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Apr 21, 2005
March-April 2005 Update
FURLOUGH
-
“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while…” - Mark 6:31
We
have been in Paraguay for 6 years now without a furlough. Most missionaries
return to their home country every 4 years for a time of rest and reporting to
their supporters.
We have prayed much about this and the Lord has provided the money for us to go to the States. We have our tickets in hand and will fly out of Paraguay on May 26th.
It is with mixed emotions that we are leaving. We look forward to seeing friends and family again. But, we are going to miss the new believers we have been working with to plant a local church in our neighborhood.
However, there is another assembly of believers in a nearby neighborhood that we fellowshipped with before we started meeting in our home. In our absence, the believers from our neighborhood will be able to attend meetings there. We have also discussed the possibility of one of the men from that group meeting with our people in one of their homes in our neighborhood in order to continue teaching and grounding them in the Word.
In addition to making arrangements for the ongoing care of the believers in our neighborhood, we have been working to get our personal family details all in order.
The main item has been getting our permanent residency renewed before we leave. This has meant getting documents from the neighborhood police station & their central identification bureau, and visiting the Immigration office downtown.
We have been working on renewing our residency for months now. It is just that many things, especial official paperwork, move so SLOWLY here in Paraguay. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we finish wrapping up things here.
In addition, pray for us once we reach the States on May 27th. There are many details that still need to be worked out, such as a place to live, transportation and a job.
Why a job? Quite simply, it will be difficult to live in the States on our current level of financial support; the cost of living is just too high. It has been a blessing to live in Asunción as it has one of the lowest costs of living of any capital city in the world.
FELLOWSHIP –
When we first arrive in the States we will spend time visiting family and friends, as well as, reporting to our supporting churches. Then, after getting Autumn settled in at New Tribes Bible Institute in August, we will be looking to the Lord for direction concerning where He wants us to live and work during the rest of our time in the States.
One of the main reasons for our decision to go ahead and return to the States at this time is our need to find a new church home. As many of you know, our original home/sending church, Midland Baptist Temple, stopped supporting their missionaries due to a lack of finances quite some time ago.
Since then, we have been in contact with a number of people concerning a place to fellowship. As a result, we have several local assemblies of believers with which we want to visit.
Pray with us that we will clearly discern God’s will in this very important area of a church home.
FRUIT -
Remember Nicasia? She was the first lady to accept Christ through our Home Bible studies. In our last newsletter, we reported how she had visited her family in the northern part of Paraguay in January. While there, she won her father and sister to the Lord.
Well, last month Nicasia went to visit her family again. We were somewhat surprised since she had just visited them and it is expensive (in her economic condition) to do so.
Never the less, it was worth the expense. Nicasia tried to witness to an uncle who has lost his mind apparently due to witchcraft. Sadly, he can no longer understand anything he is told. But, there were other family members listening. In fact, three of them, two ladies and a man, accepted Christ through Nicasia’s witnessing!
Remember Andrea? She is the believer in our group whose husband is Lazaro, the atheist Cuban. Andrea’s mother-in-law from Cuba is here for an extended visit in order to see her new granddaughter. Unlike her atheist son, this lady was a devout Catholic.
I say WAS a devout Catholic because she
accepted Christ through Sherri & Andrea’s witnessing! In fact, she was so
convinced of her need to trust solely in Jesus instead of the Catholic Church,
that she said she is going to throw away all her Catholic idols as soon as she
gets back to Cuba!
PRAYER REQUESTS
Furlough - Grace in finishing our preparations to leave. Discernment of God’s will concerning where to live, work, and which local assembly of believers we should fellowship with.
Cameron - Endurance, safety, grace and wisdom as he works and continues his flight training.
Autumn - Grace as she begins her studies at New Tribes Bible Institute in August.
As
always, thank you so much for your faithfulness in praying for us. We truly
depend on it. May our Lord richly bless you in return for your faithfulness in
praying for our family.
Yours in Christ,
Posted by David Pryor in Prayer & Praise | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apr 05, 2005
How Shall They Hear?
As you slow to a stop inches
behind the car in front of you, you squint your eyes and peer through your
car’s windshield. You strain to catch a glimpse of the cause for the backed up
traffic ahead. But there are just too many cars on the freeway to see the
reason for the delay.
“Fine time for a traffic jam.
Now I’m really going to be late!” You mutter out loud to yourself.
As you move forward a few
feet, stop, move forward a few feet more and stop again, you try to control
your frustration.
Your thoughts run back over
the last few hours. The reports you had to finish at the office caused you to
leave later than you intended. Why did your department head decide he wanted
them today? It was already going to be a close call getting to your daughter’s
piano recital on time. Now with this delay you are going to be late for sure.
“Come on, come on!” you
mumble through clenched teeth as you hit your palm against the steering wheel.
You begin trying to think of
an alternative route you might take if you can just make it to the next exit.
But there is no better way to go.
You let out a long sigh and
remember as a Christian you should not get so uptight at unavoidable problems.
You pause and pray silently asking for the Lord’s help in getting to the piano
recital.
With that done, you try to
think about something else. A thought in the back of you mind leaps forward. It
is a memory of the missionary that spoke at your church last month. He only had
fifteen minutes in the Sunday morning service, but he shared about his work
with unreached tribal people in Papua New Guinea with an urgent fervor.
There was something in the
verses that missionary shared about going into ALL the world that touched your
heart like never before. Could it be that the Lord was calling you to be a
missionary in a foreign land? No, that could not be! Could it?
The blaring of car horns
snapped you back into reality. You blinked a few times and realized that the
cars ahead of you were moving. The drivers behind you were rather upset that
you were still just inching along. So you stomped the gas pedal and got going.
As you accelerate and match
the pace of the cars ahead, you think to yourself, “I am so busy here with work
& the School Board. What I do is so important and needed. How could I give
up our house and my career and go to some backward country? Surely somebody
else is in a better position to go!”
Quickly your mind returns to
the cares of the moment and how you might still get to your daughter’s recital
on time.
You put any thoughts about
being called as a missionary out of your mind…even further out than before.
Thousands of miles away, the
missionary that you recalled is arriving back in Papua New Guinea. As he and
his family wait in line to clear Immigration, he reflects back on their just
completed furlough.
He thinks about how he poured
out his heart concerning the need for more people to be willing to carry the
Gospel to those places in the world where the Truth still has not been heard.
Most people were cordial; some even showed concern about their personal
responsibility to obey the Great Commission.
But overall, it seemed that
the busyness of their lives and the cares of this world had changed the
Christians in his homeland. Most were not willing to give up what they had in
order to go and serve their Lord in His harvest fields, wherever that might be.
Suddenly the missionary’s
vision blurred. Tears welled up in his eyes and tears began rolling down his
checks. His wife noticed and knowingly put her arm on his trying to comfort
him. He bowed his head and prayed, once again, that the Lord of the Harvest
would send laborers into the fields.
“How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things!” – Romans
10:14-15
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