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:

1. 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!
2. Our support level is climbing—this is a good thing, since I just finished my employment at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp on December 10.
3. 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:

1. Several of the churches we’ve visited have verbally promised to support us.
2. Pray that they will be able to start their support soon.
3. Pray that we will be able to secure another 8-10 meetings for 2006.
4. It’s our desire, if the Lord allows, that we be leaving for Thailand early in 2007.
5. 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.
6. 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!