Missionary Spotlight ~ Andrew Day

Today is a big day for my brother Andrew. Early this morning he started his journey to England to serve with George Verwer and Operation Mobilization. 

From Andrew's newsletter:

"It was also at Moody that God brought George Verwer and the ministry of Operation Mobilization in my path. 

George Verwer is the founder and former director of Operation Mobilization (OM) an international mission agency that works in 118 countries. 

Mr. Verwer is a prolific author and a popular speaker around the world. He challenges people with the great need for missions and raises awareness and funds for global needs. 

Last year Mr. Verwer spoke around 300 times to diverse audiences of all ages. 

I’m excited to let you know that this August I will be starting a year long ministry as George Verwer’s personal assistant (aka. Go-fer). I will be traveling with him everywhere he goes and assisting him with anything he needs. 

When we are not traveling and speaking at a conference or some sort of event. I will be helping him out of his home office outside of London England. The job description of a gofer is anything, anytime, anywhere."

If you would like to receive Andrew's newsletters you can email me or Andrew and we'll add you to the list.

Every OM missionary has to raise their own support to cover ministry expenses. Andrew's trusting the Lord to bring in team members to be an important part of the ministry both through prayer support and financial support. He realizes that without God's strength and the support of God's people he would not be able to go have a part in reaching the world with the gospel. So he values the sacrifices his supporters are making on his behalf.

If you pray about it and feel like this is something God wants you to be a part of you can email Andrew at awd.day (at) gmail (dot) com. 

Sunday night's commissioning service to send Andrew off with prayer.

I thought you might like to see a list of places they are going to be traveling to and speaking at this year:

England
Netherlands 
Italy 
Kansas City - USA
Belfast - Northern Ireland 
New York - USA
Texas - USA
Ontario - Canada 
Dublin - Ireland 
Tennessee - USA
Idaho - USA 
India 
Thailand
Philippines   
Scotland 

This itinerary only goes up to November!

If you would like to send Andrew a gift,
Giving Online To Help A Missionary Serving With Operation Mobilization:

Go to the OM site here and click Give Online
Choose the option "OM Missionary-Give to support OM's ministry through a person"
Fill in the information and follow the instructions. 

Missionary Spotlight- Brazil

Chris, Ginger and Tekoa Mackey

-Brazil-

Christopher and Ginger are missionaries in Brazil with New Tribes Mission. They are new to the field, and recently had their first child in August of 2008. They are currently in a formal language training of Portuguese, the national language of Brazil. At the end of the year, they will be moving into a tribal village in the Amazon jungle, and live with a tribe called the Yanomami. There are already some missionaries there, and even some tribal believers, but the church as a whole needs a lot of help. The Mackeys hope to step in to help bring the church to maturity so that they might be able to function on their own. Please pray for the Mackeys, as they feel that this work is not their own, but God's work. They pray that they will allow God to work through them to accomplish this task.

Click here to visit their website.

Here is their recent newletter:

Mackey Moments

March '09

Dear Family and Friends,

I just want to start off by saying how humbled and thankful we are by all of you. We know that our country is going through some difficult times financially, and we are humbled by the sacrifices that you make. I am reminded today that the Lord says He is going to come back at any time and He tells us not to worry about anything. We know that He has already won the battle and that Satan's schemes are in vain.

Ginger and I are praising God through our language training. We are continuing to learn more and more about the Brazilian culture and are growing in our comprehension and speaking ability in Portuguese. At the end of May, we will be concluding ONE year of being here in Brazil! We will be evaluated in our language ability at the end of May, and I need to be at a high level. This will mean that I should be comfortable speaking in most circumstances, even to the point of giving a sermon in Portuguese. So with that in mind, it looks like I will need some more time to arrive at that level.

We have just received a recommendation from our field leadership to move up to Manaus, Amazonas, for the next summer and semester. We will continue to study Portuguese there, and will benefit by getting accustomed to the humid, tropical climate before moving into the tribe. We will also be close to our field leadership and get to know them better. Please PRAY for our upcoming move, and PRAY that we will arrive at proficient levels in the language by the end of the year.

Please PRAY for our permanent visas that we have been waiting on since last September. Our visa process is progressing well, but these types of documents take a long time to be completed.

Tekoa is doing very well and changing every day. He is now eating solid foods, and although he keeps trying, he's not yet crawling. We know he will be soon, though, and then the chase will begin!

We are blessed by you all. Sincerely,

Christopher, Ginger, and Tekoa Mackey

Support info go to: http://www.ntm.org/give/645

Our website is UPDATED, get more info at:
http://web.mac.com/chris_ginger

Carrie in Mexico

My friend Carrie who did our last Missionary Spotlight and the one in yellow above has posted a bunch of new pictures on her blog.

She's visited The Tarahumara people who often live in caves. The little girl below is climbing out of her cave house...

Can you spot Carrie at the bottom of the water fall?

Carrie is currently in Mexico learning Spanish before she heads to Paraguay.

Will you take a moment to visit her blog and leave her an encouraging note? You can also follow along and get updates.

Missionaries are often away from their families and home countries and I think it is so important to let them know we are remembering them in prayer. We also need to let them know that we believe in them and in what they are doing.

Missionary Spotlight - Carrie Martin

Missionary Spotlight
#2

Carrie Martin

In Mexico- En route to Paraguay

Visit Carrie's Blog - Life in Carrie's Corner

Hi! My name is Carrie. I met Geoff and Melissa during their first semester in Jersey Shore, PA. I fell in love with Elijah, then got to meet him a few months later. Despite many moves and long distances between us, we have remained good friends. (I have a theory: anyone who makes it through being lost in the woods stays good friends!) Melissa asked me to write a little bit about where I am and what I am doing, which really starts with where I've come from.

My grandparents were missionaries, and I was exposed to missions at a young age. Between my grandparents influence and being raised in a Christian home, God put two and two together in my heart to guide me into missions. I went through New Tribes Bible Institute in Jackson, MI. I spent the next two and a half years in Pennsylvania and Missouri studying culture, church planting, language learning techniques, and linguistics. I finished the four and a half years of training in December 2007.

I spent 2008 building relationships with friends and family in Louisiana and North Carolina, and taking a two-month road trip to Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia. During 2008, I saw God provide in miraculous ways, raising my support from around 15% of the recommended support for a missionary in Mexico--all the way to 65%! Only God could do this!

So now what am I doing? I left North Carolina on New Year's Eve for a four-day trip to Chihuahua, Mexico. I am here in Mexico to study Spanish in a Latin American culture. I won't only be learning a new language--I'll be learning a new way of life! I live in the Mexican Bible school's dorm. I have three roommates, two are monolingual in Spanish. I'm praying that this will aid me in learning Spanish more quickly! I'll be here in Chihuahua for ten months, and then I plan to go to Paraguay. When I get to Paraguay I will spend more time in Spanish language learning, then I will get into my area of ministry. I'm praying about how I will fit into a tribal church planting work.

I am so excited about how far God has brought me. I once heard an analogy of how God works on us to remove our blemishes to glorify Himself. A diamond worker may sit for days, staring at a diamond--analyzing its features both positive and negative. Finally, one day, the worker picks up his tools and taps the diamond in one place. The diamond will never be the same again. The diamond is smaller now, but the blemishes are gone. It is now perfect in the sight of the diamond worker. We are like this, and God is working on all of His children to glorify Himself, and to better shine His Light around the world. How is He using you to shine His Light?"