September 2019 Newsletter
September has been a month of blessings! We were excited to travel to Michigan this month and meet a wonderful congregation at a local Baptist church. In addition, our support has risen a few percent closer towards 100% and our schooling is moving closer to completion.
First, our trip to Vassar, Michigan. Twelve hours is a long drive to take with three children especially when trying to accomplish it in one day. However, we made it up there by leaving early on a Saturday morning and arriving that evening. Electronics are a lifesaver for the kids on these long trips. We stayed with a wonderful lady who offered up her entire basement for the weekend to our family. The people at First Baptist Church of Vassar were welcoming and engaged in missions. We presented our ministry during their Sunday service and look forward to continuing to build upon the relationship that has been started.
We also spent some time this month finishing a New Testament class. This was the third of four core seminary level classes required before our departure to The Gambia. Both of us are now working on a new class called Missional Theology. It is basically a systematic theology class but adds some context as it relates to cross-cultural ministry. We hope to have this class completed within the next two months in order to take the final online class relating to Islamic Studies and Muslim Evangelism. Upon the completion of that class, an in person two-week FPS class, and reading a few additional books, we will have completed our training requirements. The end, or should I say the beginning, is finally near!
Finally, our support increased a few percent since last month! Praise the Lord we are now at 64% of our needed monthly support. Raising this support and finding the partners that God has for our ministry has been a challenge. It has taken longer than we had hoped, but we know it is all in God’s perfect timing.
Along this journey we have heard of some missionaries whose support raising process took five and even eight years. We are praying that God’s plan is to supply it more quickly than that, and He has certainly provided a lot already! God has done some amazing things over the past two years of deputation and we look forward to what He has in store for our ministry.
In October, we have three churches we will be visiting. Two are in New York and one is in Ohio. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel to share God’s mission for our family with these churches in the upcoming weeks.
Prayer Requests
Pray for safe travel during the month of October and for receptivity to our ministry in the churches we visit.
Pray that previous churches we have visited will decide to partner with our ministry.
Pray for continued boldness in sharing the gospel that God puts in our path.
In Christ,
The Reeds
Patrick, Michele, Alyssa, Danielle, Luke