Current Missions News

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March 2011 update from Betsy Hake
September 2010 update from Russ & Heidi Smith, Chile
A Journey to Madagascar: Steps in Faith
May 2010 Missions Moment from Mark & Tammy Ruch, Philippines
February 2010 update from Gregory & Suzanne Bacon, missionaries to Australia
January 2010 update from the Bowden Family, Czech Republic

March 2011 update from Betsy Hake, Honduras
During Betsy’s visit to St. Marks in October, many of us heard about Jericho Ministries. Located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, it began as a result of a desire from God placed in Betsy’s heart to rescue those trapped in prostitution. God’s great glory in this ministry has expanded to include the rehab center in the country, facilities in the city which house the Elementary and High School for the women’s children, and a store to sell the products made by Jericho women. Jericho Ministries also includes a prevention program for the children at high risk of entering prostitution.

Betsy sends a special thanks to everyone who helped celebrate her 30 year anniversary in October, and is blessed with help from the sponsorship program. Betsy is called Mom by eight of the rescued children. There are currently 25 children in the villa and 90 kids in the school. She asks for our prayers to minister to 100 high risk children as well as prayers for the ones God has still in the wings.

Praise God for Kimberly, one of five high risk young girls being admitted to the Villa. At 13 years old, she has lived way too much. With God’s everlasting love, her deepest wounds will heal. Let’s pray for Jericho’s legal custody and spiritual development of these five young girls.

Additional prayer requests for 2011:
• To restart the sewing workshop in town for women who are interested in leaving the prostitution lifestyle but are either unwilling or unable to move to the Villa.
• To finish the road leading to the Villa. It is 1/3 of the way finished, thanks be to God!

September 2010 update from Russ & Heidi Smith, Chile

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

John the Baptist Church has now met for five Sundays at our new location. Probably during this month of September construction will begin for a simple structure that can be taken apart when we move to another location. We have had many visitors during these weeks. One of them is the actual owner of the house, who is now living on the coast in Algarrobo. Strangely, providentially, and proving that Chile is a "very small country", she had been attending a group in Algarrobo on Saturday nights—a group which has connections with our church! That group, a prayer meeting/Bible study just started meeting a few months ago.

A new activity that has started is a music workshop. The idea was to prepare a group to sing Christmas carols as evangelistic outreach during December. We have an actual professor who is teaching—and bringing out the best in each one who is participating. Maybe this will have more benefits than just helping us to sing well in grocery store parking lots around Christmas time! Pray for God's glory and purposes in this.

Now that we have a building, I, Russ, have been having "office hours" three days a week. What we hope is that soon we can begin having meetings that will provide evangelistic and discipleship opportunities. These are some ideas: An open invitation for ladies to drop by after dropping their children off at school for "Coffee and Christian Conversation" (hopefully leading to some being interested in doing a study like "Christianity Explained"; a MOPS group (Mothers Of Pre Schoolers); Community Bible Study. But before any of this can happen, I need teams of at least two ladies from the church to be there with me. With Heidi gone all day teaching, she can't be involved in this.Pray that our ladies who don't have outside-of-the-home jobs will be willing to make this kind of commitment.

Tonight is the first work meeting in preparation for our second EME—Women's Encounter in the Spirit, planned for October 23rd. As you may remember, if you've been receiving these prayer updates, 7 ladies from the new Presbyterian Church here "lived the Encounter", and as part of the goal of passing it on and multiplying, they will now be helping at this one in various capacities so that they will have experience when they begin their own some time next year.

Saturday at the ladies group (which they have decided to call Mujeres en Accion—Women in Action) they will be having the Lydia Prayer Fellowship week with a special speaker from the Las Condes church who coordinated Lydia in Chile several years back. Pray that the ladies who attend will be deeply touched by the Holy Spirit to make the commitment to be involved in this prayer ministry.

September in Chile is both the Patriotic Month and the Month of the Bible. And this is a big year because it is the Bicentennial. The sermon series I'm planning will include a focus on some of the ways in which the Bible has had an impact on the history of Chile. Pray that as we go on to study what the Bible has to say about itself the people will be motivated to ever study it more deeply and apply it to their lives more carefully. In the Prayer Book phrase: that they "may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them . . . That they may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life . . . "

Speaking of studying the Bible, Joshua has begun his studies at Moody Bible Institute through their first year online program. So far, so good. Please pray for him as he distributes his time between those studies, his participation in music ministry at La Florida church (our old church), youth activities at our new church and the special responsibility he has been given of contacting churches in our area so that hopefully their young people can participate in the Bicentennial Nation-wide MOU to be held between Christmas and New Years.

All the "ladies" in our home are sick in bed today. Jocelyn began with a fever on Saturday evening, accompanied by congestion and a cough. She was diagnosed on Monday with Influenza B, which has been going around and is very contagious. Half her class was out one day last week! She is recovering but last night both Heidi, who had had the cough and cold already, and Joyanne began with fevers. Joyanne is scheduled to take her driving tests on Friday, but if she still has a fever we'll have to postpone it. Heidi hardly ever has missed a day at school. Fortunately, they were able to find someone (other than me) who was willing to sub for her, and fortunately, Heidi had her lesson plans up-to-date, so the lady was able to take over without too much problem.

Keep praying for our finances. We just keep having one "little thing" after another. You may remember about the timing belt repair, then the battery died, then the starter engine died. Then one day we got home to hear our water pump working but no water was coming out. Fortunately the pump wasn't the kind that burns up when no water is going through it. We eventually discovered that, no, they had not cut off our water, and no, the water system was not having problems, but that a pvc tube that leads to the hose had been broken (we suspect by the neighbors' huge, clumsy puppy) and so the pump turned on and emptied all three cisterns. Today the lady came to read the meter and saw how much water we had "used" in this last month. It's a very small, rural water company so she had her chart with her, so instead of $10 of water like we used the first couple of months, this month we used about $90! We know God provides but we do feel badly about the water wasted. I also lost a crown, and had to go to the dentist, and he discovered that the only thing to do was to pull out what was left of the original tooth. Bye-bye to $80 for that! Lots less than it would have been in the States, but still a big expense.

School is off to a good start and Jocelyn is happy to have Mommy as her teacher. Heidi had thought that having her own daughter as a student could be complicated but so far so good. Because ever since Jocelyn began school back in California, Heidi has been a teacher, Jocelyn is used to Mommy in that role. They seem able to have a teacher/student relationship that is separate from their mother/daughter one, and Jocelyn thinks Mommy is a good teacher. She actually calls Heidi "Mrs. Smith" in class, just as the other children do. Joyanne's junior year classes have an emphasis on essay writing in preparation for the SATs. This does not come easily to her. Please pray she will persevere and develop her ability in this area.

Joel is living once again with the Hausfeld family (Heidi's sister) in Corona, CA. His plan is to work part time and study beginning as soon as possible. He presently has a job through a temp agency that he hopes will become permanent. Please pray that this living arrangement will work well for all involved.

Please do join with us in praying for the safety and rescue of the 33 miners still trapped deep under the Atacama desert. It has been amazing to see how their lives have been preserved against incredible odds.. In the first message sent up when contact was finally made, one of the miners wrote "DIOS ES GRANDE." (God is great.) Amen to that!

We so appreciate it when people take the time to drop us a line and let us know you are praying for us. Many thanks!

Russ, Heidi and children

A Journey to Madagascar: Steps in Faith

“This is way out of my comfort zone.” Paul Egeland seemed to be speaking for everyone.

It was a meeting of three St. Markers who felt a tug to take a step in faith: Paul Egeland, Lidia Vakili and Pastor Claudia will be joining Dr. Graham Smith, Rector of St. David’s, Glenview, on a mission trip to Madagascar in July. We spent our first weeks questioning: Are we called? Are there other things we could do with our time and money? Will we be in danger? What about diseases? Do we have anything useful to offer? Will God use us?

One night as we were praying together, Lidia Vakili said: “I feel that we are supposed to go–and I think that as long as we commit to each other, it will be fine.” That was our breakthrough. We knew that our fears were all human fears, but the reasons to go were all Godly reasons: We wanted to meet and love our neighbors in one of the poorest countries of the world. We wanted to take a step in faith and see how God would use us and how he would transform us.

What will we do in Madagascar? Well, the general rule on an international mission trip is: Be prepared for anything! We will be serving at a four-day retreat and teaching conference for pastors, evangelists and their families in Madagascar. We will do some teaching and serving, but even more important we will be a ministry of presence–encouraging, praying, serving and getting to know the people in the Diocese of Tuleara.

“This is an opportunity to let go of control. We’re not in charge. We’re not going over as the competent Americans who can fix everything,” said Paul.

Last fall, the Rt. Rev. Todd McGregor, and the Rev. Patsy McGregor, visited Saint Mark’s and talked about how they were sharing the Gospel and growing the church in the southeastern region of Madagascar, an island country off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is about forty percent Christian, forty percent animist religions, and about twenty percent Muslim. Evangelism, education and economic development are growing the church in Tulear. In 2009, there were over three-hundred baptisms, seventy confirmations and five new church plants.

“When I heard Bishop Todd speak, my heart leapt with excitement,” said Pastor Claudia, who will preach at one of the Sunday services. “I wanted to go and see what God was doing–and experience it for myself. I had always wanted to go on a mission trip to Africa, and it seems that at last God is opening a door!”

Please commit to pray for us as we travel to Madagascar from June 30-July 16.

In 2010, the McGregors plan to construct a new permanent church in Maronbe, roughly 150 miles north of Toliara and initially staff the church with a full-time trained evangelist. This church planting is part of their goal to construct 30 new churches in the diocese in 10 years. The estimated cost for construction materials, labor, and other building costs, plus purchase of land is US$15,000. This project would be implemented and completed within 12 months.

May 2010 Missions Moment from Mark & Tammy Ruch, Philippines (pdf)

February 2010 update from Gregory & Suzanne Bacon, missionaries to Australia (pdf)

January 2010 update from the Bowden Family, Czech Republic (pdf)