Bill is Punching Me Again!
Dear Friends,
I need to cover several very different areas of ministry in this one page prayer letter, so I’ll be brief.
The Iowa City Ministry: We had a follow-up dinner with international friends from Iowa City. A third person, a Muslim from Turkey, joined us for dinner. The dinner also included our friends from Myanmar and Columbia. We became better acquainted on the 30 minute drive to and from Iowa City, and enjoyed an interesting evening of learning about each other’s cultural distinctives. During our conversation, our friend from Myanmar asked me, if as a Christian, I demanded people to succeed, regardless of their abilities (this was her understanding of Baptist Christianity). I honestly answered, “No, we understand people to be made in the image of God, but each with strengths and weaknesses.” I explained that our hope is to be able to help people find their place with God—that was the end of that exchange. Nevertheless, at the end of the evening, my friend confided in me that I was still punching her. Rather, I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to her—we will see.
The Sheriff and the Sailor: On Thursday afternoons, I meet with two other old guys. We have done so now for many months. We are slowly working our way through Genesis, highlighting God’s promises to Israel, including His promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s Seed. I think by doing our study in this way, they will be prepared to understand all of the Bible more easily. Recently, a mutual friend of ours commented to me that he has seen a big change in both of these older gentleman. I now believe that both have crossed the line from death to life—Praise the Lord!!
Tuesday Night thru the Bible Study: We are finishing the Gospel of John this week. Next week we will review our ‘Through the Bible’ journey through the Gospels, and the following week we start the book of Acts, showing the continuity of the redemption story. Our study has grown to include eight participants from Oregon, Boston, Williamsburg and Des Moines. It is our desire to slowly build this study to include other disciples to whom we have minister through the years, but are yet in need of mentoring into new or established churches. This has the potential to becoming a key ingredient in fulfilling our stewardship to disciple the nations globally by ministering locally—Please Pray
InterGlo Ministries: international peoples/global discipleship: I am making available four letters, which were sent to our financial supporters. These letters clarify our Emeritus Status with Baptist Mid-Missions, our intention to continue as full-time vocational missionaries, our ministry goals for the coming year, and our current support estimate. If you would like to read them, you can do so by going to blog.interglo.org . Several of you have asked where to send financial support. Please continue to send it to Baptist Mid-Missions, as you have always done. If you need clarification, you can go to interglo.org and click on the Support Information tab.
We love you,
Bill and Deb