Thank You So Much!

Today is Saturday, January 30th. We are currently about an hour away from our next stop in Kent, Ohio. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but through it all, we’ve seen God’s promises fulfilled and our prayers answered.

In our last update, I told you of our breakdown and the circumstances surrounding it. Many of you have contacted us, prayed for us, and sent money to help us financially. I can’t tell you what a blessing that is! Thank you so much for all you’ve done.

As it turned out, the main issue with the motorhome was the water pump. It was late Thursday night before this diagnosis was pronounced, and after several calls to surrounding businesses to find a new one, we soon discovered the closest one was two hours away in Salt Lake City. After a “goodish” night’s sleep in the repair shop, Jason and I awoke early Friday morning and drove out to Salt Lake City to pick up the new water pump while the repairmen got busy removing the old one. Four hours later, we arrived back with the new parts and lunch for ourselves and the men (which they greatly appreciated). Another four hours or so after that, everything was ready to go. After a quick test drive, we were relieved to discover that Libby (the motorhome) was running better than ever. What a relief!

We paid for the repairs (all $2,800 worth) and made our way to Las Vegas just as the last few people were leaving the church. We had missed the conference entirely, but we did have a brief opportunity to meet with the pastor who invited us to come back again if we were ever in the area. We spent the night in the church parking lot and started out Saturday morning for our next missions conference in Glendale, AZ.

We arrived in time to clean up and rest a few minutes before meeting some of the church members and another missionary for dinner. It was a pleasant time of fellowship, and we truly enjoyed our time together.

Sunday through Wednesday was a blur of activity. There were meetings, chapel services, lunches, dinners, and so much more. We were able to meet so many wonderful people throughout our time there and enjoy worshiping with those of like precious faith. We reunited with one missionary we’ve met before in several meetings and had the opportunity to meet a missionary who is helping to plant churches across America. Though the week was busy, it was refreshing. We are so thankful for the opportunity to share our burden for Wales and for Jason to preach the Word of God on two separate occasions. The church took such great care of us and provided for our every. need and then some. They also indicated they would like to take us on for support if their missions pledges will allow. This will be a huge blessing!

After the service Wednesday night, we left out and started making our way to Ohio. The trip would take nearly 30 hours. Who knew it was that far from Arizona to Ohio? We only made it about three hours Wednesday night before the fatigue of the past couple of weeks caught up with us. After a night’s rest at a rest area, we awoke Thursday morning and covered over 800 miles, then another 900 or more on Friday. Today, we only had about 4 hours to reach our destination, and as I mentioned at the beginning, we should be arriving soon.

We’re looking forward to the few meetings we have here in Ohio and the surrounding area. We hope and pray God will bless and that we will find more churches to partner with us. We had the opportunity to speak with the Downeys (the family we will be working with in Wales) this week, and while it was a pleasant conversation, it renewed an urgency within us to get to the field. Every time we talk with the Downeys or read about another closed church in Wales, our hearts yearn to be there. Just this morning, I was reading about churches in India and South Korea that were trying to send missionaries to Wales because they saw a great need. Please help us pray for more supporting churches so we can get to Wales by the end of the summer and also that God would send more laborers to Wales to be a great witness for Him.

So, that’s where we are for now. It’s been quite the rollercoaster lately, but as I said, God has been faithful. He met our financial needs by sending in monetary gifts and our biggest support check ever. He met our spiritual needs by giving us peace and remarkably good attitudes during our recent breakdown. He met our emotional needs by allowing us to be around sweet Christians who encouraged and uplifted us. And he even met our physical needs by giving us the strength to keep going in extremely stressful circumstances. Every day, I am amazed at just how good He is to us!

I am also in awe at your care for us. So many of you reached out to us in our time of need, and we can’t thank you enough. It was so comforting to read your notes of encouragement and to hear that you were praying for us. We are so humbled by your care and generosity. Thank you!

Please help us pray for the men at the repair shop. We had several days with them to plant the seeds of the gospel, and we also left them with some Bible tracts and a few copies of the Book of John. We pray the Lord will grow the seeds that were planted and draw these men to Him. After all, that’s what this is all about!