Backyard Christmas Birds: 2019

 Eastern Bluebird

 White-throated Sparrow

 Chickadee

 Carolina Wren

 White-breasted Nuthatch

Northern Cardinal

Brown-headed Nuthatch

BIG NEWS: Back to the Future with MMS Aviation!

Faithful blog-followers, get ready for some BIG NEWS...we've returned to service with MMS Aviation! Here's our latest newsletter and a letter from MMS with all the details!

How's that for some news in a newsletter! Please note the new donation portals on the blog and if you'd like to test technology CLICK HERE to go directly to our MMS Aviation donation page!

Thank you for being part of our team and our ministry family!

Mom Blog: She's All Moved In!

Thank you for all your prayers over the last several months and especially over the past 4 weeks in which Mom successfully made the move from Southern California to The Village at Brookwood, in Burlington, NC!

Mom's POD arrives at The Village at Brookwood

In natural disaster terms, Mom traded earthquakes and wild fires for hurricanes and humidity. Not sure that humidity is actually a "natural disaster," but it can sure feel like it at times over the summer months!

The PODS driver positions Mom's POD.

Mom's already working on her drawl. One of our friends at church, Kelly Johnston, has even offered to interpret "southern talk" for Mom to speed her assimilation into the local culture.

The excellent crew from Fire Logistics in Mebane, made quick work of emptying the POD.

Karen considers the first set-up of the living room.

Here are with mom after dinner the first night in her new North Carolina home!

It is so nice to have Mom 5 miles away 

instead of 2,500!

Tucker Has Tomatoes!

We received some serious feedback on our newsletter that shared that we weren't having a salsa garden this year and that Tucker was sad about it. Seriously. Lots of feed back.

So we wanted everyone to know that just because we didn't plant a salsa garden...WE DID put a personal tomato plant in the ground specifically for Tucker! Yeah, somehow THAT didn't make it into her article. Don't let her fool you...we're taking good care of her.

"Oh, did I forget to mention THIS tomato plant?"

"Hey, Keith I think these two might be ready!"

Chomp. Chomp. Slobber. Drool. Swallow.

Thanks for loving and supporting us 

and our crazy Missionary Mutt!

It's GLOBAL FLYER Time!

Here's our latest newsletter! Enjoy!

Join Us In Ministry!

Leola the Lioness Tells A Tale

"Leola and her cubs."

Maybe the photo says it all. Maybe the photo needs some explanation! One recent Sunday I was blessed to play the role of "Leola the Lioness" in a special presentation as part of our Children's Sermon during worship.

Leola and her "cubs" (our Bell Choir) used words and hand bells to tell the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den--from the lion's perspective. As Leola the Lioness, I narrated the tale (while wearing a tail) as the cubs sounded off and chimed in at appropriate moments providing musical overtones to a light-hearted retelling of the story we all know so well.

It was fun, Biblical truth was declared, the congregation "roared"...sorry about that, but best of all God was glorified as "kids" of all ages prepared their hearts to worship our Lord.

And around the world, missionaries whom you've helped us send into service through your gifts and prayers:

began a garden project to supplement the nutrition of the patients at our hospital in Congo.

celebrated new, healthy lives at our birthing center in Guatemala.

and baptized new Believers in Sierra Leone.

Thanks!

K&K at Work: Nine Faces--Six Places & Ministries

Karen and I constantly interact with multiple missionaries around the world to train, encourage, resource, and coach them in their funding process. Whether new to ministry, transitional from another organization, or seasoned agency veteran, each GOM missionary needs to raise and maintain the funds necessary to live and minister in response to God's direction. And it's YOUR partnership that enables us to assist our 300 missionary personnel get to the field and stay there.

Here are some of the folks we're working with this month:

Emma: Republic of Congo-Medical

Glen & Kathy: North America-Preaching, Teaching, Discipleship

Prakesh: India-Evangelism

Kent & Annie: Belize-Foster Care/Bakery Management

Rick & Patty: Romania-Evangelism, Pastoral Training, Discipleship

Pamela: Belize-Discipleship, Education, Micro-Loans

Because of YOUR gifts and prayers...

these missionaries will soon be on the field.

Thank You!

More Sewing For Missions

Greetings from Graham, NC where the beauty of Spring is in full bloom! This is a great season to enjoy some work outside in the gardens when the weather is warmer and dry. However, on those rainy or cold days I still enjoy burrowing into my sewing room to see what projects are waiting to be created. One of my projects of late is making soft cases for glasses to be used by a ministry called, "That All May See". Don and Karen Stauffer of Global Outreach Mission arrange mission trips to various places around the world several times each year to distribute glasses to those who might otherwise not have vision good enough to perform their daily work. Meeting this physical need allows the opportunity to also provide for their spiritual needs by sharing the Good News of Jesus.

Our local church collected more than 160 pairs of used glasses that we will deliver to Don & Karen when we go to Canada in July for Global's candidate orientation. They will be sorted by prescription and readied for transport for their next mission trip. Used eye glass cases do not lend themselves to being thoroughly cleaned and are generally too bulky/heavy to be practical for traveling. That's where  my latest sewing project comes in! I am able to make simple, soft cases that travel easily for the ministry to take so the folks who get glasses have a place to keep them safe and clean.

The latest cases I just finished

 I've been able to make 105 cases so far. They are packed and ready to go and will be delivered for use when we get to Canada in July. I'll also take the glasses we collected at church.

105 eye glass cases ready to go!

If you follow my Facebook page you may have seen a post about sewing a door into a wall. Odd you say? Our children's ministry at church needed to "perk up" a corner of a room to be used for story times on Sunday mornings and for Wonderful Wednesdays when the kids meet for Bible stories, fellowship and activities. These fabric "walls" are about 7 or 8 foot long. There will be four "walls" hanging. Here are the two walls that have a door and a window. The window will hold a poster about the story or any lesson they might be learning.

"Walls" to hang for the kids story corner at church

Sewing comes in seasons. I love having sewing projects that I can fit in whenever I have time to work on them. It's even more fun when I know those projects will help in some small way to share the love of Christ with others.

"And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17

Spring 2019 Newsletter!

Random Thoughts and a few Snapshots

As I take a break between video conferences I thought I'd post a quick blog.

This is a shot of downtown Graham, NC looking north. The building centrally located in our traffic circle is the historic Alamance County Court House. The arrow and yellow circle designate the building in which our office is located. We lease space in The Cooperative.

Karen continues to co-lead the Wednesday morning Ladies' Bible Study at church with Sandra. Sandra and Karen are seated back by the TV screen.

Tucker's still up and around, slower, but still a steady mover. Here she's enjoying a "spa day." Or rather, resting and drying out from a personal bath by Karen, her private pamper person.

And we still have our backyard birds. In this case, an Eastern Blue Bird.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Brown Headed Nuthatch

Thanks for stopping by! You know where to find us!

Christmas in Congo: Jesse Mitchell

Here's a slice of life from Jesse Mitchell, one of the ten GOM missionaries Karen and I helped orient and train back back in August 2017. We spent the next year coaching Jesse through fund raising and he's now been in the Republic of Congo for five months. Jesse serves as part of our non-medical staff at Pioneer Christian Hospital (PCH). PCH is our hospital in the village of Impfondo.

Jesse Mitchell, Republic of Congo

Jesse is a trained chef working to develop a feeding program to help our patients heal faster, start a sustainable gardening project to supplement the local food varieties, and assist at our partner ministry, Kimia Leprosy Center just down the trail.

From Jesse:
"This has been a crazy holiday season here in Congo...which is perfectly normal for here, I guess. The children at the hospital church put on a brilliant Christmas Nativity play. Mary and Joseph finding nowhere else to stay, ended up in a little palm-thatched hut all lit up with Christmas lights and tinsel, nestled in a small grove of banana trees.

Joseph and Mary and the birthplace of Jesus.

The shepherds and their sheep.

"Angels jumped out of the grove screaming, 'DO. NOT. BE. AFRAID!' As shepherds and sheep (choir boys with ears on) fell to the ground shouting and bleating in terror, respectively. Then the Wise Men came down the isle following the star (a little blinking bicycle light on a pulley). It was perfect.

The Wise Men following the star.

"When the Angel warned Joseph and Mary to not go back to Nazareth, King Herod became furious and sent his terrifying Masked Gunmen to kill baby Jesus. As they searched the church for Jesus, terrifying the little kids, the Angel ushered Joseph and Mary out the side door and on their way to Egypt seconds before the masked gunmen found the hut and blasted away at it with their beeping, sonic laser guns."

Stay tuned for more slices of life from Jesse. 

It's our tremendous pleasure to share how God is working through your partnership to send and sustain GOM's missionaries all over the world.