CAN YOU PRAY TODAY?

Gary and Diane are at OMS headquarters this week in Greenwood, Indiana and had asked my sisters and I to be praying for them today as they have the majority of their training responsibilities today. Could you join Emily, Carrie, and our families in praying for my parents to train and lead with confidence that they are going where God is leading as they train other OMS folks? Thank you!

Prayer Requested

Good morning everyone!

Mom and Dad are a little more than halfway through their trip to Honduras and I'm sure will have plenty of great inspiration to share when they return. In addition, they have loads of news to share about growth and changes in their ministry. They will be telling you all about that when they return. In the waiting, would you be willing to specifically pray for boldness and wisdom and discernment as they consider all these things and as they finish up their trip in Honduras?  Thank you so much for all the encouragement and support that you offer Gary and Diane. They are so grateful and so are the three of us, daughters as we share in this mission as well. All who love them and Jesus share in this call.

God Bless!
Dena

DANGER!!!!

Usually when we are in Honduras we don't feel like we are in any particular danger. Except when we are on the road with the crazy driving and basically no rules (but we are getting used to that.) This trip, they informed us of another danger that was hidden and we had never thought about. That danger was in the mosquitoes. We have never seen many bugs of any kind there so we did not think of them at all. I had taken a small spray bottle of repellent, just in case! But to our surprise, they informed us when we arrived that there was a very real outbreak of fevers from the mosquitoes. The two fevers are dengue and chicamanga. We had heard of dengue but not the other one. Our wonderful host came prepared with extra repellent for us in case we didn't have any. They always are taking care of us. Not being very familiar with either of the fevers, we did some research. Apparently neither of these are deadly but can cause much discomfort and take many weeks to recover from. So immediately I Facebook messaged Dena, Emily and Carrie for prayers of protection. I hesitated a little not wanting to worry them. But I knew we needed the protection. And as usual, The Lord provided us with protection. We still put the spray on, but were no longer concerned. We knew we were protected.

We know that we are not immune from sickness and troubles, but in this instance we were protected. Much of the time we are in country we can feel the power of your prayers and support. We sleep fine. The aches and pains are minimal and so on. We are so very grateful for your prayers and support for us to participate in the ministry. We love being a part of God's work in the prisons and look forward to many more years of serving Him.

Some Divine Protection

IF you have a single bit of doubt about how or IF your prayers for Gary and Diane are being answered, check out this response from Gary.

How has God shown His protection of you in your travels thus far? 

When we were in Costa Rica last year, we were robbed at gunpoint, so it hasn't been all roses.  Going to dinner at a restaurant with two classmates from Language School, we were stopped by two young men who demanded our money.  I didn't realize we were being robbed, so I refused and kept walking. I had Diane on my arm and I told the other two girls from our class to keep moving.  One young man ran around in front of me again and said "I said give me your money."  I responded that I had said no at which point he showed me his gun.  At the very same instant, his partner had grabbed the purse of one of the girls with us and had thrown her to the ground and she screamed.  I am not sure why, but I responded to her scream rather than the sight of the gun.  What resulted was so much better than it could have been.  The thug saw me running back, he got up and ran, and he had a gun as well.  The guy who pulled the gun on me ran up beside me, grabbed her purse where the other fellow had dropped it and then he ran off as well.  Could have been fatal errors committed here - I am only blessed that God was in control. 

The girl lost about $40.00 in cash, a NJ driver's license, and a VISA card that was cancelled in less than 20 minutes after the robbery.  She was scraped up from being thrown to the ground, but was really only shook up.  God is good, all the time!

These are the two "girls" that were mugged with us.  To the left is Caitlin (in her 30s), She was our classmate and is now making four week trips about every six weeks to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala etc doing water supply projects, solar panel powered water delivery projects - all as part of and in support of missionary work in Latin America.  She is a civil engineer and has specialized in projects related to providing reliable sanitary drinking water to communities in poverty stricken areas of Latin America.  The other is Cathy who has gone on several mission trips with Caitlin and who is a member of her home church in New Jersey.