We are Changing Our Name!

Have you ever had the thought that you would like to change your name? Maybe something that had a little different ring to it or that you thought fit you better.

     Well our ministry has not changed, but the mission that we serve with, American Missionary Fellowship, has changed its name to "InFaith." The mission continues to serve the Lord by bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people across the United States, as it has since 1817. In fact our ongoing effort to communicate the unchanging truth in a changing world is the primary reason for our name change. The new name is intentionally shorter and, we believe, more memorable. We pray it will open doors to growth for our mission and for the church in the United States.

     We ask you to join us in prayer for the release of this name and for our mission to continue to reach many people with the good news of God’s sacrificial love as we walk in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We still need your support! Please help us spread the word that former American Missionary Fellowship missionaries continue to serve across the United States, now under the banner of InFaith.

The things you love about our mission—our people, our passion for serving Christ in the U.S., our
history, and our love for each other—remain

.

Mary and I will be using a new email address. Please change our email in your saved address book to bglidden@infaith.org

Email Problem Finally Fixed!

You are probably wondering why you haven’t seen an email from us in awhile. Well there were some changes made in our email and we were not able to get to our contact list until recently. But we are back and have a lot to share.

In one of our updates I talked about this area being categorized as “frontier” rather than rural. I should clarify this a bit in that that is true for most of the approximately 20000 square miles that we serve. The city of Pueblo (population approx.105,000) is on the north edge of our ministry area and is the closest town of any size to provide many of the essential needs.

Our ministry area is larger than 9 of the states in our country. This area takes in the counties of Alamosa, Baca, Bent, Custer, Costilla, Huerfano, Las Animas, Otero, Prowers, and part of Pueblo.Some of you asked, after reading my encyclopedic update, “what are some of the challenges to ministry in a “frontier” area?”

One of the very obvious challenges is the distances of travel. That really boils down to amount of time spent traveling and cost to travel. This can make for some long days and as we are all aware the price of fuel is not cheap.

More later.

On June 4^th -7th we again were involved in the La Veta Rodeo Bible Camp. Mary was again involved with keeping the campers and staff well fed. I was asked to take on a different role this year as a team leader. This involved bringing devotions 2 times a day, and spending time one on one with a group of young men assigned to me. I also spent time watching them learn their particular events. Most of that watching was done while keeping the cattle moving into the chute for the team ropers. Being with them at their events at times gives insight as to possible individual needs. What a great time as we saw some accept Jesus as their Savior and others move closer in their relationship with Him.

In July we went to Alamogordo to close on our house in Tularosa (again). Thank you so much to all you who have been praying for this!

Kissing Camels at Garden of the Gods

Before we headed back to Colorado we picked up our 11 year old friend Ashton. He would join us for Junior High camp at Homestead Bible Camp. Ashton camped out with us for almost 2 weeks. He had never been to Colorado before so we showed him some sights in our area. He was surprised at all the vehicle time to get to places ( must be that Frontier thing again!)

This year we were blessed to be the Bible speakers at this camp, and spoke on being “Connected to God”. We got to speak to this great group of kids 6 times. Mary and I shared the times and again we saw some accept Jesus as Savior and many others deepen their “connection” with Him.

Prayer and Praise

In the course of a conversation with a recent high school graduate, about her plans for the future, Mary discovered that her reading level was very low. We already knew that another member of her family does not know how to read either. Mary is praying and talking to them about the possibility of letting her teach them.  Would you be praying for this also.  Satan wants to keep people in the darkness.
Also if anyone has taught adult reading please contact us with any helps or suggestions you may have!


Jonathan and Andreas have made it to Panama this past Saturday (Aug 27)  and are making their way back up through the same countries they traveled to get to their destination.   The trip has been awesome for them so far! Thank you for your prayers and please continue!

We are always in need of strong Christians to come along side us.
So many more opportunities for ministry are available, After school  Bible club,  teaching parenting skills, etc. The needs are so great- the opportunities abound- The rewards eternal!

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!

The Wild Frontier

I thought I would share with you a fact that I recently learned about the area where we live and serve in ministry.
I keep telling you that we are in rural South East Colorado.
But I was informed recently that we are not rural, we are considered frontier.

Here is the definition that explains that determination:

Frontier areas are sparsely populated rural areas that are isolated from population centers and services. While frontier is sometimes defined simplistically as places having a population density of six or fewer people per square mile this does not take into account other important factors that may isolate a community.

What are some of the challenges facing frontier areas?

Answer: The isolation and distances that classify an area as frontier results in long trips to attend school, shop for groceries, get health care, and reach other basic services. Public transportation options are often limited or unavailable in frontier areas, making access to needed services difficult for low-income households, the elderly and disabled. Frontier areas face seasonal travel barriers that can make travel difficult. For those living in mountainous areas, some roads and passes may be closed in winter, leading to longer travel times. Residents may find that winter driving in the frontier extends travel times because they need to slow down to adequately account for road conditions and limited visibility. Flooding caused by melting snow and heavy rains can force the closure of main roads for unexpected and extended periods of time in both mountainous and flatland landscapes.

The economy in frontier areas is usually based on a few specific resources or activities and so are more at risk of downturns and boom-bust cycles. Tourism, farming, ranching, logging, and mining are some of the businesses that are common in rural areas. Frontier communities may be more vulnerable to less desirable sources of business income, such as nuclear waste disposal. Frontier areas where much of the land is federally owned may lack an adequate tax base to pay for needed services. (In SE Colorado most of the land is privately owned ranch land which is taxed but not at the level of residential property, leaving the counties with a low tax base for services).

This information is from the Rural Assistance Center website. My added comment in parenthesis.

My intention is not to bring you facts that you can add to your trivia bank. My desire is to give you something that forms a picture, a mural if you will, of the people and the challenges to ministry in this area. For the sake of keeping this update from getting too long I am going leave you with this info and let the Spirit of Jesus paint a picture in your mind.

Next update I will give you some snapshots to add to this mural.
Tonight I will also extend the invitation of “come and you will see” John 1:39.


Blessings


A little update from Mary-

Happy Birthday Sweet William!

Bill with his Mom and Dad this January

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