“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

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Praise the Lord, summer is here! The beginning of 2024 has been very busy with many lessons coming through the mail.  Many new students are signing up, and even the older students are still sending lessons in. We have almost 800 students that are consistently sending in lessons in the last year.  

We will have a very active July and August. On July 5th, Brian Thompson from Source of Light Ministries headquarters in Madison, GA, is coming; and on the 6th the SLM Haiti missionaries, Claudy & Guerrine Jean Baptiste are flying into Saskatoon.  While they are here, Brian is planning some training sessions in our office for all four of us.  The training is to teach us about the online courses that SLM has been working on the last couple of years.

Along with the training, we are going to visit the Child Evangelism Fellowship Canada offices in Regina. We are also going to spend a little time fishing in Big River. On Sunday, July 14, Claudy will be speaking at Fairhaven Bible Chapel, giving a report about his ministry in Haiti.  Claudy & his wife will be flying out of Saskatoon on the evening of the 15th and Brian on the morning of the 16th.

As soon as our guests leave, we will begin driving down to the USA.  While we are in the States, we will be going to Pennsylvania and Maryland to visit our children and grandchildren until August 9 and then travel up to Michigan to visit two of our supporting churches in Watersmeet, MI and Land O’ Lakes, WI. On August 11, we will be at Land O’ Lakes Bible Church for Sunday school and Watersmeet Bible Church for the morning service. Later in the evening, Land O’ Lakes Bible Church will be having a church picnic.

On August 13th we will drive down to Pound, WI to visit Joe’s brother John and his family.  From there we will be headed back home on the 14th through North Dakota to visit Joe’s sister Kathy and husband Tom. On the16th we will drive across the border into Saskatchewan and back toward home.

Prayer requests:  

• for Brian, Claudy & Guerrine as they fly up here 
• for Claudy as he preaches in our church
• for us that our truck will run smoothly the whole trip
• for us visiting churches that we will be a blessing to them as they have been to us

In His service

Joe and Penny

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Canada,

We are almost at the end of winter, and it has been an unusually warm one! We didn’t have snow on the ground until January! 2023 was a very great year in our branch. We graded 2,765 Bible correspondence lessons after sending out 2,897! We rewarded 193 students with a completion certificate; and, praise the Lord, 33 students accepted Jesus as Savior!! What a blessing to see God work in so many people.

To recruit new students every year, we send out a contest sheet that can be filled out by our current students. On each sheet they put five names of children or adults that are not currently enrolled. If those five referrals enroll in the Mailbox Club, we send that student a Sugar Creek Gang Book. This year we sent out 51 books. That amounts to 255 new students through this contest! As a way to remind current students to complete their current lessons, we also send out birthday cards. We send out about 65 per month.

Last year we had two music and dessert nights to raise money for our mission. We brought in a total of $8,200.00 for the year. Our first music and dessert fundraiser for this year will take place on April 5.

Prayer request:

• Pray for our fundraiser on April 5th.

Praises:

• We have students in Hutterite colonies that are doing our lesson. The colony is very closed. You have to get permission to have the kids do lessons. Through our contest sheets we were able to get into eight colonies in the western Canadian provinces. Last year a young girl got saved!
• In November, Joe had a procedure on his heart called Ablation. This procedure puts a heart that is in A-fib back in rhythm. Since then, his heart has been working great. Praise God!

In His Service,

Joe & Penny

Merry Christmas from Canada!

 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…

Isaiah 9:6a

Wow this has year flown by!

We Just want to thank you for all your faithful prayers and financial support. This has been a great year! As of October, we have graded 2,066 lessons, sent out 2,141 lessons, awarded 158 certificates and have seen 22 people receive Christ as their Savior! As of today, there has been 4 more salvation decisions in November. Please pray that those who made a decision will continue participating in the Mailbox Club and grow in their faith.

We just want to give you an update on what is going on up here. On November 14, Joe had an ablation surgery on his heart. After a week now, his heart is working great. Please pray that this procedure has fixed his A-Fib. The weather has been very warm, which is very unusual, but we are excited to have one or two fewer months with snow on the ground.

On December 8, we are having a music and dessert night fundraiser. We host two of these events every year—one in the spring and one at the end of the year. This is a great way to connect with people. We are having this one in our hometown of Hepburn. Doing this, we are hoping to get some new people interested in our mission. Please pray that we will have a great turnout and that the love offering will be good. Thanks again for your support and have a great Christmas!

In His service,

Joe and Penny

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Canada,

We are so glad to see summer come again to Saskatchewan. This is always a beautiful time to see how God shows His power in creation. We just enjoy driving around and see all the different crops. In June, we were able to take some time off to go to the lake to fish and relax. Now that July is here, it is getting very busy. We were grateful to be able to share our mission at a new church this summer. This was a great blessing, since we have found Canadian churches hesitant to allow us in the door to present our ministry.

When we moved into our new house five years ago we mounted a 4×8 sheet of plywood that had John 14:6 on it. Being out in the elements, it became weathered. We sent the printing company a design for a new sign to put on our building. The new sign now has our mission name on it along with John 14:6 and is made to withstand the weather. We are very happy with how it turned out!

We are also excited about the statistics from the first half of the year. We sent out 1,401 lessons, graded 1,407 lessons and sent out 102 certificates. The biggest blessing has been the number of salvation decisions so far this year! Last year ten people received Christ as their Savior, but this year we have already seen sixteen!!! That makes all our time and efforts so worth it.

The last week of July two big events will happen. Starting Sunday, July 23, we will attend a mission conference close to our home in Hepburn, and starting Monday, July 24, we are hosting a 5-Day Club in our back yard. This will be the first time to host this type of club for children in our new home. There are many children around, so pray that we successfully plant the seeds of God’s Word in their hearts and see some fruit.

Below are some pictures of our sign and what canola looks like in full bloom. Thanks for your faithful prayer and financial support.

In His Service,

Joe and Penny

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Spring 2023

Dear Praying Friends,

Thank you for praying for us!  This winter we have had three salvations in the Mailbox Club and there were over 425 lessons graded in the past three months. There have been many asking to come into the club through our website, and that is very exciting! We’ve had 15 new students just from Saskatchewan in January and February through our website.

On January 4, we officially became Canadian citizens (making us dual U.S./Canadian citizens), and as of March 4, we now have our Canadian passports making it possible to keep our plans to visit our children and grandchildren during April break. Our God is an awesome God!!

Please continue to pray for our Mailbox Club students as they do their lessons, that they will trust in Jesus as their Savior and learn to love God and serve Him.

Please pray for health and strength for us to follow the Lord in all our decisions.  Pray as well for our ministry board members and each decision made in our meetings.  Pray for safety as Joe continues to drive the school bus this school year and as we drive to the U.S. East Coast March 30-April 17 on Easter school break to visit our family.

Thank you again, for praying and helping to spread God’s Word through Canada with Source of Light Ministries. 

Serving God in Canada

Joe & Penny

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Canada,

So far, this has been the best summer and fall ever. On the 10th of October, it was still 75 degrees Fahrenheit. That is very unusual for us, but we will be grateful for every day it is not snowing this time of year.

Here is a little update on our lessons statistics this year. So far this year we have sent out 2,612 lessons and graded 2,098 lessons. We have given out 143 series completion certificates, and there have been 14 salvations so far this year!!!  Praise God!

These last two years have been very hard on Penny and I. Starting in February of 2021, Penny’s dad passed away. Then in May, my sister Lois passed away. In August, my sister in-law Deanna passed away. Then in November, Penny’s mom passed away. Now in September of this year, my brother George passed away. On October 19, Penny and I are traveling to Wisconsin to go to my brother’s memorial service. On our trip we will be able to visit two of our supporting church and also some families who support us. Please pray as we travel that our truck will run well and that it won’t snow on our trip.

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Canada,

It is hard to believe summer is here. This year is going so fast! The last two years we had been able to plant 60 acres of canola, which the farmer donated to support our ministry. Because of the drought and the price of fertilizer, it was not feasible to do it again this year. Since the COVID restrictions have eased, we were able to have two in-person fundraisers this year. We had a music and dessert night in March. Praise the Lord, $7,000.00 in donations came in that night. It was a great blessing to see how people support God’s mission. On June 11, we had our first fishing derby. It was a lot of fun, especially since the fish were biting great! At the end of the day we had a fish fry. We fried 28 fish and 20 lbs. of potatoes. God has been blessing this year with both our fundraisers and some extra donations. We have raised a little over $10,000. Praise God!!

The mission has been running very smoothly this year. We have had many lessons come in and many testimonies of salvation. On June 18, Penny and I were able to drive to Regina, SK and pick up 20 boxes of lessons that were shipped from SLM International in Georgia. After unloading all the boxes, our shelves are full again.

Hello from Canada,

2021 was a very unusual year. We made two trips to the States: June 26-August 12 and November 26-December 31. The first trip was for a memorial service for Penny’s dad who passed away in February. We could not cross the border to make it to the funeral, so we had a memorial service in July on his birthday. Then, in November, Penny’s mom was sick and we tried to make it back to Florida to see her before she passed away. Unfortunately, we were still eight hours away when she passed. Not arriving in time was very hard on us. Please pray for Penny since she lost both parents in 2021. We traveled a total of 19,000 miles on both trips. While in the States, we were able to get to visit churches and supporters along the way which was a great encouragement.

One great blessing was that we were able to train one of our board members to keep our ministry running while we were gone. The board member also had to recruit some help from people in their church. There were a total of four families that helped with our ministry. Praise God that our ministry was able to keep going, while we were gone.

It was a very dry summer last year. We planted wheat on the 60 acres that we rented. Because of the drought, our harvest was only half of what it could have been; but the price of wheat almost doubled, so we were able to get enough money to keep our ministry running. This year is going to be very different. Because of Covid and the shipping problem, the cost of fertilizer had more than doubled in price. So, we are not going to plant a crop this year. Pray that we will be able to plant again next year. Out of necessity, we will have some fundraisers to help the ministry to keep going until next year. Pray that we will be able to have two or three good fundraisers this year.

God is richly helping our ministry to grow. Since 2020, our active students and decisions to trust Christ as Savior have doubled! We are happy and excited to be in His perfect will. Pray for our continued health, so that we can continue doing this great work for Him.

In His service

Joe and Penny

Happy Fall,

   Well, it’s been a different year. We spent seven weeks in the States visiting churches, supporters, Source of Light headquarters and family. We traveled for over 8,000 miles (13,000 km). Praise God for safety on the roads. It was a very productive summer. Joe was able to preform our oldest son Darren’s wedding in Maryland. What a great blessing and privilege! It has also been a very sad year. Penny and I counted up the friends and family that have died since COVID started—the total is fifteen. Several are very close family members. Penny’s dad died in February; Joe’s sister died in May; and Joe’s sister-in-law died in August. One great blessing is that they all are together in Heaven today.

    While we were away from home, we had three different ladies taking care of the work at the mission office. They did an awesome job keeping up with our lessons! It gave us peace of mind to know that they were able to help out in a great way.

    Last year we started a new fundraiser. We were able to rent sixty acres of land to plant a field of canola. Because of this, we raised more money than any other year. This year we were able to plant sixty acres of wheat. We were praying for the same results, but God had a different idea. This was the driest year it has been in sixteen years, so the wheat crop was only half of what we expected; but because of how dry it was in the whole area, the price increased quite a bit. So the price the wheat sold for was around 30% more than expected! God was just testing our faith.

   Since COVID has started, we think that God has been causing many to think about their future, because the salvation decisions increased from an average of ten every year to 19 last year! This year we have seen 20 salvation decisions! Praise God!

Prayer requests

Penny’s Mom: Her liver is not working right and it doesn’t look good.

Students: That the excitement will continue

Lessons in our church: Penny and I are going to try something new with the children of our church starting in October. We are going to have the them do mailbox club lessons at home and bring them back to church each week. We want to create some excitement for the kids by handing out their awards to them in front of the church. Pray that God will use these lessons in the lives of our church children!

In His service,

Joe & Penny