Fall 2011 Report

We’re thankful for your prayers and concern for what God is doing in Uruguay. And we’re thankful for your interest in our family and for the ways that you continue to encourage us as we prepare for work there. We’re currently in Greenville, South Carolina, and are enjoying being in one location for a sustained time! During September John Mark spent three focused weeks in Alaska, where he made or renewed contact with about a dozen churches or pastors. Then in October and November for nearly six weeks we did the same as a family, this time seeing churches, friends, and extended family along a route between South Carolina and Edmonton, Alberta.

At the end of a year it is often profitable to look back gratefully at what God has done to carry us to this point. Perhaps doing so now will serve as a helpful reminder and will fill in details for those we’ve only recently met.

Three years ago, at the end of December of 2008, we were accepted as missionaries with EMU International. For over a year we continued to work jobs in Greenville, though we were able to make progress by preparing information for presentation, scheduling future meetings, and presenting our anticipated ministry in several churches during this time. John Mark taught a semester-long church music course in a local Hispanic church’s Bible-college ministry (spring of 2009), and we also spent a month in Uruguay, where he taught similar material at a family camp and an EMU workers’ conference (February of 2010).

In May of 2010 we left our jobs and began full-time preparation for a permanent move to Uruguay. During that first year the Lord abundantly supplied our needs, and our level of financial support rose from 9% to 42% of EMU’s goal for us. The Lord also gave us our second child, Daniel James Matías. Then from late May to late August of 2011 we helped oversee the ministry of Maranatha Bible Church, a church being planted by Déborah’s father in Uruguay. After returning from Uruguay we began what is essentially our second year of full-time travel.

The job of a missionary teacher or evangelist is, of course, to make disciples and to equip Christians by preaching the gospel and teaching the Bible. Ideally this happens largely in the context of relationships. It is our desire to serve in this way now among North American churches—in preparation for doing the same in Uruguay. We have the added privilege of telling about God’s works in Uruguay and of requesting prayer. These activities then serve a secondary purpose—that of giving God’s people opportunity to evaluate their sense of God’s calling and of our qualifications. The result is their acknowledgement of God’s leading and in various ways helping to send us. We are presently maintaining contact and fellowship with 40 to 50 churches, while seven churches and six individuals have partnered with us in regular financial support, prayer, and accountability.

We plan to continue this deputation process until the Lord opens the door for our move, knowing that if we are not yet in Uruguay it is because He has something genuinely better for us and for the churches there . . . at least for now. However, please ask Him to put us in Uruguay permanently this next year! Plans for the next several months include participating in a wedding in Uruguay. (We plan to post details and updates on our trip here.) In January John Mark will be preaching in a conference in Ohio and taking two weeks of classes at BJU. Déborah expects to teach a college course in Spanish grammar. Pray for us as we continue to schedule meetings, visit churches, and organize our belongings with a forward look toward our transition to Uruguay. Thank you!

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