Jores – We Made It!

Thank you for your prayer cover as we made our trip back from Jinja, Uganda to Minneapolis, USA.  The trip went very well, although Hannah had a rough time dealing with motion sickness.  We were the ones on the plane with the screaming baby that everyone dreads sitting near. We made all our connections and came out with all our bags - a huge blessing!

It has been so great to be back in the U.S. and to see our families. Rhoda's family gave us a royal welcome when we arrived at the airport at midnight on Monday. We visited my parents and brother Andy who are back from Brazil and my brother Ben who is back for the summer from Tanzania.

The boys have been adjusting very quickly to their new culture.  Everything is new and exciting for them.  It is fun to watch their little minds process what they've been through.  As we were driving away from the airport, Judah said, "Where was America? I didn't see it!" And as we were going to visit Grandpa and Grandma Jore, he asked, "Is Grandpa Jore an African?"  The boys were amazed to find out they didn't have to sleep under mosquito nets. "Aren't there any mosquitoes in America?"

We have a couple of weeks of settling in and resting up before we begin visiting churches in August.  AFLC World Missions has provided us with a mini-van that is perfect for our family.  We are staying in a basement apartment at Rhoda's parent's place.  They had it all fixed up for us and we are really enjoying our new home.

We feel very blessed and look forward to this next leg of our journey.  Please remember the training in Uganda which is continuing every Saturday and Monday.

"Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His mercies endure forever" (Psalm 106:1)

Nate

Jores Arrive in US Monday

Thanks for your recent prayers for our family as we prepare for our first trip back to the US since coming to Uganda.  Our personal belongings have been stored and we are ready to fly! 

We will be leaving Jinja tomorrow after church and traveling to Entebbe where the airport is.  We fly at 9:00am local time (1:00am CST) to London on British Airways and then connect to Chicago and finally Minneapolis.  Please pray for our connections, especially the one in Chicago where we will have 2 hours to go through customs, immigration, and to change terminals.

We are looking forward to our six months in America!  It will be a big adjustment for our three kids who have no memories of life in the States. 

Thanks for your prayer cover during this time.  We appreciate each one of you.

Nate, for the family too

Update from Chmiels

We wanted to share with you the good news of us being back home in Lviv again! Yes, we are back in Ukraine and we are praising the Lord for all His provision. Thank you SO MUCH for praying for us!

We also wanted to thank you for your prayers for our youth group. In our last update we asked you to pray that even though we were gone for some time, that we would be able to pick up where we left off. And it seems like God is really answering that prayer. Not only did all the students come back right away but we even have more students coming on Thursdays than we used to have during the school year! Please pray that God would use us to work in those students’ lives and hearts.

But we also have a specific prayer request to share with you today. One of our students, Kostya (in the picture on the left), is taking the entrance exams for one of the colleges here in Lviv. It is some kind of an art school and he is taking a series of exams this week. We talked to his mom this morning and she said that they were told by the professor in charge that Kostya should not have even applied since he did not do it “their way.” Well, “their way” is that each student who wants to be accepted pays $4,000 a year in advance and for that money they “prepare” him or her for the exams. “Prepare” means they make it possible for those students who pay to be accepted. Kostya did not do that so now they are saying that there is no chance for him to make it into that school even if he did well at all those exams.

We told Kostya that we would be praying for him and he knows that God can do a miracle for him if He chooses to do so. So we wanted to ask you to join us in that prayer. We also thought that if you pray for Kostya (even if you just quickly pray as you read this email) it would be great to let Kostya know. It would be very encouraging for him to know that he is being prayed for and to know that no matter what the result is, God is in control.

So if you pray, please email us and maybe just say “I prayed” or something simple that won’t take a lot of your time. And we will let Kostya know!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Tomasz, Miriam and Hannah

Waama – Ben Jore

There is so much to be thankful for! The corn and bean harvests are in.

The bean harvest is pretty bad, but the more important corn harvest was really good. Last year we harvested 102 sacks of corn and this year we harvested an estimated 125 despite the fact that everybody expected the harvest to be poor. We are extremely thankful. The blessing of this harvest is amplified even more when we look to many areas surrounding the school where the corn harvest failed completely because of a lack of rain. God has abundantly provided for Waama and we are very thankful for that.

Graduation came and went with plenty of work and stress, but otherwise without a hitch. On Sunday, June 28, all 61 students who started the year not only continued to the end, but all of them also passed. That is the first time we have witnessed this here at Waama. It was quite the celebration and it was fun to see many of our students' wives and children. It was a blessed day.

But perhaps the best news of all came the following morning, Monday. As Jesse and I were finishing packing up our house (which we had to vacate so it can be used while we're gone), news came that the power company had arrived and brought the much awaited transformer! So by the time we finished packing our house and left for Arusha the transformer had been installed, though apparently not connected (see picture)! That is great news. Unfortunately, this does no mean that Waama has electricity ... yet. They say that a new transformer has to be "primed" for a couple of weeks before it is operational. During that time the power company also has to run lines off the main "trunk line" to all the individual buildings and install meters. Once this is completed, the switch will be thrown and Waama should be online ... at least all the building which have been rewired and brought up to code. We have more good news about the rewiring too! Our electrician has made it through some health issues at home and is ready to do some more work for us. He is supposed to come today, Tuesday, to Waama and then continue to Arusha to purchase all the needed materials. Thanks to many of you, a lot of money has come through for this project and we think it should get us most of the way through our project. So Jesse and I are very hopeful that Waama will be "on the grid" by the time we get back to Waama in October. Praise the Lord.

Jesse and I have started our trek back to the States. We have made it as far as Arusha (a 2 hour, 45 minute ride from Waama). We have a little time here before we continue on our journeys. On Wednesday morning, I will catch a bus to Dar es Salaam, usually about a 10 hour ride. Then early Thursday morning (July 2nd) I will catch a flight to Minneapolis via London and Chicago. After about 24 hours I will arrive in Minneapolis. Jesse will leave from Arusha on Friday the 3rd. We appreciate all your prayers on our behalf as we travel. We both plan on being in the States for almost 3 months. During this time we will be working some, visiting friends and family, and sharing in many different churches. If you would be interested in having us share about our work, please let us know. I will send out a schedule later on. I hope to see many of you this summer.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. May God richly bless you,

Ben

Tomasz Chmiels

Dear friends,
We are still writing to you from outside of Ukraine but that is soon to change! We are so excited to tell you that Hannah finally got her birth certificate so that means that we should be back home in Lviv soon! Tomasz will already be back in Lviv this Monday and there will again be a youth group meeting at our house on Tuesday! How exciting! After all these long weeks of being in Poland and Czech Republic, waiting for Hannah’s documents, it feels almost unreal to think that in just couple of days we should be back home and back to our ministry.

As we said, Tomasz will go to Lviv on Monday. There will be a youth group meeting on Tuesday and he will take our friend Lydia Johnson to the Lviv airport on Wednesday. He will also try to prepare our home for our return. After that he will come back to get me (Miriam) and Hannah and we will all return to Lviv next weekend. Unfortunately it is not possible for all of us to leave this Monday because there are still couple of last things that have to be taken care of for Hannah before we go back to Lviv for good. But the day for all of us to be back in Ukraine is coming up and we are praising God for that! :)

Hannah is growing so fast! She’s been lifting her head and smiling for a while now and each day we watch her learn something new. We love being her parents! What a gift from God she is!

We also have Lydia Johnson with us these days. Lydia is Hannah’s baptismal sponsor and we are so thankful that there will be such a godly young woman like Lydia in Hannah’s life as she is growing up. Lydia has spent the last three weeks with us helping us and also getting to know the various ministry opportunities here in Central and Eastern Europe. Who knows, maybe one day God will call Lydia to come back as a missionary. :)
Tonight we are going to meet with a youth group in Oldrichovice, Czech Republic. The Lutheran congregation in Oldrichovice invited our Lviv youth group to come for a weeklong retreat in the fall so we are planning and organizing that. We believe that this could be a wonderful opportunity for our Lviv youth to meet young Christians of their own age who are on fire for the Lord, to see Christian families (because none of our students in Lviv have two parents who would both be believers) and spend more focused time in God’s Word.

Thank you so much for praying for us during these months. Please pray for traveling mercies for this week and for short waiting times at the Polish-Ukrainian border. We would also appreciate your prayers for the Youth Group meeting on Tuesday. Pray that even though we were gone for some time, that we would be able to pick up where we left off.

Blessings,
Tomasz, Miriam and Hannah

For those of you who would like to see more baby pictures… :) http://picasaweb.google.com/HannahJoyChmiel “First month” is updated and two more albums were added.

Darwin Jackson - Traveling

"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?" Corrie Ten Boom

This seemed a good thought on prayer since I'll be doing about 3,000 more miles this coming week. I sure don't want to wait until something bad happens and then cry out to God, I want grip Him, watch, and let Him lead. So far so good, only had a tire problem.

Tomorrow I head to Peace Lutheran Church in Sioux Center, IA. then to The Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Toledo, OH. Pray for Gods inspiration as I share with these two congregations.

So far I've had a wonderful time visiting with so many of you in your congregations as last week at the Association Free Lutheran Conference in Fergus Falls, MN. Some I haven't seen in sixteen years!
Thank you  all so much for "getting behind the wheel" in prayer with us, your fellow workers,

Darwin, Mary Ann, Gracie, Cesar, Ernesto and Laura :-)

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Kvale’s Prayer Letter

 “The name of the LORD is a strong tower.  The righteous runs into it and is safe”  (Proverbs 18:10, NASB).

Dear Intercessors,

Thank you for all your love and encouragement in the Lord.  We covet your specific prayers in the following areas.

Please Pray for: 

1.  Our stress level to be placed in the hand of God with our responsibilities and concerns at hand.

2. A steady pace in the current computer project Steve is on with the Wycliffe IT missionaries he works with in FL, NC, and TX.  They are focusing on the IT needs for the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project.  This links the bibleless people groups of the world to devoted intercessors in the world.

3. Glenda’s dad (Warren) as he has had some recent trail-some days in his walk with bone cancer.  And Glenda’s mom (Eleanor) as she continues to recover from her recent eye surgery.

4. Glenda’s family as they come together in care and concern for their parents and to celebrate a wedding.

5. Safety, blessing and anointing on Jason’s mission trip from June 20-27^th(and the whole team he is with) under a YWAM ministry outreach to the devastation caused by hurricane Ike in Galveston, TX and any other opportunities to share the message of Jesus along the way.

6. Personal safety, health and stamina for our family and the team of volunteers helping with a big fireworks tent fundraiser at the Walmart parking lot in Marshall, MN from June 19-23 set-up, and June 24 through July 5^th  for the fundraiser sale.  As we work, may we also be sparkling for Jesus! Pray for receptive hearts for any that visit our fresh water table with gospel tracks available in English, Spanish & Somali.

7. Wisdom in whether to receive this fireworks tent as an annual fundraiser opportunity or to pass it on to someone else next year.

Give God Praise for:

1.  The safe travels recently during harsh weather, health, and enough strength each day to serve Him who makes our joy complete.

2.  The fundraiser project (above) that was presented to us by someone that sees our commitment with Wycliffe as a vital need to the bibleless.

3.  The servant hearts and volunteers that God has raised up and are surrounding us during this fundraiser project.

4.  Praising God that Glenda’s mom and dad know the Lord and take each day as it unfolds.  He holds the future.

5.  Jason raised funds for his mission trip and is excited to go!  God calls and provides.

6.  George Cowan, former translator in Mexico and former director of the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project, began praying for the Sinte Romani speakers of Europe in June, 1983. There are 30,000 Sinte speakers in Serbia alone, with more than 250,000 living in a dozen other European nations. George has been praying for the Sinte speakers for 26 years, but they have waited even longer to receive God’s Word in the language that speaks to their hearts.  Praise God! On the very day marking the 26^th anniversary of George’s commitment to pray, Wycliffe USA received word that the Sinte Romani New Testament will be published this year!   

“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God” (Acts 20:24, NLT).

In His great love,

Steve & Glenda Kvale

AFLC Missionaries on loan to Wycliffe Bible Translators

Personal Website:  www.TranslateTheWord.org

www.wycliffe.org

Connecting the Church to Bible-less People-groups and Bible-less People-groups to the Church.

Hinrichs’ Newsletter

Future of the Bible School

In our last newsletter, we shared about our intention to return to the US and hand the Bible school over to the Polish Lutheran Church. This has been our greatest prayer request in the past months and we trust God with the leadership of the Bible school since it is His. Unfortunately, the board which makes decisions about all the ministries of the Center for Missions and Evangelism (including Bible school) decided to close the . . .

Click here to read the entire newsletter.

Paul Abel's Prayer Letter

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night.”  Psalm 92:1-2 

We are thinking of our AFLC friends in the U.S. as they gather for Annual Conference this week.  May their fellowship be sweet and their decisions godly as they give thanks to God as a church body. 

Our vacation trip was a blessed get-away, something totally new and different for us.  We travelled 5000 kilometers by plane to Recife and back, and another 3500 kilometers in a rented car. It was fun to travel with our friends Gerson and Indioara as we went to visit our missionary friends Gary and Sherry in Petrolina and Ken and Lori in Mossoró.  We passed through six states and had new cultural experiences with foods, language, and different landscapes.  The northeast is usually very dry, but they have been blessed with rain to green things up.  Yet, the shrubbery is all very low, lots of cactus and desert scapes. Drivers need to be aware of goats and donkeys crossing the roads.  Our second week was spent on the beautiful coastal beaches, one more beautiful than the other.  We spent unforgettable moments snorkeling among the colorful ocean fish and taking in the splendid sights of God’s creation.  Our 30^th wedding anniversary was well-celebrated!

Back at the ranch everything went well without us, but there was plenty of work awaiting us upon our return.  The weather has been extremely cold with hard frosts on many nights.  I am especially thankful for the fireplace in our living room which makes for a cozy spot on cold evenings.  I managed to catch a miserable cold which has been hanging on for more than a week now. Many others are suffering, too.

Paul planned an outing last week for the young neighbor kids who are always around here playing and helping out with odd jobs.  I made a big picnic lunch, a man from church made some fishing poles, Paul loaded up the canoe on the trailer pulled by the church bus, and off they went for a day of fun.  We hope these little investments in lives will help them feel loved and want to choose to follow the Lord.

This past weekend we had two special events.  Saturday was the Valentines Banquet at the ARCA for the married and unmarried couples.  Paul gave a very good talk on “Love and Respect” as part of the program. Then on Sunday we had an outreach event in Campo Largo.  We once again went around the neighborhood handing out invitations (as we have done on many other occasions).  In the past we have had difficulty in getting people from this particular neighborhood to come to any events at the church.  So this time we decided to try a food event, and sure enough we had positive results. People came all during the afternoon to buy our Brazilian pastries and listen to live Gospel music presented by five young men from the Bateias church.  We had a drawing at the end of the afternoon preceded by a skit and devotional.  We were pleasantly surprised at how many people came and stayed and seemed to enjoy themselves.  Now we continue to pray that some “brave” souls will decide to visit our church again for spiritual food.         

Our family is well.  The boys are working for Paul’s cousin Tim at his farm in Stephen, MN, for the summer again.  They have special vacation plans for July which include the FLY youth convention in Estes Park, a fishing trip to Canada, and a week at the lake cabin in WI with the Dahlin family. 

We see our girls weekly. Christina was here for brunch today with some of her English students. She does not see much of her husband Daniel these days because of the demanding schedule of his residency program.  Joanna and the little girls were with us Monday night for a special celebration at the Gill household. Paul’s sister Deby and family (11 kids) have returned to Brazil to live. Family is special! 

Please join us in prayer for Joanna and her partners as they seek God’s will for Lighthouse International School.  They now have over 50 students and will not be able to continue on in the same rented quarters next year.  They need wisdom and provision for the next step.  Developing a Christian school is a big challenge, and Joanna would really appreciate your prayer support.

In July we will be traveling to Campo Mourão to lead two Bible Camps, one for children and another for teens.  Pray for us as we teach and bless lives there. 

Right now it is time to head off for church.  My group is leading the worship tonight and I need to get my children’s class ready, too.

Sure hope you have a great summer!  Take time to appreciate people, enjoy God’s creation, and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

Thank you for your interest in our lives and ministry! 

Love, Paul and Becky

Thank You for Praying

A few weeks ago there was a post on the prayer blog about a threat received by retired missionary Lois Raser who attends our church in Jerez.  I'm glad to report that Lois said nothing came of the threat and she can't even remember what they said to her.  Praise the Lord for His protection and care for Lois. 

Todd