Coyle’s Arrive Safely in the Ukraine

       

Hello from Odessa! We are so thankful to God for countless answers to prayer in the past day. The travels went well and we arrived safely with all of our luggage. God is so good! The kids were excellent travelers and even slept on the long flight. An added bonus was that we were able to get the wall-mounted cradle for Josiah during the long flight.

We are now getting settled in our apartment and are so glad to have a place to call home. Tomorrow we will join the EEMN short-term team as we prepare for the English Bible Camp next week. We are hitting the ground running! It is nice to have the EEMN crew here and to be able to get to know a lot of co-workers with the ministry.

THANK YOU for your prayers. God is using you! Have a blessed day and know how much you are appreciated.

Standing in His Grace,
Andy & Monica, Moriah, Isaiah & Josiah

Short Term Assistants Leave for Uganda

Hans Tanner and Micah Berger left for Uganda on Monday, June 20th.   They will be working with Nate Jore for the next year learning and teaching Ambassador Institute curriculum.

WMF Day and Missions Festival

The 2011 Annual Conference in beautiful Sioux Falls is in full swing!  The women of the World Mission Federation (WMF) enjoyed a full day of worship, Bible study, encouragement, yes, and even business as well as wonderful workshop speakers who exhorted us to Trust in, Delight in,  and Commit our ways to God who will give us the desire of our hearts. (Psalm 37:3-6)  We heard greetings from Tamba Abel, who along with her husband, Jonathon and family are here for a 1-year furlough, and from Todd and Barb Schierkolk, who left Mexico earlier than expected and will have a longer furlough as they wait for the violence in Mexico to subside.  They found it very hard to leave their ministry before they were ready.  The WMF day finished in a big way as Christie Ballman did a chalk talk with us, drawing a picture of an island and telling us the story of Missionary Darlene Diebler Rose who was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II but lived to tell of her experience in her autobiography:  Evidence Not Seen.

Tuesday night, the WMF hosted the annual Missions Festival with Pastor Jonathan Abel speaking.  Our new missionaries,  Andy and Monica Coyle;  Justo and Patricia Pillman, were commissioned at the end of the service.  What a special time it was when members of the missions committee and Director Del Palmer laid hands on them to send them out in the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Barnabas and Saul were commissioned in the early church. (Acts 13:1-3)

Pastor Abel preached from Matthew 28:19-20, verses that most of us know as the “Great Commission”.  The command to preach the Gospel (go and make disciples) is for each of us individually, for the local church, and for the church worldwide.  We need to think about Acts 1:8 which commands us to go out to be witnesses in the power of the Holy Spirit to “our Jerusalem (the culture we know around us), Judea (the unchurched community around us), Samaria (people/cultures different from ourselves in the US), and the ends of the earth (other cultures in other countries).”

The WMF day and the Missions Festival have indeed fulfilled the purpose of the annual conference in providing spiritual refreshment and power for all attendees.

Envision Brazil

Just out, the new video about Brazil by Andrew Abel.

Missionary Greetings

We send greetings from our missionaries.

Daniel and the Stolen Beans

Dear Friends,

The rains have returned and the villagers are busy planting.

I'd like to tell you a story that has been unfolding over the past year or so. I have a garden in the village of Butagaya, near the original Bible class that I began teaching. Last year at this time, I was going there every Monday to teach. Following the training each week, I would go to the garden and work before coming back to town.    

One day a neighbor near the garden asked if he could do some work for me during the week and get paid on Monday when I came to the garden. I hired him. His name was Daniel. I was happy with what he'd accomplished during the week, so I kept him on. As time passed, I began to notice that produce was disappearing from the garden. A pineapple, several acorn squash. One day when I came to work all the coffee had been harvested. Several avocado trees I had transplanted also went missing. One Monday I transplanted two pomegranate trees. Daniel was there at the time and I explained to him the kind of fruit that they give (it was new to him). The following week the two trees were gone. There are many people around the area of the garden, so I could not be sure who was stealing, but I was fairly certain it was Daniel.

I eventually decided to address the issue of stealing with him. I spoke in general terms about how God views a thief. I quoted from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 which says that the thieves will not inherit the kingdom of God. I told him that the garden had been given to God and that anyone who stole from it would have to deal with Him. After listening, Daniel assured me that he was not a thief and we went on with our work of planting beans. When the work for the day was done, I gave Daniel a ride to the nearby trading center. As Daniel opened the car door and climbed out of the car, the side of his pants slid against the edge of the seat and beans came spraying out of his pocket in full view of everyone in the car. They were the same beans that we had planted just minutes before. He muttered something hastily about having been planting the same beans in his garden that morning and took off.

Do you believe in miracles? I bet you could climb out of a car one thousand times with beans in your pocket and never lose one, but on that day, the beans that Daniel had stolen in secret were exposed for everyone to see. I'm sure that Daniel was awed by the power of God. I had just told him that morning how God views stealing and he had decided to steal anyway. More than six months have passed now, and nothing has gone missing from the garden.

Daniel no longer works in my garden, but I continue to see him from time to time. This past Saturday I passed his place and I noticed that his tomato plants were dried and withered. It had not rained in the area for 3 weeks. I told him that I was praying for rain. On Monday I was on the way to my garden when Daniel saw me and came running through his garden. "God heard your prayers!" It had rained heavily the night before.

God wants Daniel. He is calling him to Himself. Will you pray that Daniel will respond?

The training is continuing well. The new classes have just completed their first term of studies and have covered the stories from Creation through the Exodus from Egypt and the Golden Calf.  Term 2 will begin next week. We would appreciate your prayers for continued spiritual growth and hunger for the Lord amongst the students.

We are excited to have two young men join the work here beginning the end of June.  Hans Tanner and Micah Berger will be coming to join us, and they plan to stay for a year.  We are really looking forward to their partnership.  Please be in prayer for them as they make preparations to come.

We are grateful for your prayers and your partnership.

All because of Him,

Nate Jore and family

Jonni Sliver’s June 2011 Newsletter

Here are some excerpts from Jonni’s newest newsletter.  To read the entire newsletter, please click here!

A fact of life: everything changes. That was one of my mother’s biggest pet peeves, the continual changes of life. The hard part of change is that we often feel of balance, unsure of the next step. The positive side (or sides) is that boredom isn’t a threat (or is shouldn’t be!) and that we are often pushed into dependence on the one unchanging facet in our lives; The
Living God!

Changes occur in the Miriam Home pretty quickly! The most frequent change is, of course, who lives here. I told you last week that twin babies who had been here for a year are now back with their mom. Just one week ago the “babe in arms” role was filled by a precious young thing named Flavia. She is 14 months old and very healthy indeed! She actually weighs quite a bit more than Altieires and Thavildy combined. She arrived accompanied by her sister, Taina (4 years) and brother Richard (7 years). They are a close knit little group, and they have had to be. Their mother would leave them for hours and days at a time; sometimes a neighbor would watch over them, many times they watched out for themselves. Taina sees her-self as mom over her siblings. She can make a baby bottle, change a diaper, fold laundry and sweep the floor. She decides when she needs a nap—and when Richard does! It will take time for this little lady to learn to become a child again, and for all three to learn to rely on grown ups.

Check out Jonni’s blog for regular updates!

Ambassador Institute 2011 Summer Inquiry

The following is just a sneak peak into this quarter’s Inquiry.  Please click here to read the entire newsletter.

It is a great blessing to be a part of the ministry that the Lord has called us to in the Ambassador Institute! People are being trained in God’s Word and lives are being changed as they study and share what they have learned.  This Inquiry is a prayer list made up of the people that the Lord has brought together to carry out the ministry of the Ambassador Institute. Be encouraged and pray for these people in your own role as a part of the support team that makes this work possible.

Pastor Kevin, has been traveling nationally to visit the churches of the AFLC and to cast the vision of the Ambassador Institute for international
discipleship. International trips happen twice a year, with regular phone
and e-mail conversations with the international partners. Networking and
coordination would describe two important aspects of this work that now
is spanning six countries and six languages.

Nathan Olson has been serving as a Short-Term Assistant in the office and has been working on the compellation of the Oral Curriculum in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He also assists with web management, which we would encourage you to check out here as well as by finding us on Facebook!

Abel's on Furlough

Dear Friends in Christ,

We have just returned home for furlough.  We want to thank you for all your prayers and support over these years  and are looking forward to seeing many of you at our Conferences, Rallies, and Churches during this year.  

We would like to ask you to keep us in your prayers as we plan our schedule and travel the many miles.    Also, we would like to request prayers for the work in Brazil in our absence that the brethren there would stay encouraged and that God would pour out His blessings upon them.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

We are looking forward to seeing how the Lord leads and directs.

Yours in Christ,
Jonathan & Tamba Abel