June 2021 Newsletter

Traveling We have definitely felt your prayers this past month!  Thank you for praying for us as we closed things down around here and prepared to step away for a while.  It has been a smooth, easy process and we know it is because of prayer.  Today is the big day!!!  We are flying to the U.S. to begin our Stateside Assignment.  It is bittersweet as we leave one country we love and arrive for an extended stay in another.  Pray for a stress-free day of travel (is that even possible) and for sweet reunions as we visit with family and friends.

Ending the School Year We finished our school year mid-month and are already enjoying our summer break.  If you would like to read about our last days of school visit this blog link: Homeschool May 2021   Many of you pray for our homeschool time and we cannot thank you enough.  I anticipate a busy summer break but in spite of it, pray that we can get the rest and refreshment that we need before we start back to school in August. Media Team We finished school on a Friday and then the very next day we welcomed a small media team.  It was so nice to get to host volunteers again!!  We spent a week together shooting video for the 2022 Lifeway VBS missions material.  When you begin to make plans for next year's VBS, choose Lifeway.  If you do, you will get to see some familiar faces in it.  We also filmed a short video highlighting COVID relief efforts that we did through Send Relief.  Be on the lookout for that IMB video that will be coming out very soon.  Progress A highlight of our week with the team was getting to make one last visit to the Chiquimula area to see everyone in the villages and say our goodbyes for a while.  David preached the Sunday morning service in Nearar and we had a sweet Lord's Supper service there.  We then spent the afternoon making visits in Porto Suelo and Muyurco.   The images above might just look like open land space to most but to us it represents many years of hard work between us and our U.S. volunteer partners.  Both Porto Suelo and Muyurco are in the process of clearing land and preparing to build church buildings.  Even in spite of COVID the work there has continued to grow and getting to see a little fruit of our labor has us leaving for Stateside on a high note.  Thank you to everyone who has faithfully prayed for these villages over the years.  God is hearing our prayers and answering them in His perfect timing.    Keep these villages in your prayers over the next months.  We look forward to our return and getting to see the progress that they have made.  Global Highlights With countries shut down and many missionaries temporarily having to leave their places of service we would have expected reporting numbers for 2020 to be low.  But God!!!  In spite of all the hardships and setbacks the gospel message was still advanced through your IMB missionaries and their national partners.  We all had to think outside the box and find more creative ways to be on mission and God blessed those efforts.  Thank you for continuing to pray for your missionaries around the world.  Most importantly, thank you for continuing to give even in a year when it was hard. We could not do it without our Southern Baptist churches faithfully praying and giving.  THANK YOU!!!   Time to Fly This term of service has officially ended.  We will be checking in soon and boarding our flight.  Next stop, the U.S.A.! We hope to see many of you while we are there.