To catch up the news of this year, we will begin when we returned home from Mexico in April. We traveled a month visiting family then jumped right into gardening and building. We finished our little front room and were thrilled to have our all our family at home this September for the first time in three years and have enough space for everyone. Jenifer and Kevin have blessed us with our first grandchild, baby boy Jayden. Kevin’s mother (I call her my Asian sister) Betty came with them. Jonna was able to bring her boyfriend home with her to meet some of our extended family. It was a memorable occasion.
The garden survived and produced a harvest despite the extremely dry summer we had. We canned tomatoes, green beans, and sweet potatoes, then froze broccoli, cauliflower, corn, and green peppers. We made kraut from cabbage and dried the herbs for tea and seasoning for the winter meals. Recently, we were given treated lumber from an old deck plus additional materials to begin building the greenhouse we had hoped for. The new metal and polycarbonate roofing will be a Christmas gift from family. We expect to finish it before the new spring season and be ready to start garden and flower plants ahead of the planting season. A dear friend of ours is saving us a lemon tree in her own greenhouse for our new one when it is finished.
Being home this winter for the first time in several years, we get to celebrate the holidays with our families and friends. We have had surprise reconnections with old acquaintances and we are building stronger relationships with neighbors and local friends. What a joyful and blessed time we are having. Life is all about people. God was all about people so why wouldn’t our lives be the same…all about people loving people.
Meanwhile, we have been praying….much. We have been seeking God’s direction, His vision, and our purpose for being home. We have visited all the churches we could find in the local area and have been seeing how much they all desperately need revival. That spurred us on to more prayer. Before coming home, God had told us to start a prayer meeting. We still have not found others to join us. We still have not found a place to hold a weekly prayer meeting. But, we have continued in prayer for revival in ourselves, in our neighborhood, and in our community. We see that for a beginning God had called us to be here, in the north of Springfield, to intercede, to be watchmen for the north. That was the way our work began in north India so we are simply starting over again, laying the foundations for the work God wants to do here, through prayer. After visiting many different churches and loving them all, we still felt we needed to have a home church to attend. The last church we visited welcomed us with such open arms that it was almost like being drowned in loving arms. It is a small country church of very few people but they are precious and John felt from God that they are Key people for this area so we are attending there currently and enjoying the family atmosphere.
We have prayed often as to what job we need to be seeking. We were talking to a couple of our supporters recently telling them we have consistently asked God if we should take a job, and if so, which job but, as yet we simply have not had faith to get a secular one. We are still called of God to full-time ministry, even though we are home, even though our income is low, even though it doesn‘t look like we are working full-time in ministry. God has been faithful to provide and recently He has been opening doors of opportunities to minister and disciple. We have a young couple coming weekly for teaching and training. They have brought others with them from time to time. We attend a weekly prayer meeting in Springfield early, early Thursday mornings. Things are changing in the spirit realm and we are preparing our hearts through prayer to see things change drastically in the near future. Drastically. This is exactly what God told us before coming home from India. This is exactly what He repeats in our spirits again these days. “Things are going to change drastically and happen rapidly”. This was foretold to us in Amos 9:13 “Behold the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” We fully expect to see this happen here.
We would like to take this opportunity to share another personal praise report. John experienced a severe gall bladder attack in November. He couldn’t eat or sleep in his bed for four to five days and was in the state of recuperation for more than two weeks. We began praying for our Creator to give him a new gall bladder rather than a healed one. We desire to travel to other countries to encourage the brothers and sisters we have known and worked with so it would be best for him to have the liberty to eat whatever, whenever. We believe God has honored this prayer as he is back to eating anything spicy he enjoys, except sugar. God did communicate to him that “sugar is your enemy” and he has mostly cut that out of his diet. It will be better for the both of us if we eat healthy alternatives. Okay, I still keep my small stash under the counter out of the way of temptation to John. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to be tempted or to mind.
Let us introduce you to some other key people. People we know well, have trust in, and would like to support in any way we can.
Peter Badia - We worked with Peter several years in India while he was in university there. He spent days in our home studying and talking about the Word with us and more days on the road traveling to minister with us. He has since returned to his own nation, married a godly lady named Olive whom we have met, has two small children and is working to promote the kingdom of God in nine neighboring countries. Part of his vision is to network ministries together to encourage and support one another in all areas. He strongly promotes prayer, intercession, discipleship, and caring for the widows and orphans. He believes it is more important to keep orphans in homes, like foster children, so that they are kept culturally connected and accepted. He works hard to provide the foster parents (often their own relatives) with enough money to school, feed, and clothe the kids. He works among many refugee camps, traveling to preach and teach and encourage struggling churches, holding conferences and classes where he is invited. He’s a great motivator, encourager, and overseer of what is needed for living in this world and in preparing for eternity. He is currently desiring a $5,000 copy machine to be used as a supporting business for his family and his people in ministry with him. If God lays it on your heart to help him in any way, you will advance the kingdom in great measures. Peter does nothing by halves but will often neglect himself to order to care for others. We have seen him do it quite often. More about Peter and his ministry can be viewed at his website: http://www.apostolicmissionsnetwork.org/
Kuldeep & Leena John - We were closely connected to Kuldeep and Leena while living in the same community of north India. We watched their lives as they had freshly come to Jesus and began to grow spiritually. Joyce was blessed to have Leena’s friendship and spent time discipling her in the Word for more than a year. They moved from there some time later to do full-time ministry to people in the slums of Bombay (Mumbai). We were privileged to visit them there and see what God was doing in and through their lives. They are a commited, dedicated family to serving and loving others. Kuldeep has a compassionate pastor heart. Leena is gifted in hospitality. Now, they are working in the slums of Mozambique, Africa. God has continued to grow them and stretch them. Moving to another culture is always a big step of faith and adjustment. They have two of their children with them. The youngest daughter seen on the right and a son, not pictured. The oldest daughter, seen on the left, remains in university in India. Leena’s mother has recently taken a fall twice and broken both hips. We rejoice to learn that it has shaken her sufficiently that she has finally given her heart to the Lord. However, Kuldeep and Leena, working on their limited missionary income, are trying to cover the medical costs of this dear mother back home. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to set them free financially to do the work they have been sent forth to do? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to cover the medical costs of $10,000 that are pending so they can effectively minister to the needs of Mozambique? They currently work through Oasis Global out of England. You can view the vision of OG on their website: oasisglobal.org but the link to the pages of each country wasn’t operating when I last tried to pull them up. Maybe later.
Cherie McCullah - Cherie is a single lady (sister to our brother-in-law) that is sacrificing her life to serve the multitude of orphans from Nicaragua in Costa Rica. According to our understanding, she is endeavoring to supply place, people, and cost of living and education all the way through university or tech training thereby enabling the children to become beneficial Christian citizens when they return to their own country of Nicaragua. Individual homes, housing ten children each, are being set up as “families”. This way, they will be trained not only educationally, but socially so as to be family-oriented, and learn good character in relationships one with another.
We have confidence in the integrity and spiritual lives of these people. They are people we would like to network with and see the kingdom of God advance through. We are praying for them that we can bless and help them, that we can visit and encourage them, that we can be a part of what they are doing in each of these places. We are so thankful for the modern day convenience of computers and international phones as we have been able to keep in close contact with these brothers and sisters in Christ, to hear their prayers, their needs, their hearts.
We celebrate thirty-seven years of marriage together this December. The years of commitment are reaping a greater love, unity, and appreciation for one another. We give all the praise to our God who promised to enter into this covenant marriage with us and keep all that we have committed to Him “till death do us part.” He has been faithful and has blessed us to remain faithful. Our family grows as we acquire sons (in-law) and their families. It grows as we continue to meet more brothers and sisters in Christ here and wherever we travel. God is with us and we desire with all our hearts to be with Him, to be “known” by Him. May your New Year be blessed to know God more. Seek Him with ALL…and you will find Him.
Blessings to everyone of you.
John & Joyce
