Hello friends,

Greetings to you on this cold and wet Fall day in the Pacific Northwest. We are home after six weeks of being on the road. We visited many churches in CA, IL, IN, WI, and OH. We participated in many American Baptist annual meetings and were overwhelmed by the generosity of regions, churches, and individuals. Thank you for all who provided a meal and housing for us. It was a joy to fellowship, learn, and worship with the greater American Baptist family at the various gatherings. We are now at 90% of our ongoing pledge support! Praise be to God! This means we are so close to reaching our target and for IM to give us the green light to purchase our tickets for Oaxaca. Will you join us to meet our support goal and be a part of God’s mission in Mexico? Thank you for being a part of our community of prayer and financial partners! We cannot do this work alone; it requires your participation and your prayers. Read more about the impacts of your giving below.

If you’d like to become a prayer and financial partner in ministry and prefer not to give online. Please email us directly here so we can let you know how.

And don’t forget to look for us on Facebook and Instagram because we constantly are posting updates and videos there!

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Enjoyed some festive Fall décor in northern Illinois after speaking at a church. It was fun to see Nora’s reaction and smiles to the lights.

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The following pictures are glimpses into our travels. We took many more pictures but instead of having this newsletter go on into eternity, we hope this selection will suffice. As we drove around place to place we were amazed by the beauty of the warm sunny autumn days. But most of all we were grateful for the warm welcome as people invited us into their homes and their churches. We were in different homes and churches throughout each week. We enjoyed being taken around to different sites and eating delicious food with our hosts.

A few highlights of these six weeks was reuniting with two of Sarah’s friends from different life chapters. We got to see Jessica, who was one of Sarah’s housemates in Bolivia when we were in California. Then, in Illinois, we met up with Sarah’s friend Heather and her children. Heather and Sarah studied Spanish in Costa Rica. It was great time of catching up after not seeing each other since 2011! Another surprise was meeting Sarah’s seminary professor at the American Baptist Churches of Ohio annual gathering. Since Sarah has been studying at Palmer Seminary online she has only met one of her professors in person, so it was awesome to be able to meet another one in person.

Overall, we are thankful and filled with joy to have a huge mission partnership network (you) who are praying for us, encouraging us, and supporting us so we can respond to God’s call. We look forward to when the time comes to move our family to Mexico to build deep relationships with our partners and put down roots to really invest our lives there. We are excited to see what God will do in and through us as we serve together.

We spent a day with pastors and leaders of the Great Rivers Region Area 1 Fall meeting at a Baptist Camp. We are thankful for all the new friendships that were formed and the deep commitment to God’s mission.

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All of the IM Global Servants and IM Staff represented at the ABC of Indiana and Kentucky Biennial in Muncie, IN. We had an IM room during the ministry fair for people to come to our tables and hear about all the different work IM is doing in the world. It was lovely to be in the same room again and to meet wonderful people who are passionate about being part of God’s mission around the world. 

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Sarah was invited to preach at First Baptist Church of West Allis, WI. We enjoyed a delicious taco lunch after service and shared our call stories. 

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IM Missionary Kids entertaining one another during a worship session at the ABC of OH gathering. It was a joy to see how they interacted with one another despite their age difference. Nora found him and his family to be the coolest people and loved spending time together. We love our colleagues and their children!

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We stayed with our friends Debbie and Flint Miller (former IM missionaries) while in IL. Debbie took us to the Mississippi River which is close to their home. It was our first time to the Mississippi River! It was so special to spend a couple days with them as well as speak at their church.

In October, I (Sarah) received a report from COBAMI about how Talita Cumi is doing over the last year. This is what they wrote to me:

Talita Cumi has become an oasis in the middle of the desert for more than 50 girls of four indigenous communities in the State of Oaxaca.

Every week girls meet with their mentors to have an open dialogue about their daily life in their homes, school and community. They leave the club empowered with a new vision of life because of Christ. They have been given identity, a sense of belonging, and a hope for tomorrow. Talita Cumi arrived right in time for Oaxaca when the girls needed it the most.

A mentor Edith is a fourth grade teacher in a local public school in the community where she lives. After hearing about Talita Cumi Girls Club program, she prayed and answered God’s call to begin a club within her school community. She mentors a total of 10 girls, 5 girls in each club. She sees that her girls are building more trust with one another because they are willing to share their worries, fears, doubts, joys, and hopes more each week. Through the club they learn they are not alone and they feel safe. Each week during prayer, they are adding more people to their prayer concerns. It’s a testimony of their faith in Jesus and that they know they can turn to him with their problems and that Jesus will help them. They also know that they have a group of peers and a mentor who are there for them, encourges them, and prays for them.

Girls’ lives are being transformed and they are growing in their relationship with Christ. They learn through discussions, art, and service that they can be agents of change in their communities. It is our prayer that what they learn in the clubs will change the tragectory of their lives as they grow up into adults. Thank you for your prayers and supporting this ministry!