February 2016

Recently I received an email from a Maranatha Bible School student with some questions regarding our work as missionaries in another country. One of her classes was "Introduction to Missions" taught by Lester Burkholder. She wanted the info for an essay assignment. I thought she did a great job summing it all up in her essay, and with her permission, I am going to share it with you. She also received input from Randall & Sharon Zimmerman, who are serving as missionaries in Cherry Creek, S. Dakota.

                      A Glimpse into the Life of Missionaries 

        Missions are often thought of places in foreign countries whose goal is to reach the natives       with the Gospel. Missionaries are the people who leave home and experience firsthand the
  culture and lifestyle of the natives as well as the prevalent, spiritual darkness and show   the people Christ by serving and reaching out to them. Missions are not only in other countries; in fact, our mission field is right at our front door. People need Christ in America as much as those in Asia, Africa, or Central America. And, because we as Christians are called to be missionaries, we can witness to our neighbors around us and share Jesus with them.

  It takes special character traits to be an effective missionary. You need an abundance of patience,
 forbearance, compassion, friendliness, and most of all, a love for the people you are trying to reach.
 If people don’t sense a genuine concern or love from you, they will quicker reject the message as 
well as the messenger. Be prepared to learn far more than you teach and do things their way even 
if you think your way may be better. Keep in mind that you are an outsider and be thankful they are 
allowing you to live in their country or community. Be willing to try their foods and learn how to make
 their dishes.

Some of the hardest things a missionary family faces when leaving to serve away from home are 
leaving behind family and friends and having to miss weddings, births and holidays. It’s difficult 
to raise children in an evil environment where there are no or few other children from Christian
 families. Missionaries are often faced with unexpected challenges such as having people continually 
knocking at your door asking for things, and having the responsibility of planning things and helping
 out at events. Depending on the culture, you may get the feeling of being taken advantage of. We 
have been taught to give but at the same time we need to be good stewards if what God has given us. It takes wisdom to know when to give and when not to.

Mission work is work but there are rewards that come with it. Friendships are started even if the
 natives haven’t accepted Christ, you are drawn closer to God because you depend on Him more, the
 experience is invaluable for the children as well as the parents, and being part of a Spirit filled 
church is a blessing. Learning to live a simple life with what you have and spending more time together
 as a family are also some of the rewards that come in a mission field setting.

Missionaries are like any other people and need support and encouragement in their work. One of the
 best ways to support them is by prayer. They can’t do it on their own strength and need God’s 
strength for the challenges they face daily. Another good way to show your support is to send them 
cards, emails or small gift to let them know that they are not forgotten. A visit is a wonderful 
encouragement because it shows that you have an interest in them and their work. 

There are ways to prepare ourselves for mission work if we would like to serve in a different 
country or community. One of the best ways to prepare yourself for mission work is to first live
 in the center of God’s will for your life and be open to his leading. Now if God has called you to the 
mission field, be prepared to be committed to making it work. People may give you lots of good 
advice, but nothing can truly prepare you to move to another culture. Other ways to prepare yourself
 is to familiarize yourself with the culture and be aware of ways you may unknowingly offend them. 
Reading books on missions and training would be helpful.

Are you considering serving on the mission field sometime? Do you feel God leading you to serve him 
outside your hometown? Go for it! You’ll be stretched until you think you are going to break, but the
 blessing and life perspective you’ll receive from serving Him outside your comfort zone will be 
something you will never regret. With that in mind, go for it and give it a try! Maybe you feel God isn’t
 calling you for long term mission work so give a short term of service of maybe a couple weeks or
 months. Serving short term can help you see things from a different perspective but at the same 
time, remember that a week’s visit really doesn’t give you any idea of what it’s like serving long term.
 Life can become very mundane and unexciting at times even on the mission field.

Information received from: 

Randal and Sharon Zimmerman; Cherry Creek, SD 

Chris and Katrina High; Grenada   

And here are some pictures from our month of February. It was a very full month so I am going to split it up into two posts.

                      Ready to head out for the school's cross country race. They walk/run 3 miles.

Limes and Laborie School both compete in the race. It's always kinda chaotic till everyone is where they belong, or maybe I should say organized confusion? They have 3 teams/houses, red, yellow and green and the winning students earn points that are put towards their team for Sport's Day events.

                              Kassidy, Nicky, Kaylah and Caleb getting ready to head out

                                I was a crossing guard and Chris lead the students on the bike

                 She didn't break any records for speed, but she managed to complete the race:)

Carter and Ryan...Carter ran the whole way and came in fourth. This reminds me of the time Kaylah competed in Shalom's School track and field. I think she was in 3rd grade when she came home and excitedly told me how she came in 2nd in the 100 meter dash! I must admit I was rather surprised as she never held records for speed or endurance. It all made sense though when she added....only me and another girl signed up for that. The other girl got first place and I got second.....

                                   Kassidy and Kaylah enjoying some post-race popcorn

                       Was good to have these folks back in town again! They picked a good
                        3 weeks to spend in Grenada, missing out on the blizzard at home:)

                  Carter trying to teach Jackson, Bill & Brenda Coutain's son, how to ride bike

                               Seriously, do they come any cuter than this? McKenzie Coutain,
                                Bill & Brenda's girl....Christi couldn't let her hands off of her

We'd been looking forward to this family's arrival ever since, well, ever since we knew they were coming to visit us! We spend almost every Saturday evening with them for a year and got to know them quite well when we both served as youth leaders. Lots of good memories made with these folks!          Leonard & Leanne Nolt, Justyn, Austyn, Abby & Ashlyn

There is always that one child that has to ruin the family picture....I told him if he wants to look like a rabbit I'll feed him carrots for a week! We actually weren't trying for anything professional, just snapped one quick since we were at a nice spot for Leonard & Leanne's family pictures

       Justyn was nice enough to agree to have chapel Monday morning at school. We take turns going
         in every Monday morning. Here he is helping Collin put on "The Whole Armour of God".

               After chapel at LaBorie School, we go to a nearby preschool. This morning Kaylah
                read the story...she was a little nervous, it was her first time, but she did great:)

                           Double trouble in the kitchen!:) These two had fun baking together

                                     Christi and Ashlyn enjoying some time coloring together.

                                            Any guesses on what the attraction was???:)

                                       Shooting hoops....another favorite past time. It's always
                                         way more fun when a "big" boy plays with them!

                           We might not get any more visitors if they see what we make them do.....

                                  dig out our sewer system.....hopefully it's a one time thing!

                                                               Collin, Christi & Ashlyn

                                                                      Kaylah & Abby

               We took alittle tour around the island one day...these folks were harvesting sugar cane
               by hand. We walked through the place where they process the sugar cane, everything done
            in a very old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, at that place it is all used to make and produce rum.

You won't find fresher, purer cinnamon than this! Fresh from the tree. Here they are scraping off the bark from the cinnamon tree. It gets dried and then ground into some of the best cinnamon ever.

Oil down party! We can't have visitors without serving them Grenada's national dish, pig snout stew, aka, oil down. Half the fun is seeing them turn up their snout at the pig snout floating merrily in the pot. They were good sports though and even ate some of the snout:) We also enjoyed having Judah and Bethany Clapper here this evening. They spend 10 days in Grenada and stayed with Arlen & Sharon. We really enjoyed getting to know this fine couple!

                                                               Too cute! David Clapper

                                                    Grenada Independence Day...
Grenada had been invaded by a number of European countries over the years. The Spanish, English, and French had all colonized it at one point of time or the other. In 1649, France took full control of the island. Grenada was the largest producer of sugar in the Caribbean and was one of the richest colonies of France. In 1763, France yielded its control over Grenada to Great Britain. The British ruled Grenada for more than 200 years. Finally on February 7, 1974, Grenada gained its independence.

                                   The children in their "flag" colors of green, yellow and red

                              LaBorie and Limes Schools had an Independence Day party together,
                                      complete with a pot of oil down, Grenada's national dish

                                                       Carter and some of his school buddies

 No visit to Grenada should ever be complete without eating some rotis...and not just any roti skins will do, they MUST be Patell's skins. Roti skins are made out of mashed white beans and seasonings and fried in alittle oil, then filled with roti filling made of chicken, potatoes, carrots & curry seasoning. Depends who makes the skins or the filling, that is subject to change. This is one of our favorite Grenadian meals...although it's not complete without cabbage salad! In my humble opinion, the two MUST be eaten together:)

                                               Carter and Rashad building...something

                       Since this chicken constantly got picked on by the other chickens in the pen,
                   we allowed it the privilege to roam free around here. It gets played with almost as
                      much as Frisky and has been known to wander in the house at random times:(

                                 National Insurance Scheme...same thing as America's social
                                     security, although probably more appropriately named!

                   A feathered friend that came in our house to visit us one night. Collin, ever the
                  tender-hearted one, thought we could put a worm on the counter for it each morning
                   and evening so it doesn't go hungry. Mean mother that I am, squashed that idea...

                       Shooting hoops with friends, something they get alot of practice doing

                      Some beautiful scenery pics that I stole from someone else's camera card

                                                     Sunlight filtering through coconut trees


And that's all for now folks! Thanks for your interest in our work in Grenada! Your continued prayers are appreciated!

 Prayer requests:
Faith Highschool Seniors are coming in 2 weeks. They help with the week of Vacation Bible School. Pray that children would come out for that, that all would go well and they would remember what they've been taught. Pray also for protection for the week.

Dervin and Lydia Seibel and their 2 year old daughter arrived last week to serve as pastor couple in Limes. They've committed for 3 years. Pray for them as they adjust to a new culture, climate and, and well, new everything!:)

Pray for Shannon and Janelle Martin as she continues to battle liver cancer

Praises!
We just came through a good week of crusades with Jim Weaver of Myerstown PA as the speaker.
New commitments were made and we were all encouraged by being there! 

Chris had been working with the government ever since September trying to get "work permit exemption" papers for the new staff. To work in Grenada you need to pay a yearly fee of $3000ec.
Ever since Olive Branch has been in Grenada they have given a "work exemption permit" and waived the fee. For some unknown reason they all of a sudden decided they are not going to do that anymore and we need to pay $3000 per teacher. With 11 teachers, that's $33,000 for just one year, let alone thinking about how much it would cost every year after this. Chris had frustrating meeting after meeting with different government officials who kept referring him to the next person and then the next person. His goal was to show them that by being here we are actually saving them alot of money by paying to educate their students instead of them paying for it through their public schools. He really wanted the issue resolved before we leave so he doesn't have to drop the head-ache on the new guy. FINALLY, this week they agreed to drop the fee to $500 instead of $3000, so we were so THANKFUL for that!