February Ministry Update
Dear praying friends,
Since the last time we communicated with you in early December, many things have happened that we need to catch you up on. We had a wonderful Christmas season as most of Susan’s family was able to visit us here. Since Susan’s parents were able to fly up from Chile to spend several weeks here, Karen (Susan’s sister) and Andrew were able to come as well as David (her brother) and Kristin. As usual, we enjoyed playing all kinds of brass arrangements and singing in groups.
One thing that made David and Kristin’s visit extra special was that it also functioned as a sort of survey trip. When Tom and Kim Chapman arrived three years ago, they were planning to be here for only one year. After that year they were going to return to raise support (their salary had been paid by our home church, Tri-City Baptist Church). Various ministry needs resulted in Tom and Kim staying here for three years. Next year, they will finally be traveling in the United States to raise support. That meant that we needed someone to take their place. David and Kristin offered to come take their place next year. While we will miss Tom and Kim, we are thankful and excited to have David and Kristin here to take their place. Please pray for David and Kristin as they are seeking to raise some short-term support to help with their expenses while they are here. Also pray for Tom and Kim as they seek to raise support next year. As you know, the economic situation in the United States does not make this a prime time to raise support, but we trust that our Lord truly owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
At the mission in Santa Mónica we had another exciting development during December. We have been asking you to pray for a property for the mission. The owner of the house we have been meeting in approached Pastor Montes and asked if we would be interested in paying him the amount of money he had put into the house and taking over the payments. The church was able to purchase the house and now we are making the payments on the house. Our plans are to remodel the current property and make it a small auditorium. If we could then rent the house next door to the mission, we would use that for children’s classes. Eventually we would like to purchase that house to join the two properties.Pray that the Lord will provide for each phase (payments, remodeling, rent and future purchase). Just as He has already answered prayers, we are confident that He will continue to do so.
We are having a good semester at the university. Virtually all of our students returned after Christmas break, which is a blessing in the midst of these difficult economic times. Last week we had our spiritual emphasis week with the theme ‘Walking with God’. We were thankful to see the Lord stirring the hearts of the students and calling them to a deeper and fuller walk with God. As we look to the future, Ü please pray for our annual Harvest Rally, which will be held on Saturday, March 6th. Please pray for the weather, the promotion and most of all the preaching of God’s Word.
Please pray that the Lord will allow us to raise a bit more support during our update trip this summer. We are currently at 80% of our targeted support level. As we did our annual review of our finances (thanks to the IRS), we had opportunity to thank our Lord for His faithful provision for us and for the faithful supporters that He has given us. Our personal and church support was very consistent. We are grateful for your faithfulness.
May the Lord continue to richly bless you.
The Bixbys
Since the last time we communicated with you in early December, many things have happened that we need to catch you up on. We had a wonderful Christmas season as most of Susan’s family was able to visit us here. Since Susan’s parents were able to fly up from Chile to spend several weeks here, Karen (Susan’s sister) and Andrew were able to come as well as David (her brother) and Kristin. As usual, we enjoyed playing all kinds of brass arrangements and singing in groups.
One thing that made David and Kristin’s visit extra special was that it also functioned as a sort of survey trip. When Tom and Kim Chapman arrived three years ago, they were planning to be here for only one year. After that year they were going to return to raise support (their salary had been paid by our home church, Tri-City Baptist Church). Various ministry needs resulted in Tom and Kim staying here for three years. Next year, they will finally be traveling in the United States to raise support. That meant that we needed someone to take their place. David and Kristin offered to come take their place next year. While we will miss Tom and Kim, we are thankful and excited to have David and Kristin here to take their place. Please pray for David and Kristin as they are seeking to raise some short-term support to help with their expenses while they are here. Also pray for Tom and Kim as they seek to raise support next year. As you know, the economic situation in the United States does not make this a prime time to raise support, but we trust that our Lord truly owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
At the mission in Santa Mónica we had another exciting development during December. We have been asking you to pray for a property for the mission. The owner of the house we have been meeting in approached Pastor Montes and asked if we would be interested in paying him the amount of money he had put into the house and taking over the payments. The church was able to purchase the house and now we are making the payments on the house. Our plans are to remodel the current property and make it a small auditorium. If we could then rent the house next door to the mission, we would use that for children’s classes. Eventually we would like to purchase that house to join the two properties.Pray that the Lord will provide for each phase (payments, remodeling, rent and future purchase). Just as He has already answered prayers, we are confident that He will continue to do so.
We are having a good semester at the university. Virtually all of our students returned after Christmas break, which is a blessing in the midst of these difficult economic times. Last week we had our spiritual emphasis week with the theme ‘Walking with God’. We were thankful to see the Lord stirring the hearts of the students and calling them to a deeper and fuller walk with God. As we look to the future, Ü please pray for our annual Harvest Rally, which will be held on Saturday, March 6th. Please pray for the weather, the promotion and most of all the preaching of God’s Word.
Please pray that the Lord will allow us to raise a bit more support during our update trip this summer. We are currently at 80% of our targeted support level. As we did our annual review of our finances (thanks to the IRS), we had opportunity to thank our Lord for His faithful provision for us and for the faithful supporters that He has given us. Our personal and church support was very consistent. We are grateful for your faithfulness.
May the Lord continue to richly bless you.
The Bixbys
posted by Matthew Bixby at
5:19 PM
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