Back Home Again!

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

How are you?  It is so great to be back in our wonderful country with all of you.  And it was particularly special to worship at our home church this past Sunday.  We have missed you all a great deal, but we praise God for all the wonderful ways He blessed us while we were in Ghana!  He has been molding, shaping and refining us like gold each day.  As He has walked with us, He has been leading and guiding us—even carrying us when things were difficult.  He has reassured us when we were discouraged, held us when we were sad and in spite of all of our inadequacies, has used us to transform lives.  Even though things were not at all what we expected in Ghana, God has been faithful every day and we praise Him for it.

We also praise God for you!  God has used you to be such a blessing to us.  It was very hard to be away from home.  We have sorely missed the worship at our home church and we greatly missed all of you, our friends. 

God has used your prayers and your support to let us know that we are loved.  Whenever we felt sad or lonely, we thought of you and smiled (sometimes through tears as our hearts ached to see you, but there were always smiles to go along with the tears).  By God’s grace, we are hoping to visit with many of you this fall. 

There are things that God has accomplished through us while we were in Ghana:  people have come to Christ; we have been able to convince Every Child Ministries (ECM) to provide audio Bibles to some of the illiterate women we serve; we have been an encouragement and help to many of the Ghanaian workers; and we have made a difference in our community.  However, the biggest accomplishments are not what God has done through us, but what He has done in us. 

We strongly believe that we have been in a missionary boot camp.  As our mission organization did not provide any training, we needed on-the-ground training and this was it.  We have been able to see those areas of ministry in which we excel and those we enjoy most; we have seen our strengths and our weaknesses. The Lord has made it clear to us that our experiences in Ghana were a first step in our journey of true discipleship. 

During the 18 months that we were in Ghana, we observed things about Every Child Ministries and their Trokosi ministry which led us to believe that we should seek a new mission agency.  For many months we have asked our church leadership to pray for us, asking for God’s wisdom and guidance about the next step in our missionary journey.  We felt that we should leave ECM at some point, but we wanted to make sure we followed God’s leading.

Through prayer, we began to understand what the Lord wanted us to accomplish before we left and when we should leave. We started exploring other mission agencies to see where God wanted us next.  Our most important objective was to follow God’s plan, not our own desires.

After much prayerful consideration, we believe God wants us to serve with Wycliffe Associates (WA) in Papua New Guinea (PNG).  We have been asked to manage a center in PNG that supports Bible translators.  Our role at the center will enable the translators to remain focused on their primary role of translating the Bible into the hundreds of languages in PNG. 

After a brief hiatus, we plan to begin our service in PNG in January 2014. We are excited about what the Lord has in store for us next.

Because we are separating from ECM, we are asking you, our partners, to stop sending your support for us through Every Child Ministries.  Please know that we are mindful of the inconvenience that this is causing you.  But, we believe that the trust that you, our partners, have placed in us compels us to ensure that we are being good stewards with your financial support.  

As we transition to a new organization, we ask that you prayerfully consider continuing to support our missionary efforts.  We will be sending out another letter shortly providing all of you with information on how to continue partnering with us.  In these difficult economic times, we know that the needs of the Lord’s Church are many, but we ask for your continued support as we seek to fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission to:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Thank you so much for the support you have given us, both through prayer and giving.  You mean so much to us! 

We love you all very much.  May God richly bless you! 

James & Denese