The spring semester finished at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) the middle of May but our schedules have remained full with regular ministry responsibilities. John continues with a lot of correspondence with missionaries, assisting them by answering questions and providing resources or direction for help. We’ve also had the privilege of hosting a lot of people in our home the past couple of months which has kept Melanie busy. We praise the Lord for the home He has blessed us with and the opportunities for hospitality that He gives us.
In April our department hosted its 5th annual MK Summit with John facilitating and Melanie looking after snacks and meals. Fifteen Ethnos360 members from 5 countries who are involved with MK (Missionary Kid) Care and/or Education assembled together for 3 full days of meetings, all for the purpose of enhancing our ministries to help families thrive on the mission field. The highlight of our meetings was looking at the topics of compassion fatigue and using art to offer emotional first aid to MKs. We praise the Lord for the time together, great information shared, and that everything went smoothly.
Lord willing, we will be making a trip out to Virginia soon to meet BJ & Carissa’s baby girl that is due any day. There are always things that can “go wrong” with any pregnancy, labor, and delivery. However, with Carissa’s health issues (mainly the Mast Cell Activation Syndrome that can cause random and severe allergic reactions to anything at any time), there are a lot of unusual potential complications they face with her labor and delivery, even though they are receiving excellent care from an experienced high-risk pregnancy medical team at a well-equipped hospital. We are extremely thankful for the relatively smooth pregnancy she has had and we all believe God has everything under His control and we all know that we can trust Him with the labor and delivery as well. Thank you for your prayers for them.
The end of July will find John headed east for a week-long Enrichment Conference hosted for Ethnos360 missionaries on home assignment. He will be representing our Education Resource Center department to connect with the missionaries and be available for questions and conversations with families. We would appreciate your prayers for John during this time, as well as for a refreshing time for the missionaries who are attending.
Come August, we will be gearing up for the start of the fall semester on the 12th. Currently we are expecting 48 new students, 39 returning students for their 2nd year, and 7 students doing the Linguistics course. Please pray for all of these candidates as they get ready for classes and all the training involves, and for the staff as we prepare for their arrival.
We are extremely thankful for you, our faithful current team of ministry partners, who make it possible for us to serve here at the MTC, while impacting missionary families around the world. Many of you faithfully pray for us and sacrificially give to us so that we can do what we do. We have, however, recently lost some ministry partners and are currently averaging about 50% of our monthly recommended financial support. Please pray with us that God would connect us with additional folks like you who would be interested in partnering with us in ministry through finances and prayer. Thank you!
Laboring together with God,
John & Melanie Kerstetter
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