Small Groups Starting this Week!

We wanted to start our small groups 3 weeks ago and were planning to do so, but my wife was told that she needed a root canal and the same day she came down with a bacterial infection that turned out to be the worst illness that she has had since a bad bout of pneumonia about 30 years ago. Getting a root canal meant driving to Mexico because it would save us over $2,000. (Last year I got two root canals and two crowns for a total of $1,000 and in Oregon it would have cost me $6,000.)

We immediately decided that it was better to go before we started our small groups rather than to start and then have to interrupt them just to go to the dentist. Unfortunately, Jerilyn’s illness meant antibiotics and a period of healing before such dental work could be done. Thus, the three week delay. Alas, after working on Jerilyn’s root canal for over 3 hours in two days, the dentist decided that the roots of that tooth were too far gone to save and that extraction was the only option. It took a different dentist over an hour to get the remaining pieces of tooth out of her mouth. My poor wife suffered quite a bit through all of that. In the end, the suffering would have been no different in the US and the whole thing actually saved us over $3,000. Three hours of root canal and one hour of tooth extraction cost us a total of $250.

Enough of dentist talk! We are starting our small groups this week and we need you to pray for us. We will be having our first Jefferson small group meeting on Monday night at 7pm and our first Salem small group meeting on Friday night at the same time.

Each time we get together in our small group we will be spending some time in fellowship, some time in Bible study, and some time in accountability. Our Bible study will start out by digging a little deeper into what we are studying in church on the weekends. We just began to study 1 Corinthians. We have asked each person in the small group to meditate on the scripture that we just studied and come prepared to share how else God is speaking to them through the passage. We will also be sharing other scriptures that God has used to speak to us this past week.

During the accountability time for the first several weeks we will take turns sharing our “life maps” – our testimonies of how God has worked throughout our lives to bring us to where we are in our lives today. This testimony will last 20-25 minutes followed by a question and answer time followed by prayer for the individual sharing his life map. This week, I will be sharing; next week Jerilyn will be sharing, the following two weeks our lay leaders in each church will be sharing- Luis and Jessie Zavala in Salem, and Juan and Remedios Alvarez in Jefferson.

Please pray for us that we will have meaningful fellowship, interesting Spirit led discussions in Bible study, and a deeper understanding of each other and how we can pray for each other during the testimony times over the next few weeks.

Thank you for praying!

Small Group Meeting Update

Eight days ago I asked for prayer for two meetings that we were going to have – one last Sunday at our house and one today in Salem. The meetings were for those interested in participating in our two small groups that we are starting, one in our Jefferson Church and one in our Salem church.

Both meetings were very successful and both left me very encouraged. However, the first meeting at our house did not at all go as planned. I had no idea how many people to expect. I asked people to show up at our house any time after 2 and said that we would be eating around 3. One family arrived a little after 3 but we did not eat until after 4, ¡with just the one family! Another family told me they had a meeting in Portland but could probably arrive by 3. I texted them after 4 to see if they were coming and they texted that a massive accident left them stuck in traffic. They finally arrived a little after 4:30.

While we were waiting, we played a friendly game of Farkle (don’t ask). When they arrived we invited them to grab a plate of food and they could watch us finish our game. When they sat down at the table the family we were playing with informed us that they had to leave soon because they had another appointment. So, we quit the game and started our meeting while the new arrivals were eating.

I originally anticipated that the meeting would last about 1½ hours but I had to condense it down to about 25 minutes. We were able to cover most of the basics and we were all in agreement as to how to proceed. Most of my concerns about this meeting were alleviated by the fact that the young people I was expecting might come didn’t. It was an easy decision that we will only have one small group to start with in Jefferson, made up of the most mature people we have – the core group of the church.

Our meeting today went much more as planned. We had a great meal together. Afterwards, the adults huddled in the living room while 9 children played together outside. Our meeting lasted about the 1½ hours I was expecting. We had some great conversations, good questions, and agreement that we are in this thing together.

The plan right now is to launch both small groups the week following next Sunday. Everyone is on a steep learning curve but right now all systems are go. Please pray that these two launches will go well. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us, because, as Joshua told the people of Israel, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it… that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before” (Joshua 3:3-4).

We are also walking in new territory so we need your prayers.

Small Groups Getting Closer

On Sunday, September 16, we will be hosting a dinner and meeting for everyone in our Jefferson church who is interested in possibly participating in the small group we will be starting in 2 or 3 weeks.

Pray that everyone who should be there will be there. Pray for wisdom as I share a little about what the group will look like and answer questions.

Pray that we can find a day that everyone can meet faithfully and that we can agree on the length of time the meetings will last.

We also need prayer for wisdom as we decide if we should have one group or two as we have both younger and older people interested.

We will be having a similar gathering the following Sunday for people from our Salem church meeting at Juan and Vicky Herrera’s house.

Update on Emanuel

Emanuel’s surgery went very well.  The new kidney is working great and Emanuel is recuperating quickly.  I brought Emanuel home to Luis and Jessie’s house and Jerilyn and I are taking care of him there.  Ema is very much enjoying eating all the things that he couldn’t eat in his very restrictive kidney diet.  On the way home we had pizza and frozen chocolate yogurt for dinner… YUM!  Emanuel cannot go to school for a month and has to go back to Portland twice a week for several weeks for checkups.  Those checkups will gradually be reduced until he only goes once a month.

Emanuel’s father is now in Oaxaca, Mexico with the rest of the family.  This weekend they will all travel to Ciudad Juarez (across the border from El Paso, TX) where Ema’s mom has an appointment with the US consulate.  Hopefully, the consulate will give her papers to immediately be able to come legally to the US.  They have been in this process for 16½ years.  Once in the US, the family has to find affordable housing. 

Please pray for Emanuel’s continued recovery and for his family to be reunited after what has been over a 2½ year separation.  The appointment with the US Consulate is on November 1.

Good News for Emanuel

Over two and a half years ago we Emanuel’s kidneys stopped working.  We brought him to the US as fast as possible and when he arrived he spent a few days in ICU and then another three weeks in a regular hospital bed.  We thought Emanuel’s mom would be able to come up soon due to his bad condition but she is still in Mexico awaiting legal papers.  Her husband applied for her back in 2001 and so she has actually been waiting for over 16½ years. 

Emanuel finally received the good news that his mom has an appointment (her second) with the US Consulate on November 1.  Hopefully she will be able to come to Oregon with her two other children – finally!

MORE GOOD NEWS.  As I am writing this, Emanuel is in surgery receiving a donated kidney.  He went in at 8 pm (Pacific Time) and will be out around midnight.  Please pray.

Pray for Juan and his Doctor

Juan Alvarez is the key leader in our Jefferson church.  Almost two years ago he was diagnosed with leukemia.  Not very many years ago his type of leukemia was fatal within 4 years.  Some 15 or so years ago new medicines were developed that gave hope.  Juan started taking one of these medicines in January of 2015 and it seemed to be working well for him.  At the time the doctor said that this medicine helped about 80% of all patients taking it and as long as he took one pill a day for the rest of his life he should be fine.

A little over two months ago the doctor was unsatisfied with some of the blood numbers and he changed Juan’s medicine to something different.  After two months on the new drug the doctor decided that the new drug was damaging Juan’s digestive tract in some way.  He asked Juan to stop taking the medicine for three weeks.  At the end of the three weeks the doctor will decide whether to start Juan on the original medicine or resume the second medicine.  I don’t know if there are any other options.  We are half way through those three weeks.  Juan has an appointment with the doctor in a week and a half and we will learn what the doctor’s decision is. 

Through this whole experience Juan has been a model of peace and confidence in God.  He has said that no matter what happens, God is in control.  The worst that could happen is that he will go to be with Jesus a lot sooner than he originally thought. 

Please pray for the following:

• Wisdom for the doctor,
• Continued peace and confidence in God for Juan and his family,
• For God to glorify his name and continue to use Juan in the lives of many people to draw them to Jesus.

Celebrating a Milestone

A couple of weeks ago Jerilyn and I attended a retreat for missionaries serving with InFaith.  While we were there we were presented with a plaque acknowledging 30 years of service as missionaries with InFaith.

Jon served as missionary pastor of Westwood Community church from 1986 to 1993.  Since mid-1993 we have been serving as missionaries to Spanish speaking people in the mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon. 

Jon is pastoring two churches, one in Jefferson and the other in Salem.  Jerilyn teaches children’s church in both.  We also are lead evangelistic home Bible studies and have had various outreaches during the year.

One of our main goals in our remaining years of ministry is to see some of those within our ministry actively leading ministries of their own.  We will be sharing more about that in the coming months.

The plaque commemorates our faithfulness, but we know that our faithfulness would not be possible without the faithfulness of many who are praying for us and supporting us in this ministry.  We thank you.  Please continue to hold us up in your prayers.