Vacation with a Hiccup 

In late October we headed to Scotland to spend time with Heather. We took a train to the northwestern town of Oban and Heather's boyfriend, Spencer, met us there. From there we rode ferries and ended up on the tiny island of Iona. 

Iona is famous as the first outpost of Christianity in Scotland established by an Irish Abbot, St. Columba in the 7th century AD. After a wonderful 5 day visit with Heather and Spencer, we traveled on to Barcelona, Spain. Alberta and I have been talking about doing a 're-positioning' cruise where a ship is moved from a summer season location like the Mediterranean to a winter season location like the Caribbean. These cruises tend to be less expensive with fewer ports of call and more shipboard time, which suited us! 

The 'hiccup' came about 3 days out in the Atlantic from Portugal on our way to Tampa Florida. I (Steve) developed what doctors on the ship suspected was a bowel obstruction. I was confined to the sick bay of the ship for 3 days and hooked up with all the monitors and tubes they could muster. The doctors, in consultation with the ship's captain, considered diverting the ship to Bermuda to get me to a hospital but a storm mysteriously developed with forecasts of 20-30 ft. seas, squashing that idea. 

To make a long story short, I started improving and the idea of putting me ashore early somewhere faded. Alberta was able to send out some prayer requests with complimentary internet service and we are thankful that so many prayed for our situation. There is still some mystery as to what kind of blockage I experienced.  We've met with our primary care doctor and I'll be getting further testing in the coming days. It is Thanksgiving Day and we are surely reminded how thankful we can be for a Great God and praying friends and family. Here is wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving to you and your family. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for Steve's follow-up medical evaluations that we can determine the cause of this medical emergency and anything that will help to avoid  a repetition.

2. Pray for our family as we gather in Johnson City to celebrate the Christmas holidays. We look forward to having both Heather and Krista with us.

3. Pray for our parent organization, Bethany International as they complete the sale of their headquarters property in Bloomington, MN and move to new offices. This will streamline their overhead and help them adapt to the new environment of full online training for Bethany Global University. We are grateful that the Bethany Missions continues to send and support missionaries to reach the unreached as envisioned 80 years ago.

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

 Consulting on a Nigerian Missions Manual

One of the joys we have in our role as pastoral care consultants is to help national practitioners in the developing world to flesh out their mission training manuals in the area of pastoral care. Our new friend, Jamal (not his real name), who we met in an online training we did to Nigeria inquired if we could help him update some of their policies in pastoral care for missionaries. I was interested to look it over and found that they were very thorough in the topics covered but also saw some issues that we could bring input to. 

This was a good example  of what we call "network care" in our member care model in Bethany. By collaborating with other mission groups we can bring insights gained through experience which will augment the work already being done. Pray for our brother, Jamal, as he examines my editorial comments and integrates those ideas into the cultural context of Nigeria. 

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for our trip to Scotland to visit Heather and her boyfriend Spencer. We are looking forward to being toured around by our favorite Scottish transplant tour guide. 

2. Pray for Alberta's brother Peter, diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She was able to visit him a week ago and was encouraged by his upbeat spirit. 

3. Pray for our final plans for our next trip to the Philippines to be settled. The prices right now are about half of what we had to pay in our recent trip. Our tentative time frame is May 2025. 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

ps. I wrote up a short fictional story on the biblical "death bed conversion" of the thief on the cross. Here's a link if you are interested to read it. 'Jamal' packed a lot of life into those last couple of hours. it. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10PavrXx_vt2WmRNZ1HQS6Vs26bgKkjgF/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=101847034265841338570&rtpof=true&sd=true

 The Double Reunion Trip 

It started out as a 'lark' - one of my (Steve's) buddies in a weekly Zoom call was headed to Vancouver Island, British Columbia where our two other 'mates' lived. We had regularly met for coffee, encouragement and prayer in Chiang Mai, Thailand when we all were in ministry there. We have been meeting and praying for each other weekly online since we returned to the USA at the start of the Covid pandemic.

One of the guys, Alan, and his wife Lorna were planning an extended vacation in Canada from England and planned to visit Rod and Lloyd, the other two guys in our group. When I was asked "Steve, why don't you come too?", I didn't know what to say except "Let me talk to Alberta." As we talked we realized we had another opportune reunion possible with Alberta's good friend, Janet. 

 Janet and Alberta go way back to the 1970s, having met in nursing school. Then they were recruited to work at hospitals in Florida. Janet and her husband, Mark, have retired and are living on - you guessed it - Vancouver Island.

Our plans came together quickly and we had a wonderful 5 days renewing our friendships in person! For Rod, Alan and I our friendship stretches back to 2013 when the Chiang Mai coffee fellowships began. Lloyd joined us 3 years ago when he returned from ministry in Laos. 

Please join us in praying for Janet's husband Mark who was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. We are grateful to God that this trip came together so we could visit all of these wonderful friends. 

Additional Prayer Requests: 

Alberta just learned that her brother, Peter, has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She will be traveling to Toronto Oct. 15 to spend some time with him. Pray for her during this difficult yet important trip. 

Pray that all the details would come together for us as we plan a trip to visit Heather at the end of October. 

Pray for Alberta as she assists in the latest Equipping Women Int. online Zoom class with Filipino women. 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

Workshops in Caring for the Flock

One of the purposes of our recent trip to the Philippines was to provide training for Bethany pastors to help them in shepherding their congregations. Part of our time was spent in teaching but some of the most rewarding time was spent in afternoon workshops. We had groups of pastors and their wives wrestling  with specially designed case studies involving issues that pastors deal with regularly. 

What does a church member do when her husband is hostile to her new found faith? If a believer goes abroad for work to send home money and the spouse misuses the funds, how can a pastor advise the overseas worker? What might have been the counsel to an overseas worker before he or she went abroad? 

Pray for Bethany pastors and their spouses as they provide godly counsel to the members of their churches.  

Other Prayer Requests: 

1. One of our good friends from our church lost her husband, Ken, after complications from a bout of pneumonia. Pray for Anita and her extended family as they mourn the sudden loss of her godly husband. 

2. Pray for Alberta's current Entrust Equipping Women online class. One of the ladies that is suppose to join the class, Hannah, was recently hospitalized and she really wants to take the class. Let's pray for a quick recovery.

3. Continue to pray for me (Steve) as I help lead the weekly high school boy's group at church. It is a chaotic and scary time for these young guys and my desire is to help ground them in the eternal and unshakeable truths of God. 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

 Boat Ministry in Bangladesh

Our partners, Omar and Shana (not their real names) in Bangladesh are responding to the needs of the more than 4 million people affected by the catastrophic flooding of the Bengal Delta in the southern portion of the country. As we have shared previously, Omar and Shana are sewing reusable sanitary pads for especially school age girls as part of their ministry to them. As they visited inundated villages by boat the cry of the women was for more of the pads. Other relief workers are providing food and other essentials but our partners are providing a unique necessity. 

Omar and Shana plan a follow up trip and we would like to help them with relief supplies and more pads for the girls. If you would like to help, send us a message and we'll give you further information.  The two great questions the people were asking. "What is the name of your organization?" When are you coming again?" Pray for safety for our friends as they navigate swollen rivers to get come to the aid of the people.

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for our trip to Victoria, British Columbia this Wednesday. May the Lord make us a blessing in the reunions we will have with my men's group friends from Chiang Mai and Alberta's  friends from her nursing work in Florida in the 1980s. 

2. Continue to pray for me (Steve) as I volunteer with the high school guys of our church in a weekly small group. Teenagers are a whole new world of ministry for me.

3. Pray for Alberta as she interacts with Equipping Women International around facilitation of new trainings for the coming year. 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

Bayanihan-the Power of Working Together

 After our 40th Anniversary celebration the Bethany Isabela Leadership blessed us with a short retreat at the beach. Calm waters, warm temperatures and late afternoon breezes turned into a fierce storm at 1 am which had us all scrambling. The wind was so strong one of the pastors was stuck in the bathroom. He couldn't open the door due to the force of the wind. Others sleeping in tents had to flee for cover as the tents started 'lifting off'. Whew! what a night not soon to be forgotten!

The next day a truck carrying two ready built cottages could not transport his load to his beach destination - the cottages were loaded too high on the truck bed. The answer to their problem was Filipino "Bayanihan". When all of our pastors joined with the transportation company workers we were able to lift the cottages off the truck and walk them past the obstructions. What a beautiful picture of the ministry that continues in the Philippines 40 years after it was launched. As we work together and draw on each other's strengths, the work of God continues. 

Pray for our Filipino leadership team as they plan this month for a joint conference with Bethany Mindoro in May 2025. Normally, they have joint conferences every 2-3 years, taking turns traveling north or south. However, the two Bethany groups of leaders have not been together since 2019 so this will be a special gathering. 

Prayer Requests: 

1. Pray for us as we travel to Indiana with a Malaysian couple next week. Vincent and Helen direct an anti-trafficking ministry called Whispering Willow in Thailand. They are raising support to help women break free from prostitution. Their ministry includes health clinics, counseling, job training and spiritual care. We will be staying with friends of ours that have organized a coffee get together for them.

2. Pray for one of my (Steve's) friends that I have a weekly men's meeting with. Alan lives in England and has just discovered that his wife, Lorna, is ill and will need screening for cancer. They were going to join us and the other men from our online group in British Columbia for a reunion in September so its a disappointment for them and us that they will not be able to come. 

3. Pray for our trip Sept. 4-11 to British Columbia. We will get together with the other two guys from my online men's call (and their wives) and Alberta and I will also visit friends of Alberta's from her nursing days in Florida.

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta 

 Chiang Mai Reunion 

Back in 2013, shortly after we moved to Thailand, I (Steve) attended a men's retreat. As we finished, the leader suggested we join one of the men's groups that met for coffee and prayer weekly. I began meeting with a group at "The Coffee Bus" (see picture above). 

More than ten years later, that same group is still meeting. A number of the guys were on home assignment in their passport countries when I visited, but Neiko and Todd were 'holding down the fort' at a new coffee shop. Ten years has brought lots of changes to our lives but relationships survive and even thrive through the test of time. Pray for my friend, Todd (wearing a ball cap) as he navigates a mysterious case of vertigo while carrying on his work teaching people of various ethnicities how to worship God creatively among 'their people'. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for ongoing fruit from our trainings in the Philippines, both the Entrust equipping women's training and the pastoral counseling training with the Bethany pastoral couples. 

2. Pray for me (Steve) as I step into a role helping facilitate a high school boys group at our church. 

3. Pray for Bethany Global University as they adjust to the changing times and move to a fully online academic program (with a continuing global internship year). 

Serving Christ with You, Steve and Alberta