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Our Missionaries

Subject: Ebbett Update (August, 2009)
PRAYER UPDATE
FROM RAYMOND AND MARY EBBETT
 
Colmenar Viejo (Madrid)
August 26, 2009
 
 
 
Dear praying friends,
 
So what does a Field Director couple do anyway?  Last month we began to answer this question by mentioning the following areas of ministry which describe our role here in Spain: visiting our fellow workers, mentoring, preaching and visiting churches, serving alongside national church leaders, and handling legal and budget work. This month we'd like to describe a few more areas which are also part of our responsibility.
 
Pastoral Care
We all need encouragement, including missionaries, and one of our roles is that of pastoral care to our workers here in Spain. In a real sense, however, this is a team effort, as we all seek to provide "member care" to each other in a variety of ways.  One additional element is that of our "Pastoral Care Couple", Bob and Joan Galasso.  They come to Spain from the U.S. for several weeks each fall, visiting our staff in their homes, and leading us in a two-day Pastoral Care Retreat.  Raymond helps coordinate this, and has been in touch with Bob and Joan in recent weeeks in preparation for their upcoming visit.  Pray that God will bless our field PC Retreat, October 15-17.
 
Strategy Development
In recent months Raymond has been working with the Field Leadership Team to refine and update our purpose statement and field Masterplan.  Our basic purpose as a field is to plant multiplying missionary churches here in Spain, doing this in coordination with our existing family of C&MA congregations.  Our specific role as field leaders is to help keep the vision in focus and our team on track in this regard.  Pray for Raymond as he travels to the Canary Islands September 18-23 with a national church leader.  We will be exploring the possibilities of working with the National Church and two existing small congregations to do church planting in the Canary Islands (part of Spain).
 
Every four to five years we also have a Strategic Field Review.  Our next one in Spain is scheduled for October 10-14.  This is a time of reflection and in-depth evaluation through which all our workers review what God is doing among us and prayerfully consider what changes or adjustments need to be made.  Pray for Raymond as he (and other colleagues) pull together data and prepare some study documents in preparation for our upcoming Strategic Field Review.
 
Staff Development
More important than strategies are people, and God has blessed us with wonderful and gifted colleagues.  We all have room to grow, however, and thus once a year each of us prepares a Personal Growth Plan.  Raymond reviews these (along with Ministry Descriptions) with all our staff.  He has been going over these growth plans with our missionaries in recent weeks and months.  We need wisdom in working with and encouraging all our co-workers to keep growing in their lives and ministry.
 
Pray, for Mary and Raymond, too, that we will both continue to grow in our own walk with the Lord and in our ministry skills. We do indeed need and count on your prayers! Pray for Raymond as he travels to the States September 25-October 6 to participate in a leadership conference with other field directors from our region.  This is a great opportunity to learn from other leaders and be challenged, refreshed and encouraged in the Lord.
 
Prayer Mobilization
In addition to updating our field prayer requests each month and providing brief requests to our U.S. national office each week, God has given us another opportunity to mobilize prayer for the work here in Spain.  This is through the new Spain campus of the College of Prayer International, which we have mentioned in previous updates.  We are both involved in this exciting new ministry.  Pray for us as we work with the Servant Leadership Team of the Spain College of Prayer, specifically in preparation for the next module to be held here in Madrid, December 3-5, 2009.
 
For updated prayer requests, just quickly skim the above paragraphs again and you will find our prayer needs in bold type.... Thanks so much for your partnership in the Gospel, and for your faithful gifts to the Great Commission Fund, which enable us to continue our ministry here!
 
 

Yours for the "spiritual greening" of Spain,

Raymond and Mary
We are supported by your faithful contributions to
The Great Commission Fund of
The Christian and Missionary Alliance
P.O. Box 35000
Colorado Springs, CO 80935
Spain field web page: http://www.cmalliancespain.org
 
Home Address: Calle Pico de la Miel #2, 28770 Colmenar Viejo (Madrid), Spain
Mission Address: The C&MA, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO  80935-3500
Mission website: http://www.cmalliance.org  (to see our webpage, click on "Locate a Missionary", and type in our name

 
 
 
 

 

Jim & Sharon Kendall Letter September 2009
Dear Friend,

Our Alliance Marriage Encounter (ALMA) Weekend--October 9-11--is less than a month away. We are getting more and more excited to see how God is pulling everything together.

Sunday we had our ALMA Preparation 2 meeting. This is a gathering of ALMA alumni to generate enthusiasm to serve in various capacities during the ALMA Weekend. It is also a time when we collect donations of handicraft items, stationery, decorations, coffee mix, Tang, hot chocolate packets, and other consumables needed during the Weekend which help to keep our costs down. We were pleasantly surprised that more than 20 couples were present and donations came in even from those who couldn't attend the meeting. Pastor Taru Nugroho and his wife Tina, who we are training to replace us as coordinators during our furlough, took charge. As we looked over the group seated in front of us, we laughed with joy at seeing happy couples beaming at each other, many holding hands. How wonderful! (One pastor told us he can tell those couples who have attended ALMA--they are the ones sitting together, where before husbands had sat together and wives together in different pews!) So God has been working a change in their hearts and lives!

We've mentioned Paul before. He's the guy who had told his wife Chandra he'd rather change the spark plugs in his Jeep than come to an ALMA Weekend. He was so radically changed that now he and Chandra come every Weekend to serve others. He works on an oil rig, two weeks on the rig and two weeks home. Sometimes he has to trade work times with others to come to an ALMA Weekend. He told us, "I'll be there, even if I have to take vacation days to do it!" That's dedication!

We continue to pray that 25 guest couples will attend. Our national church president and his wife were so delighted by their ALMA Weekend, that they are sending three couples from their relatives living in Papua, nearly 2,500 miles away! Our vision for ALMA stretches throughout the whole Indonesian archipelago. We've been building a firm foundation and it is starting to take shape.

Merry and Manoppo are ready to share what God has done in their marriage. Many of you have been praying for them and us as we've counseled, prayed, and cried together bring them to health. The journey has been long and difficult, but God has brought forth fruit!

Pastor Taru and Tina will be sharing a little during this ALMA Weekend. For them, it's just preparing them to take charge at the April or May ALMA Weekend. We will still be in Indonesia at that time, though acting as on-site advisors for our Indonesian team. But before that happens, we need to develop two other Indonesian presenter couples as well as Taru and Tina, bringing them through the same process we went through with Merry and Manoppo. We've asked them to have written their individual testimonies by the end of November, before they get busy with Christmas services. That process is not going smoothly, since each of these couples would rather "talk" their testimonies into a voice recorder than write them out. Unfortunately, it takes hours and hours for us to transcribe! So pray for us.

Praise: Enthusiasm among our alumni! And that Merry & Manoppo's testimony is ready to be shared!

Pray: Pray for us, Merry & Manoppo, and the 2 couples from Thailand who will be sharing what God has done in our marriages. Pray that details of personal testimonies would not become "gossip fodder."
Pray for 25 guest couples, no rain throughout the Weekend, and much fruit!

Thanks for your support & encouragement! Workers together for the Kingdom with you!


Jim & Sharon Kendall

Email us at jsk@linkmail.org to receive our monthly letter.
Jalan Budi Sari VI/13, Bandung, Indonesia, 40141 
 The Christian & Missionary Alliance, PO Box 35000, Colorado Springs, CO 80935