Jones’ Journeys
August-September 2006 Update
Crazy times-that’s the understatement of the day! Time flies when you’re on deputation, especially when you’re never in the same place for more than three days! Eight days ago I was in Thailand. We were in southern Illinois seven days ago and in Chicago three days ago. Today we’re in West Virginia, and we’ll be in South Bend, Indiana, by the time you read this letter. Then a day later, I’m off to Colorado Springs for a week before heading to Michigan. Like I said, “crazy times” is the understatement of the day. We even hit a special “mile marker” this summer. We had to fill up the gas tank on our van for $3.31/gallon, and the total was over $80 for one tank of gas! Yikes!
Ministry Praises
(Don’t skip this part!)
1) It’s been an incredible summer full of meetings. We had a total of seven churches and one individual take us on for support since the first of July. Within seven days in July we had three churches take us on, and some close friends gave us a $5000 gift for our Outfit and Passage Fund. We now have about 25% of our O and P Fund.
2) We are currently at 65% of our support, and we’re starting a string of 13 missions conferences in mid-September lasting until mid-November.
3) As I mentioned, I traveled alone to Thailand last week to submit our paperwork to the Thai government for our visas. Other than sitting in the middle of the center section for 12 hours on the plane back to Chicago, it was a great trip.
4) I made it through ordination in July!
5) After purchasing the plane ticket to Thailand, I found out that I didn’t have a birth certificate. I haven’t seen it in years, and it was necessary to have it for the Thai officials. I sat in Ottawa, Kansas, and called the health department in Greeneville, Tennessee. When the lady answered the phone, I thought “that voice sounds familiar.” I began explaining my situation and let the lady know that I needed the certificate in my hands in less than seven days. The voice then stopped me and said, “Is this Matt Jones?” WOW! The person on the other end of the phone was a girl formerly from Calvary Baptist Church in Ottawa, Kansas, who is now married and living in the Greeneville, Tennessee, area! I couldn’t believe it. Janelle (Hawkins) Pruitt was able to get the certificate printed, signed, and mailed to me that day. She told me it normally takes a month! The Lord is good!
Ministry Requests
(This is where we really need you!)
1) We continue to need our support to increase, as well as our Outfit and Passage Fund. There are still roughly 6-8 churches who could take us on at any moment.
2) There are only 600 visas given to foreign missionaries in Thailand. When those slots are full (and they are), you get in line and wait for an opening. When someone leaves the country, someone in line gets a visa. Until you get a religious visa, you have to travel in and out of the country via Cambodia every 30 days on a tourist visa. The cost of that adds up quickly! That’s why I went to Thailand to put our names on the list of those waiting. The normal wait is 12-24 months. Pray that a bunch of Mormons or Charismatics (or both J) will leave the country between now and then, so we can get our visas when we get to Thailand next year.
3) Our van has now reached 148,000 miles, and it’s normal for three or more of the “warning” lights on our dash board to be on at any given time. We’ve spent a few hundred dollars this summer “tuning up” everything that can be tuned up, but we’re still having trouble with the emissions system. Pray for grace. If a Ford vehicle makes it to 200,000 miles, it will truly be a miracle of epic proportions! We’re going to push it until it drops, hoping we will not have to buy a new van for the few remaining months of deputation.
4) Our goal is now to make it to Thailand in March 2007. Jim and Kathi Hayes will be home on furlough until February 2007.
5) We have a couple of unspoken requests as well.
We love you guys. If you read through this entire letter, we can’t thank you enough. Please take just a moment to pray over these requests! Without your prayers, we’re powerless!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Crazy Days
Keeping up with the Joneses
March and April 2006
It was the darkest cloud I’d seen in a long time. The storm to our west was moving in our direction in a hurry while we traveled through Eastern Kansas that Sunday morning. We were familiar with these Spring storms in the Midwest, but this one was awesome! We ultimately were pounded by about 42 million hailstones that left our windshield with literally dozens of little chips in it and a few dents on the hood and doors. Praise the Lord we still made it to our meetings that day even though dozens of tornadoes touched down that day from Kansas to Indiana! To this day, a broken windshield is the worst incident we’ve had while traveling! That’s not bad!
The month of March was a great month in a lot of ways. It was packed with 8 meetings that ranged from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and then down to South Carolina. We traveled 5006 miles in just that one month! April has been just as busy with two great missions conferences and another 4500 miles traveled. God’s been so good to us and we’re more eager than ever to get to Southeast Asia. We’ve been learning so much during this time and we’re actually really enjoying ourselves!
I wanted to give a few more specific requests than normal this month so if you’ve got a few minutes to pray over these things, it would be a blessing to us.
Specific prayer needs:
*Pray that the Thai people would grow discontent with the deception of Buddhism.
*Pray for Kathi Hayes who had to spend some time in the hospital last week after complaining about chest pains and then passing out later that day.
*Pray for Orawan and Ya. They are faithful young ladies in the church in Surin and Satan would love to destroy their testimony. Ya’s mother committed suicide this past week after seeing Ya last weekend for the first time in 9 years.
*Pray for a girl named Top as well. She’s a Believer in Surin and she’s facing a great deal of pressure from her parents to abandon Christianity.
*Jim and Kathi are back in the States for a few weeks so Jim and teach at Maranatha. Pray for safe travels and a refreshing time for them with their family.*Pray that we’ll be at 50% of our support by the end of May.
*Pray specifically that we could leave the States for Thailand by March of 2007.
*Pray for the power of the Spirit to rest on our deputation ministry.
*There are two couples that I’m praying will be called to Thailand soon. I’ll not mention their names (they don’t know I’m praying for them), but please pray that the Lord would call these two families to join our team in Northeastern Thailand.
Praises:
*Last week a team of medical professionals from the States traveled to Thailand with Operation Renewed Hope and Evangelist Tom Farrell. During their time there in the tsunami stricken areas, they were able to treat more than 700 patients and 20 of them responded to the Gospel!
*Our support has continued to increase. A church in South Carolina voted this week to begin our support in July and that moves our support level to 46.4%.
*Our oldest daughter Lindsey has begun to meditate on “spiritual things.” We believe she may understand the Gospel and trust Christ in the near future.
*We paid the last $298.00 on our van this week. We were able to pay it off more than two years ahead of schedule. The Lord provided nearly $5000 since January of this year.
*Our 2001 Ford Windstar hit 133,000 miles this week and is still going strong.
*We have some dear friends in New England that have committed to helping us with our outfit and passage fund later this year. We’ve currently been able to put away $1200 toward the $32,000 target. Amen!
We love you all and can’t tell you how much we need you and appreciate you praying for our family!
To Make Him Known,
The Jones Family
BWM—Thailand
March and April 2006
It was the darkest cloud I’d seen in a long time. The storm to our west was moving in our direction in a hurry while we traveled through Eastern Kansas that Sunday morning. We were familiar with these Spring storms in the Midwest, but this one was awesome! We ultimately were pounded by about 42 million hailstones that left our windshield with literally dozens of little chips in it and a few dents on the hood and doors. Praise the Lord we still made it to our meetings that day even though dozens of tornadoes touched down that day from Kansas to Indiana! To this day, a broken windshield is the worst incident we’ve had while traveling! That’s not bad!
The month of March was a great month in a lot of ways. It was packed with 8 meetings that ranged from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and then down to South Carolina. We traveled 5006 miles in just that one month! April has been just as busy with two great missions conferences and another 4500 miles traveled. God’s been so good to us and we’re more eager than ever to get to Southeast Asia. We’ve been learning so much during this time and we’re actually really enjoying ourselves!
I wanted to give a few more specific requests than normal this month so if you’ve got a few minutes to pray over these things, it would be a blessing to us.
Specific prayer needs:
*Pray that the Thai people would grow discontent with the deception of Buddhism.
*Pray for Kathi Hayes who had to spend some time in the hospital last week after complaining about chest pains and then passing out later that day.
*Pray for Orawan and Ya. They are faithful young ladies in the church in Surin and Satan would love to destroy their testimony. Ya’s mother committed suicide this past week after seeing Ya last weekend for the first time in 9 years.
*Pray for a girl named Top as well. She’s a Believer in Surin and she’s facing a great deal of pressure from her parents to abandon Christianity.
*Jim and Kathi are back in the States for a few weeks so Jim and teach at Maranatha. Pray for safe travels and a refreshing time for them with their family.*Pray that we’ll be at 50% of our support by the end of May.
*Pray specifically that we could leave the States for Thailand by March of 2007.
*Pray for the power of the Spirit to rest on our deputation ministry.
*There are two couples that I’m praying will be called to Thailand soon. I’ll not mention their names (they don’t know I’m praying for them), but please pray that the Lord would call these two families to join our team in Northeastern Thailand.
Praises:
*Last week a team of medical professionals from the States traveled to Thailand with Operation Renewed Hope and Evangelist Tom Farrell. During their time there in the tsunami stricken areas, they were able to treat more than 700 patients and 20 of them responded to the Gospel!
*Our support has continued to increase. A church in South Carolina voted this week to begin our support in July and that moves our support level to 46.4%.
*Our oldest daughter Lindsey has begun to meditate on “spiritual things.” We believe she may understand the Gospel and trust Christ in the near future.
*We paid the last $298.00 on our van this week. We were able to pay it off more than two years ahead of schedule. The Lord provided nearly $5000 since January of this year.
*Our 2001 Ford Windstar hit 133,000 miles this week and is still going strong.
*We have some dear friends in New England that have committed to helping us with our outfit and passage fund later this year. We’ve currently been able to put away $1200 toward the $32,000 target. Amen!
We love you all and can’t tell you how much we need you and appreciate you praying for our family!
To Make Him Known,
The Jones Family
BWM—Thailand
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
The Jones’ Journeys
January-February 2006
"We don’t know who he was, he just came to my grandmother’s home in India one morning years ago and shared the Gospel with her. She believed and was saved that morning.” This was the testimony of a dear Indian lady as we sat at lunch with her wonderful family in Mississippi. Through tears, she shared her testimony of how her Hindu mother, father and many other family members had since trusted in Christ. Now she and her wonderful husband are raising their three sons to serve the Lord. It overwhelmed me as I thought about the Thai Buddhists that will hear the Gospel, be saved and then begin the process of winning their family members.
The last two months of deputation have been a great time for us. The Lord has given us the opportunities to see and do so many things. We’ve been in or through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. As I write this, we’re on our way to Minnesota before heading off to Pennsylvania and back to South Carolina! Praise the Lord for a full schedule!
Rejoice with us as we joyfully reflect on the great things that God has done:
1) Our support level continues to climb. We’ve moved up to 31% with two or three churches still considering taking us on soon.
2) The Lord has continued to meet our needs financially and we’re hoping to be able to pay off our minivan in the next three months. This will be 2 years ahead of schedule!
3) A church in Tennessee bought us a new set of tires for our van.
4) My uncle surprised me recently by giving me a nice set of used Ping i3 irons!
5) We now have our very own “blog” site where we can post information about our travels. For those interested, you can check it out at www.awsmissions.com/jones
6) We’ve been able to begin saving for our “Outfit and Passage” fund.
We’d be honored if you were able to take a few moments while you’re reading this and pray for these particular areas:
1) Please pray that the Lord “show Himself strong” on our behalf by giving us the opportunity to get to Thailand by this time next year.
2) Pray that the Lord will continue to provide the nearly $33,000 needed for our outfit and passage fund.
3) Pray for the salvation of a young man named Brad in Brooklet, Georgia.
4) Pray that the Lord would allow us to fill up the last 3-4 spots we have open in our 2006 schedule.
5) Pray that God’s people will give faithfully in churches we are visiting so the churches will have the ability to support us and other missionaries.
6) Pray that we would be a blessing and encouragement to the churches we are visiting.
We love you all and we couldn’t continue without your prayers. We can tell so vividly when people are faithfully praying for us—there’s a clear sense of the power of God resting on our ministry when God’s people are praying.
Thank you all and we love you! For His Glory,
Matt and Courtney Jones
BWM--Thailand
January-February 2006
"We don’t know who he was, he just came to my grandmother’s home in India one morning years ago and shared the Gospel with her. She believed and was saved that morning.” This was the testimony of a dear Indian lady as we sat at lunch with her wonderful family in Mississippi. Through tears, she shared her testimony of how her Hindu mother, father and many other family members had since trusted in Christ. Now she and her wonderful husband are raising their three sons to serve the Lord. It overwhelmed me as I thought about the Thai Buddhists that will hear the Gospel, be saved and then begin the process of winning their family members.
The last two months of deputation have been a great time for us. The Lord has given us the opportunities to see and do so many things. We’ve been in or through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. As I write this, we’re on our way to Minnesota before heading off to Pennsylvania and back to South Carolina! Praise the Lord for a full schedule!
Rejoice with us as we joyfully reflect on the great things that God has done:
1) Our support level continues to climb. We’ve moved up to 31% with two or three churches still considering taking us on soon.
2) The Lord has continued to meet our needs financially and we’re hoping to be able to pay off our minivan in the next three months. This will be 2 years ahead of schedule!
3) A church in Tennessee bought us a new set of tires for our van.
4) My uncle surprised me recently by giving me a nice set of used Ping i3 irons!
5) We now have our very own “blog” site where we can post information about our travels. For those interested, you can check it out at www.awsmissions.com/jones
6) We’ve been able to begin saving for our “Outfit and Passage” fund.
We’d be honored if you were able to take a few moments while you’re reading this and pray for these particular areas:
1) Please pray that the Lord “show Himself strong” on our behalf by giving us the opportunity to get to Thailand by this time next year.
2) Pray that the Lord will continue to provide the nearly $33,000 needed for our outfit and passage fund.
3) Pray for the salvation of a young man named Brad in Brooklet, Georgia.
4) Pray that the Lord would allow us to fill up the last 3-4 spots we have open in our 2006 schedule.
5) Pray that God’s people will give faithfully in churches we are visiting so the churches will have the ability to support us and other missionaries.
6) Pray that we would be a blessing and encouragement to the churches we are visiting.
We love you all and we couldn’t continue without your prayers. We can tell so vividly when people are faithfully praying for us—there’s a clear sense of the power of God resting on our ministry when God’s people are praying.
Thank you all and we love you! For His Glory,
Matt and Courtney Jones
BWM--Thailand
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
The Jones’ Journeys October-December 2005
Life in the Midwest has been great. The weather in Kansas is as unpredictable as a missionary’s deputation schedule! A couple weeks ago, the temperature was 65 degrees on Sunday morning, and by the afternoon, three tornadoes had touched down a few counties west of our home. By the following Monday afternoon, it was 30 degrees, and the ground was covered with a dusting of snow. Later in the week, it snowed another 10 inches while we were trying to move out of our house. Crazy!
Speaking of crazy, our first eight weeks on deputation have been great! We’ve visited some wonderful churches in Georgia, Michigan, central Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and we’ve seen our support go from 0% to 28% in just a matter of weeks. We had a wonderful missions conference at our sending church, Calvary Baptist in Ottawa, Kansas, and they committed to supporting us at 22% of our necessary support. Here’s the exciting part: this was their first missions conference in the 60-year history of this church. It was also their very first Faith Promise commitment, and they were able to reach their targeted amount. God is good!
Rejoice with us as we joyfully reflect on the great things that God has done:
- We’ve been planning to purchase a DVD player for our van for traveling, but in October, a wonderful family that we visited gave us one!
- Our support level is climbing—this is a good thing, since I just finished my employment at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp on December 10.
- We’ve been able to schedule and confirm 9 meetings in 2005, and another 44 in 2006. That’s a total of 53 meetings scheduled. Again, God is good!
We’d be honored if you were able to take a few moments while you’re reading this and pray for these particular areas:
- Several of the churches we’ve visited have verbally promised to support us.
- Pray that they will be able to start their support soon.
- Pray that we will be able to secure another 8-10 meetings for 2006.
- It’s our desire, if the Lord allows, that we be leaving for Thailand early in 2007.
- Pray for safety as we travel. We’ve moved out of our home and we won’t be back to Kansas until late next spring.
- Pray that we’d be able to raise our necessary support and passage funds. It’s amazing how much money is necessary to move a family of five to Southeast Asia!
Thank you for taking time to read our very first prayer letter!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)