MAY & JUNE 2021
Bimonthly Publication
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“Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. — 2 Thessalonians 3:1 (NLT)
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Introducing |
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Rob & Heidi Scott |
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GOD HAD BIGGER PLANS |
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If all goes as planned, in August 2021 Rob & Heidi Scott along with their daughters, Eliana and Malia will be moving to Prishtina, Kosovo in Eastern Europe. They are also making a job change to become vocational missionaries with the Alliance Missions team on the ground in Kosovo. |
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Our prayer requests:
- We are completing required pre-field training. Pray for time and understanding of the material.
- Pray for our children as they say goodbye to their school, classmates and friends.
- Pray for our business to sell so we can move ahead well.
- We are praising God for his provision in many ways. We know He is going before us and with us! |
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Paris, France |
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Mally and Valary McLoughlin |
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- Thanks for your prayers for the LEAD program group that Mally was in charge of. They did not get enough students to start the group in March. We trust in God’s timing for this to happen.
- Pray for Mally as he will be having surgery in May and will be in recovery for a month after that. Pray that the surgery will go well and that his recovery time would be soaked in the presence of God! Please also pray that the medication he will be on for pain will be something that his body will accept.
- Pray for Marité, Mally’s former landlady. She is getting older and we would love for her to meet Jesus before she leaves this world! She has had some rough times with her son, who does not always have the best for his mother in mind. Mally goes to her house every week and they talk and he does odd jobs for her as well.
- I had a conference at the end of April and was introduced to the new accounting software we will be using starting in July. Oh do I need your prayers! The learning curve is steep. Pray that I can grasp the details of using this software.
- Pray for France. Some of you may have heard about the separatist law that is being passed. July will be the last hoop to jump through before it’s confirmed and put into practice. The government says that this law is only to curtail Islamist radicalism, however, it affects all churches by controlling what is said (if something is said from the pulpit that the government thinks is hateful and intolerant, they can fine the pastor, not the church, up to over $10,000) and how much money can come in to churches or mission organizations (no more than $12,000 a year-10,000 euros). This actually affects me directly in that I now will most likely need to do an extra set of books in French to send reports to the government on how we use our money in the mission and also, we have a lot of workers in France who receive their money through the mission and we receive more than the amount specified by the government. Please pray that God will give us the wisdom we need to figure out how to do what we do here while working within the parameters of money set by the government. I read an excellent article from Christianity Today about this if you want to know more: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/april/france-separatism-law-churches-muslim-terrorism-laicite.html.
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Tokyo, Japan |
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Don, Rach, Donald, Elliot & Samuel Schaeffer - Click here to subscribe.
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Pray for a man named Yambi, who interviewed me (Don) in March about being a missionary. Our lifestyle intrigued him so he asked to interview me so he could make a YouTube video. He said I could talk freely about Christianity at the end, so I presented the gospel for him! Please pray for the gospel seeds to bear spiritual life in his heart.
Pray for our friends, the Sawai family, who we will camp with for 2 nights in early May. Pray for a fun time and that our lives and words would be a gospel witness to them. Rachel has had several coffee times with the mom, Kaori. Donald is in the same class as their oldest, Haruto.
Pray for our language study: that God would bless it and would continue to help us grow in our love for the Japanese and effectiveness in speaking.
We are meeting our fellow Alliance team mates for a weeklong Field Forum (conference) the 2nd week of May. Pray for a restorative time for all of us as we enjoy hearing from the Lord and being away from our normal rhythms.
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French Language School Albertsville, France |
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Travis & Becca Novy Guinea, West Africa Amelia 13, Lydia 11, Bennett 9, & Tanner 7 |
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Prayer requests right now:
- continued language and culture learning
- that we would shine the light of Jesus wherever we go
- for the Mu$lims here during R@madan, that they would come to have a relationship with Jesus
Praise God for:
- a smooth transition (for the most part!) from France to Guinea
- our return to health (after having Covid in March)
- safe travel to and from a recent camping trip (the kids were on Spring Break)
- New ministry opportunity (watch for that big news coming soon!)
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Envision France |
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ROOS FAMILY NEWSLETTER
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We are so thankful for all who have been praying for our move to Toulouse. In case you didn’t know, we made it and things are starting off well.
Shortly after we sent you the prayer calendar, the Paris area went into another session of confinement. While the restrictions were not as strict as the previous two confinements, it did affect our attempt at a garage sale and our ability to say goodbye in the last two weeks in Paris. But because of your prayers we were able to sell much of what we needed to and also were able to donate the rest to a goodwill type charity in France.
Leaving the Paris area on March 31st we were looking forward to moving to Toulouse where the confinement restrictions we less and we were looking forward to moving about freely. But alas, the restrictions followed us to Toulouse, when the French president announced that night a nationwide confinement for four weeks. Our hearts sank when we heard the news, knowing it is hard to move to a new place and meet the new people you want to meet when you are not supposed to travel too far and not supposed to meet up in groups of more that six people. But by God’s grace churches are still able to meet and we have been able to meet a few people and start getting involved in a few things even as the confinement continues.
We have connected with a woman from the church who volunteers non-stop in a variety of places throughout Toulouse. Raeni went with her to a hotel where the city houses people seeking asylum as they work through the application process. While there she was able to help give a French lesson and offer hope to people as they wait for the process to unfold. Tony joined in a breakfast ministry that gives hot coffee and a bag lunch to those needing a meal and a conversation. Tony also was able to team preach at Toulouse International Church this Sunday.
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Black Forest Academy - Germany |
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Sam and Jennifer Stemple |
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Pray for our School (Black Forest Academy): We continue to struggle with regulation changes in Germany and the effect they have on our school. Following Easter Break we have gone back into Remote Learning for one week with the hope that we will be allowed to restart Physical Presence Learning on April 19th. We are unsure what the restart might look like, though, and we wait to see if we will need to have a "Covid Testing Strategy" in place before we are able to start up again. Pray against Covid Fatigue and pray that we, as a school, will have patience and endurance for whatever we are asked to do.
Pray for our Ministry: It has been hard to do ministry - especially ministry that is so relational - in this Covid season that has a lot of restrictions on community. Much of what we do at the school is interacting with students and this year has been so hard to feel like we are able to do that well. All our interaction with students has been with masks and so it has even been hard to get to know the new students. Much of our year has had restrictions which has made relational ministry a challenge. We are thankful for what we have been able to do and have made the most of what God has given us for the year, but have had to work so much harder (or smarter) for opportunities to make that happen. Just last week we had the unique privilege to work as dorm parent subs for a week in one of our guys dorms (Sonne) and we were so grateful for the chance to interact with these guys in a totally different way. Since our students couldn't get "home" for Spring Break due to travel restrictions, the school needed to give the dorm staff a break and so we stepped in and subbed in a dorm ... It took us back to our first two years at BFA and the initial reason we came to Germany in the first place, to serve as dorm parents.
Pray for our Family: Matthew graduates this year and must make some decisions about college in the next month. Pray for him as he has lost a lot of the parts of his senior year that are significant to him (Sports; Trips; Memories with people). Katie is finishing her Sophomore year and will be our last one at home starting this summer. Jordan and Larisa will be starting Grad school in Pennsylvania in June and Ellie continues to live and work in Grand Rapids. We were able to be together at Christmas, which was a huge blessing and gift.
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Bosnia |
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Michael and Lia Strand - Click here to watch a video from them.
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Specific prayer requests:
- Ramadan: during this month, pray that we may have Gospel-saturated, Kingdom-impacting conversations
- Travel: we will be travelling to the US from May 15 - June 3, Lord-willing. Our daughter graduates from college; it will be a time to celebrate, enjoy time with our children, and visit family and friends. We will send more details soon for those of you in the Wisconsin area.
- Covid-19: the virus is still having a great impact in BiH. There are few vaccinations available in BiH; some people are visiting neighboring countries to get poked. Please pray for this country, the government, and the people.
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Senegal |
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THE WILLIAMS FAMILY NEWSLETTER
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We've been asking for prayer for the last several months for our son Simon. We want to provide you with an update on that request while also preserving Simon's privacy as much as possible.
After seeing many specialists and going through a number of tests, we found that Simon has an extremely rare genetic disorder. The associated syndrome is so rare (34 known cases worldwide) that there is no prognosis nor are there any specific recommendations. We simply know that this syndrome is likely responsible for many difficulties Simon has had since birth.
On one hand, this news has been difficult to receive - a diagnosis of a chronic condition with no cure, or even recommendations. On the other hand, it's a gift to finally have an answer. We have for so long looked for a cause and we finally have it. Our day to day might not change and we don't know what to expect in the days ahead, but this diagnosis somehow validates the struggle.
Now that our doctor team has this diagnosis, they would like to explore a secondary diagnosis because they don't know if all of Simon's symptoms can be explained by this syndrome. Therefore we are awaiting more appointments and tests.
Throughout these past months in U.S. looking for answers for Simon, we've asked the Lord to make known any condition that might exist; that He would give us endurance in the process and peace with the outcome. The Lord has been good in answering those prayers.
Now, as we've been discussing this diagnosis with the doctors and Alliance leadership as it pertains to us returning to Senegal in June, we are asking the Lord again for endurance, answers, wisdom, and peace. We're asking Him to show us what He wants us to do and how to best support Simon with this and potentially another diagnosis. We're asking for speedy appointments and wisdom for the doctors.
We are trusting the Lord to meet us in this place, in His time and in a way that brings glory to Himself. We believe the door is still open for us to return to Senegal as planned, and so long as God continues to hold that door, we will walk through.
When we left the U.S. in 2018, we had to lay down our fears and sense of security to be able to follow Jesus into the unknown. We find now that we are facing the same things in 2021. Pray for strong faith for each one of us.
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S & K
Hello WGLD family! Here in Berlin we continue to live and serve under strict lockdown rules as city leaders worry about the local hospital’s capacity to treat sick people. These remain challenging circumstances in which to build a church; this can also make life very discouraging. Nonetheless we praise God, even when things are hard. Here are some praises:—the kids are back in school part time—we had a young Chinese woman visit our church and we had the privilege of sharing the gospel—both S and K have opportunities to meet one-on-one with local contacts—God isn’t surprised by any of these circumstances and He will use them to glorify Himself Some prayer needs:—ongoing encouragement, especially for our three kids—wisdom and direction in considering a school change for the kids—wisdom for S as he has stepped into the team leader role—ongoing language learning for K—that we would be able to see where God is already at work and to join Him—that the hearts of the people of Berlin would be softened and open to God—that we would know next steps to take in building a church planting strategy, both within and beyond Corona times
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C & S
- A few cases of COVID were discovered in the community in mid-April. All other cases in the past year were found in quarantine as people were first entering the country. Pray for people’s safety as they live in very close communities and the health care system is not prepared to handle a large number of cases at once.
- The most prominent Christian business man in the country lost his life in a tragic boating accident on Easter Sunday. Praise that the Gospel was shared clearly, many times, during his funeral with people from all stations of society, including government officials. Pray for his wife, who was injured but survived, and his four children, all of whom are also believers.
- The CAMACrafts handicraft business needs to hire a new local manager. Pray that God would lead the right person to us at the right time.
- Pray for us as we begin to plan and prepare for our home assignment this Fall 2021.
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S & W
- W and I are so grateful for the great connections made so far this Spring while on tour. Please p-y for safety, humility and yet more great connections as we visit ch-ches into late May.
- P-y that the borders into our country of service would open.
- Please p-y for the healing of the maternity home director as she has not been able to return since having ear surgery. There are several aspects of the ministry that depend upon her and cannot move forward until she is back on the ground.
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J & J
Praise: -We are on our 4 month home assignment and are able to visit many in the WGLD
Prayer: -A, a brother in our ministry city, has been told to leave his family home by his parents because of his faith. Pray that he finds a safe place to live. -Our English School will be run and taught primarily by volunteers during late May-July. Pray that they confidently run the Center and build relationships with students.
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M & L
*We're wrapping up the school year at Crown. Pray for good closure of relationships especially with students that we've been mentoring and working closely with.
* Our home assignment has been extended to October 15th to allow L to finish her clinicals and her masters degree in midwifery. We're looking for housing from mid July through September. We have some good leads and want to stay in the area for the kids school. Pray that some of these would work out.
* Pray for the kids continuing growth and development, especially their spiritual growth.
* Pray for strength for L as she does long shifts to complete her clinicals in the Twin Cities.
*Pray that there would be opportunities to get all the necessary experiences in the time we have.
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R & M
1) That the French border opens and visas resume for us to settle in this summer and begin school September 1. 2) For strength and grace as we transition from the states to our new home. Please ask that we would find a home to rent in Bordeaux and for friends for each of our children as they begin school. 3) For the ability to learn French well and for clear direction in how we fit into ministry there.
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Please bear with our office as we seek to continue to format these newsletters to best serve you.
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