Hello Friends, Brothers & Sisters,

Thank you for your prayers concerning the hospital at Kindamba. Dr. Harvey had a meeting with the landlord of the property in Brazzaville, where he was able to sign a 3 ½ year lease! Praise the Lord for that breakthrough. As usual, though, that’s not the end of the troubles at Kindamba. The local governor is rumored to have called on the military to remove Global Outreach Mission from the hospital, but we have heard nothing of any real threat so far. Please keep this entire project lifted up in your prayers.

This last week has been another week of slowly moving us closer to Congo. There are never-ending apparent set-backs, but we look through them to see the Lord at work. Since over-extending ourselves a little bit, to get everything needed onto that container in TN, it seems that everything around us is keeping us from catching back up. In the past week, the dryer quit working and the windshield on the car broke. I think that’s all, but it feels like more than that. I guess it always does when things go sour. The window is replaced, but we haven’t got the dryer repaired yet. In spite of these “surface” set-backs, we realize that none of these temporary things matter in the big picture. The enemy may attempt to disrupt us, but our focus is clear! We also haven’t heard a single thing from our real estate agent in a month, but again, we know that all of the necessary arrangements will be taken care of in God’s timing. In the meantime, we have a roof over our heads. On the flip-side of these events, we have once again seen our support level increase slightly. After months at a stand-still, that’s very encouraging!

Another very cool thing happened this week. Danielle had four different churches contact her (mostly people we don’t even know), letting us know that they are doing their VBS programs this summer with a focus on missions, and asking if we would send them pictures and information that they could use. Personally, I am not very concerned with the potential for leads to expand our support base. I am, however, very excited to hear about being used to share the importance of missions with the next generation. We had the opportunity to share our calling and vision back in February with children at a local Christian school (Genesee Country Christian School, in Groveland, NY), at their weekly Chapel session. Sharing at a church or small group is great, but seeing the interest in the kids’ eyes, being able to share answered prayers with them, and opening their minds to how God can call people (even children) into particular areas of service, is the most exciting. I think that children generally have a very “what could I possibly do of any significance” sort of an attitude about being kids. To show them that they can be effective in prayer is awesome. We need more of them praying for us! Nothing tops the ability of a child to pray openly and expectantly. Anyways, I find that very uplifting.

We still haven’t gotten any pictures from any of you, so please don’t forget to send us something. We look forward to seeing your smiling faces and hearing how we can be praying for you. As you are praying for us, here are some requests that we have:

• please continue to pray about sharing our ministry with others
• please pray that the Lord would keep filling our needs and raise our support up to the 100% level
• please pray for the sale of our house, in His time
• please pray for GOM and the hospital at Kindamba, Rep. of Congo

We thank you for all of your prayers and support. Have a relaxing and enjoyable 4^th of July! Be safe, enjoy all of the beautiful firework displays, and God-willing, we’ll have more good news to update you on next week!

Yours in Christ,
Art, Danielle & Michael

Prayer Update: June 22, 2008

Hi everyone,

 This makes two successful, back-to-back weekly updates… things are looking good! Praise God, our support level increased 2% this last week, so we are now at an even 40% of our needed pledges. The Lord is faithful, and we continue to wait on His provision for the remainder of our needs. It is such a boost to our spirits to see each little bit that He brings us closer to Congo.

 Moving a lot closer to Congo, I’d like to pass along some information that we just today received from the Harveys. Do you remember the newly acquired hospital in Kindamba that I spoke about last month? Dr. Harvey has been running the hospital, despite the questionable status of the local government’s approval of Global Outreach Mission’s doing so. A property was to be rented in Brazzaville (the capitol) as a base of operations for supplying the Kindamba hospital and housing staff moving back and forth between the two hospital locations. Kindamba was supposed to be taking over this rental from the former renters, Doctors Without Borders (who ran the hospital before). Now, it seems that the owner has decided to rent this property to someone else, without notifying anyone from Kindamba. According to Dr. Harvey, if there’s no base in Brazzaville, there’s no hospital in Kindamba. Please keep this whole operation in your prayers. Pray that God will reveal His will in this endeavor, and that everyone involved will have the faith and patience to rely on God to lead them through this very trying situation.

 As for us, there is always a feeling that things could take off any minute; but we are waiting as patiently as we can until the Lord releases us to go. This week, we took some boxes of stuff we need to lose out to the side of the road marked “free”. Some of it disappeared. The rest will go in the trash, hopefully by the end of next week. That will effectively conclude our preparations to move. Michael has been spending every bit of time that he can with friends and family, getting spoiled and having fun. He is acutely aware of the 4-year drought he will have to weather in that area. We enjoy the time alone, but we’re starting to miss him more each time he takes off with someone for the weekend. Starting this coming Friday, he will be gone for at least a week straight, camping with Art’s mom and step-father (along with their kids). Danielle is done schooling Michael for the summer, so she has a lot of free time on her hands! Art is continuing to work, adding some small side-jobs when the weather is good.

 In the coming weeks, we may visit a few churches in the area where we have contacts, just to get our faces out there and try to share what we are doing with some more people from our past (or anyone else who is interested!). Remember, we would love to get some pictures from you to put up on our prayer wall! Please send some to us, along with anything that we can be in prayer about, for you. Here are some of our prayer requests:
- please continue to pray about sharing this ministry with friends, family, co-workers
- please continue to pray that the Lord will provide for the remainder of our financial needs
- please pray for the sale of our house, in His timing
- please pray for our focus to remain on God’s will for us, and to be patient with His leading!
- please remember to lift up the Harveys and the hospital in Kindamba in prayer

We thank you so much for your continual prayers and thoughts for us. May God bless each of you!

Together in Christ’s service,

 Art, Danielle & Michael

I found a video of where we will be living and who we will be living with while really boread the other night.    Hope you enjoy!

Dear friends, family, and fellow laborers for the Kingdom,

 We would like to take a little time to give you some details on exactly where we are in our preparation to go into the mission field.  Because of where we stand, there are also a few prayer requests that we hope will be prominent in your prayers concerning our service in Congo.

 First, I think it’s well-deserved to say thank you for all of your support, both in prayer and financial gifts. Even though we feel like we have been working hard to see our call realized, it would be impossible without you. It is true that God is the one responsible for all that is accomplished, and everything in our hands belongs to Him. However, He chooses to work through His children, and we are indeed stewards of the resources of Heaven. We are each given a free will, to handle these things as we see fit. I thank each of you that you know that this world is fleeting, and that winning souls for the Kingdom is what Jesus commissioned us to be about. You have, along with us, invested in eternity for the sake of the people of Congo. Since this field is where the Lord has called us to go in His name, I can’t say thank you enough for choosing to be a part of making this happen!

 Now is where the hard part begins. Before I go on, I think an apology is due. We have been in the support-raising portion of our ministry for about a year now. God has blessed us with 142 prayer partners (including yourself), and 38% of our required monthly support. Since I have been in a mindset to go out and raise support, I have kind of collected those who have pledged support and put them in the bag. I keep looking for more, but I’ve forgotten to look back in that bag. This is where I have to say sorry. Just as you have pledged to support us in this mission, we are responsible to keep in touch with each of you, and on a personal level, not just as a number of our team. We would like to know how we can pray for you, how we can bless you; it’s not all about us. If we are all to be together as a team, I need to invest more into building relationships with each of you! This letter is just the beginning of what I plan to be (shorter in the future) weekly updates and requests for you to share your needs with us.

 Okay, now that we are done with that I can finally stop rambling on and get to what I promised in the first place. Where are we in respect to leaving for Africa? As I just mentioned, we have almost 40 percent of our required monthly support for the field. We also have a good start on prayer partners (there can never be too many!), and as most of you know, every last possession aside from what must go with us on the plane, is en route to Congo ahead of us in a sea freight container that is currently being prepared for shipping by Samaritan’s Purse in North Carolina. Our house, while nearly empty and echoing, has still not sold. June 19th will mark one full year on the market. Of course, we know that the Lord will take care of that when the time is right. Until then, I guess it’s a blessing that we have our own house. The last time we spoke at a church was in April. We have spent many hours sending out e-mails to churches all over the country, in an attempt to get an open door to present to a congregation anywhere we can, only to be discouraged by the absolute lack of response. We sent out well over 2,000 e-mails (along with follow-up calls and e-mails with the 2 or 3 that actually responded to us), but have made zero solid positive contacts. It’s obvious to us that this is not an effective route to take!

 In the last week, the Lord has sent two different people to our aid, with support-raising training under their belts. What a blessing! We have not had any training whatsoever, so we were just trying things out and waiting to see what happened. I am praying that their advice and information will be the shot we need to get moving forward again. As we’ve mentioned times before, our initial list of contacts has been exhausted in bringing us to where we now stand. The first (and most DUH!) suggestion was to do what I am going to do next. Instead of trying to carry this entire load on our backs, we already have a network of support that is invested in our success. In case you didn’t fully process that through yet, that’s you!

 As our first and most urgent prayer request, we ask that you would be thinking of and praying about putting our vision out there among your own circle of friends, family, co-workers, and whoever else comes to mind. The more, the better! In all reality, it would only take another 172 people pledging $10 a month to finish off our needs. I know that sounds like a lot of people, but think about it. If each of you could find just one person who would be willing to commit to a ten dollar monthly gift, that would pretty much do it. Thanks to the support we’ve already received, we currently have almost $6,000 in our account with Global Outreach Mission. That should just about cover our travel expenses. We should have 1-2 months worth of support in surplus before we go to the field, but if you would be willing to spread the word, and the Lord blesses your efforts, it really wouldn’t take long for us to be on our way!

 Praise God, our passports are in our hands. Our inoculations have all been taken care of. The only possessions that we need to relieve ourselves of before we leave are beds, dressers, a car, a motorcycle, the house, and a few boxes of things to go to the Salvation Army. There may be a handful of other small items, but that’s honestly about everything. We’ve spent nearly every extra penny (about $13,000 altogether) over the last year and a half preparing for the field and purchasing the supplies that we will need to survive and function in our roles in Congo, all of which are either there waiting for us or in the container in NC. Please understand that I don’t put that figure in there to brag. It’s only to show that while we are still “living” here, we are TOTALLY invested in following God’s plan for us to serve Him in the Republic of Congo. From here, all I can do is trust in the Lord’s guidance and pray that you will be praying along with us. If we succeed, it’s His doing. If we are going to succeed, the work is still ours to do. Remember, He works through His body, and that’s us.

Prayer Requests:
- that more supporters would be raised up to fill our financial requirements
- that our current supporters would pray about others to share our vision with and tell others about us and the work the Lord has called us to
- that our house would sell in His timing
- for His strength to keep us focused, despite the discouraging circumstances
- for our faithfulness to each of you, that we will be strongly knit together

 Finally, I want to extend one more request to each of you. Well, actually there are two. Please let us know if there are ANY things, small or large, that we can be lifting before God’s throne for you. Also, if you can, would you be willing to send us a picture of yourself/family that we can have to remind us to be praying for you? We kind of assume that our picture is most likely on your fridge, or something like that. We would love to have a visual reminder of each of you to keep in front of our eyes and hearts as well. That’s it for now (I think that’s enough!). Next time I’ll keep this short, I promise. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support! We eagerly look forward to hearing from you, as well as getting to send these from Africa! Until then, God bless.

Together in Christ’s service,

                                                         IN HIS TIME

I’ll start off by getting right to what everyone seems to want to know about how things are coming along. “Any bites on the house??” Back in February, we switched real estate agencies and things have been looking up, kinda….  The house has been shown to 4 different couples in the last month (Praise the LORD!!), but no one has put in an offer yet. The fact that people are looking is a huge step in the right direction. We are confident that it will sell when our preparedness meets the Lord’s perfect timing. In the mean time, He has been using us, right here. Here’s some of what’s been going on…

We are in the latter stages of coordinating the filling and transfer of a shipping container that is heading to Congo very soon (hopefully this month), which has been an exercise in frustrations of many kinds for us.  First, we had to coordinate with people all over the worldn(US, Canada, Congo).  Communicating with people who are unable to read their e-mail the instant we send them out is a new experience forus. We Americans are rather spoiled, having instant everything. E-mailing certain places in Congo, specifically, can take up to 3 days for them to be received and then a day for us to get a response! Because of the urgency in which information and instructions needed to be relayed, it’s been necessary to speak directly with the Harvey’s, over SKYPE many times in the last 3 weeks. This has been enjoyable for us, but the cost does add up pretty quickly.

Second, the purchasing of all the things to go on the container for the hospital was left primarily in our hands. There were also quite a few more items that we needed to get on that container for our own personal use. It has been another step of faith for us, to make these purchases when we have not quite half of our support, the house is still not sold, and it was a stretch financially to buy all of the things that we wanted to have go over ahead of us.  Sigh….. we are not broke; the Lord has been providing for all our needs, but it is hard to spend every extra penny we have on things for Congo when we aren’t going to be getting there anytime soon, well, at least not that we can see right now.  We keep reminding ourselves that the Lord is in control and while we are sure He is sending us, we do not know HIS timing.  That has been the phrase of the last few months.  HIS timing, not ours.  In HIS time, not ours.

The third thing was not having enough hours in the day to get everything done and spend time together as a family.  Art is still working full time, so that we can afford to pay the mortgage and rising costs of all kinds. After coming home and handling some of the container details, the day was nearly gone. Danielle was busy all day long coordinating communications with Congo, Canada and people all over the states, as well as trying to pack and keep the house clean enough in the midst of chaos to show to perspective buyers on a couple hours notice! On top of all that, we needed to find time to do all of the shopping, ordering, and assembling of the laundry list of items that were piling up all over the house and garage.  

In all of the confusion, Michael has had to share our time more than any of us is comfortable with. He had to make some difficult choices, too. Michael has great difficulty coping with change, and his Lego’s are a constant that he can focus on to get his mind at ease. He doesn’t really play with any other toys, either. Due to the sheer volume of his Lego collection, he had to split it up into what would go ahead to Congo and what would be manageable to take along as baggage when we fly out. With everything else in chaos, he had a very hard time making these choices! In the end, we got a tote of Lego’s onto the container, and he has about half still here until we fly to Congo.

Finally, at the end of all of this craziness, we got to take a little vacation, er, road trip to Tennessee. Originally, we expected to take the trip to get our things onto this container before it left, which would be some undetermined time in the next few months or so. All of a sudden it became our things and a huge list of things for Pioneer Christian Hospital, as well as things from other short-term and long-term missionaries en route to Congo from the US and Canada! We put up missionaries from Quebec who drove down to drop a van-load of items, and a pharmacist from Albany who is going over for 1 year, who dropped off about half a dozen packages to us. We also had several visitors stop by with things for the hospital and other missionaries already there. Thank God, we had a very generous donation from Roy Teitsworth, who offered to let us borrow a 2006 Ford F-250 with an extended cab and an enclosed 14×7 foot trailer to haul everything to Tennessee in! That little gift saved us (the hospital) easily over $1,000, as we would have had to rent a U-Haul to move all of that! (and we had to stop outside of Erie, PA to get some more on the way!)

As I was saying, we got to take a road trip over Memorial Day weekend to Jackson, TN to drop off the final inventory of what was to complete the container for shipping.  The weather was beautiful, and the 16 hours in the truck was actually a nice way to relax after the non-stop action of the previous weeks. Once we arrived, we loaded the trailer, had lunch and a nap at the home of Dr. Eddie and Kelly Hyre (who had the container). Then, we headed for home. Praise God, there were no flat tires, no major traffic problems, and nothing but decent weather the whole way!

Other than the confusion as of the last couple of weeks things have been going well.  Michael has finished 8th grade!!! I never thought this school year would end.  We started at the beginning of July last year so that he would have the time to take off for the training we attended last fall and got done with everything over a month earlier than the public schools around here, even with over a month off this fall.  Danielle has been blessed with the opportunity to mentor a young woman who we have seen grow in the Lord immensely over the last few months.  It is an encouragement to see that we can be effective here even though our heart is in Africa. We have all felt in limbo over the last 5 months or so.  We had been praying to be in Congo around the first of the year and when that didn’t happen, we have felt slightly lost as to what to do while still here.  Again, in HIS time, not ours.   

We have continued sending out thousands of e-mails across the country to churches, hoping to set up speaking engagements, however, that has not gone well at all.  We have gone through our own initial contact list and are at around 41% supported.  That is wonderful to see our amount growing, and thank you to all who faithfully support us!  However, this still is not where we need to be to get to Congo.  So we are now trying “cold calls” and e-mails. There has been very very little response at all, and even less of it positive. We try to stay positive and know that the Lord will provide all our needs, but it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at times.  Deputation is a frustrating process.  We are blessed by many people who say they will support us when we get ready to leave, which is awesome, but doesn’t help us to know what they are planning on supporting us with whether it is prayer or monetary or both so that we can plan ahead.  So this is a plea of sorts to those who have said that, I guess.  Even if you aren’t going to start till we leave, please let us know so we can make plans?

A lot has been happening in Congo recently. Global Outreach Mission was offered a fully-equipped, operational hospital (with a budget, to boot) in Kindamba, Republic of Congo. This facility was run by Doctors Without Borders, until they recently pulled out of their operations there, leaving the region with no health care for about 50,000 people. After prayer, meetings, and careful consideration, Global accepted the offer. The handover ceremony took place on May 14th. Things did not go smoothly, as the local government thought that there could be a profit to be made at the expense of the hospital. Global is running the hospital, but the local government has not put their stamp of approval on the operation yet (despite the earlier agreements, and the fact that the national health minister has given the approval of the national government). Since the ceremony, the doctor appointed by the locals has run off out of town (but he took the new ambulance with him). So, without the local consent, the hospital is up and running (this is nothing new in Congo, and not much of a surprise to anyone involved).  There are a few prayer requests on behalf of Dr. Joe Harvey and the 2 hospitals in our list below. 

~~~~~  Prayer Requests  ~~~~~

1.  Sale of the house
2.  For Michael to be able to handle all these changes
3.  That the Doctor appointed by the locals doesn’t return
5.  For a doctor to come to Kindamba to work so that Joe will not become over worked and over stressed
6.  That the local government to back off and allow Dr. Harvey to run the hospital without interference (he is already running it)
7.  Pray for the Harvey family Joe and Olivia (their 16 year old) are in Kindamba and the rest are in Impfondo 
8.  Pray for members of our team that are preparing to head to Congo: Jean-Pierre & Ginny Vandevoorde, David & Brenda Marsh, Susan Lardner
8.  Pray for our support to be raised to 100% 
9.  Our own personal frustration not to get in the way of the Lord’s path for our lives

Well, so much for a quick update.  Once I sat down to fill you all in, it grew fast. 

 The Lord is so faithful. We thank Him for the opportunity to be used to coordinate getting so much needed stuff to Congo, and for his daily provision for all of our needs. We know that He is working all things according to His will, and we will set foot in Congo when the time is right! We pray that you who faithfully join us in prayer and financial support will also be patient and wait on Him to bring this to pass, that we may all enjoy the fruits of our labor together, whether here or in the Kingdom. God bless you all!

In HIS TIME