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| JUNE 22, 2026 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’” -Matt.1:23 |
| In the 1987 movie “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” executive Neal Page goes on a journey that takes him on trains, cars, trucks, and buses, and everything that can go wrong does. Yet he persists in trying, because he is desperate to get home to his family for Thanksgiving. Actually, a lot of holiday movies surround this theme of people trying to get home to be with their families. Why? Because we are made to desire the presence of others, because we have a God who desires to be present with us. Now, I know, it’s not Christmastime, so why am I talking about this? In our last two update letters I shared two aspects of our ministry of member care- aiding communication and extending Christ’s emotional healing. This month I want to share one more aspect of our ministry- presence. Sometimes when people are struggling, they feel alone and just need someone to be with them. A lot of our ministry, whether people are struggling or doing okay, is just being with people. Jesus has made us for community, for deep, joy-giving relationship. So, we seek to build relationships with other missionaries and let them know that they are not alone. We have an opportunity to be present with some missionaries next month who are all alone in their remote village, and we would like to encourage them. However, hearing about the logistics of getting there made me think of the aforementioned movie! If everything goes smoothly, visiting them will mean two commercial plane flights, two nights overnight in a guesthouse to prepare and ready supplies, a six hour pickup truck drive leaving at 4am, and then a two hour motorboat ride. It will also cost $2,900 for plane tickets, gas for the truck, fuel for the boat, and payment for renting the boat. We wrote to these missionaries asking if we can visit them, and they wrote back to us letting us know what that would entail. They describe their village as being “at the end of the earth.” They said that they were fully expecting us to read their email and say, “Uh, never mind.” Ha! However, we believe in the importance of being with each other as believers to encourage one another. After all, God moved heaven and earth to be with us. Will you pray for us about this trip? And will you ask the Lord who He would like you to encourage by being with them this month? Till all know,Matt, Karissa, Ty, and Wyck  WHAT ARE WE SUPPORTING? THIS MONTH’S TRIBAL FOCUS: Pray for the Lembena people Pray for the Lembena people, and their missionaries who are getting ready to present the gospel at the end of the year! Missionary Adam Ferguson describes a conversation he had with some Lembena men while working on Bible translation, “I explained the literal and implied meaning [of the name Yahweh] that God has no beginning, He does not change, and He is near to us. I reminded them that the message we are going to share with them will have many things that they have not heard and do not know. Thye were visibly excited and one was getting emotional about it. These old timers are steeped in folk animism and they want the answer to the fear of death. They haven’t found it yet and see that we may hold the key to that. We pray that God would allow them to understand the true Gospel.” Please Pray: for safety on this trip to the tribe, and that we will be an encouragement to this family for more opportunities to encourage missionaries for some ministry plans we have, that God will bring them to fruition for good communication with those we work with that we can be at peace and trust God’s sovereignty in all our plans Praise God: Wyck’s eyesight continues to hold stable Wyck’s retainers continue to fit We were able to get some good family time this month We were able to do debriefs for nine people/couples finishing their terms He continues to give us opportunities to invest in people |
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