Fall 2024

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 1Thessalonians 5:24-25

The leaves are falling, and we had our first frost of the year. Fall is our favorite time of the year. God has been blessing us so much this year, it is hard to believe.

Our summer went very well. We had a great time with Brian Thompson from Georgia and Claudy and Guerrine, Source of light missionaries from Haiti, when they visited us in July. We were able to take them fishing, which was the first time Claudy and Guerrine had ever gone! As you can see from the photos, it was a great time.

The day they left, we began traveling for the next four weeks to visit our children and grandchildren in Pennsylvania and Maryland. It was so great to spend time with them. Being missionaries so far away we can only manage to see them once a year. On our way back home we stopped in Michigan to see Penny’s brother and sister-in-law. We also were able to spend a Sunday with two of our supporting church’s one in Michigan and one in Wisconsin. They are only a few miles apart so we could visit both of them the same Sunday. Both churches have been supporting us for over 20 years! We traveled around 5,000 miles. We have been putting many miles on our old truck, which now has 235,000 miles. Praise God, it is still running well.

While we were gone, Pam, a board members’ wife kept up with receiving, organizing, and grading all the Mailbox Club lessons. She did great! It always makes it easier to go away knowing everything is being taken care of.

In this third quarter of 2024, we sent out 748 lessons, graded 747 lessons, and our students earned 62 certificates and made one profession of faith. Praise God! So far this year we have sent out 64 books for our Mailbox Club students’ contest. As a reminder, for every five names they give us, we send them a Sugar Creek Gang Book. We had one family finish getting all 36 books in the series after sending in 180 names!

On October 19th, as a fall fundraiser, our church is hosting a Stew and Song night. We are serving beef stew and having a hymn sing afterward. Please pray that it will be well-attended.

Here are two notes that we received on two of the lessons returned to us for grading. On the Best Friend lesson book 1-6 the question was asked “Have you taken the Lord Jesus as your Savior?” Here is what the mom wrote.

We are Amish and try to live a Christian life. Mary has been hearing Bible stories since she was born so she has known about Jesus since she’s born.

Please pray for them! They also sent in five names to receive a book, so pray that we can get more Amish in Ontario using our lessons.

We also received a note form a boy named Jake, age 12. He just sent in his second set of five names. His note said:

Can’t you just send me the rest of the books? I can’t find any more names.

Pease pray:

  • For our fundraiser on October 19th.
  • The lessons as they go out in to homes that can’t be reached except by mail.
  • Pray that they will understand the plan of salvation as they complete the lessons.

In His service,

Joe and Penny