July Update from the Williams (Nicaragua)

Yes, we will have to make sure that we can keep the Williams (Peru) separate in our minds from the Williams (Nicaragua), but I think we can do it. Tony and Heather were at our church not too long ago and here is their July update:

God blessed with a very busy June:
- Mother's Day
- Child's Day
- Father's Day
- Youth Camp
- Vacation Bible School

We also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and Moriah's birthday. All of these activities provided us with unique opportunities to share Jesus with many people.

Our initial contact with Lilliam and Rene was when we invited their son to Jonah's birthday party. As Lilliam strolled around during the party, she noticed some of our literature that we had available as well as our bulliten boards with activities and photos. She inquired, "Are you guys Christians?" I said yes and explained that we held a worship service every Sunday.

Lilliam's husband, Rene later shared that he and his wife had to get married in an Evangelical Church since his mother-in-law was Evangelical (Everyone non-Catholic gets put into this group). They stayed longer than all the other guests. We took advantage of this great opportunity to share our ministry.

They came for our Mother's Day Celebration. Rene indicated on his visitor card that he'd like to know more about an intimate relationship with Jesus. I set up a time for us to get together. After sorting through his background and talking about side issues, we came to his 'salvation' decision. While still engaged, Rene was urged forward by his soon-to-be mother-in-law after an emotional appeal was offered. He and several others were asked, "Do you accept Jesus?" After saying yes, he was asked to fill out a card and then asked to sit down.

It was my privilege to show Rene from the Bible how he could know God and establish a relationship with Him through his Son, Jesus. Rene eagerly bowed his head and prayed, "Jesus, please come into my heart and life and make me Yours. Change me. Help me be a better husband and father. In Jesus name, amen." Pray for his Christian growth. This is the first man that we have led to the Lord. Here, men are harder to win than women. Pray for more men to come to the Lord.

PRAISE: Through e-mail, we let many of you know that we were praying for Tony's health. A few weeks ago, he was in severe pain in his joints from the waist down. At one point, it became very difficult to walk. He has responded well to medicaiton. He is still under the doctor's care. We will probably never know what caused all of this. The doctor thinks he had a bad reaction to a virus.

The Future of Field Missions

I am not only interested in missions at Park Valley Church, but also interested more generally in how the church does missions. So I was pretty excited when I heard Dan Crane (a New Tribes Mission missionary to Paraguay) speak at the church that Christa and I grew up in (South Apalachin Baptist Church). Below is a picture of Dan and Peggy and their two youngest:

I've known Dan for a long time. It was way back in 1989 that I volunteered a summer at a youth camp (El Rancho de Paz) and met Dan. He was then the guy in charge of all of the farming operations (the camp has a fully operating farm associated with it) and I was a "ranch hand". Dan was a great guy to work for and with. He worked us hard as I remember, but I can't remember him ever being in a foul mood or discouraged about sometimes uncooperative farm machinery. It was some time later that Dan and his wife Peggy were called to the missions field with New Tribes, roughly about the same time that my sister Deb was going through the New Tribes training. I've left out other important details, but suffice to say that Dan is a guy that I both respect and value his opinion.

So when Dan was speaking last Memorial Day on this topic, I knew that I had to have a copy of the sermon. I asked his permission to post the message and he graciously allowed me to do so (thanks to Mike Welch for burning the CD for me). It is slightly edited for length and some "local" content, so any odd breaks in the flow are my own fault and not Dan's. Just click on the play button below to listen. If you would like a copy of it on CD, just let me know.

July Update from the Williams (Peru)

Congratulations to Brent and Miriam on the birth of their new baby boy, Lucas! Read on for their July update:

Babies, Babies & More Babies

There are some neighborhoods in Lima that are so rough you just don't go into them unless you live there. Cristina and her nine brothers and sisters were raised in one of them by a very Catholic mother. Cristina is the nursery director at our church and she has been respondible in more than one way for the babies in our church.

For the past several years, Cristina has been witnessing to her family and inviting them to our church. Last year she convinced her youngest brother, Paul, to come with her. He was a seventeen year old declared athiest. Two months later he was a born again baby Christian. Today he is a part of our praise team.

Several weeks ago her persistence paid off again. One of her older sisters began attending our service with her two teenage children... and you guessed it, more babies. Just this past Sunday, her niece and nephew accepted Christ as their Savior; just weeks after their monther experienced her new birth.

In the past months, God has added several more new baby Christians to our family. We have also been able to host two youth groups from the U.S. on evangelism mission trips. The two together have allowed us to share the gospel with several thousand people and see hundreds make public professions of faith. Please pray for these newborns as the local churches in their areas follow up and help them grow.

I mentioned above that Cristina was responsible in more than one way for the babies in the church, well, last night she gave birth to a bouncing baby girl. She was the third baby in the last three months born in our church with three more to come in the next four months. -- There's more than one way to grow a church, you know!

One of those babies was our own. Lucas Seth Williams was born April 17. We are so thankful for him.

June-July Update from the Halls

See below for Halls' update:

We’ve been blessed...certainly we’ve been blessed by all of you who support us , but we’ve also been blessed to have life in this country; to have life at all, really. Sometimes we lose sight of these blessings during the diffi cult and slow times. This summer is one of those times!

Summer is always a hard time for missionaries, but we have had a slow time scheduling churches at all. Many of you know about the mass mailing we just mailed a few weeks ago, and for those who prayed, THANK YOU! It worked! We have received a good response and have thus far scheduled about 10 or so churches. Our most exciting news, though, is that it looks like we’ll be able to move to Oshawa in August!

Through various means, we have enough temporary support coming in that we can move to Oshawa until our deputation in the States is through. We will continue to schedule presentation dates until we have enough church support in the States and can discontinue relying on the temporary support that has been offered to us. That thrills us so much; we have been looking forward to this day for almost a year.

When you get this letter, we will be in Toronto, hosting two missions teams from the States to come and help out with various activities at Affinity. We’re excited to visit, and hope to find
a place to live while we’re there.

Prayer Requests:
*Housing in Oshawa
*Scheduling churches and the rest of our support to come in
*Melissa hopes to start a mom and tot time next fall 2007 which will hopefully generate some relationships and salvations.
*Moving to Oshawa; safety, finances
*Nolan: obedience as he enters the ‘terrible twos’, love for Jesus, and our parenting
*Schooling decision *(while it’s not for another two years, it will come quickly!)
*Safety in traveling
*Summer missions teams
*Home group Bible studies at Affinity