We had Walter down to Midland when we first got to St. Nicholas’ for a missions awareness conference. I appreciate all that he and Louise have done over many years to keep mission and missionary service alive in TEC…Hopefully you and Louise and others can be encouraged now by the tremendous fruit that has come by the grace of God through your labors. It’s hard to believe that you are now approaching the 40th anniversary! I have been very blessed by the people I have come to know during my Board service as well as the many others I have come to know through the New Wineskins conferences. One comes away from New Wineskins encouraged and inspired. The New Wineskins Conferences offer living proof that God is at work in the world bringing His Kingdom in amazing ways! New Wineskins has helped our parish become much more conscious of and supportive of missions and missionaries. Our own daughter has served as a missionary intern in Honduras with SAMS and co-led a New Wineskins workshop. She is now completing two years of service with the Peace Corps on a sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic. Another member of our congregation had a life changing experience while attending a New Wineskins conference during which she sat at a table with some Sudanese clergy and bishops at a meal and was asked: “Woman, do you have a Savior that you’re willing to die for?” She had never been asked that question in those terms before, and when she didn’t respond immediately, they all gathered around her, laid hands on her, and prayed for her. She has now completed studies to become a Nurse Practitioner, which she plans to use in short or long term missionary service. Besides supporting two of our home grown missionaries, Stephen Tighe, and Kyle Ford with Campus Crusade in Moscow for several years and now ministering with his Russian wife among international students at UT Austin, St. Nicholas/Christ Church has supported a number of SAMS missionaries, Sudanese, and Ugandan clergy and individuals from our former Diocese of Mityana. Individuals in our congregation regularly support even more. The now retired dean of our local college has led short term missions to Russian students in camps in Russia and Slovakia for years, as well as outreach to internationals at the college. He attended the last New Wineskins along with the nurse and an African American pastor and his wife with whom we have had a long time sister church relationship. Our congregations have become very close, and we have shared Alpha and Vacation Bible School programs, and church buildings (which was especially helpful to us after we left our new building).
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 00:10:27 +0000
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