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Category: Guest Post

Remain [Guest Post]

Remain [Guest Post]

May 4, 2020

The following post was adapted from some timely encouragement shared with me from my sister-in-law, Christine Potter. She’s married to my brother and along with their 3 (almost 4!) kids live in Clarkston GA. She’s passionate about seeing others grow in their love of God’s Word and so is an active member and leader in […]
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Why Are We Still Here? (Guest post)

Why Are We Still Here? (Guest post)

December 13, 2019

This is a guest post by Caleb Dueck I’ve been a part of Ethnos360 my whole life. I was born while my parents were in training. When I was two years old, we packed our things and went to serve in Guinea. Spending the first part of my life overseas, I certainly viewed overseas missions […]
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Grounded in God’s Word (Guest Post)

Grounded in God’s Word (Guest Post)

December 9, 2019

This is a guest post by Bryan Conard My name is Bryan Conard. My wife Martha and I presently live in Senegal, West Africa, with our three children where we serve as missionaries with Ethnos360.” My life today is incomparably different than I ever imagined it would be growing up in the ghettos of South […]
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Snorkeling or Suffocating (Guest Post)

Snorkeling or Suffocating (Guest Post)

June 23, 2017

This is a guest post by Matt and Karissa Long. The difference between the two is just a little plastic tube.  Recently I (Karissa) got the opportunity to go snorkeling in the ocean.  I got to see beautiful coral reefs and fish I’d only seen in aquariums.  It was an experience, but I can’t say […]
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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

We lost my wife’s mom, Lynn, this past Saturday We lost my wife’s mom, Lynn, this past Saturday morning. It was simple. She was there, Friday night. Then she was gone, departed from her body, just 12 hours after we said goodbye. That seems simple.

—It’s anything but simple in these days following. In our case, as her immediate family, as the ones who watched her agonizing struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease, who cared for her through it, there was relief. But we feel the empty space where she was in our minds, in our hearts, in our memories. There’s freedom; we could move north like we’ve always talked about, we don’t have to think about the logistics behind every trip and getaway we take. But we won’t be sharing those new spaces with her either. 
—And there’s the knowledge that others will grieve this loss with much more sadness and finality. She was the third and final member of a sibling group, all three of whom died as a result of Alzheimer’s Disease. Her husband died exactly 14 years minus a day…from complications due to his own dreadful form of dementia. I sit with this weight of numbers and probabilities as the husband of their daughter and niece. Is this in the future for my beloved too?
—But there’s a house full of joy filled with the beautiful and sometimes comical memories of living with “Noni". Living with my mother-in-law for 12 years really wasn’t that bad. And I remember some sweet times she and I uniquely shared over the past three years when caring for her was much more hands on. Reading devotions together, praying with her as if she was my daughter, before bed, sifting through years of beautiful ephemera and photos with her, and even, towards the end of her time at home, she and I would go on drives in the country, just to change the scenery. I could play my Starflyer 59 albums and she didn’t care. 
—In the end, my heart, mine alone at least, is at rest when I think about Lynn. I’m grateful for her current whereabouts, thankful to have had the chance to love her, thankful for that over-generous Nespresso Pixie machine she gave me for Christmas in 2014 and thankful for the love she gave to us. We do not grieve as those who have no hope!
🗓️ September Highlights 🗓️ What a mont 🗓️ September Highlights 🗓️ 

What a month! From a hurricane near miss (which wasn’t a miss for Florida’s Nature Coast) to Kate’s first ever volleyball games, to visits with Lynn and ridiculous stops to take pictures of cars, the month held a lot. And if you know us, there’s way more that happened than what we can include in an IG post.
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
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