July and August have been full and fruitful:

After sharing in devos at our SoCal Network office we drove halfway across the country to itinerate out of Springfield, MO for a few weeks. While we cannot include every church & individual visited (if we did, you would probably stop reading…), we’d like to highlight a few people and places:

Crown Pointe Church in Lees Summit MO is led by Pastor Dennis Luce (with wife Necole & daughter Lilly). I’ve known Dennis since early '80s at SCC/Vanguard U. and then in San Diego church ministry together. This is a strong and generous missions-minded church. Gloves of Love with Kelly Woods from this church touched kids lives in Panamá back in 2010. It's also home to current national Bible Quiz champ team!

Next stop was Orlando for General Council (GC) and Together 2019 (T19) missionary gathering. Latin America & Caribbean Region was well-represented in the Exhibition hall at GC. Missionaries volunteered to man the booth. We got to make coffee while talking with people interested in LAC Missions reaching “The Other Five.”

For the first time General Council concluded with the commissioning service for this year’s new missionaries. And Yvonne got to sing in the choir!

Immediately following GC was T19. Picture 1700 adult missionaries + 900 missionary kids (Chloe was “Nurse Band-Aid” for the older MKs) gathered together to be (re)commissioned: “renewed-refocused-recommitted.” We enjoyed powerful and inspirational times in God’s presence, hearing His Word and responding with renewed zeal for the Great Commission! 

Continuing our travels northward into North Carolina, we’d like to greet our new friends from Hispanic churches in Salisbury & Concord NC: Saludos a la Iglesia El Buen Pastor con Rvdo. Santiago Ramirez Juarez y Templo Redención con Rvdo. Josué Rosales. It is exciting how God is clearly doing something new growing our Spanish-speaking churches across the country!

Further north in Pittsburgh PA we give a shout out and thanks to Bethel AG Church for blessing us with a place to stay and the privilege to get to know Pastor Danny & Heather LeVeck & their beautiful family. They are reflecting and impacting their community powerfully for Jesus!

Back in Springfield MO, Battlefield Assembly of God with Pastor Richard Orrell is a church full of veteran missionaries, ministers and senior saints who are all in for the cause of Christ around the world. Their Missions Convention services and banquet were a time of celebration and renewed commitment. We were so happy that Chloe & Grace could be there too!

On August 22, we celebrated Yvonne’s one year anniversary after successful open-heart surgery. Thanks to those who had prayed! As she has shared all this past year, God has been so good! More details from her on that later.

A brief family update here, in reverse order: Gracie is in her senior year at Drury U. and recently moved into an apartment on campus. Celina participated as a bridesmaid in a friend’s Punjabi wedding celebration that was an experience of a lifetime. Tony began the new school year as a special education coordinator for several students at the same international school in Panamá City. Chloe got Mom & Dad to go with her to “spin-din”! That is her favorite exercise of stationary bicycle spin class followed by dinner with good friends.

We thank God and many of you for fund-raising progress! We are now trusting the Lord & His people for slightly less additional funds needed:

$  1,482 monthly

$ 24,800 cash

With that improvement, and with Haggai’s promise below, we are motivated to continue to work and trust the Spirit of the Lord to do the shaking and the filling for His glory.

Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

Haggai 2:4-7 (ESV)

Kirk & Yvonne