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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
What is Ethnos360? »

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.

Keep up with us on Instagram…

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If the needs are greater there, should we stay her If the needs are greater there, should we stay here?⁠⁠
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[1-minute read]⁠⁠
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This one is about a church-planter who felt like the pond he was fishing in, was crowded and over-fished. ⁠⁠
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Imagine you’re the lead pastor of a numerically successful but also vibrant and mature church body. That body was not only those things but also responsible for starting new local churches and getting behind reaching unreached people groups. ⁠⁠
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The problem was that the body of water, the lake, the pond, the shoreline, was crowded with others like them or even aspiring to reach that same level of growth. The pastor also knew that there were other bodies of water full of “fish” that were hardly touched. Very little was being done to “fish for men and women” in those areas while on his shores, church-leaders seemed to be clamoring to try out new techniques in the same waters.⁠⁠
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That didn’t sit well with him. He felt a tug on his heart to leave the crowded shores. He knew his local body was in a healthy place and capable of leading itself. So, he moved his family to the other side of the world to begin to serve another community. ⁠⁠
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He left one crowded shore for an almost empty one.⁠⁠
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The lesson in this story is that we need to be careful to not focus our efforts on areas where much work is being done, when there are huge pockets of people, WHOLE people groups, millions of people in fact, who don’t have access to God’s Word, in their languages. ⁠⁠
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If the needs are greater there, should we continue to stay here? ⁠⁠
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The answer to that isn’t a foregone conclusion, just an honest challenge to answer for yourself.⁠⁠
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For more on who I’m referring to in this post, please send me a personal message.⁠⁠
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#thepottermission #equippingthechurch #trainingforministry #foundationalbibleteaching
Heading in the right direction⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ [4 min Heading in the right direction⁠⠀
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[4 minute read...it's worth it 😉]⁠⠀
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So, guess what?! We got some great news the other night.⁠⠀
When our six-month partnership and community development time finished in August, we knew that we probably wouldn’t reach the goal we set for 2020: to see an additional $2020 of monthly sustaining support committed. But, we were still SUPER encouraged with what God did on our behalf through you all, especially considering the insanely unexpected circumstances that we all faced this year.⁠⠀
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We just didn’t realize exactly how he had answered our prayer until we looked at our numbers for the whole year.⁠⠀
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Guys, the numbers are just numbers, but they represent for us the ability to continue serving full-time in this important ministry. At a quick glance, we are so happy to say that the numbers are going in the right direction! When it’s all averaged out (combining regular promised support with other one time gifts), here’s where we started the year: we were at 51% of what is recommended. Now, here’s where we are at as we finish out 2020: 64% of what is recommended! That’s a 13% increase and that is AMAZING!⁠⠀
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Overall, we’re really encouraged by the blessing behind these numbers. We had new families join our community of sustaining supporters and we’ve had others who have increased their support amounts.⁠⠀
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Now, because we need to be transparent, we’re still ending up this year at just 64% of what Ethnos360 asks us to raise, to do our ministry well, and take care of the needs of our family. And that’s why we’re going to keep working at this effort in 2021.⁠⠀
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God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL. So we won’t say the cliché “God’s been faithful”. We realize that by saying that, it makes it sound like that if we don’t have a certain amount of support, then He’s not being true to His Word and character. What is right to say is that whether in abundance or need, we’ve learned how to be content in His faithfulness.⁠⠀
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#thepottermission #equippingthechurch #trainingforministry #foundationalbibleteaching
[2-minute read]⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ I’m tired these day [2-minute read]⁠⠀
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I’m tired these days. You probably are too. But I think I know of some people who might be wearier than us both. The believers in Asia that Bethany and I have been helping to equip in the training program that started back in June are downright exhausted.⁠⠀
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These dear friends and fellow members of the Body of Christ are faithful in walking with God in, let’s just say, less than friendly circumstances when it comes to religious freedom. They live in economically depressed parts of their countries and everyday life carries much more challenge for them than it does for us.⁠⠀
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Add to that the ravaging effects of COVID-19 and you have people almost at a breaking point. But wait, they all embarked on a two-year training journey with us and have been completing college-level courses online in a language that’s not their first language.⁠⠀
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They’re tired. They have every reason to be.⁠⠀
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Fortunately, they have a long break right now. They’re a few weeks into what will be an 11-week break before the next class, a class on the sweetest book in scripture, the book of Romans.⁠⠀
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Honestly, many are weary and even contemplating stepping out due to the load. So, let’s band together to pray for these men and women. Let’s ask the Lord:⁠⠀
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* To give them rest during this break⁠⠀
* For clarity on whether it’s just tiredness suggesting they step out or really the Lord’s leading⁠⠀
*That they would continue to realize His sufficient grace in their circumstances⁠⠀
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These students are sweet folks, men and women, Dads, and Moms who we would love to see finish this program and get this training. They need our prayers right now!⁠⠀
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#thepottermission #equippingthechurch #trainingforministry #foundationalbibleteaching
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