days. We have really sensed that there were many prayers being offered up for us. It was amazing to have such a peaceful day, even though it was pretty full on. The week before our teaching was a pretty difficult one, and at times was almost overwhelming. But as we moved into this last week, there was a real calm and peace. We know that there were many praying all over the world, so we are so thankful to God and give Him all the glory.

As many of you know, we are teaching three groups, each twice a week. We have bought a bunch of chairs, and are using three of the peoples houses in the area, that are a bit better and larger than most of the others. We had a good attendance yesterday with most coming that said they would. We taught in three different places and in all, we estimate just over 100 people came. It is a difficult time of the year as many are fishing all night for squid, and come back pretty tired. We are very excited to see how the Lord will work everything out, and trust Him to continue to bring the people back for the following lessons.

The first lesson was about who God is, his attributes and creation. The next couple of lessons will be about the fall of man, and the angels, and we will also deal with the spirit world e.g., where do the spirits come from?

We are really thrilled at the way it all went yesterday, so once again, thanks for the big part you all played in this in holding us up in prayer.

Things to pray for.

1/ That the people would keep coming, especially the men.

2/ That the people would have a clear understanding of the truth.

3/ We will be sending through some photos of some key people that we would ask you to pray for. These people hold more influence in the area than most, so we would ask you to pray that they would remain interested, and ultimately come to know Christ.

Let us all praise God for what He is doing.

Recently at church we have been going through a financial stewardship series. It has been such a challenging series for us as we’re transitioning into a stateside ministry which will be a big financial adjustment for our family. Every week there was something in the teaching that was a new challenge and conviction for me to TRUST in our mighty God! Throughout our journey, He has always been faithful to provide for our needs and we are so THANKFUL!

One of the most amazing things about being a missionary is watching God provide for our needs in amazing ways. In the last few weeks, we have been OVERWHELMED by the way the Lord uses His body to provide for our needs.

Two weeks ago we were given a car by a couple at our church whom we had never even met before. AMAZING! Yesterday we received a call from some friends to tell us that they had some brand new kitchen appliances that they were giving to us to take up to our new fixer upper house! AMAZING!

We are always overwhelmed by the goodness of God as He works through all of you! Whether a new car or an encouraging word we are so thankful your involvement in our lives.

Never Thought

I never thought I would be adding a picture of this to our blog. Our very own house!

In March we were given the go ahead by NTMA to move up to Spokane to serve as representatives at Moody Aviation. The next week we were able to fly up to Spokane to look for housing. We were hoping to buy a house so that we could avoid moving into an apartment short term until we could find a house. My new goal is no more living with boxes!!

After looking at what felt like a million houses, we finally put an offer in on a house. Unfortunately, our offer made the owners decide that they really didn't want to sell their house. After more house hunting, God led us to this house. It is a bit of a fixer upper, but it is in a great neighborhood and much less than the first house we were looking at. We are mostly glad that this means no more moving for a while. We are so excited!!

Dear Praying Friends,

It has been so long since we’ve written. So much has happened over the last few months since our return to the States in November. Writing out our lives in a letter often times just doesn’t seem adequate. We wish we could sit down over a cup of coffee and share the joy and the tears of the last few months with each of you. God has been so good to our family and has given us these months for an amazing time of healing, restoration and redirection.

Healing and Restoration
We were very blessed to be able to attend a one week intensive at a counseling practice here in Phoenix. They were able to break up our one week so that we did three days in January and then finished up our last 2 days in mid February. This really was an ‘intensive’ process as the days were between 8 and 13 hours long. Those days were exhausting but totally life changing.

We can’t say enough about all of the things that God taught us about ourselves, our marriage, our family, our ministry and most of all about Himself during those days. This is where the cup of coffee and the long visit would come in! There were so many incredible things we learned that we wish we could sit down and share face to face. Thank you to all of you who helped in proving for us financially, in prayer and even in baby sitting so that we could go through the sessions!! After feeling upside down for so long, I (Jen) feel like I’ve finally been turned right side up!

At every turn we are reminded in our lives and on our journey that we serve a beautiful, mysterious God. Mysterious being the key word! While sometimes we wish that we could understand the paths He takes us down and understand some of the whens and whys, we know and celebrate that He does all things well! While we will never understand all of the ups and downs that God placed along our way the last few years, we feel like this time of healing and restoration had brought us to a point where we can truly be thankful for the journey that He is taking us on.


Redirection
One of the verses that God laid on our hearts before we left the Philippines was Jeremiah 29:11.

“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Coming home was certainly a detour in our plans, but our detour home was just the beginning of what the Lord had in store for us. By coming home the Lord put us in a place not only where He could restore us, but also a place where he could redirect us.

One of the things we decided over the last few months was to pursue a ministry that would be a better fit for our family at this time in our lives. It has really been amazing to see how parts of a new plan have fallen together and how the Lord is confirming over and over again that this is the next step for us. While our hearts break to step out of our ministry in the Philippines, we feel like God has opened a new door for us. We truly feel like it is a plan that gives us a hope and a future!


The Ministry of Multiplication
We are excited to be stepping out in faith and heading up to Spokane, Washington as New Tribes Mission Aviation representatives to join with the staff of Moody Bible Aviation in training new missionary pilots. This ministry will allow Jason to use his skills as a flight instructor while we as a family will be able to share the vision of NTM with new pilots. We are excited about this change in directions and feel that it will be a great fit for our family!

We will be spending some time in McNeal, AZ with NTMA getting a “big picture” of the current needs and future direction of the organization. We will be moving at the end of April and Jason will start teaching this summer after some orientation with the Moody flight program.

Please be praying for:

Please be praying for our family as we are in a time of transition and packing over the next few weeks. Pray especially for our kids. We told Mirielle the other day that one day soon we were going to be moving into a new house and she looked at us very seriously and said, “But we already have a new house!”

Please be praying for our move to Spokane in April. We are in the process of packing up the things that we left here in the States and trying to track down some of our stuff that we gave away. We are grateful that for this move we are able to rent a U-Haul instead of dealing with a shipping container. This should be our last move for a long time!!!

Please pray that God would be preparing our hearts for our new ministry. We are excited to be working with Moody preparing students for ministry and having the opportunity to share the vision of New Tribes and the awesome privilege of getting the gospel to those who have never heard!

Thankfully this will be our last move in a long time! We are really looking forward to getting settled down after 5 years. Please pray as we adjust financially to living in the States and set up house for one last time. We are anticipating not being able to find a house for $250 a month like we did in the Philippines!  Please pray for wisdom as we look for a new house in Spokane, find reliable transportation, buy furniture, etc.

Most importantly, we want to thank all of you for teaming with us through all of the ups and downs of the last few years! It has been amazing for us to watch the Lord provide for our needs as he works through the hearts of those around us. Thank you for your faithfulness to our ministry and your vision as we work together to spread the gospel to those who have never heard.