An exciting....faith building....journey

It's been an exciting time so far on our "Journey to the Field". It seems each time we get discouraged, God puts just the right people in our path to remind us why we are doing this.

Nehemiah Challenge Update

We began the Nehemiah Challenge a little over a month ago and have been privileged to see fruit from it already. We have 12 people committed for nearly $200 in support and 4 hours a month in prayer. Praise the Lord! We are hoping that more and more will see our vision and join our team so we can get down there and get busy.

Recent Travels

On October 18 and 19, we had the privilege of traveling to Jamestown, TN to participate in their annual Mission Point Jubilee. We were blessed to hear music from the Kingsmen and the Booth Brothers and messages from Pastors Glen Matthews and Phil Hoskins. Monday night Richard shared with the congregation about our ministry and we had several people stop by our booth. It was a fun time of fellowship with the members of Faith Baptist Tabernacle.

The following weekend, we traveled up to Elkhart, IN where some of our friends we met while studying in Argentina, Kyle and Stephanie Johnson, hosted a small group get together for us. It was our first time sharing in this setting and we had a great time! We played a trvia game, had traditional Brazilian snacks, shared our video and answered questions. It was nice to be able to share in a casual setting among friends. The rest of the weekend we were able to relax and hang out with our friends who we only get to see once or twice a year. It was very refreshing! Sunday night we were able to share with the Young Married Couples Sunday School Class about our vision thanks to Darrell Peterson, our friend Rachel's dad. Overall it was a great weekend and we hope to see some fruit from our time there.

Baby Update!

As we're sure you know by now, we are expecting our first baby on April 5, 2010. We are very excited about this blessing and praise the Lord that so far everything has gone very well with the pregnancy. Ashley is 18 weeks along and feeling much better than the first 3 months. We are still praying about traveling to Brazil in February to have the baby so that he will have Brazilian Citizenship. This would be very beneficial to him in the future as well as to us when we try to get permanent residency.

Upcoming Events

We have made several contacts with churches lately that we are praying will be fruitful. Richard will be meeting with Ken Lassiter of FBC Woodstock on November 11th to hopefully get more contacts and advice on how to best reach out to churches. The economy has put many churches in a bind and they are unable to take on new missionaries. This is obviously a challenge for missionaries everywhere, but not for God. We are trusting that He will bring along the right churches to partner with us.

We hope to make a trip to FL in the next month or so to visit several churches who have contacted us. We try to line up several in one trip to make the most of our time and hope that this trip will be no different.

Prayer Requests

• Health for Ashley and the baby.
• Wisdom as we contact churches and individuals.
• More partners to join our team in both prayer and financial support.
• Faith to trust in God's timing.
  

Thank you all for your faithful encouragement and prayers.

The Nehemiah Challenge

At SCORE’s 2009 annual staff meeting, Bro. Ron Bishop, founder of SCORE international, wrapped up the meeting by giving a challenge out of the book of Nehemiah. In Chapter 2:4-5 and 12, God gave Nehemiah the VISION to rebuild the Jerusalem wall. In Chapter 4:6 we see where God EQUIPPED him for the task and, throughout all the opposition, we see in chapter 6:15 where God was FAITHFUL in completing His calling to Nehemiah. This was no small task! The Jerusalem Wall was 15 ft wide, 30 ft high, and two miles in circumference. To top it all off, He did it in only 52 DAYS! I think we can all agree that this is an undertaking too big for man to even imagine much less complete. Throw on resistance from every corner and you have a mission doomed for failure. But in Nehemiah 4:19-20 we see how if God is in it and we are faithful, nothing is impossible because it’s our GOD who fights for us! A simple message of faith and perseverance served as a reminder that we serve this same God—a God of miracles. When we first began our missionary journey to the field, we prayed and set a goal to have our personal support team at 100% by January of 2010. We have been told by many people that this is impossible and will not happen. But just like Nehemiah, God gave the vision and we know He will be faithful to complete it in us! Despite much internal and external resistance our eyes remain fixed on the goal! As a matter of fact, it only serves to strengthen our drive. With a renewed motivation we have a new challenge – the final 90% in only 52 DAYS! We know what you are thinking because we thought the same thing—that’s impossible! But the good news is we serve the God of the impossible. We are asking you to pray about joining our team to “finish the wall”. God used many people to complete His will of rebuilding the Wall. We want to have a large team that will commit to 20 minutes in prayer and $10 every month—that’s 33 cents and 40 seconds a day. At that rate we would only need 400 additional teammates ( that is just a little more than all my Facebook friends) and most importantly we would have someone praying for us almost 4.5 hours of EVERYDAY!Pray about becoming member of our team by joining us in the Nehemiah Challenge. This is a long-term commitment but the fruits are eternal. Our prayer is that it challenges you spiritually as it has done in our own life. You can be a part of changing the world with the Word. Please pray about being a part!

If you feel God leading you to be a part please contact us!
Richardandashley_score@hotmail.com
Richard@Scoreinternational.org

Jamaica Mon!

Richard and I had the opportunity to travel to Jamaica free of cost to work with Northcliffe Baptist Church on their annual missions trip. This was our very first time to Jamaica and it was quite an adventure. We arrived around noon on Friday and waited in the airport for the group to arrive. Their flight didn't get in until after 3:00 so we had plenty of time to chillax in the tiny airport in Montego Bay. Once the group arrived, we loaded up the vans and headed for the villas. The driver and our guide for the week, Michael Stoddard, told us we would be going to a place on the beach with a pool. We all thought he was joking since this was a missions trip after all, but when we arrived we realized he was dead on! It was a beautiful place right on the beach overlooking the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. We were truly suffering for Jesus at that point :)

Throughout the week, the group participated in several ministry opportunities including food distribution, painting, and light construction. Their biggest activity though, was their VBS! This was probably the best VBS I have ever seen a group put together for a missions trip. Everyone was divided into three teams: The Orange Nation, Yellow Swarm, and Red Rumble. They went all out each day with face paint and dress from head to toe in their team's color. This spirit definitely flowed over to the kids. Each day we had nearly 100 kids show up ready to play games and do crafts... but more importantly, they heard about Jesus Christ!

Richard and I have had the privilege to travel to many countries and work with many kids, but I think we both agree that this was the rowdiest bunch of kids we've ever been around! Talk about energy! The first day seemed like a chaotic mess, but as each day passed, the kids seemed to gain more and more respect for the group and by the last day almost all the kids were obedient and that's when we started seeing some change. Several kids made professions of faith and what a blessing it was for the group to see all of their hard work and energy pay off in eternal rewards! Praise the Lord!

Richard also had a great experience while working with the kids. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a very strong influence in Jamaica. Richard was talking with one trouble maker in particular one day who told Richard he didn't believe in Hell. When Richard asked him why, he replied, "Because the Christians told me there wasn't a Hell." Richard knew that it wasn't true Christians who had told him that lie, so after prying a bit, he found out it was the Witnesses who had told him that. After talking with him a little more, Richard saw that this young man was desperate for the truth. He even flat out said to Richard, "Tell me the truth!" So Richard had the privilege to tell him and show him straight from the Bible what Jesus had to say about Heaven and Hell and how you could choose your own fate. At the end, Richard asked the boy if he wanted to accept Christ or think about it a little more. The boy immediately said, "I want to accept Christ now! I don't want to wait!" He accepted Christ at that very moment. Praise the Lord for the truth in His Word! Since the area we were in didn't have a good Baptist church to direct him to, Richard marked some key verses in a Bible and gave it to him. Our prayer is that God will raise up a solid Bible believing church for this young man to go to and get discipled.

Over all we saw God do some awesome things that week. The Northcliffe group was great to work with and very flexible, a key element of participating in any mission trip. Praise the Lord for souls saved and lives impacted!

New Opportunities

Richard Gets Advanced Training:

Richard and two of his pilot friends went up to Nashville for a week for some advanced training (multi-engine commercial and instrument add-on). Richard had been trying to sell his motorcycle to pay for the training for several weeks with no luck. Although he wasn't able to sell it before the training, God opened the door shortly thereafter and he will be driving down to GA tomorrow to finally get it taken care of. We are thankful for God's provision in that!




With the cost of aviation training continually on the rise Richard felt like it would be a good idea to get this training now. He was able to find it for significantly less than the normal cost and will now be more versatile in the types of planes he can fly, both here in the states as well as on the field in the future.


Going to Jamaica:
On Friday, July 24, Richard and I will be going to Jamaica for a week to work with a mission group through SCORE. We are very excited about this oportunity and looking forward to seeing all that God does during that week! This is an awesome opportunity and we can't wait to share all about it once we return.

Ashley Becomes Associate Editor of SCORE Magazine:

I've always loved to write. And I've always wanted to write for a magazine. God has opened the door for me to do both! I will now be the Associate Editor of SCORE's magazine which is a biannual publication that covers the exciting things that are going on in the ministry. I am so thankful for this opportunity and I've already had the privilege of writing several articles. The next issue comes out in September.

Please continue to pray for us as we follow God's direction in our lives. We are continuing our support raising and praying for God to put us in touch with the right people to partner with us.

MMS Eval

It never ceases to amaze me how our God can take a group of people with different skills from all over the world and bring them together to accomplish something truly great for His glory. That's exactly what He is doing through the ministry of Missionary Maintenance Services (MMS).


On June 23, we made the 9 hour trek up to Coshocton, OH for our "in hangar evaluation" with MMS. When we arrived at our host family's home (the Dunkleys) we were immediately greeted and spent the first hour and a half getting to know Mike Dunkley who is a team leader and one of the head mechanics with MMS. It was fun to hear of his many adventures on the field and growing up in Zimbabwe, Africa.


We quickly learned that all the MMS staff were just as friendly and accomodating.



On Wednesday, Richard went straight to the hangar to get a feel for life as an MMS missionary. We both got tours of the facilities which have expanded extensively since the ministry was founded in 1975, evidence of God's hand in the work that they are doing for mission aviation.


After the tour, Richard went to work helping replace the carpet in one of the missionary's dad's airplane.

I headed out with Cathy Egbert (wife of Chuck, a missionary mechanic) to get a tour of Coshocton. I immediately loved the quaintness of the town. With a population of about 12,000, it's a very slow paced and family orientented place. I enjoyed walking through some of the shops in Roscoe Village, a historical area in downtown.


That evening, we had dinner with Dwight and Rena Jarboe. Dwight is the President of MMS and he and his wife have been at MMS longer than any current missionary, serving for 27 years so far. We enjoyed time getting to know them better and hearing of their missionary adventures and learning more about the history of MMS.


On Thursday, Richard worked with Ian Hengst's team changing a nose wheel tire on a the Commander. After that, he joined "Team Dunkley" and helped put the wings on the Alas de Socorro Cessna 206. After lunch, Richard and Tim mounted the horizontal stabilizer. This plane came in for a 1,000 hour inspection that was scheduled to last only 4 months but has now been in the hangar for nearly 2 1/2 years undergoing repairs that were not anticipated but desperately needed. It was really exciting for Richard to help in the completion phase of such a long project. They are hoping that this plane will soon be back on the field in Honduras, helping Alas de Socorro and Missionary Air Group reach more people for Christ.



That afternoon I got to meet up with several of the wives for lunch. I had a good time getting to know them and their kids a bit and hearing more about life in Coshocton.


For dinner that night, we ate at the home of Dennis and Mary Satterthwaite. Dennis went through the apprenticeship 24 years ago and now serves as a Chief Inspector with MMS and laison with the FAA. Mary is the Director of Office Administration and Bookkeeper. They were both a tremendous encouragement to us as we heard of their faithful years of service in the ministry. It was fun sharing with them about the vision God has given us and hearing of how God led them to serve with MMS. In addition to their work in the hangar and office of MMS, they have a passion for horses. They have 4 at their home and let us ride "Brenda", a mild mannered mare. That was good for me because it's been a long time since I had ridden and I don't think I could have handled an energetic horse! It was fun and brought back a lot of great memories of when Richard's parents boarded horses and Richard took riding lessons.


Friday was the last day in the hangar for Richard. He worked with Mike Dunkley's team along side missionary Tim Fox serving with Wycliff Bible Translators. Together, they installed the pulleys for the trim tab cables and the trim tab actuater on the Honduran 206, one more step in getting it ready for the field. They also installed the vertical stabilizer and Richard installed a transponder antennae and an HF radio antennae.



I was invited to the home of Dale and Deborah Coates after lunch. I spent a couple hours in their home and enjoyed getting to know their family and sharing with them my testimony of how God led me and Richard into missions from a young age. They are a truly spectacular family and have two very sweet daughters and I look forward to getting to know them better during our time with MMS.


That afternoon, we met with Dwight Jarboe and Keith Dodson. Keith is the Human Resource Director with MMS and has been our main contact throughout the application process. After our three day evaluation, we were officially "accepted" as MMS Missionaries. We were very excited and privileged to be welcomed as part of the team. What an honor to be involved in a ministry that is doing so much to help spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the world!!


We spent our last evening with Keith and his wife Karen at the home of Tim and Michele Obarow. It was a great time of laughing and sharing stories of past experiences. What a great way to end the week!


So, after months of prayer and seeking God's direction, He has confirmed in our hearts that MMS is where He will have us serve for the first 30 months of our missionary journey. We will serve as SCORE missionaries "on loan" to MMS. We are very excited about this new chapter in our lives and our passion was refreshed yet again as we were surrounded with people excited about reaching others with the Gospel.

Headin' to Ohio

We leave tomorrow for Coshocton, OH for our evaluation. We are excited about meeting the staff and getting to know the ministry a little better.

Please keep praying for us as we raise our support and follow God's leading! Thanks!!

travelling on the big boat

So support raising has been....well...slow.

BUT we are VERY thankful to those who have partnered with us so far and praise the Lord for family and friends who support us and pray for us.

In our own minds and according to our plans, we had hoped to be further along than we are at this point. I was talking to God about it and telling Him how it was a bit discouraging because our hearts are already onto the next step in our journey but physically we are "stuck" here.

That's when it hit me:
God doesn't want us on the speed boat.

Let me explain. When we were in Brazil, we were on a huge, three level boat with a capacity for over 500 people. It was very big....
and very slow.

To travel from on end of the river to the other, going downstream, in high-water season (when all the odds are in your favor), it can take an excess of 5 days. Upriver in low water season can be 7 or 8 days at best!

Along the way are stops--both planned and spontaneous. Of course you have your ports that are mapped out and you can pretty well count on stopping there at some point on the journey. People get on and people get off. Barrels are unloaded and others replace them.

Some stops however are completely unplanned for.

We don't always know WHY we are stopping. At one point on the boat, we were randomly stopped by the federal police for a drug search. We floated in the middle of the river, circling with the flow for a good three hours while they searched from bag to bag, only to leave empty handed (well, they did find a "little weed" in an Argentine's bag but apparently that is acceptable??).

That was not on the schedule.

And we don't always know WHAT we are waiting for. One night on our trip downriver, around 2:00 in the morning, we stopped on the bank of the river. We knew it wasn't a planned stop because it wasn't an actual port. We watched as some barrels were unloaded and a few people got off, replaced by a few who joined us. We were there probably no more than 20 minutes but it was still a delay to our trip.

That was not on the schedule.

However, the advantage of this big, slow boat is there is plenty of time to rest. With 5 days (or more) and nothing but beautiful scenery and wildlife surrounding you, you find yourself relaxing in your hammock as you swing from side to side (bumping into the random people who have crowded next to you of course). Watching people. Reading books. Talking to God.

While it's an enjoyable experience for the roaming traveler, it's certainly not going to work out too well for a person with a schedule to follow. If you've got a time line, you might as well throw it away.

Of course there are some much faster boats. Some can get you downriver in just a couple of days or from one port to the next in a matter of hours. Pay enough money and sacrifice your own personal space and you can be where you want to be, when you want to be there. The down side is, your packed like sardines with a bunch of people you don't know, little room to move much less enjoy the ride and the beauty that surrounds you. But you get where you're going, right?

I think this is much like our own "journey to the field".

Our preference is a direct shot, no stops, no unexpected delays. We "know" where we want to be and "where" God wants us so we want to take the quickest route we can and fly past those "inconveniences" so we can "do God's will for our lives".

Why is it then we often find ourselves docked on the side of river.... waiting... and waiting. And sometimes we don't know why or what we are waiting for and we look around and we question. We ask "God, why am I here when I could be there serving You? Don't You see what a waste of time this is?? Don't you see what I could be doing for You??"

But all along He's right on schedule.

He's asking us to relax. To take in the journey and enjoy the scenery. Look around and watch the sunset. Rest in our "hammocks" as He orchestrates the details of our trip--including those "unexpected" delays.

Let Him work.

Dive into His Word.

Share with those on the same boat.

Enjoy the scenery.

Having said all of that, I'll count this is a lesson learned. With God's help, I'll be more like I was on that Amazon River-- basking in the beauty of God's creation and looking for opportunities to draw closer to Him and share with others where I am now.

The fact of the matter is, it's ok to look ahead and be excited about what God has. Even on that big boat there were moments of anxiousness, when we were ready to "be somewhere" despite our incredible surroundings. But our focus should be the here and now. Like Paul says in Philippians 4:

11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.


Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. They mean the world to us!