August 28th marked a momentous occasion for us; Benjamin took the Oath of Citizenship at a swearing in ceremony in Detroit. There were over a thousand people in attendance that day with 950 immigrants finishing the naturalization process. The ceremony itself was straightforward without too much pomp and circumstance, but it was meaningful and very significant for us. It is ironic to think that becoming a citizen of this country now gives us the freedom to become foreigners in another. Just a few weeks later we were in the Jackson county Court House putting in our application for passports that will allow us to begin yet another paper work process. Thank you for praying with us as we waited for this day to come. The Lord continues to meet our needs in His time. Be praying with us as the application process for our work permits and visas for Papua New Guinea begins.
ADDISON UNITED CHURCH: We continue to get opportunities to share our ministry presentation despite demanding schedule we find ourselves in this fall. Please pray with us as we develop our relationship with Addison United Church. This sweet congregation has decided to get behind us financially. We have a tremendous opportunity to continue to educate this group about tribal missions and the work of NTM. Most people in this church have not seen the NTM video production EETAOW. We are looking forward to an opportunity to view that with them and hope that it will aid to illustrate for them what we are going to be doing in PNG.
CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH: In the next few weeks we are going to be sharing with Calvary Baptist Church in Monacca, PA. Missy’s father pastors this small church. The congregation there has been tremendously supportive of our family and we are looking forward to the fellowship with our friends there. Pray that we would be an encouragement and that the Lord would continue to raise up workers for Him from this group. We are honored to be recognized by this church.
HOME GROUP PRESENTATION: At the end of October we are presenting our ministry to a group from our home church here in Jackson. Dear friends of ours are opening up their home to host this event. Pray that we would be able to see this opportunity duplicated in other homes in our local church community. We also have an opportunity to present our ministry at our evening service Sunday November 1st. We hope this will serve to raise awareness in our home church especially with those who are part of the large group of new attendees.
VILLAGE BIBLE CHURCH: We are beginning to prepare our minds for attending the Village Bible Church missions conference in January. Village Bible Church is located in Sugar Grove, Illinois. It is a growing church with 15 functioning small groups. The missions committee there has showed us tremendous support and they intend to get us into each of these small groups to present our ministry. We are very excited about this. Pray that we creatively work out the logistics so that our time out there in January is used effectively to this end.