Our recent visit to Oregon; partnership snapshots

We have so many wonderful partners who love on, pray for and share their resources with us as we join together to help make the Word available to people around the world.  Recently we took a trip to Oregon to visit our friends/partners there; the stories of how God originally brought us together are so varied and wonderful we wanted to share them with you!

John and DeAnn McCormack began partnering with us before they even knew we existed!  During a season when our income was very low, they sent a donation to Wycliffe Bible Translators to be used for missionaries who were short of funds; that gift was sent on to us.  We wrote them soon after, introducing ourselves and telling them about the work we were doing; shortly thereafter they decided to being supporting us on a monthly basis.  This was over a dozen years ago; although recently retired they have continued partnering with us and we have enjoyed getting to know them better each time we come through Oregon

We first met Casey and Abbe along with a half dozen other students from John Brown University when they came with our daughter to stay with us during spring break 2000.   Abbe then went with us on our Ghana Discovery trip that summer….we helped hook Casey up with a video internship with a friend of ours in the US…and we continued to encourage them towards missions over the years and the miles.  Shortly after graduation they got married, and not long after that they joined the staff of Lahash, a wonderful organization that is partnering with local ministries in East Africa.  You can imagine how excited we were about all this….and then 6 years ago they decided they wanted to partner with US as well!  What an incredible blessing they and their family are …and what a fun time we had with them experiencing some Portland culture together!

Ghana was where we first encountered Geoff, Kelly, Josiah and Steffan when they stayed at the Guest House we managed there until getting settled in their own residence.  Kelly gave our children piano lessons and we had some great times together, until they had to leave suddenly due to unexpected health problems. After settling back in Oregon, they decided to begin partnering with us and have continued to do so for 20 years now! During those years they added lovely Lydia to their family….and they have continued to be very active in missions with their local church.  In 2012 they were privileged to go to Chad to attend a bible dedication for the people group their church adopted.  Our conversations with them are always so encouraging….and I have acquired some of my favorite recipes from visits in their home!

It is truly a perk of the work we do to be able to travel and hang out with wonderful people such as these and our other 63 partners, each with their own unique and encouraging stories.   We are so thankful for each and every one of them!