Dear Friends,
Almost four years ago, we received our appointment as missionaries to the country of Chile! It is hard to believe that so much time has passed, but these have been incredible years of learning and growing as we have traveled thousands of miles, contacted hundreds of churches, and shared our ministry in many of them. Here are some of our “Pre-Field Perspectives!”
Pre-Field Can Be Fun
One thing that we have tried to do while traveling is to make special memories with our children. If we have spare time while in a new area, we look for interesting places to visit! Recently, we stayed with a wonderful family in the Baltimore, Maryland area and they took us to visit Port Discovery, a three-story children’s museum in downtown Baltimore. Our girls enjoyed climbing, exploring, dressing up, and making crafts! (Owen enjoyed pounding on the African drums display!) Later that week, we had a missions conference in the Washington, DC area and were also able to spend a day at the National Zoo. We are thankful for these chances to make pre-field travel fun for our kids. They have been such a blessing to us during these years of ministry as they have adapted very well to the hours of travel and the many new places we have visited!
Pre-Field Can Be Humbling
We had the special privilege of being part of back-to-back missions conferences during the month of March, at Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown, MD and Fellowship Baptist Church in Upper Marlboro, MD. Missions conferences, in our experience, are wonderful times of connecting on a deeper level with church members and fellowshipping with other missionaries! However, these conferences also require a great investment of time and energy on behalf of those who organize them and those who host the missionary families. While the missionaries may often be “put on a pedestal” at these events, the true servants are those who set aside their own schedules and concerns to shower us with love. Our first hostess had recently learned of her father’s serious cancer diagnosis and was dealing with the many details of his care, yet she still chose to host our family of five and took excellent care of us. Our second hostess was feeling the effects of morning sickness and tiredness from her pregnancy, but willingly opened her home to our busy family as well! We are so humbled by the outpouring of love we have received, and know that we are not deserving of it. We pray that God might richly bless those who have been such a blessing to us!
Pre-Field Can Be Done
We often share in churches that pre-field ministry is like a long road with no end in sight. But we are so grateful that as of this writing, we have an estimated 97% of our needed monthly support and 100% of our outfit and passage funds! As we mentioned in our last prayer letter, we sent a mailing to our supporting churches asking them to prayerfully consider a 10% raise in their monthly giving. We are so thankful to an individual supporter and to First Baptist of Hastings, MI; First Baptist of North Branch, MI; and Cosperville Baptist of Wawaka, IN for doing just that – and to Faith Baptist of Wilmington, DE for a 50% increase in their giving! Also, we want to say thank you to Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryland for adding us to their missionary family during their annual conference! To God be the glory! We have a remaining need of approximately $200/monthly which we shared in a recent mailing to 39 non-supporting churches we have visited in the past few years. Please pray with us concerning their response.
In closing, we would like to extend an invitation to each of you who have touched our lives during these years of pre-field ministry. Our home church in Lapeer, Michigan has set aside Sunday, July 16 as the date for our commissioning service. We will share more details in our next letter but want each of you to feel welcome to join us. Thank you for being a part of our lives and ministry!
Because of Christ,
Pedro & Stephanie, Eva, Isabel and Owen Garcia
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