Gabharts September 2024
Heart for Harvest
September 22, 2024
Right after second service come and share a complementary meal and learn more about the missionaries FBC supports.
Please sign up at the table in the vestibule starting Sunday September 8, 2024.
If you have any questions contact Candy Waite 815-222-5740.
Kihomi Ngwemi andNzunga Mabudiga July 2024
Greeting from our rainy Altagracia.
Many of you have been wondering about the whereabout of Nzunga & Kihomi. We are in Altagracia, a small village/town about 30-45 minutes’ drive from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Our house is about 5 minutes’ drive from the FINCA, the mission land where we will be building the church and eventually develop a youth camp.
We are in the full swing of activities. Meetings that go beyond 9, 10 PM. Visits of sick & shuts in. Yesterday, in our nightly meeting we put in place a new structure that will help develop the new church. The young pastor Benny was named Senior pastor seconded by his wife, a Palmer Seminary Master of Theology student, and 2 Haitian leaders.
Nzunga & Kihomi will be teaching every Tuesday and Friday while sharing the duties on Sundays. Also Kihomi will help develop some development projects to help members strengthen their financial economy.
The big challenge in this society is how to help people with no legal status in Dominican Republic. Here is the case that has been keeping us awake since we arrived. A young Haitian lady member of our New Creation Baptist Church has been shut in.
Why? She has a mass preventing her to urinate normally. She uses a Catheter but needs a surgical operation, but no hospital will take her in because she is illegal in the country and because of lack of funds.
Yesterday in our meeting we decided to call The Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana about 4 hours away if they can take her in and we will volunteer to drive her over.
Thank you for praying for our emotional strength.
Yours in DR
Nzunga & Kihomi
Dear Supporters,
When this was written they had been back in the DR for 8 days. The Energizer Bunny has nothing on them. What passion of the Lord and his people.
The building of the New Creation Baptist church has been delayed due to the torrential rain and the lack of an engineer. Evidently there is a building boom going on and finding an engineer is difficult. The DR has building codes just like here. Please pray for the rains to stop and for an engineer to become available.
As always, thank you for your support.
Yours,
Dennis Shewell and the MPT team
deshewell@gmail.com
Meet the Goods
A reception will be held for Global Servants, Rev. Jon and Amanda Good on Tuesday, April 30 at 7PM in the Common Grounds. They will be speaking about their former ministry in Hungary and their transition into Rome, Italy. They have been staying at Judson Univesity for their home deputation and will be leaving in July for Italy. All are welcome to come visit with them and hear their story. Light refreshments will be served.
February 2024 Prayerline
2024 MLK, Jr Food Drive
Thanks to all who contributed to the 2024 Martin Luther King, Jr. Food Drive. We were able to drop off a large amount of food and other household items to benefit those in need.
Gabhart’s December 2023
As we move out of November and into December, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the things for which we are thankful before we charge into the anticipation of the Advent season. We are so grateful for the opportunity to spend time with those of you in the Midwest this past September. We felt loved and cared for through your hospitality and the opportunities for us to share the work God is doing through Missionary Flights.
We returned to MFI at the end of September and fell right into the Christmas “rush” as several of the mission organizations prepared ahead of time to make sure that their Christmas gifts were in their missionaries’ hands by Christmas. We are thankful that this year looks more like Christmas in years previous. Those missions sending gifts have found ways to safely receive their supplies while Haiti continues to spiral as the gangs over-run the country. We are also thankful that we serve the Sovereign Ruler of the universe who is accomplishing His perfect plan for His glory. It
is easier to serve in these chaotic conditions knowing that there is a plan and God gets the glory – now and in the end.
As we look forward to December, we know that we are entering a busy time. At this point in the hangar, we have about four airplane loads worth of cargo that we need to get to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, plus a host of passengers as well. Please continue to pray for MFI during this season – that the pilots will remain healthy, that the aircraft will remain operating in good order, and that the weather will remain clear so that we can complete these flights.
One additional item of prayer for the beginning of the year is that MFI is entering another
season of transition. We have several staff members leaving at the end of the year to pursue different ministry opportunities and a couple of new staff members looking to start in the new year. Pray that we navigate this transition well and that God will bring additional staff members to cover any gaps from this personnel change. Also, please pray that we continue to serve our missionaries well through all of these changes.
Thank you for your love, prayers, and support as we serve at MFI.
James and Sam Gabhart
Family News
December is here and it s hard to believe that another year has passed. It is also hard to believe that we have two teenagers in the house now. That s right, Chris has now joined the ranks of teenager-dom. We often wonder where the little boy has gone that came into our world 13 years
ago, but we also look forward to the young man he is developing into and praise Jesus for him.
On the home school front, the kids have settled into a good rhythm overall since being back from deputation. There s an interesting new layer because Jonny is a high school student, we need to keep grades for him. This new challenge brings about some good points as to how we
want to shape our kids to be ready for the adult world. Setting expectations and following through on them on the grading front has added an interesting dynamic to our little homeschool. While we are uncertain what the future holds for Jonny, setting the precedent of working
hard, in spite of his challenges, is where our focus is. It’s in God’s hands as to if he will attend college or not, but we will be prepared regardless. As we look toward Christmas, we find ourselves being thankful for an amazing church body. We will have many opportunities to gather in December and prepare our hearts for the Christmas season. As usual, James will have his post with the tech team since Christmas Eve services are all-hands-on-deck days. Sam has been serving with the first impressions team and has been asked to assist for Christmas Eve services too. One new addition this year will be Abby and some of our kid’s ministry children performing a special skit for both services. Abby’s role for the skit is one of leadership and direction. Those who know her well can already imagine how fitting this role will be for her.
Praises and Prayer Requests
- Prayer for Haiti and the continued turmoil, kidnappings, and hurting hearts and for wisdom and safety for the missionaries continuing to serve there
- Prayer for transitions at MFI as new people arrive and a few leave for new ministry opportunities
- Prayer for wisdom regarding vehicles and what is the best solution as they have maintenance issues
- Prayer for the ability to find housing and funding to own rather than continue to rent
- Prayer for Sam s mom’s upcoming surgery to be scheduled soon and for its success
- Prayer for God to bless our ministry partners in their consistency to support the work He is doing
Ministry Update
We are so thankful to all who are following God’s leading in supporting us. The Board
increased our support level to $6100 monthly. We currently receive $5,800 (95%)
in monthly commitments. We need an additional $300 to be fully supported.
Online Giving:
www.missionaryflights.org/gabhart
Mail Checks to:
3170 Airmans Drive, Fort Pierce, FL 34946
Memo: Gabharts #2837
Alex Madrid November 2023
Two Years Down…
I can’t believe it, but it’s been two years since I started my job working at One Collective. Over these last two years, some of the incredible things that have happened are:
- 11 people are currently housed and off the streets
- At the end 2022/beginning of 2023 the city set aside $940,000 to be put towards a solution to more effectively address homelessness because of our draft proposal they saw
- Relationships and collaboration between organizations and caseworkers have grown
- 17 organizations participate in collaborative casework meetings
- The friendships and relationships with my friends who experience homelessness have grown deeper and more Touch Barriers have been broken (see my newsletter The Touch Barrier)
- The City of Elgin and other partners have been open to our ideas
- Our proposal for an overnight winter shelter to be open every night from December through the end of March was approved
Stanton’s November 2023
This August marked a significant milestone for us. We have officially been American Baptist missionaries for 10 years! This gave us an opportunity to pause and look back, remembering the winding trail that brought us to this point. And since we work in 5-year cycles at International Ministries, it lets us set a goal for the future, welcoming the next five, maybe ten years in Hungary.
We love it here, and we hope to be able to continue our work for a long time.
Our first Hungarian prayer card, picture looking over foggy November day in Budapest. The girls were so little!
To commemorate the occasion, we hosted our first ever Stanton Virtual Mission Moment, a Zoom gathering inviting our entire Missionary Partnership Network! Over the 10 years our network has grown, encompassing not just the Great Rivers Region of American Baptist Churches (Missouri and Illinois), but reaching beyond, into the Central Region (Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas), Rocky Mountain (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico) and Indiana and Kentucky. We also have individual donors all across the USA—and a few in Europe.
Pretty perky for 2am! We had a great time seeing our dear friends and partners.
The Zoom Mission Moment was wonderful. We had over 50 participants who watched a video we created and asked thoughtful questions. If you would like to view the video we created, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/SmXAqpXGwq8?si=F-x-9LppWb1lQfIK
As we told the participants, if you or your church group would like to have a more intimate conversation with us, we would love to meet with you on Zoom. We are 7 hours ahead of Central Time, so morning meetings like Sunday school classes work best for us. But we’re flexible! The Mission Moment Zoom was at 2am our time to accommodate Wednesday evening services in the States.
Our dear friend Andi carries in our 10-year cake, complete with the traditional Hungarian “firework” candle!
After the Zoom, we felt we weren’t quite done celebrating. We had a party for our Hungarian friends, the locals we serve who have helped us survive these years living and working cross-culturally!
We received so many lovely bouquets, kind messages and gifts.
We look into the future with optimism and hope. We would love to stay here for 10 more years—by that time all three of our girls will be finished with high school and well into adulthood.
Serving 10 more years isn’t possible without YOU! Thank you again for sending us, and we extend the invitation to you to join us for 10 more years in Hungary.
God bless!
Larry and Becky
Gabharts November 2023 Prayerline
