Month: November 2019

Last week started off extremely well as we heard back from a church in New Jersey that voted to begin partnering with us in the ministry! I was so excited to receive that text from the pastor, knowing our reaching Chile with the gospel just got that much closer. We’re still praying God will provide the rest of our funds within the next year, and we believe He will do so.

As I read that text, I was sitting in our Toyota Highlander in Florida (It was parked, in case you’re wondering). Little did I know that this vehicle was about to breathe her last the very next day as we drove to Pensacola. Having just crossed the Escambia Bay moments before, she summoned all her strength to pass one more truck before blowing her engine. We had her transported to the shop, and a few days later, we received news that she was too far gone to salvage.

It was a sad day as we went to clean her out. Dolly (This was the name Leslie had given her before we got married) took us as far north as Maine and as far west as Texas in her brief year on deputation. We packed her up so many times we had it down to a science. She did a great job for us in the time we had her.

Since we’re approaching Thanksgiving and it is a time to be thankful, I will say how good God was in allowing us to break down just two miles from where we were supposed to be staying, so we weren’t stranded out in the middle of nowhere between meetings. I’m also thankful that He’s been providing so that we were able to put back money month by month in the event that this happened, so it didn’t take us completely by surprise. He is truly so good to us.

As to an update about our deputation travels, we were in Florida this past week or so getting to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ who are doing a great job serving Him. We’ll be more local over Christmastime, staying mainly in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia. We’re excited to be able to spend Thanksgiving with Leslie’s family in a few days.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We pray you all have a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to your December. It’s hard to believe we only have one month left in 2019!

Until next time.

*Written on November 14, 2019*

Many new happenings are taking place as we approach Thanksgiving!

First things first. As you may have read a couple of weeks ago, we found out that Leslie’s mom has cancer and were unsure what would happen going forward. We want to thank several of you who have reached out to let us know you were praying for her, and we’re excited to say that the cancer has not spread, and that the doctors believe that with chemo and radiation, they can get it all! This is a huge relief to us, and while nothing is ever a sure thing, this was about as good as the news could be for us right now. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue praying as you think of her and us.

Further below, I’ll mention where we are on our monetary support, but I wanted to say thank you to the churches that have had us in recently. We’re in the South for the winter, and we’ve had a wonderful time in the Carolina’s, Georgia, and Florida. In one church we were in, I was able to reconnect with an old college friend of mine, Craig Howard. It’s always exciting when I see people with whom I went to college serving the Lord.

Just last night, we got to be in a meeting with some friends of ours from Vision who are going to China! Andy and Lily Smith have recently started deputation and are doing a wonderful job together. If you’re interested in having a missionary to China come into your church, their information can be found at: https://thatchinamayknow.com.

As I alluded to earlier, God has been richly blessing our deputation lately and we’ve received several new partners in the ministry! A couple of Sundays ago, the church we were in that morning voted to partner with us in reaching Chile with the gospel. “We’ve got an empty spot on the wall over there that we need to fill,” the pastor said, pointing to framed pictures of their supported missionaries. Our hearts were filled with joy as we left, knowing we were that much closer to Chile.

Then, this morning, my phone rang, and a pastor’s name from a church we were in a couple of months ago popped up on the screen. I picked it up and, after greeting one another, he told me the church’s Faith Promise offerings had just gone above and beyond what he had anticipated. “Well, that’s great! Good for them!” I said, genuinely happy for the direction the church is going. “Well, actually, good for you,” he responded. “We just voted last night to take you all on for support.” You can imagine my excitement!

These two commitments, along with several others, have propelled us beyond the 30% mark of our needed support, and the number keeps rising! We’ve been so elated by how many pastors and churches we’ve heard back from recently, and we want to say thank you to all who have just taken us on or those who have already been supporting us for some months now. We know God is doing something great, and we can actually feel the momentum shifting in our favor.

To those who may not have taken us on yet, would you consider partnering with us so that we can reach our support goal within the next year? I truly believe that with God’s help, it is completely possible. Also, if we aren’t scheduled to be in your church, we’d love to come by sometime and present the ministry God has given us to Chile.

Lastly, over the past couple of months, I had mentioned the World Evangelism Fellowship at Vision Baptist Church. I’m happy to report that several pastors, assistant pastors, and laymen in churches across America came to be challenged in the area of world missions. It was such a blessing to see pastors whose churches we’ve been in and to reconnect with one another. If you weren’t able to make it this year but would like to come next year, the dates are November 9-10th, 2020.

Thank you again for your continued prayers for us. We’re so immensely blessed. Until next time!

*This post was originally written on October 28th, 2019*

Chile has been in the news lately, but more on that in a minute.

I usually like to keep our updates as upbeat as possible, including the titles of the emails, because we are truly loving the life God has given us and are seeing Him work in great ways. However, we were blindsided about a week and a half ago with the news that Leslie’s mom Lisa has cancer. We had known that was a possibility and were praying it would not be the case, but God has seen fit to allow it to be so for now. She’s supposed to go tomorrow to find out how advanced it is and what the next steps should be. We’re praying it will not be too serious and that it will be resolved quickly by God’s grace. She is trusting in the Lord and resting in His perfect peace, whatever may come.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been in several churches and a couple of missions conferences, and we’ve loved every minute of it. At Cornerstone Baptist Church in New Hampshire, we got to be a part of one of my favorite outreach events so far, the Pumpkin Regatta. It’s a fall event in which many locals bring the pumpkins they’ve grown so they can be weighed in a competition. There are also several booths that people set up to sell various items, and we set one up for the church where the kids could play games and we could talk to the adults. It had a small-town feel to it that we really loved.

Also, the results of having travelled for about a month, with the generosity of God’s people (and they really are incredibly generous to us) are evidenced by our packing below:

Many of you may have heard of recent protests in Chile due to rising public transportation costs, among other things. Things got so out of control that the military was called in to squelch the rioting, and I was sad to see Chile’s falling into a state of disarray that I never witnessed in the time I was there. However, I’m happy to report that things are returning back to normal, though the damage will take time to repair.

While the political and civil situation in a country may fluctuate, we know that in the end, King Jesus prevails. However, many of these same Chileans are woefully unprepared to stand before Him, having never accepted Him as their personal Savior. That is why we must go and why we cannot wait to get there. We’d love to see Chile turned upside-down for Him in such a way that, as the world could not ignore this, so it could not ignore Jesus’ saving power in the lives of Chile’s citizens.

And, speaking of the world, our World Evangelism Fellowship at Vision is coming up next week. Many great men of God will be speaking, and Leslie and I are excited to be there for it. If you are not registered to attend and would like to, here is the link: https://visionmissions.org/world-evangelism-fellowship/.

Thank you all again for your prayers and continued support. We’re happy to report that God has given us a wonderful month or so with several new supporters. Each one leads us closer to Chile, and for that we are so grateful.

Until next time!