Candidate Conference Week

Our candidate conference was an amazing week as IMB helped us to explore all of the issues, to count the cost, and to embrace our call with confidence. We met some truly incredible families and individuals who are also pursuing God's call to people groups around the globe. As God continues to call out missionaries to be used by Him in carrying the gospel to all peoples, pray that all believers will be sensitive to hear His voice and be found willing to pray, to give and to go. Our generation has a greater opportunity than any previous time to impact the nations, but will we be found faithful?
As Jenny and I listened to the wisdom gained from literally generations of sending out missionaries and as we benefited from the resources provided through faithful giving in the past, we also watched as some incredible young men and women who came to conference hoping to serve as Journeyman were sent home deflated because of the limited number of jobs available due to the current economic challenges. As our churches begin prayerfully considering their goals for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, may we be reminded of her simple wisdom:
"Is not the festive season when families and friends exchange gifts in memory of The Gift laid on the altar of the world for the redemption of the human race, the most appropriate time to consecrate a portion from abounding riches and scant poverty to send forth the good tidings of great joy into all the earth?"
(Lottie Moon * Tungchow, ChinaSept. 15, 1887)

Growing Prayer Base

God is building an amazing ministry of prayer for Santarém WAVE! We already have more than fifty individuals who have committed to become prayer partners, and even more exciting is the fact that a dozen churches are currently considering becoming PRAYERplus Partners with one of our six targeted communities: Alenquer, Curuá, Óbidos, Oriximiná, Monte Alegre, and Prainha. This means that we could potentially have at least two churches partnering in prayer for each community. Praise the Lord!
If you would like to download a template for a Prayer Bookmark, click here. By next week, we will also upload specific PRAYERplus guides for each community. We also still have open spots for our vision trip to the Amazon Basin in late February 2010. Click here for more information.

First Strategic Prayer Partner

We had a great experience last week preaching in revival at New Friendship Baptist Church in Auburn, KY. New Friendship has expressed a willingness to become our first strategic prayer partner church. They will select one of our six targeted communities and become our partners in praying that God will open a door for new church starts and that God will raise up Brazilian believers to reach that community for Christ. We also had more than 30 people join our prayer team for Santarem. New Friendship has also agreed to consider raising their contributions to the Cooperative Program in their new budget year.

Answered Prayers

"Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear" Isaiah 65:24

We have today received our invitation to attend the October 19th candidate conference with IMB in Richmond, VA. God answered prayer in His remarkable way. A "glitch" arose with the school our daughters would attend during our time of language study in Brazil. The glitch was serious enough that it required an entirely different scenario being arranged for our family to complete language study. While we were immediately confident that those working on our family's behalf would achieve a solution, there was of course a faith building "wrinkle."

The deadline to receive an invitation to the October conference was 9/4. The "glitch" popped on the screen just a week before the deadline. As all of us have experienced, decisions demand time to run through all the channels...especially in large organizations. Our solution was not achieved by the deadline, but our candidate consultant indicated that if a decision could be communicated from Brazil by Monday, they would work to get us on the list.

We immediately engaged the Prayer Partners ministry of our church to begin praying that something could be achieved over Labor Day Weekend. In God's sovereignty, guess what was happening even as I emailed the request for prayer! All of the leaders for the new Americas Affinity Group were traveling to Peru. As our future supervisor received my email request, the directors of language school and missionary children's education were in the same room! The seeming impossible became possible.

Vision Trips

The dates for our 2010 Vision Trips have tentatively been scheduled. We're just awaiting final air schedule confirmations. Eastwood Baptist will be sending a team January 29 - February 5, 2010. The group will experience the work in Monte Alegre and Prainha.

A second Vision Trip will take place February 22 - March 2. This trip is designed for leaders prayerfully seeking to establish a new mission partnership to experience the work taking place in Santarém and other river communities. For more information, click here.

Waiting on the Lord

Thank you to those of you who have been praying for our family as we seek to fulfill God's call to serve as IMB missionaries in the Amazon Basin-specifically in joining the work in Santarém.

Due the shortfall in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and lagging Cooperative Program giving, our family is one of many that have been delayed. For more information.

We sold our home in July before we were informed about the delay, but God provided us a place to live through the generosity of a sister church: Forest Park Baptist Church. They are allowing us to live in their stateside missionary residence, which is very nice. They have been awesome!

We do not know when we will be able to move forward in the process, but we are finding God perfectly faithful to us in the wait. Currently, we are striving to be faithful in our service at Eastwood Baptist Church. We are also working to establish prayer partnerships with the villages of Alenquer, Curuá, Monte Alegre, Óbidos, Oriximiná, and Prainha. We will soon be able to share about Vision Trips to Santarém and these communities that will be taking place in February 2010.