October News!

Below is our October Newsletter.  If you right click and open in new tab then click on the image it will enlarge to make for easier reading.

A friend told me if I saved the newsletter in a png format it would be more clear for reading but I am having trouble doing that as it is not an option for saving on my computer. I would be so grateful if anyone could help me make this change or some other way to read this.  All the clicking and such does make it confusing and I would love to make it easy for all to view.

Christmas 2011 Newsletter

Below is our Christmas 2011 newsletter- again the newsletter itself won't enlarge for reading so the content is below-I think blogger changed the way it is storing the files or something- or geez could it be me???

 QUESTIONS

I just received an email from a friend that directed me to a youtube sight where the recent song “Where’s The Line To See Jesus” was sung.

      If you haven’t heard this song I encourage you to listen to it. It is a challenging question for each of us in this season, a time when the commercialism, materialism, and many activities tend to pull us into their grasp. As I listened to this song the other question seemed to be – when we sit with Jesus what do we say or ask? That question really catches my attention as I examine the Christmas narrative. Will I come before Jesus as the Magi did?      

Mat 2:11  And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

or will I just present Him with my personal wish list? 

      There have been many times this year when we have had opportunities to explore profound questions with people.   Questions like “How do you view God?”, “Who do you believe Jesus to be?”, “Do you know about the free gift that God desires to give you?”, and “What is a gift?”. These and other questions may come up at Coffee & Chat, the food and clothing pantry, camps, sitting at the bedside of a hospice patient, or any place when the Holy Spirit is opening the door.

       As a volunteer chaplain with hospice, my first encounter with our patients/family is to inquire of their desire for Spiritual Care. Even when they decline Spiritual Care services, we make sure the door is always open in the future.

     One patient who declined, within a few days called me to come as a volunteer to sit with and assist the patient for most of the day.  So throughout the day we talked of his ranching, his career as a geologist, worked on his motorized wheelchair, had wheelchair races (he has 2), helped him with tours of his art gallery, worked on his rototiller, and talked about his struggle with believing in God. Meanwhile Mary was spending the day with his wife.

     The Apostle Paul tells us that the mystery now manifested in His saints is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That is why one of my prayers is to be invited back. Every time we step into a home, we know that Jesus is present and He will orchestrate a right time for the important questions to be raised. 

 

Family News

    We were so blessed to have both Jonathan and David with us for a week in October.  It has been at least 7 years since we were all under the same roof . (Yes, Jonathan made it safely back from his motorcycle trip to Central America)  We had a great time clay pigeon shooting and getting the compound bows out. 

     Jonathan worked so hard while he was here removing awnings, patching stucco and pressure washing the outside of the house in order to get it ready to paint this spring.

     The next weekend  I (Mary) met my sister Kathy in Albuquerque to bring Mom up to Colorado for the week.  We had a great time and it went so fast.  I think she was ready to go home as we had her running with all the things we do.

     Then we were blessed again by getting to go to Alamogordo to spend Thanksgiving with family. 

     This is just a glimpse of why we can’t thank those of you who faithfully pray and faithfully give financially, enough for allowing us to be available 24/7 to bring the power of Christ’s redemption into life’s situations and homes in the frontier regions of SE Colorado.

     Most of all thank you Jesus for your Gift to all who will believe!

Search and Rescue And Dancing With Jesus and Grace

Below is our October 2011 Newsletter.

Please click on page- it will come up in a new window. If you will then click on that again it will enlarge so that you can read it!
For some reason it is not wanting to enlarge so the content of newsletter is below picture of newsletter
(will I ever get this computer stuff figured out????)

God continues to amaze us with His delightful  and unusual ways of using His children - Hope you will enjoy reading a few of those unique encounters.

Search and Rescue

   Labor Day Mary and I decided to take the day off and drive up to Cordova Pass at 11743 ft. elevation. This pass is closed because of snow more than it is open. Here you are in the shadow of the Spanish Peaks and the view is spectacular. Soon after beginning a short hike we heard a Sheriff’s deputy calling someone’s name. Wondering if we could be of help we circled back and met up with the deputy. He had determined the lost man was somewhere out on a ridge off to the right. We found out the lost man’s name (Tim) and said we would take the top of the ridge and try to intercept him. Without going into all the details, Mary and I found Tim out on the ridge. We chatted for a bit and then began leading him out of the woods. We soon met up with the deputy who had gotten a little turned around. On the way out Mary and I each asked Tim if he had been doing any praying while he was lost. We were hoping this would open up some conversation. Each time Tim just said “no”.

    As we were coming out a deputy who does Search and Rescue showed up with a 4 wheeler. We made it back to the cars and the 2 deputies, Tim, and Mary and I were standing around talking. The deputies told Tim how “lucky” he was to have been found and brought to safety so quickly. They assured him they would have found him, but also explained that they have never had it happen so quickly.

As we talked, Tim turned to me and said “you know when you asked me if I was praying and I told you no. Well I want to tell you that I had a peace about the situation out there.” Mary interjected “well we were praying for you”. Tim went on to tell how when he has been in the area before, his cell phone has never worked, BUT it did today. It seemed to me like a great time to give thanks to God and I asked them if they would mind me praying with them. No one objected so we stood in the parking area of Cordova Pass and thanked God for His provision and care that day.

    It is moments like that and many other situations that make InFaith a great name for our mission and what we do.

Dancing With Jesus and Grace

     

   “Grace”  has End Stage Alzheimer’s/Dementia and on my prior visits I have wondered if any ministry was actually taking place. But today we found “Grace” in her room and asked her about her pictures. You can’t understand most of what she is trying to say. Grace likes to hum and as we stood talking to her she began to hum. Mary listened close to try to figure out what she was humming. Being unsuccessful, Mary asked if she could sing Amazing Grace. She smiled. As Mary sang that and several other songs Grace took our hands and swayed with the music and smiled the biggest smile. That day there was no doubt that Jesus was in the midst of that room ministering to Grace.

   We walked across the street to see “Joy”. As she came to the door and saw us she exclaimed “God sent you when I really needed you”! Not only has she lost her husband this year, but last month her sister who raised her passed and she was having a really rough day. For the next couple of hours we encouraged her with God’s words to us to comfort and strengthen us in times like this. We also talked about how He uses these situations in our lives to stretch us and equip us for what He has ahead of us.

Same Mission– New Name

 

  The mission we serve with, which has been known in the past as The First Day Society, The Adult and Sunday School Union, The American Sunday School Union, and (most recently) American Missionary Fellowship, has changed its name to InFaith.  As missionaries, we walk in faith daily, depending on the Lord to meet all our needs, and to place us exactly where He desires to use us each moment as we serve Him right here in the United States.

  InFaith missionaries are called to a variety of ministries around the nation, but we are all united in our faith in Christ and our desire to tell others about Him. In changing our name, we have not changed our core theology, our day-to-day ministry, or our focus on the United States. We have simply changed the way we present ourselves publicly, in the hope that we can better communicate what we do as a mission.

Thank you for being such a vital part of this ministry with your prayers and support! We are so blessed to have you as part of the team!

June Newsletter

We're having a problem accessing our email list of those who desire to receive the newsletter by email instead of snail mail. I (mary) am not sure how to remedy the problem and want to apologize. I am trying to work on it but if you know of others who may have mentioned they haven't heard from us would you give them this newsletter link to go to- Thank you! A prayer that I can access the very large number of email addresses would be appreciated too!

Below is our June 2011 Newsletter.

Please click on page- it will come up in a new window. If you will then click on that again it will enlarge so that you can read it! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see what the Lord is doing in SE Colorado!

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!

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!

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!

August Newsletter

Summer Summary

The last part of May was spent preparing for 2 VBSs in our area. Being new and not too many people being familiar to AMF, I believed it was important for

people to see us face to face. I now have quite a few more miles on my boots, and

I got to meet more people.

VBS week was May 25-29. Curtis Rhoadarmer brought Ray, Matt, & Alex to lead the VBSs. We recruited Rebecca Rice from the Fairs to add a feminine touch. Good thing she came too, as the VBS in Gardner was attended by 13 girls, 0 boys. In Walsenburg we had the VBS in our backyard and it was attended by 15 boys and girls.

Between the 2 VBSs there were 15 kids who asked Jesus to be their

Savior!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your faithful praying on behalf of this ministry! God is working!!

La Veta Rodeo Bible Camp What a great time we have helping out at this camp. This was our 2^nd year here. Mary again assisted Barb Fair in preparing some great meals for these young cowboys & cowgirls. I helped with the Shooting Sports part of the camp.

Building Fences and

Relationships

Mary decided to get into the bee raising business. One of the things she needed was a “bear proof” enclosure for her hives. Manuel lives in Aguilar & he has built fence most of his life.

Having Manuel come help me would be a good way to continue building a relationship with him. Mary brought us lunch & we spent the next 2+ hours talking about Jesus & His gift of redemption for us. Manuel is now also coming to the Friday night Bible study in Aguilar

RATTLESNAKE BITE!

June 27 Mary was seeing to the needs of her bees and was bit on the toe by a rattlesnake. Minutes after getting to the emergency room she went into anaphylactic shock. We are so thankful that we were at the hospital at this life threatening moment. She was

intubated & flown to Pueblo where she spent the next 5 days in a coma and a total of

10 days in the hospital. We don’t begin to know the reasons why this has happened but we have had opportunities to tell people about God’s love, provision, & healing. We were privileged to get to pray with & encourage several families as well as staff at the hospital. About 10:30 one evening I was prompted to go get something to eat. There were several long painful & restless nights for Mary as she came off the sedation.

Getting on the elevator, I discovered I was with the CEO of the hospital. I just had to thank him for having such a wonderful & caring staff. We began talking & he wanted to know about Mary’s condition & how it happened. No way to let this conversation go by without giving praise to our Father & His healing touch. I also got to share with him what we do as missionaries in SE Colo. The last 2 months have been quite different than we had planned & thought was God’s plan for us. Thanks to the thousands of people all over the world that have been praying for Mary.

Prayer and Praise!

● For Mary & the healing that has taken place, & as her body continues to heal.

● Our home in New Mexico sold! PTL—we closed July 28th!

● My mom (Bill) had surgery for breast cancer at the same time as Mary’s incident. She is now going through chemo treatments and all the emotions and complications that go with that.

● We are preparing to start after school Bible clubs for the kids in Gardner & Aguilar

● Some people in Aguilar have asked us to begin Sunday services there

● The Bible studies at the prison with the Arizona inmates. We have had between 12 & 21 attend each Wednesday night .

Quarterly newsletter- May 09

(This is the information we sent out in our quarterly (snail mail) newsletters- If you would like to receive a paper copy just give us a quick email and we will add you to our list!)

Love in any Language (or Culture)

One of the notable aspects of Jesus' ministry is that He spoke to people in the "language" of their culture. When He talked to farmers He used illustrations and examples common to an agrarian society. He did the same with fishermen, shepherds and others. The Ethnic Summit Conference, we attended in March, gave us the stimulus to discover the cultures of the various ethnic groups we work with in order to speak about the Gospel in the words that they relate to. Pray with us that God will take us to those doors that need opened in SE Colorado.

Enjoying fellowship together at the Ethnic Summit in Arizona

One cold winter evening, sitting by the wood stove, I discovered Facebook.com. What I discovered was a media through which I could connect with people I hadn’t seen or talked to in years, many I had lost track of. Patrick, one of the teens in our youth group-30 YEARS AGO, was one of my connections. It wasn’t long before I got a message in my inbox with this question- “Could you put me on track to some passages referring to ...finding the way to God, ...faith. How do I put aside everything that I believe is
logical and give myself to Jesus?” We communicated back & forth for a month. We had lunch with Patrick as he lived in the same city that the Ethnic Conference was held. Mary and I shared with him a number of scriptures, primarily Luke 15, about our Father who desires the return of His repentant son and the awesome picture of His extravagant love. A few days later we received an email from Patrick –“ had a
wonderful lunch with you two...thank you. I came home and thought about our discussions ...later I sat in my room and realized that the only right thing to do was ask for forgiveness and to come home....I prayed on it. The last time I actually prayed was 20 years ago …. I felt a burden off of me....I will continue to learn and do my best to listen.... I want to continue to have fellowship with you and direction....thank you for pointing me in the right direction.” Pray for Patrick in his new walk with Jesus.

We were blessed to spend 4 days in Mammoth Lakes, Ca. in March, skiing, sightseeing and enjoying time spent with our youngest son David, who works ski patrol on the mountain

PRISON MINISTRY
The prison ministry is on hold. All Colorado inmates are being transferred to other
facilities. This prison will begin accepting inmates from Arizona. There will be many changes in this move, like no Faith Pod. We have a great chaplain here and he is
working hard to assure that there will be solid Biblical teaching taking place. Continue to pray for the men that we were blessed with as we looked at “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”


Financial Support Update

During these challenging economic times we have seen a 20% /month drop in our support. Pray with us for new financial ministry partners who will join in this exciting time of reaching SE Colorado with the Gospel.