Category: Latest Updates

Well, it has actually been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic has begun. I have been unable to travel to conduct ministry abroad since that time. What have I been doing in the meantime? I have been in pretty much constant communication with leaders in Africa, Asia, India, and Nepal for the past year. I receive prayer requests, I make tentative plans to go and help train their leaders, and, in some cases, have been able to provide desperately needed financial support. The financial needs abroad among those I know are well beyond my ability to help. But, we prayerfully consider what to do. I look forward to being able once again to travel and resume the work of MTI.

Here back home, I continue to meet with my church community group via Zoom each Tuesday evening. Because it is Zoom, others who do not live in this area have been able to join us each week. I also am involved at our church as Missions Pastor. I will be preaching on Sunday, April 25. Ministry hasn’t stopped because of COVID, but it has taken a different form. We continue to ask God to have mercy on this planet and lift this hideous pandemic.

Personally, we also welcomed a new grandson in June of 2020. What a great joy he is!

May the Lord bless and keep you all in His loving care. Thank you for your prayers and support. It means a great deal to us.

David

Well, I haven’t written any blogs on this trip, as I did not want to jeopardize any of our Christian friends and ministries in India or Nepal. After meeting with the leader of HMU in Delhi, I traveled on to Nepal, where I conducted 2 days of seminars with a group that I had not previously worked with. There were about 50 pastors and leaders in attendance, and I presented a new curriculum I am working on, “10 Things I Want to Say to Every Pastor”. It is a series that was born out of my 30 years as a pastor and things I have experienced and observed during those years, both in my own ministry and in the ways pastors handle various things. Anyway, I think it went well, although it is not as smooth when using a translator. I tried some of the curriculum out last summer in Uganda and did not need a translator, as they all spoke English. In listening to the recordings, I saw that it was more cohesive. So, I need to adapt some of it, do some tweaking. At the seminars, I got to speak to a number of pastors, some from the mountain areas of Nepal, and they had some great stories.

After those 2 days, I went to the orphanage in Kathmandu, where I preached at their Saturday worship service (churches meet on Saturday in Nepal, as it is the day off for everyone). I also spent time talking with Dev and Maya, who run the orphanage, and many of the children. It is amazing to see how they have all grown. Many of them were here when I first visited the orphanage in 2011. Others have graduated high school and have gone on to university, some have married. They all are well and very thankful for the financial support many of you give.

Later that evening, I was joined by Pastor Ed Hickey from London, Ontario, Canada. He and I then went to a place in the hills outside the city of Kathmandu in order to conduct 2 day of seminars for HMU pastors. There was talk that Qatar Airlines would be ceasing service to Nepal, and Pastor Ed had flown in on Qatar. So, in order to not be stuck in Nepal, we cut the seminars short and had only one day with the pastors. It went very well but we needed to get out of Nepal.

Upon arriving into Delhi yesterday, Wednesday, we had to fill out medical forms. Then, there was a special line at Immigration for those arriving from Nepal and about 7 other countries. It turned out to be OK, since the normal Immigration lines were very long. I had no waiting and got through right away.

So, now, I am in Delhi and will fly home tomorrow, Friday. I am praying that I stay healthy. There is little else on the news beside the corona virus story. I thank you for your prayers and look forward to being home again! I have a trip scheduled for Tanzania next month but I believe that I’ll postpone it until later in the year. That’s fine with me.

May God bless you all!

David

I have to say that 2019 really wasn’t anything as I had anticipated. I was so thankful for the ministry opportunities in India, and Nepal, and Uganda. But I experienced health issues that were new to me and they were truly unexpected. I am not complaining, as my issues were minor compared to so many others who are physically suffering. But, I had to make adjustments to my schedule and my way of life. I had a trip planned to Myanmar for September, but in August I sensed the need to postpone it, for reasons unclear at the time. As it turned out, I needed surgery in September on my sinus passages and I saw why I was compelled to postpone the trip. I am hoping to reschedule for sometime in 2020.

In late October Debbie and I led a group of 34 on a tour of the Holy Land. It couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Everyone had the time of their lives. There were 13 of us who went on an extension to Jordan, being inspired at the Biblical sites there and enjoying the experience of staying in a Bedouin camp! We had planned this trip for a year and a half, and it was everything we had hoped it would be. Incidentally, we have another one planned, beginning the Saturday after Thanksgiving, 2021.

Looking ahead, I am making plans for 2020 for MTI. I will once again be in India and Nepal in February and March, then in Tanzania and possibly Rwanda in April. I am working on other trips at this time as well.

I thank you all for your prayers and support, none of this could be possible without those who participate with me in the ministry.

May the Lord guide and bless you as you enter the New Year.

David