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It’s getting exciting!

March 13, 2020 by Joel Potter

Momentum is Building

These past few weeks, the word “momentum” has been on our minds. Depending on your point of view, the events taking place and gaining momentum in our world could be seen as good or just plain bad (a certain virus out there…). 

As we think about it, we realize some things don’t need any help to get moving. It just seems like you think of it and it’s off and running. But other things need to be pushed up hill for a bit and then nudged over the crest where they finally start gaining momentum.

There’s a bit of both of those scenarios happening for Bethany and I and are SO encouraging right now!

Is it really March already?

We’re six weeks into this six month period of ministry where we are focusing on support building full-time.  In these last few weeks, God has moved in the hearts and minds of FOUR new families who have stepped up and joined our support team.  Other than the more regular communication from us, it seems these new supporters would fall under “the momentum that maybe just needs a little push” category. God has shown us that as we are faithful to communicate, He will lead others, ranging from people we’ve not seen in years, to friends we see weekly to respond to His invitation and join us. It’s goose-bump inducing!

On the other hand, God also showed us that He can prompt others to catch the vision without needing our input at all. One of the ideas we thought would be fun to see happen was to have a dinner event or two. Wouldn’t it be so cool to spend an evening with good friends and fellow Christians, sharing God’s heart for the unreached people of the world, how He’s drawn us into it and eat some good food together?  We thought it was a good idea and discussed possible details together, but we never mentioned it to anyone else. And honestly didn’t know if it was appropriate to “host for ourselves”. It really needed to be something our church or an advocate would do for us. But how do you ask someone to do that? It could be awkward, right?

Well, at a recent meeting with our pastor here (Phil), Joel was sharing with him about our PD time and totally unprompted by Joel, Phil, suggested that LifePoint, our home church here, host a dinner where we could tell the sweet stories of how God is drawing people around the world to Himself and how the church body could connect to that and be a part of it. It was exactly what we had in mind except we never said anything to him about it! God gave Phil the idea and we just simply hopped on board.

Our God is at work HERE!

For the next 3 weeks we’ll be working to help our church host what we’re calling the “Potter Mission Passport Dinner.” There’s a lot to do from designing and printing the invitations to planning the program for the night and all the little touches that will help our local community engage with what God is doing. But we’re happy to do that work. We’re happy to help get the idea moving forward and see how God allows the momentum to build as He touches hearts along the way. 

Having this event so near the beginning of our time is a really good thing as it allows us to use it as a springboard (again with the momentum analogies 😉 for the next four months of our home assignment time.

Would you pray for us as we prepare for this event? 

  1. Pray that we would be able to weave together the stories that will engage our friends that evening.
  2. Pray that God would put it in the hearts of the people invited to commit to coming out and enjoying the evening with us? 
  3. Pray that those who come, would be impacted by the stories we tell and that they would be excited to do their part in reaching the unreached.

He’s at work ABROAD too!

We talk a lot about how much we want to see people who never had the chance to know the story of God in their own language finally have their turn. It’s pretty much the most important thing a person can know. Well recently, we were able to hear of co-workers across the world who were able to see that happen first hand and then saw transformation that results when God’s word begins to impact a new church. 

A few weeks back, a group of new Christians, brothers and sisters with you and me, were able to follow Jesus’ words to His disciples when they shared their first “last supper” together. For the first time in their history, the church in the Menya people group in Papua New Guinea joined together and as a body celebrated the Lord’s Supper. What it looked like was a bit different than what we’re used to here in our culture, but that’s fine because the way it looks isn’t what matters. It’s what is in the heart that matters. And what was in the hearts of those Menyan Christians was to remember the sacrifice and love that Jesus poured out of himself for them. It took too long for them to finally hear, but they have heard and believed. 

You should really check out the Instagram post below for more about it or head to our Facebook Ministry Group where we’ll post the story as well.

View the whole post here on Ethnos360’s Instagram

On the Family Front

  • One of the benefits we’ve seen in our new routine is that as we share the work of Partnership Development (PD) from home, Bethany is able to, once again, join in the “ministry side” of our life.  As she works on tasks related to PD, Joel is able to share in the care of her mom who is battling mid-stage Alzheimers. Having him here to help with the needs that arise, provides her with much-needed breathing room as well as fulfillment in the work she is passionate about. 
  • Owen just finished “running season” (cross country in the fall and track and field in the winter) and really enjoyed it. 
  • Jack’s health has been more stable over the past 12 months than just about any other year of his life. That’s good too because year 15 has shaped up to cause us more white hair than any other year too.
  • Kate, as well as the boys, is growing like a weed.  She is still our little social butterfly and most days, spends her free time creating and communicating with ALL the words she can in 24 hours!
  • Bethany, as you might remember, had an eye surgery last spring called PRK. Unfortunately she never experienced the “delayed but dramatic improvement” most patients experience, even ten months into recovery, and if anything, still suffers with headaches and blurriness. At her most recent checkup, the doctor informed her that the procedure in her left eye didn’t work and will need to be done again. That’s good news in the long run but hard news too.. The initial recovery after the first surgery was excruciating for Bethany and she doesn’t relish having it done again. But for the hope of eventual dramatic improvement she’ll undergo the procedure again later this month. PLEASE PRAY THAT THE PROCEDURE WORKS THIS TIME.

Is there anything I can do?

You bet there is! The best next step you can take, is to pray intentionally with us! Prayer is no small thing in this season we are in. We really believe that. We are regularly praying for God to work in and stir up the hearts and minds of you, our community to take more action when it comes to seeing the moms and dads, the kids and families that make up the worlds unreached people groups, reached with the gospel.

If you would be willing to pray each day for a week, we are going to post a new prayer prayer item each day for the next week on our Facebook Ministry Group. It would be awesome to count you a part of our prayer support team, if you’re not already doing that. Head to our group and make sure you’re a member of it if you’re not already. There are a couple hundred of you already in there!

Filed Under: The Potter Mission Tagged With: 2020 Campaign, Family, Florida, Papua New Guinea, Tribal

More Posts:

« What’s the Deal with Unreached People Groups
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The Potters…

are missionaries helping every people group around the world have the chance to understand the gospel and have access to a thriving church. We are serving with the International Ministries Office as it assists Ethnos360 and its Global Partners.

joeldpotter

Late last week, we shared a "Can we be candid..." Late last week, we shared a "Can we be candid..." update, this time about a BIG ministry change. Many of you read that and wrote your sweet prayers back to us. For some of you, email is not your thing and so we don't want you to miss out. So, there's a link to the full post on our blog in my profile link or you can read the brief overview of update if you just want the basics.

Shortly after we returned from our trip to Missouri in June we had some realizations that led us to conclude, with the counsel of others, that our time serving with the Equip Asia team was coming to an end. The Lord had already been putting desires on my (Joel’s) heart to pursue a role that would allow me to serve our wider global missions community in the area of media and communications and we knew that with Kate starting to hybrid homeschool, she was going to need much more support as a homeschooled student. We also realized that Bethany needed to pursue some side-jobs and employment to supplement our very tight financial state.

So, for now, I’ve had my new ministry role approved and am making strides at getting an audio and video studio setup here in Sanford as well as beginning to make many plans for upcoming projects both here and abroad. I’ll be able to use both the experience I gained working with the Communications team for 8 years as well as the newfound skills in videography and media production to serve many different teams in what we call the “Global Partners” family (all related to Ethnos360).

Bethany is also off to the races, so to speak, helping to homeschool Owen and Kate, working several small jobs on the side, all while keeping our incredibly busy household sane and well organized. It’s a different scene for sure after the last three years, but there are some blessings that come from it.

Again, there’s more detail at the post you can get to in my profile link. 
______
#thepottermission @ethnos360
After learning of this book, I had to read it. Not After learning of this book, I had to read it. Not reading a lot of books, I used every renewal cycle that the local library allowed (it is due tomorrow) to finish this one and boy am I glad I finished it. 

@andrewpetersonmusic wrote a book about trees (and SO much more) and moved me at a time when I needed moving and reminding of how the God who created me and knows me intimately, is carefully tending the garden of my own being. 

There were moments when I gasped as I read his words and his realizations which I found paralleled some of my own. 

Having been transplanted from Pennsylvania and it’s temperate woods to Central Florida and it’s weird mix of prairies and swamps at 11 years old, I identified with his interpretation of his childhood. 

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I’ve always loved trees and only love them more now. In fact a week ago I took the chance to go visit some of trees that AP mentioned in the book; the somber remains of our truly ancient Bald Cypress, “the Senator”, that tree’s younger (but still 2,000 years old) sibling, “Lady Liberty”, and the youngest of the family, a clone of the original, the relative sapling, “Phoenix”. (Big Tree Park, near the Spring Hammock Preserve)

I commend this book highly and again, pass my thanks to Andrew Peterson for it. 
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#andrewpeterson #thegodofthegarden
#plantmoretrees 
@bhpub 
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The tree in this photo is the pride and joy of our backyard, a Chinese or lacebark Elm (Ulmus parvifolia)and was planted by us not long after we moved to this house and provides lush shade to the eastern side of our backyard and filters the early morning sunrise light beautifully!
After running for a long time, like since 2002, I After running for a long time, like since 2002, I finally found a partner to train with, someone who although they live states away, knows the value of partnership and how to push another person to do better. I’m pretty excited about what’s to come as he and I work towards a goal that will be a lifetime highlight when we achieve it. Until then, here’s some highlight runs of the last month. 
______
#runwithstrava #floridarunner @strava @altrarunning
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