How would you like to gather with the people you work with every morning at 9:30 to pray? Well, that is what we do here at the home office of CTEN Missions. Why do we gather as a group? It is to support our family of missionaries and cover them in prayer as we do so. We have a card box with each family/single's name in it. Every morning each of the home staff members and visitors select a card, the prayer needs are shared for that missionary from their Pastoral Care couple, and then we pray individually for them. With over 260 missionaries world wide it takes about three weeks to go through the rotation. As our missionaries update us with new activities and prayer concerns we are then able to share this with the staff and hold them in prayer more specifically.
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| 11 new Missionaries at the Summer Orientation |
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| Bob doing what he loves-Worship on the drums |
Last week we were involved in our first orientation as part of the Pastoral Care team. We have them 4 times a year and each time we commission people to serve all over the world. This orientation brought to CTEN 11 new missionaries. Three of them beautiful young women to serve in Africa. Two young ladies are going to Uganda and one to Rwanda. They have great vision and have chosen to give up the riches of this world to serve the poor. One young lady will be working at a children’s home for street boys, one will run a small country school and the other will be working in a Crisis Pregnancy Center. It is wonderful to hear their vision and see their passion for the work God has called them to in Africa.
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| The latest members of our Team to Africa-Sarah, April & Amy |
This has truly been a season of packing and unpacking for us! It all started back in January when we got the call from the home office at CTEN to join the Pastoral Staff Team in Kerrville, Texas.
First we packed to close up our rental home in Costa Rica to head back to Maine to repack and then unpack in our new place in Kerrville, Texas!
Wow! It was a lot of packing but here we go again! We are packing this time for....Africa.
We will visit Mozambique, So. Africa and Zambia. This will give us a chance to see up close the work of the missionaries in these areas and more importantly get to know them personally. One of the things we do in the office is read the newsletters our missionaries put out and through this we get glimpses of their work but I believe there is no replacement for seeing those little faces they work with and learning about the culture they live in. Also,it is our time to really connect with the missionaries to encourage and suport them in their work.
A friend gave me the book, Left to Tell, written by a genocide survivor in Rwanda and it so impacted my heart. I feel like I have already got a small feel for what this people group has gone through. There are many stories to be heard and chances also to share the love of God with them.
We leave for Africa July 24 and ask if you would hold us in prayer during this time especially for safety, health and a heart to hear and support the people we serve there.
