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Bike Ride with American Baptists
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With New Missionary Jae Stockton
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Coffee with Pastor Jeremy of Grant Park Baptiist
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Joyce sharing at ABW PA/DE conference
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CFM 2017
The last time we corresponded with you we were packing our apartment and moving from Philadelphia to Phoenix, AZ. That was May. And so much has happened since then! We hope you can take a few minutes to relax, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and catch up with your missionary friends David and Joyce. We’ll start with today and work our way backwards.
David’s in Brazil
This week marks the beginning of the fourth group of
students in the Masters of Theology Studies (MTS) Latino/a Ministries. It is a collaborative program that
International Ministries & Palmer Theological Seminary began last year. This new group of students is from
Brazil! David will participate in their
orientation week, and will launch our class, Spiritual Formation I, on
Thursday. Please pray for everyone involved as many of the students will be
translating papers from Portuguese to Spanish, and we are hoping Google
Translate will give us the gist of their intended message!
We’ve moved to
Tucson
We spent the summer in temporary housing in Scottsdale,
AZ. Twelve days ago, we moved to Tucson,
AZ! This is going to be our base of
operations as we continue in our Regional Missionary role to Latin
America. Joyce’s health is still being
monitored, and her immune system continues to reboot. It is best for her to live in the U.S. right
now. But the exciting news is that
International Ministries already had a mission paradigm in place to allow this
to happen! There is a number of global
and regional missionaries based in the U.S. who carry out mission around the
world. Mission in the 21st
century is evolving and shifting to new models.
IM is on the front edge of these changes, and we are thankful for their
vision!
Our new address
is: 6640 W. Brightwater Way, Tucson, AZ
85757.
House Warming Gift
A tradition in the southwest is to collect crosses and
display them on a wall of your home. We
want to adopt this tradition, and we’d like to invite you to be a part of
it! We would like our family and friends
to send us unique crosses that we can add to our wall. Please put your name and the date on the
back, or if the cross’ design does not allow for this, then attach the
information with ribbon or string. If
the cross represents a group of people from a particular church, then please
put the church’s name. We’re hoping for a unique collection that captures the
diversity and love of our faith community
Discipleship: Go and Grow
The focus of our ministry is discipleship. How can we go deeper, and grow deeper with
God? We are training church leaders through
the MTS program, through personal visits with pastors & leaders in Latin
American countries, through Skype calls to offer mentoring and guidance, and
through one-on-one discipleship. We’re
also assisting IM in developing a discipleship initiative that will encourage
all of IM to deepen spiritually as they carry out God’s Mission around the
globe.
Conference for
Missionaries (CFM)
At the end of July into early August, we joined 50 IM staff
and missionary colleagues for CFM at Green Lake, WI. Our role was to provide self-care/soul-care
opportunities for rest and renewal. We
led a 90-minute workshop, had many one-on-one deep conversations to offer
spiritual counsel, and met with different IM staff to brainstorm how member
care for domestic and international global workers could become more
intentional.
ABW Conference for
PA & DE
Joyce was the guest missionary at the PA/DE American Baptist
Womens’ conference in Shippenberg, PA in mid-July. During her workshop, she shared about the
women of Cuba, and had lots of great conversations with women over the course
of the weekend. She was overwhelmed by
the love so many women shared with her through their prayers for her health and
continued recovery. The faithfulness of
your prayers sustains her every day!
Mission Summit in
Portland
In late June to early July we attended the Mission Summit in
Portland, OR. We were available for
spiritual direction & prayer, we helped staff the IM section of the exhibit
hall, we got better acquainted with IM’s newly appointed missionaries, we had
conversations with numerous pastors from across the country, we talked with
several IM Board members, we shared Sunday worship and had the opportunity to
talk about our ministry with Grant Park Baptist Church, we participated in a
bike ride of over 100 American Baptists, and we attended various gatherings
focused on life and ministry in our denomination. American Baptists are thriving and not afraid
to confront tough issues!
Family
In early June we gathered with David’s family to celebrate &
remember the life of his step-father Jim Katcher. July 2 we celebrated our 29th
wedding anniversary in Portland. We also
got to visit our nephew Michael and his family who live in Beaverton, OR. Our son Aaron resigned from his job with the
AZ Conservation Corp at the end of July.
He and his fiancé Madeleine are now working at Kodiak Baptist Mission, Kodiak,
AK. Before they left for AK, we all
visited our oldest son Ian in Los Angeles where we enjoyed the beach and sites
of L.A.
Thank you for your prayers, your financial gifts, your
faithfulness to missions! We have a
great story to share with you that began in La Paz 16 years ago, connected with
people in PA, and is about to continue in India. That’s our next journal! Look for it soon!
Falling Deeper in Love with Jesus,
David and Joyce