April 2024

Deputation

March has now past and we are enjoying some good weather again! While we still have a couple more missions conferences coming up in April and May, March saw the end of our back-to-back conferences. It was also a first for us on deputation since, while we were booked for every service, we were in the same church each Sunday for the morning and evening service. While it is great to be able to get into two churches in a day, it is also good to get to know people better than just being a whirlwind in and out of every church. This meant that we were only in 9 churches this month, but so far 2 have already taken us on for support getting us up to 23%. I am just like most ever missionary who want to be to the field as quickly as possible and few of us are happy with the pace of the support raised. I find myself both happy and disappointed with the funds that have been raised. I am happy because being about a quarter of the way there is a great milestone, but I am disappointed because we have been praying to be done by January and in order for that to happen then about 90% of our remaining churches will need to take us on for support. I know that God can still get us the support, but as of now it seems that He will not be answering that prayer in the way that we had hoped. We have not given up, are sure that God will do what is best, and are submitting to His will. We need wisdom now to know what to do about scheduling churches for next year.

On a good note, we had an issue in the church that we were scheduled to be in on Resurrection Sunday. When I tried to confirm, I found out that the pastor had left and when I was able to get in touch with the new pastor he was not ok with having a missionary on that Sunday. However, I received a call from another pastor in the area that we already were in (only 70 miles south of the church that we were in the Wednesday before) and even though the May dates that I had originally contacted him for were no longer available, he was willing to bring us in for Easter. It was such a blessing to not only have a church to be in, but to have a place to park the camper. Also, we were out door knocking with a church in TX and I had the great blessing of seeing someone come to church from a door that I had knocked. I am sure that you have had many people tell you that they would come to church, but have been continually disappointed. I have invited many people to church, but there have been very few that I see follow through and so it was a delight to see them in services. Praise the Lord for His blessings!

Medical

We had a month that was marked with trips to doctors. We of coarse had Steele’s specialist appointment this month and so Lisa went with him to Colorado for the appointment. He took some tests and is finally getting some of the care that he needs. The bad news is that he will need to live with Lisa’s parents in Colorado when his treatment starts. Once his doctor gets the results of his tests, then more tests will be scheduled and he will start the treatment with weekly tests/appointments. When this happens, Lisa will go back with him again and stay with him until she feels comfortable with the plan and then Steele will need to stay behind for a while. While we are hoping that he will join us again for the time that we have left, we have to prepare for the fact that he will soon turn 17 and our time of him living with us may be cut off sooner than we want. Also, Makayla managed to put her hand through the shower door in the camper when the glass shattered. She cut the finger down to the bone, but luckily just missed cutting through the tendon and after 20 stitches we were able to move down the road.

Prayer Requests

* House to sell

* Steele’s medical treatment

* Supporting churches

* Safety/reliability on the road

* Souls saved

* Wisdom on 2025 schedule