As you already know, although I have completed my ministry assignment in Senegal, I am continuing to serve with SIM and am relocating to Charlotte to work in the home office. I am excited about the opportunity to continue to serve through SIM.

Upon my arrival in the SIM USA office I was asked to take on the role of Editor for By Prayer, a newsletter that goes out bimonthly with requests from missionaries all over the world. This has been an urgent need because the current Editor is retiring in October. The current Editor described the job this way:

The Editor coordinates the production schedule between:

• -two on-site contributing editors (for a Cover Story, and five Regional Ministry Stories)
• -51 contributing editors around the world (and they change fairly frequently, especially at this time of year).
• -several proofreaders here (in Charlotte, NC) and in Florida-local
• -Media people who prepare print-ready documents, and others who mail out bulk and overseas hard copies

SIM understands the importance of prayer and I am looking forward to being able to help facilitate prayer support in this way for the 800 missionaries SIM USA has serving on the field and in the USA.

In order to get a place to live and start working with this ministry, I must have 100% of my support promised. The additional amount I need to meet this goal is $1,800 per month plus $5,000 in initial setup costs. Since the outgoing Editor is retiring in October, I need to have all my support promised before I can start working in September so we can have a smooth transition. Currently I am officially on Home Assignment in order to increase my support base.

You can help in these ways:

1. Pray for more prayer partners and financial team members so the needed support will come.
2. Prayerfully consider joining my financial team, increasing your support or making a one-time contribution to my startup costs.
3. Inquire as to whether your church would support me in their missions’ budget.
4. Set up an appointment for me to meet with friends you think may be interested in joining this ministry adventure as I travel from North Carolina to Connecticut and back in August.
5. Forward my prayer letter to friends and family with whom you would like to share this ministry.
6. Consider joining me in fasting on Wednesdays for this need.
7. Pray some more!

I want to visit with as many of you as I can when I drive from North Carolina to Connecticut and back in August. In the coming weeks I will be contacting many of you. Please help me by being prepared with some dates/times in August when you would be available for us to get together.   If your church or friends are interested in hearing about my ministry I would be happy to share with them. If you have any other ideas of ways I could connect with people, share about what God is doing in the SIM USA Office and around the world, and encourage the church’s missions vision, please let me know. I would love to help and get involved in any way you can think of while I am with you.

Questions you may have:

• Since you are going to live in the USA why are you still asking for support? The dedicated people who work in the SIM USA office are, for the most part, supported missionaries who have served on the foreign field. Having supported staff reduces the expense for the mission and emphasizes the fact that these people are STILL missionaries! The role of a missionary in the USA office is a vital one of support for those on the foreign field. Even though I have moved from Senegal to the USA, I am in the same role I have been in for the last five years – that of support to other missionaries! In Senegal I was supporting two missionaries; in the SIM USA office I will be supporting 800 missionaries. In order to accomplish this larger, wide reaching ministry, I need your prayer and financial support!
• Since you are going to live in the USA why are you asking for MORE support? The cost of living in Senegal is much lower than in the USA. For instance, rent for the large four-bedroom, four-bath house with extended grounds (our team-mate’s home I was using) was $385 per month; rent for a one or two bedroom apartment in the USA is two to three times that amount. It costs more to live in the USA – but the ministry is just as vital a need!
• Since you are 67, why don’t you just draw Social Security and pension monies? Because I spent much of my adult life as a stay-at-home mother, and the last 15 years in ministry, my retirement income is not large. I want to wait until I turn 70 to begin Social Security or pension payments to maximize my long term retirement income.
• What will happen to By Prayer if you don’t get the required support? I really do not know. I do know if the support doesn’t come in, I will not be able to take on this ministry. The current Editor and her husband have already delayed their retirement and cannot prolong their time here. There are no other people in the SIM USA office with the time to take on this vital job, and without an editor for By Prayer, “it simply can’t be done, and no one would know how to pray for the 51 countries we highlight!” (quote from outgoing editor)
• What will YOU do if the support doesn’t come in?  I am firmly convinced this is God’s plan for me and anticipate God’s people will participate in this Adventure so I haven’t seriously considered other options.

Praises from my time here at SIM USA:

• I have gotten over disorientation and feel more ‘together’ here.
• I am enjoying having a lovely little car to drive whenever and wherever I want to go. I have learned enough to not have to clutch my GPS constantly and have gone to the closest shopping area and back without having to use

  

  it!

• I have moved to a lovely camper home on the SIM USA grounds. It was purchased to house the quarantined Ebola missionaries and remains to house folks like me. I will be able to stay in it for the month of July.
• I have met with the current By Prayer Editor and we have gone over some of the basic processes of producing this vital guide for prayers for our missionaries. I think I might understand a few bits of it, too!
• My broken phone has finally been replaced!

 Prayers for Looking Ahead:

• Pray that my support team will grow and the needed $5,000 start up costs and $1,800 per month will come in quickly.
• Pray for my travel plans to be divinely orchestrated and I would meet with many new support team members.
• Pray that I will grasp all the scheduling and arranging details for this vital By Prayer ministry.

I have an airplane ticket! I will arrive in the USA on June 10 to spend the next week at the SIM USA headquarters near Charlotte, NC. There I will rest, meet with staff to discuss what role I will play in the coming months. I have no further news about what NEXT will look like, but hopefully will by the end of that week. The only thing I am fairly certain about is that my position with SIM won’t change: I will still be doing support ministry, just a different kind of support than homeschooling. Emma and Molly will be in boarding school next year and Katie will do school with Wheaton.

I sat down with a popsicle to rest from activity in the afternoon heat before grading papers and packing and daydreamed a little … here is what I saw in my dream:

Eunice put down the letter that had come that day … after reading it for the fourth time. She loved hearing about the adventures that her son, Timothy, was having with Paul and Silas, and about the people who had believed their message. She missed her boy, but knew he was doing important work. She sighed contentedly and went back toward her shop but was arrested by the sound of crying coming from the kitchen courtyard. Going to investigate, she discovered Lydia, her servant girl, hunched in a corner, her shoulders heaving and apron crammed in her face in an ineffective effort to muffle her sobs.

She stooped to gently pull the girl out of the corner so she could discover what was bothering her. Eunice soothed, “Lydia, what is the matter? Why are you crying? Come and let me hear all about it.”

“Oh, Ma’am, I’m so useless! I can’t do anything that makes one bit of difference,” Lydia blurted out and commenced crying again.

“Why, Lydia, what makes you say that? You are very helpful and competent! What a nice lunch we just had – and you fixed it.” Eunice leaned over and dipped a clean cloth into the water jug standing by her and wiped the girl’s face clear of tears. As Lydia looked mournfully into Eunice’s face she kindly reminded, “Look here,” showing Lydia the damp cloth, “you washed this cloth and you are the one who filled the water jug. There are two more contributions that make a big difference to me!”

“But, Ma’am, I know I do those things … but they’re not important! They’re just the same thing over and over every day. I don’t even have to think about some of them, they’re so automatic.”

Eunice now had a better idea of what was bothering Lydia. “Are you feeling useless because we read about what Timothy and Paul are doing in Macedonia at lunch today?” she guessed.

Lydia hid her face in Eunice’s cool skirt and nodded her head. She heaved a big, heavy sigh and looked up at her employer and friend, “Ma’am, Timothy is telling other people about Jesus every day! And you work in the shop and send him money for his traveling expenses, and Grandma Lois even makes clothes to send to him. I don’t do anything but cook and wash and clean. That doesn’t help at all!”

Eunice gently grasped the girl’s face in her hands and kissed her forehead. She looked straight into her eyes and said with seriousness, “Lydia, if you weren’t here to do those things, who do you think would?”

Lydia thought a moment and then hesitantly replied, “I guess you or Grandma Lois, Ma’am.”

“That’s right, Lydia,” Eunice twinkled. “And if we were here doing what you do so well, who would be running my shop or making clothes for Timothy?” She waited for Lydia to think through the question and could see the wheels turning in her head.

Looking up at Eunice with a questioning shock, Lydia burst out, “Why, no one, Ma’am!”

Again, Eunice agreed with her. “And if no one was in the shop, where would I get the money that I send to Timothy or to pay for the cloth that Grandma Lois uses to make clothes?”

Lydia was alarmed now, “Why you wouldn’t even have money to buy the groceries, much less send anything to Timothy! That would be terrible, Ma’am!”

Eunice broke into a dazzling smile and hugged Lydia. “So, Lydia, do you understand now how important you are to us all? How Grandma Lois couldn’t be sewing? How I couldn’t be in the shop? How Timothy couldn’t be traveling with Paul if YOU weren’t here washing and cooking and cleaning? And if Paul didn’t have such a capable assistant, his ministry would be hindered, too? All these things depend on YOU doing your little bit so we all can do our little bit, too.”

Lydia thought some more and then said, as much to herself as to Eunice, “So I have a very important mission to support you, so you can support us and Timothy, so he can support Paul. Wow! We are all connected in an important chain of ministry!” She looked at Eunice with a new glow on her face. “Most of those folks in Macedonia won’t ever hear of me, but without me they might not hear the best news in the world: that Jesus loves them!” She rose and shook out her rumpled apron, hugged her beloved employer and scuttled off to work. Eunice could hear her muttering to herself, “Now, get to work so Paul can preach another rousing sermon!”

 

Support ministry is such a varied and sometimes mundane thing, but it is vital to those like Corey and Katie on the field. Without support staff handling contributions, crediting the right accounts, and keeping track of the myriad of places funds are distributed, no one would be sure of getting what was sent for them. (There is a lovely man 5 hours from us who faithfully goes every month to pay our power bill so our electricity stays on, and another one who records it correctly on our account.)

There are folks around the world on the field who ask every month for our prayer requests and send them to people in the USA office who bind them together in a cohesive list of prayers for every day of the month to help keep us all focused and united in thought and prayer.

Other support ministers welcome new recruits and help them select an area of ministry service that fits their skills and passions so they can succeed on the field, then brief them on all kinds of things they will encounter overseas from the financial system to dealing with culture shock and everything in between. They help new missionaries figure out how to relate to the very different people they will be living among so they can effectively share the gospel.

Every one of those new missionaries need copies of the information that will make their adjustment easier. Someone has to make copies and collate them, and put them in folders and make sure the right names are on the right folders so everything runs smoothly. Someone has to check the spelling of each person’s name so the nametags are correct, and printed and ready to put on. Someone (actually lots of someones!) have to plan and prepare the food for each of the new recruits at orientation.

YOU are also part of support ministry, because without your contribution in finances and regular prayer, the missionaries in the sending office wouldn’t be there, the missionaries on the field would falter instead of flourish and bear fruit.

YOU, as you send in your bit make all that SIM does happen. So what if you send in only $10 a month? With hundreds and thousands of $10’s the figures add up, and if each one of those dollars are sent covered with prayers, missionaries, both overseas and at home will be stronger, more focused and faithful in their duties. The gospel will go far, the unreached will hear, the church will be built up.

YOU are a most vital part of that ministry of support. So what if you can’t go; you can send me. So what if you can’t help; I can help. So you think you don’t make a difference? Don’t you believe that for a minute! You make a huge difference. Without your support I won’t be able to support others who support others who support others who spread the gospel to the world. You are ESSENTIAL!

In order to do my ministry of support in the USA, I need to increase my monthly support amount by approximately $1000. Please prayerfully consider your vital contribution as I strive to be your representative in support ministry.

Pictures HERE.

Find out how to join my support team HERE

 

Prayer requests:

Packing and sorting to go well and shipping arrangements to go smoothly

Weather to stay relatively cool for these active packing days

Travel to the USA to be uneventful and on schedule

His provision: monthly support, a vehicle, an apartment, furniture, etc.

His blessing on this time of great transition, that I will find my place in the community there

God’s guidance as my role in the USA is worked out and for Him to use me there for His glory and for the furthering of His work around the world.

Do you enjoy a roller coaster?  I really do NOT like the ones in amusement parks, but the real life one of living with Jesus – I LOVE!  These last two months have been filled with many roller coaster opportunities of service and support to Corey and Katie as they have been busy with ministry and renewal activities.  It has been SO filled that the best way to give you a glimpse is to give you a peek into my ‘diary’ for this time:

Dear diary,

Late January – Well, I can hardly believe it, but there is a working motor installed on the fan on the roof.  NOT the motor I worked so hard to get, but a completely different one!  It is doing a great job of pulling the cool night air into the school room and my bedroom.  I ALMOST look forward to the hot season to see how effective the combination of the krinting on the roof and the fan will be.

Friday Jan 30 – Corey left for the Men’s annual retreat this weekend and then ITES meetings ( he is on the board of the Institut Théologique Evangélique du Sénégal); Molly went with him to spend an orientation week at boarding school with Emma.  A whole week with just Wheaton at school!  How fun.  She decided to research the Ferris Wheel for her big project.  She will write a report and we will build a model together.  I am so excited, this should be lots of fun!  We also started a new book of experiments with Magnetism.   We took advantage of Molly being gone to start work on a piñata for her birthday.  Wheaton plans to make a huge strawberry to stuff with candy.

Tuesday Feb 9 – Molly and Corey returned!  AND they brought Silas (a former intern back in Senegal for a vacation).  They also brought the repaired washing machine!  I didn’t really expect it to work but was convinced by the three loads I did the next day.  This is truly a miracle, based on my hopeless expectations.  What a special demonstration of God’s care.  Molly had a good week at boarding school, but is missing the community of a dorm of girls.

Friday Feb 13 – We had a lovely if short visit with Silas, he left early this morning.  Molly had some fun experimenting with bubbles, learning about adhesion and cohesion.

Sunday Feb 16 – Corey and Katie left for the annual SIM Senegal Council leaving Molly and Wheaton with me for a whole week.  What fun!  We watched some movies, had fun grandma time and made good school progress.  I finished sewing Molly’s birthday top and started on her pants.  Molly started her new Analysis book.  It looks to be as fun as the bubbles book!  Wheaton and I stole some secret time to work on the piñata and sweet Molly didn’t try to peek!

Sunday Feb 22 – Corey and Katie returned!  They were so excited about the good meetings they had with SIM team-mates strategizing for the future of SIM Senegal.  They also were able to enjoy a birthday/anniversary get away at a resort – the gift of lovely friends!  With parents back, Wheaton was able to spend some afternoons alone with me finishing the piñata for Molly.  It is beautiful!  Sparkly red with paint and glitter and a green felt top to cover the wires to hang it.

Thursday Feb 26 – Molly’s birthday party was a lovely quiet family affair.  She loved the piñata.  We did a good job on it since everyone got a turn before the piñata finally broke!

Tuesday March 3 – Corey and Katie went to Kaolack for the day to see some visiting supporters from New York state.  What a time they had!  A flat tire, a minor collision with a guy on a scooter (no one hurt, thankfully) and a long, long wait at the hospital for friends they took with them to see the doctor.  The doctor never showed up and they finally put the friends on a bus back to Kaffrine.  Then they had a good relaxing visit with their supporters and were back in time for supper I had ready.  I am so glad I’m here for days like this!

Thursday March 5 – Off to Saly for a small vacation!  Emma’s school has a long weekend midterm break the same weekend good friends from the states are here for a visit.  There will be five families together for the weekend.  We have rented villas in a vacation compound and are so very excited to have some fun and get to see Emma!

Tuesday March 10 – We returned to Kaffrine today.  We had such a great time with those lovely missionary families!  Beach, pool and individual villas created the perfect environment for relaxed fun together.  Eight preschoolers put limits on some parents’ night time freedom, but that was solved by divide and conquer: Men gathered at one villa with small sleeping ones and women at the other.  The eight older kids (8-13 years old) gathered at our villa and watched movies (I rested in my own room as available adult).  Out to a restaurant a couple of times and group barbeque at our villa several nights.  It was so good to see these young families all passionate about serving God fellowshipping and encouraging one another.

Tuesday March 17 – Corey left again for his ITES board meeting and then he will attend the Wolof Consultation, a three-day gathering of church and mission leaders from all over Senegal who work with the Wolof.  He presented the progress he has made on the transliteration of Genesis into Wolofal (Wolof using Arabic script) and took pre-orders for copies of it.  He was also able to introduce the e-book he created of the Wolof New testament and Psalms and to show people how to download it onto their smart phones or computers.

Sunday March 22 – Corey and Katie dropped Wheaton off here on their way to church.  She is too sick to go to church so she is staying here with me and watching movies.  I am so glad to be here for this very thing!

Well, diary, it is almost April and the Spiritual Life Conference for all the SIM team is right around the corner – next week!  I don’t know when there has been so much traffic between Kaffrine and the coastal region.  I have so much to be thankful for!  The fan that runs every night, the washing machine that cleans my clothes and the many opportunities in these last weeks to be a present support to Corey and Katie through this busy time all bring home the many blessings I enjoy.

While I know God has his plans in place for me when the end of June comes around, it is hard to not speculate what will be the next Grand Adventure.  My SIM ‘coach’ in the home office and I have narrowed the options down to two possibilities but we still don’t know which will be best.

I desire to continue serving with SIM after I finish my work here and leave Senegal in June.  I am unsure about whether I will have enough financial support though, since my sending church has come to the end of their commitment and will not be able to support me any longer.  While I do have a connection with one church in the USA, I don’t know how many donors will continue to support me financially when I move to my next assignment.

I am praying and talking with SIM and hoping to have a clear idea of my next step very soon.  At the same time, I need to intentionally focus on the daily present task that is still before me: guiding Molly and Wheaton through this last third of the school year.  Please pray that the Lord will guide me clearly in the next couple of weeks.  Pray too, for His provision.  I will communicate with you as soon as I know more.  Thank you for your prayers and support!

Pictures can be found  HERE

 

Prayer points:

*        Thankfulness for the many opportunities to be of service these last months, fans and washing machines that work, and continued cooler weather

*        School to finish well

*        Resolution for the next Adventure so details and plans can be made

*        Support, both prayer and financial, to be maintained for my continued service