Teréz recently celebrated her 80th birthday. She suffered a nasty fall several months ago and fractured some vertebrates in her back, and she hasn’t fully recovered. Now she has pneumonia. Today I told her we have 500+ friends who would pray for her! She loved the idea. Please take a moment to pray for our dear “aunt” Teri.
We visited Teri at Christmas time. This was the first time I had seen her since before Covid. Her dear husband, Antál, died in the first Covid wave. She misses him terribly. Please pray for her loneliness, too.
Teri, like most ladies, loves Larry. Every time he goes to Serbia, he visits her. You may remember Larry’s story from a while ago of cutting trees in Teri’s yard, and afterward she cooked him a completely home-grown meal–then cleaned his muddy boots.
Since we’ve known Teri for many years, she has welcomed special guests, like our area director, Charles Jones. She always asks when Larry is coming back to Serbia.
Teri really misses fellowship with her friends and church family. Since her fall in the autumn, she hasn’t been able to attend church. Please pray for her comfort during her time of recovery.
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.
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.
Fort Pierce Hanger Banquet
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.
Yes, we ship the kitchen sink
Sam’s desk ready for Christmas
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.
Chris is 13!Trunk or Treat
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
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
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.
On Wednesday night, the Elgin City Council voted unanimously in favor of One Collective Elgin helping facilitate a winter shelter that will be open every night of the winter from December through March. Having the shelter open every night will help us better care for the people who are experiencing homelessness in our community. It also means that the opportunity to volunteer is more consistent. Together, we can help reduce homelessness in Elgin.
My role will be as the primary coordinator and facilitator for the shelter; overseeing supplies, volunteers, volunteer scheduling, budget tracking…and anything and everything else.
That said, I’m working on recruiting volunteers!
Right now, I’m working on a more detailed volunteer form for that people can use to sign up. Each night will have two shifts—6:30 pm through 7:30 am the following morning. The structure right now is that there will be two shifts: 1st shift will be from 6:30 pm through 12:30 am and 2nd shift will be from 12:30 am to 7:30 am. I’m hoping to get 4 people/shift. The positions I’ll be looking for are: 1 Shift Leader per shift, 3 volunteers to help man the shifts, 1 day point-person to be the point of contact for day-of volunteers, 1 weekly coach to help oversee the week and volunteers.
The Shift Leaders, Day Point-People, and Weekly Coaches will make up a Core Team who will receive more extensive training. I’ll be looking for, at most, 50 people who would make up this team. The Core Team will be broken up into Weekly Squads and be placed on a rotation. Squad 1 would work a week, Squad 2 the following, and so on on a rotation so there is always at least one person on shift who receives extensive training.
Shift point-people
act as the main supervisor and point-person for their respective shift
first point of contact for volunteers of their shift
coordinate with the day point-person as needed
Always inform Weekly Coach and Shelter Director of any and all incidents
Day point-people
contact person in charge of filling in for any positions if a shift point-person can’t make it for their shift or if there isn’t enough volunteers for a shift
“on-call reinforcements”
help send reminders to the volunteers serving under their day
Coaches
responsible for the entire week of volunteers (56 spots–4 people/shift 2 shifts/night)
Help coordinate for the week and send reminders to day point-people
Coaches shouldn’t be at the shelter during their respective week
Coaches respond to critical situations
Coaches will follow-up with Shelter Director for any and all incidents that transpire
*Responsibilities are still being hammered out*
If you’re interested and able to help in this critical role, shoot me an email!
Greetings. This past Friday August 11, 2023, we left our house early to go to Villa Altagracia about 2.5 hours away. We had our retreat, and it was the most blessed one. Friday upon our arrival we all went to visit the land that our sister denomination here had just purchased. We planted many fruit trees.
The nights and days were all devoted to praying and following some teachings from a Canadian Pastor, Dr. Bill Dyck.
Villa Altagracia is a small village type of place, a refuge for many Haitian immigrants with no legal papers. Here they tell me that they have many Haitians who need Shepherds. People at the retreat think that God is answering their concerns.
The retreat place has a small one-bedroom apartment they would like to finish for us to move in. We are excited about moving to the countryside. Another part of our job will be to help develop the newly acquired land for a youth camp.
“Transiciones” De la herida a la Vida; del dolor al olor; de la prisa a la risa; del llanto al canto…. de los duelos… a los vuelos…”
“Transitions” a loose translation From wounding to Living; from pain to scent; from “I’m late”to laughter; from tears to singing…. from mourning… to flight…”
“You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!”
–Psalm 30: 11-12 ESV
Our first intensive training for the EXIT(Expressive Arts in Transition) Cuba pilot project finished two weeks ago in Matanza, Cuba, but the yearlong practice and supervision process is just beginning. 10 creative and committed leaders will be artfully accompanying various communities throughout Cuba as they implement early intervention practices to help deal with the impacts of trauma.
Due to ongoing trauma, we armor up to protect ourselves, get trapped in the past, and hold stress in our bodies. The arts help us to engage our senses to make sense of our stories, practice presence by staying in the here and now, and move forward in healthy ways as researchers of our own bodies. With a focus on salutogenesis, an approach to human health that examines the factors contributing to the promotion and maintenance of physical and mental well-being rather than disease and pathology, we are learning to ask ourselves, “Where is health
here? What do I need to do that will nurture well-being here?
While in Matanza, we held stories of struggle and strength, we processed grief and frustrations, we sat in silence and song, painted and played, used our imaginations to travel in time and danced out animal strengths that would help us face our daily challenges. Immersed in the beautiful surroundings of the seminary overlooking the sea and shaded by flamboyan trees, we rediscovered the resources around and within us that we already possess. With the accompaniment of the community, one participant was able to name and take steps towards healing a debilitating fear that had plagued them for years. Another embraced a new perspective on a negative bias held and saw the benefits of a “both and” approach. By stepping into the future with a resource from the past and surrounded by friends now, another saw themselves accomplishing a long held dream within the year. These are just a few of the glimpses of transformation that we witnessed together.
I am so grateful for the support of many folks who are making this pilot project a reality. Yim Locke’s name was drawn from the box of gift givers to receive the stained glass art that I made and Barb Shustek’s name was drawn to receive a collage made from the signatures and collaborative painting made by the participants. God works in communities to transform our mourning into dancing and our struggles into strengths.
