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4th QTR 2006 Newsletter |
Anadarko Pregnancy Support Center
 During
the months of June thru August I (Char) had the honor of serving at the
Pregnancy Support Center of Caddo County in Anadarko as Co-interim Director
with Opal, a long time volunteer. During that time the center was able to
participate in the community wide back to school event. We were able to set
up a booth and be on hand to answer any questions teens or adults had as
they came by our table. It was an all day event and we were able to hand out
many educational materials on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Abstinence, as
well as helps for single moms, and advertise the center. |
| I was volunteering on a part time basis so Opal and I prayed each day that we served together for God to raise up the new Director for the Center .We were busy writing letters and sending out application for the position but as my time was coming to an end it looked like our prayers were going unanswered. On the very last day that I was able to work at the center God worked a miracle. That afternoon Rhonda walked in our office and shared with us that she just received the letter we had written to her church in June. The secretary had accidentally left it in a drawer. Rhonda was head of women’s ministry in her church and had recently been sensing that God was asking her to reach out in the area to pregnancy centers. What a delight it was for Opal and I to hear Rhonda share how God had been positioning her for the P.S.C. After our visit I was confident that God had answered our prayers and immediately called one of the board members to let her know Rhonda had dropped off an application for the director position. Shortly before Howard and I departed for our time of intenerating in Pennsylvania I was told Rhonda was hired. |
 As
I went through our mail this month I had a newsletter from the P.S.C and by
the sounds of it Rhonda is enjoying her new position of helping to save
babies, being an example of hope, and a source of comfort to the mothers of
those babies. God is so wonderful in how He works through His people. |
| As a side note I have been a volunteer, once a week at the Lawton Pregnancy Resource Center for almost three years. It has been a blessing to take part in helping the people in our community through the clothing and educational materials provided by the center. The most rewarding time is the open door we have to share with the women the compassion of Jesus that we have in our hearts. Tonight Howard and I get to attend their banquet and see if there are any other ways we can participate in helping the Lawton Center. |
Summer travels
 During
the summer months Howard and I traveled to the Hopi reservation in Arizona
this was Howard’s second trip there but it was my first time. The Hopi
reservation reminded me of my dry times spiritually. The ground was so dry
it was the fine dust that is like powder and when you walked on it there was
a huge cloud under your foot and your shoes get all dirty. When we are dry
spiritually we dry up in our spirit man and we keep walking but we just stir
up a dirty cloud of dust. |
 We
were invited to attend a wedding celebration and many of the Native people
we got to visit with there were friendly and had a relationship with Jesus.
But there are parts of the Hopi reservation where white people are not
welcome. The missionaries that live there have a huge challenge just in the
day to day living they must make sure they don’t become dry like the ground.
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Since we were so close to Phoenix Arizona we made plans
to go on down to see Randy and Diane Shreckengast, two of our favorite
people in the whole world. It was wonderful to spend time with them again,
we had some precious times of fellowship. I wish Phoenix was a tad bit
closer to Oklahoma, what encouragement we could be to one another. We
then stretched the trip a little farther to Calf. where we had a short visit
with a young woman we met in the Philippines during our YWAM training. She
took us as spiritual parents and we supported her as a missionary for
several years , she has since married an American. It has taken him three
years to get her a visa to the U.S. they have a two year old daughter and
expecting the second in November. Our desire was to connect her with a
Native American Missions Ministry we know of there in her area. |
Living Waters Family Camp
 What
an adventure participating at Wiconi’s Camp this past August. We had great
time of worship, good bible teaching and lots of fellowship. Friday evening
was a great night for the youth as Groove Nation, a multi-ethnic hip-hop
dance team shared with the youth about living committed lives for Jesus.
Howard and I were not sure if we were up to a night of hip-hop but it was so
much fun especially when they had Richard Twiss and Pastor Corey (youth
coordinator for Wiconi) learn a hip-hop dance and show off to us, talk about
some good belly laughter. |
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One of our core leaders, Mike, has been trying to get
his cousins drum group to sing at their fellowship. The cousin has adamantly
refused because it is a Christian gig, which he does not do! They
reluctantly agreed to come and sing to help out Mike. The drum leader said
when they drove up, “when we saw that cross in the middle of the arena, we
almost
 turned
around and left.” They chose to stay, however to keep their word to Mike,
and see how it went. The long and short of it, they liked it so much they
agreed to come back next year, and even told Mike if he wanted, they would
come and sing for him at his fellowship. I believe it was the presence of
the Spirit of the Lord in that circle, combined with the fact we conducted
the powwow in a way that honored the traditional protocols of a traditional
Northern powwow that won their hearts. Both of the other traditional powwow
drum groups want to come back next year as well. It is only this kind of
Christ-centered traditional powwow “gospel witness” that will reach the
traditional non-believers, or as we believe, “pre-believers” for Jesus
Christ. They will never attend a Christian event, but they will attend a
powwow. |
Furlough
| At the time of this writing it has been one week since
we arrived back in our home in Oklahoma after spending six weeks in PA
intenerating. It was a long enjoyable six weeks speaking in eight churches,
sharing with mission boards and visiting many supporters who invited us to
spend some time with them. We are grateful to all of you who blessed us with
your presence and for all the extra work some of the churches did by cooking
a Native meal when we were there. All the labors of love were much
appreciated. We are especially grateful to the Wolf family who housed us for
the six weeks, they were so gracious to open their home up to us and truly
welcome us as family, and again, for that we are so grateful. |
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Everywhere we shared we have asked churches and individuals to pray about becoming part of the Agape Ministry team prayerfully and financially or if they already are a part of the team to pray about increasing their support. It will take some time to see the results of those requests. Thank you to all of you who prayed for our time to be fruitful in order for our support team to broaden. (If
you'd Like to see ways you can be a part of the team click here) |
| Since we have been home we have been working in the office catching up on all the paper work and Howard has been making some changes to the Agape video. We have a supporting church here in Oklahoma and a Church in Florida we have not made it to yet. |
PA
Highlights On
a personal note we had two great Saturdays with our grandson while home. We
enjoyed taking him to the Delmont Apple festival. Another Saturday we took
him to the Science Center in Pitt. we didn’t realize how huge the place was,
we spent seven hours checking it out. We all were exhausted after that day.
We also had a few times during the week we got to take Tyler to the park he
loved the BMX track at Westmoreland park. All grandparents reading this will
understand that those were the greatest highlights of our time in PA.
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Please pray for us as we finish out the year:
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Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever. Psalm 125:1-2 |
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