Bittersweet Farewells

This last year at the Michigan location has been a precious one so far. Normally it is just the Bible school students who are scattering to take the Good News to the ends of the earth, but this year each couple and individual on staff are also prayerfully considering where God would have them serve next as the Michigan campus completes its final year of classes. One longtime coworker in Childcare has already transferred with her family to fill needs at the USA home office. Another is preparing with her husband to take their four young children to a ministry location in Southeast Asia. And a third coworker in Childcare is near retirement age; she and her husband will stay in Jackson where they will be able to continue her husband’s computer support services to other missionaries and to help with the sale of campus properties.

Ken will be joining the maintenance department when we transition to the Bible school at Waukesha, Wisconsin; and there are Childcare needs I will be able to help with as that department expands after the consolidation. It has been neat to watch God begin to move people to take over our Bible teaching ministries; Ken has led a prison ministry, preaches quarterly at a convalescent home, and an adult Sunday School class at church. I help coordinate the Preschool programs at our church. Several people are beginning to seem like good possibilities for continuing those ministries after we move.

Please pray for clarity regarding whether we should move this summer or sometime in the year following; one major consideration is that our older daughter will be entering her senior year of high school. We are thankful that this fall the girls were able to transfer to a different high school, which seems to have a better environment than the nearby one. Our oldest child is retaking a couple of his senior credits and working through some health and other issues which have delayed his launch into independence. Financial limitations could make some “partnership development” time advisable before we are ready to move. We will be meeting with our leadership team here at the Bible college in January to discuss these decisions.

For those of you with internet access, I hope you are able to check out the “News” tab at www.ethnos360.org or subscribe to its weekly prayer bulletin. Recent news from Bible school grads and former coworkers overseas includes a completed New Testament in the Tigak people group, and the Hewa church being able to transition from missionary-dependent to indigenous leadership. Some of the world’s most inaccessible people groups today are in South Asia and Middle East; Ethnos360 is active in these areas as well, but for safety reasons is rarely able to post updates online for these regions. It can be discouraging to see the challenges faced by our own country’s culture, but encouraging to see the Holy Spirit is still at work redeeming people to himself from “every tribe and tongue and nation.”