Christmas Newsletter

Below is our Christmas newsletter. To view double click on the page- it will come up in a new window. Click once on page and it will be full window size for easy reading!

Merry Christmas!

A Week In New Mexico-

After a week in New Mexico to take care of the house situation I, Mary am home. I sit here trying to figure out a way to concisely tell you of my week- I am not sure how successful I will be at the concise part!!

First, thank you so much for all the prayers that were prayed on my behalf. It is such a wonderful blessing realizing so many care and are praying for us!!

My week started with much of the same run around from different agencies, sheriffs dept., Magistrate court, etc. It seems no one really wants to deal with things like this so the buck is passed. After talking to a real estate friend, he suggested I go and speak with the Tularosa Chief of police. He was a real blessing and though he said that I would probably have to go to court and need a lawyer he suggested that we go and speak to the tenants. So the Chief followed me and we talked to the young woman about needing to leave the premises. That night around 10:30 the buyer called Bill asking if we could work something out and that she wanted to pay all the back payments and other costs that were involved.We decided to sleep on it and in the morning I felt that I was supposed to meet her for coffee and talk in person instead of the phone thing. As we talked about the house situation God just opened the door for me to share Jesus and His desire for her life. We spent much of our time talking and I prayed with her before leaving.

Bill and I are feeling that God is calling us to extend grace to her. We have experienced His grace and mercy time and time again in our lives and I believe that we are just, as Bill likes to say, conduits for Jesus to flow through. We don't know exactly just all of what this will look like in this situation. For right now it is giving her till the end of the month to get our home in order to turn back over to us. We also have hooked her up with a dear friend who helps families with their finances by showing them God's principals for money and helping with budgets etc. Other questions and ideas are still in the air which we are just waiting on the Father's leading.

I spent 2 days at the storage unit of which the contents were given us. Much of the time was sorting and taking lots of loads to the garbage dump. I had 2 precious friends, Alisa and Monette and Monettes' boys bless me tremendously by helping me with this task. Thank you so much friends!!

We would appreciate your continued prayers concerning the house situation and also for the family involved.

Thanksgiving is upon us. A day set aside to ponder and mediate at the wonderful blessings given each one of us. I am thankful for the blessing of knowing-

Jesus loves me, this I know. Our prayer is that you may know more deeply the reality of Jesus' love for you.

Thankful for you!

Bill and Mary

Asking for your prayers

I (Mary) am heading down to Alamogordo for the difficult task of the process of evicting the family who bought our Tularosa house August of last year. We were owner financing the home and because of default of payment this is the unfortunate conclusion. Bill has many obligations here in CO and it seemed logical for me to run down to NM.

We have been unsuccessful at this point knowing just where to go from here so my first stop will be the Sheriff's department as it seems we have all paperwork in order. From neighbors in the area it sounds like the older son may be the only one really living in the house. He is violent from what they say. Would you pray that the house doesn't get vandalized during this event and that God would somehow be glorified even in this situation.

I do not know how long this process will take and so may be in Alamogordo till Friday or Saturday. Would love to go to coffee or see you!! I still have a NM cell phone# 921-2104. Give me a call!

We also were blessed with a storage unit there in Alamo (from someone who now lives in Colorado!) that is full of things that have been given to us to sell and use the funds for the food and clothing pantry so I will be trying to go through the unit and sorting as to what goes and needs to be thrown.

I am so glad we have you beside us- thank you for praying-it means so very much!

Bee Blessed

mary

FUN FUN For Everyone!

We've been busy and having so much fun since we last talked!
Fellow AFM misionaries , the Craigs, came and spent the night-
It was so fun getting to see them again!

(CLICK ON ANY OF THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM)

I (Mary) have been doing a lot of this! We have been blessed with gifts of apples, peaches,pears,etc and now we have wonderful jars of goodies in our pantry-
I even made candied crab apples and a new recipe
Peach Salsa-- It is yummy!

This Sunday I (Bill) was talking about knowing God,
and that one way we can know Him better is by observing what He is up to in our lives.
I really desire to take note of and learn about Him from some of the easily unnoticed things that He is doing.
So can I tell you about some of the things He is doing here?

First, let me tell you about our need for clothing racks.
In response to our last email a number of you came up with some good suggestions.
But I am not going to use any of them. Do you want to know why?
Well one of our supporters has come up with approximately 10 racks from a department store. These are very nice racks!
Do you think maybe God wants to tell the people of Aguilar
"this is just a sample of how much I LOVE YOU"
by giving them nice racks for their clothing pantry?

If any of you in Alamogordo area have some nice gently used clothing you would like to get rid of - let us know- we will have plenty of room in between the racks. We are especially in need of baby, childrens, and mens clothing. We will be coming down this Thursday Oct. 21 and heading back very early Sunday morning to get back in time for the Aguilar Fellowship that evening.

Next, the food pantry gave out 59 boxes of food on Oct.1.
This helped 140 people!
Several people came in the day we were trying to organize and get the boxes together.
They saw that we were at the building and just came to help-
WHAT A BLESSING!

Getting boxes ready to distribute!

We reorganized how the boxes were given out in order to spend a little more time getting to know people.
We were able to chat with a number of them.
One young man I have tried for two years to be friendly to and to strike up a conversation with absolutely no success.
But while they were waiting for their box of food I got to talk to him a bit.
Then a few days later as I was unloading my pickup full of boxes of clothing I saw "Danny" coming down the street.
I quickly asked God what do you have planned for this moment?
Well he came by and asked if I could use some help.
WOW!
Another wall crumbling.

(person at desk is signing up to get a box while Bill chats with another friend)

To keep from making this too long let me just say Mary and I have had the privilege of meeting a number of new people.
Some through the food boxes, some through hospice, and others by some asking us to go by and meet their friend.
It is so exciting as we observe God opening doors into the lives of people -
many who have been marginalized and some just flat out forgotten.

Prayer requests

1. It is looking like we may be getting our house in Tularosa back. This will create a financial burden for us. Would you pray that this can be resolved.

2. Volunteers for the Food/clothing pantry and other areas of ministry we are seeing needs for (ex. after school Bible Club) but needsomeone to come along side and see this as their calling.

3.Would you be praying about standing in the gap spiritually for specific families and people we are working with?Many here have no one who prays for them and they come to us knowing we are and will be praying.

We would love to have you "adopt" someone that you will faithfully pray for.

We can never say "thank you" enough. Thank you for your financial and prayer support. Thank you for your encouragement and love for us!

l last picture of the building with its fresh coat of paint. You can see way in the back clothes hanging. That will be our clothes sorting area. The tables to the left have free puzzles, devotional books, Our Daily Bread, and tracts. To the right is the coffee bar and then where you cannot see except for a tiny bit (bottom right corner) are more chairs and small table where people can sit and drink their coffee and have a donut while they are waiting for their food boxes. I wish you could see it in person- This building is such a blessing!

A Pipe Dream

We are seeing both good progress and minimal progress in getting the clothing pantry in Aguilar up and running.

Many hands make light work"- that was so true the Saturday we painted the inside of the building! Several from our fellowship and Pastor Dan from Colorado City came out to help spruce up the inside. My, it is amazing what a little paint will do!!

Always good to see someone on his knees! (Pastor Dan Carlson)

Ken was a paint rolling machine!! Blue and pink were old colors-

Custom mixed (Ken and Bill hand mixing ) flat white paint that was graciously donated and
a variety of oops paint colors made a beautiful golden tan -

Mary was holding her breath till it got on the walls as it looked not so good in the buckets!

We are being blessed with a good amount of clothing donations, and are ready to start sorting. The one big hold up is racks to hang the clothing on. Clothing racks seem to be hard to come by so we have decided that we would just make some racks out of pipe. I have checked out the price of black pipe to construct 5' long racks double decked. The materials to build 1 (one) rack will cost $108.00. I am sure that you have figured out pretty quickly that that is waaaayyyyyyy out of our reach financially at this point.

My next thought was maybe, just maybe some of you would know where there is some pipe laying around that needs a new home and purpose. I have wire brushes so the condition of the pipe doesn't have to be new, although new is good. Any heavy duty clothing racks that you have laying around in your garage will do too!! :)

I suppose my biggest dilemma here is that I feel that the majority of any money that comes in should go to buying food for the people of this town. Yet there is a need to provide good clothing for them also.

So here I am before Father God and you seeking wisdom and input in this time and with these 2 needs. We appreciate every one of you so much!

Other Prayer Requests

In my last email we asked you to pray for Peggy, who had had 2 strokes. On Friday Peggy passed from this life. Our prayer was that during this time the Spirit ministered to her spirit to bring her to a place of assurance of salvation beyond the religious teaching she was familiar with. Please continue to pray for her family.

Would you also pray for Pastor Al Dagel. He has a blood infection that the doctors have not figured out as yet. We were blessed this last Sunday to be able to fill in for him at Grace Community Bible Church in Pueblo. We always enjoy being with this church.

Blessings,

Bill & Mary

Did you know you can give on line? Check out the right sidebar for details!

Aguilar is not a very big town but there are some very big needs there.

Last Friday our desire was to make a little difference in the need for food, in some homes, at the end of the month. For many it gets pretty skimpy at that time of the month. The new food pantry in Aguilar gave out 51 boxes/bags of food to help feed about 135 people. When I placed the order for the food I was thinking we would be able to do about 25 -30 boxes.

Charlie and Ken getting boxes ready

I wasn't intentionally thinking small. It was that another food pantry in Walsenburg was paying for the food this time to help us get started. Simply stated we were pretty amazed at what took place.This all happened in a little over 1 hour. It went very well and God has given us some ideas on how to do it a little different. The changes will allow us to spend a little more time with the people, getting to know them and to speak and live the Gospel out before them.

We are in the process of painting the inside of our building and hope to create a warm and comfortable environment for those who come next month. The next painting day will be Sept.11. If you are available and would like to help we have a brush just for you. Just give me a call if you can help.

One of our desires is to have some food that will be available at anytime of the month for emergency needs, as well as having a good supply for the once a month distribution. We are open to donations of staple foods,canned goods,etc. We have no refrigeration facility. Also financial donations will allow us to purchase food from Care and Share at very very low prices. A lot can be purchased from them for very little. Checks can be made out to "Unspeakable Gift Fellowship" (yes our we finally have a name! Many called us the No name church in Aguilar )and sent to 137 W. First St. Walsenburg,CO 81089.

Peggy, one of the precious women of Aguilar that we have been working with, had a stroke Saturday. We visited her in the hospital,in Pueblo, on Monday evening. The hospital released her on Tuesday and before she made it home she had another stroke. She was flown to Denver and at this time is still not able to talk or understand commands. Please be praying for her and her family.

Bill and Mary

Summer news!

Below is our summer newsletter for this year. To read simply click on image- a new box will appear with the newsletter. If you click on image again it will enlarge to make it more readable.
Thank you for taking the time to see what the Father is doing in SE Colorado!

Prayer update

To our faithful praying friends,

This has been a very different and difficult week.

On Wednesday afternoon we received a call letting us know that the young lady, a hospice patient we have been ministering to, had taken a turn for the worse. Then Friday morning we received a call that she had went to be with her Savior. This came quickly and the family is struggling as they deal with this. Pray also for us as we minister to them.

This morning we received a call that our former Regional Director, Stan Spiess had "graduated" and now stands in the presence of his Lord and Savior. Below is the note from Jan.

Greetings Dear Friends,
At 4:03 this morning, Stan graduated to be with His Lord. We praise the Lord for his witness to everyone around him during his battle with cancer. God has used him in an amazing way to influence others. Thanks for your continued prayers along this line. He has loved you and appreciated you so much. Please continue to pray for me as I continue on without the love of my life. At this time, I plan to stay around and continue his Prayer Chaplain work with American Missionary Fellowship. God bless! Jan


For those who might be planning to honor him by attending his funeral services, here are the times and places.

Services: 1st Evangelical Free in Colorado Springs at 820 N.30th
Viewing 9:30-10:45 at the church,Wednesday 26th
Funeral service: 11:00 AM (after viewing)

Thursday 27th
Graveside Service in Boncarbo, Co (West 0f Trinidad) at "The Refuge". Call me for directions. 719-574-2474.

We do not have a date for the other funeral as of yet. The family desires Bill to do a graveside service when they receive their loved one's ashes.

We have asked you to pray for both of these in the past and now ask that you continue to remember their families and friends in this time of loss.

Love in Christ,
Bill & Mary

God has recently led us into some ministry opportunities that have again stretched us in different ways.

In the last month we have come in contact with several elderly widows who are in poor health. These are women that live alone and have no relatives living near them. We were contacted about one of the women by her niece who lives in Alaska. Are you wondering how she came to contact us? Well so are we.

Mary has taken one to the doctors several times and to the emergency room. This woman’s house payment recently increased by $72.00 a month. This amount, on her small fixed income, is beyond her ability to pay. We are praying with her and trusting that God is in control and this need will be met.

One of these dear women is what you might say a little cantankerous and she is NOT hard of hearing so “please don’t yell at me”. She told Mary that she didn’t need people in her life. These words were spoken while Mary was rubbing her back at her request. She tells us she has not had a real bath in 2 years. She just doesn’t have the strength and has had no one to help her. Pray with us as we allow Jesus to flow into this tough situation. She doesn’t want us to talk religion, and that’s ok because we really desire to only talk about Jesus and His desire to set us free by His redemption.

I was blessed to be asked by a teacher at the Aguilar Public Schools to speak in 6 Jr. High and Sr. High English classes. This last Monday I spent 6 hours with these students. This is another great story as I had never met the teacher that asked me to speak in her classes. Being somewhat limited on what could be said, the desire was to at least make connections with these young people, letting them know who we are and what we are doing in their town. I believe that happened and I am looking forward to what may come from this time. The teacher initially asked us to pray with her for revival in the school. Would you pray with us that these young people would begin to seek Jesus?

Mary and I have been providing spiritual care for a young hospice patient with pancreatic cancer. This week it was estimated that the patient has about 2 weeks to live. Pray with us for the patient and family. Pray also that we will be able to minister to the family in the future.

This next week we will be in Pagosa Springs helping again with the “Training of the Twelve” discipleship/spring turkey hunt.

In Christ alone,

Bill and Mary

Spring Newsletter-

Here is our Spring Newsletter for all you who want it via email instead of snail mail. If you will click on a page it will go to another window then click on it again and it will enlarge so that you can read it! (if you have any problems reading it please contact us!)

Thank you again for your prayers and support of this ministry!

“You took me to the next level in my walk,"

“You took me to the next level in my walk, in my relationship with Jesus and I can’t thank you enough!” These were the words of one of the inmates Wednesday evening as we met for the last time and again dug into God’s Word. Most of the other men echoed this same thankfulness and what a joy it was to see that the Holy Spirit has indeed, as promised, been at work in their lives. I also expressed my thanks to them for coming to this Bible study and making an opportunity for me to share what Jesus is teaching me. One of my challenges to them was, since you learn even more when you teach others, go and teach other men what Jesus is teaching you.

One of the men, originally from Mexico, has in the past shared a song in Spanish for us. This night he asked if he could share a song he had written in English (he doesn’t know how to read or write English). What a blessing as he sang to us of God’s constant love and working in our lives.

Christ in you, desiring a deep intimate relationship with you and wanting to be the source of every aspect of your life, was always the central focus of these studies. Pray with us that they will live in that truth.

I failed to mention in our last update of a little different opportunity for ministry that has come my way. We have mentioned getting involved as volunteers with Sangre de Cristo Hospice. Late last year I was asked to consider being on the board of directors for this amazing organization. They were interested in having some representation from the southern part of the area they cover. As I interviewed with 2 of the board members, they also expressed a desire for me to bring to the board the perspective of a missionary to this area. This is of importance, I believe, for several reasons. One of those is that we are in the process of searching for a new CEO. The founder and recently retired CEO was very strong on the importance of providing, when requested, spiritual care in addition to medical care. This is an area that could too easily be seen as not really necessary and a place to cut costs. Another aspect I want to explore is in meeting with people in this area to let them know about hospice care that is available to them. This will give me some more great opportunities to meet people, always looking for those open doors to plant seeds and to share the Gospel of Jesus.

It looks like we will be renting the building we mentioned in our last update. We will be looking for some folding chairs and tables to equip this building. We will be going to Alamogordo on Tuesday for Millicent Shyne’s memorial service. If any of you down there know of some chairs and tables that would be available we could bring the truck.



In Christ alone,

Bill & Mary

Prison closing- Buildings and Bible Studies-

Occasionally I will begin the Bible study at the prison by asking the men what their "take away" was from last week . This can sometimes be a less than encouraging moment, as I am always hoping that they heard something that the Holy Spirit used during the week to convict, grow or stretch them in their walk. One night one of the young men asked if he could use my marker and come to the white board. He told us that what he heard last week and was illustrating on the board had been impacting him all week. What a great joy to see the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in changing lives. It was particularly exciting to me as that same night I had learned that these Arizona inmates will be going back to Arizona in March. Having only been working with these guys for seven months my thoughts were that it hasn't been enough time of taking them into scripture to deepen their relationship with Jesus. I must be content to have the opportunity to plant some seeds.

With the loss of this contract with Arizona, this prison now has no contract with any other state to house their inmates. What that means is that the prison here in Walsenburg will be closing. This could be short term or…..? This means the loss of about 200 jobs in the area as well as other revenue generated by the prison. For a small community, this will have a very large impact. Doing a Bible study with the Colorado inmates and then the Arizona inmates has been an adventure that has been rewarding. With both groups I was blessed to have men that were desperately hungry to find the Source for a drastically changed life and to learn to allow (die to themselves) the Source, “Christ in you”, to flow from them.

Pray with us that these men who have found Jesus as their Savior, will run to Him as their only source when faced with every aspect of life.

Tuesday's Coffee and Chat have brought several new people to the mix of regulars-
A couple of weeks ago, during our Sunday evening fellowship/worship time we had a potluck dinner. We were blessed to have 2 new families join us for this time. We are planning to have potluck at least one Sunday a month as this makes it possible for these families to come.

Today we looked at a building in Aguilar to rent. There are not many in this little town that are in any condition to occupy. We are praying for a place where we can meet for Bible studies, Sunday worship/ fellowship, after school Bible club for children, and possibly a clothing and food bank. The building we looked at today will accommodate those needs. The couple that owns it are excited about this and offered to rent it to us for $300.00 per month and they will pay all utilities. This will give us a consistent place to meet eliminating being “bumped” by other groups. Pray with us that this is where God would have us.

Mary is planning on starting a women’s Bible study after meeting with several women on individual basis for some time. Please pray for wisdom as to material to use as this is a very diverse group with many different needs.

In Christ Alone

Bill and Mary