Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your prayers and support that ever sustain us.
It's been a while since I've written, but you all are never out of my mind. I think of you often and thank God for your friendship and love.
This has been an incredible year. With new WMF fields opening up (Bangkok, Thailand; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Havana, Cuba; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), we have had the busiest travel year since Chris and I have been married. (We just celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary in April 🙂 From December 2002 thru December 2003, we will have spent 8 months traveling internationally. It has been a challenge to keep this schedule, but also very inspiring as we witness the move of God among the poor.
We are currently putting into place measures that will enable us to lighten our travel load somewhat in the coming years. The help of other leaders within the mission will ease our load a bit. Also, from mid-February to early-September of 2004, we are not planning any international trips. This will afford us a much needed respite. In the meantime, we have a busy summer, fall, and winter ahead of us. We continue to need your prayers now more than ever.
– Please pray for a sense of balance in the midst of so many demands. Balance of work, ministry and rest.
– Please pray for our marriage that we would be committed to ministering to one another and that from the overflow of our love and commitment to one another, the Spirit of the Lord will be free to minister through us to others.
– Please pray for divine wisdom and discernment for ministering to our missionaries during our field visits.
– Please pray for an impartation of the gifts of the Spirit for ministry.
Enclosed you'll find our Fall/Winter itinerary for your reference.
Thank you for being such a vital part of our lives.
In closing I would like to share the story of a young girl from Sierra Leone whom I met two years ago.
Twelve year old Mary* was one of the countless victims of a brutal civil war. She witnessed the violent murder of her parents and other relatives and after being forced to watch the rape and kidnap of one of her sisters, she fled for her life accompanied by another sister and a cousin. Her twin sister was lost in the confusion.
When WMF made an assessment trip to Sierra Leone in the summer of 2001, I met Mary at a refugee camp. She volunteered to be interviewed. After living in hiding for several months, Mary had made her way to some degree of safety in Freetown. She was living with her sisters—a family of children— in a makeshift hut with absolutely no security. Everything in their life had been destroyed. Everything but their faith in God.
After spending a few brief, but intimate moments with Mary during the interview her last words to me with tears streaming down her face were,
“Please don't forget me! Please don't forget me! I have nothing. I just want to go to school!”
We know God is faithful and I can testify that God heard and answered this young girl's cries. With the help of Jared and Julie Landreth (pioneer missionaries to Sierra Leone), Mary and her sisters and cousin are able to attend school. However, their emotional wounds from the trauma they suffered and continue to suffer because of the war run deep.
As Chris and I return to Freetown in July, we will have the opportunity to visit with Mary and those who remain from her family. Please pray for them– that their healing would quickly appear.
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Isaiah 58:8-9
Mary and her family's story is repeated a million times over in the war-torn regions of the world.
May God have mercy.
Phileena
*Mary's name has been changed to protect her identity.
Chris & Phileena' 2003 Fall/Winter Itinerary
July 20- August 10 Freetown, Sierra Leone: Field visit and Discovery Team
August 25- Sept 3 Galati, Romania: Field visit
September 3-18 Vacation
October 2-5 WMF Board Meetings: Omaha, Nebraska
December/January Thailand, India, and Nepal: Fields visits
January/February Kabal, Afghanistan: WMF Assessment Trip