THE CANNY CHRONICLES

Ligonier Evangelical Church Ligonier, IN Rev. Troy Diersing is the son in law of our former Executive Director of Evangelical Church Missions, Duane Erickson. Molly had the chance to meet Troy and his wife Gloria about a year ago when they were serving in Shiloh, Ohio. Troy and Gloria are now serving the Ligonier Evangelical Church and there is another big change from a year ago. They have a beautiful new baby boy. I didn’t get the chance to hold the little guy, but Molly did for just a few brief minutes. Babies are so busy at that age with all the eating, sleeping and well… what happens after they eat. It is quite a tough life isn’t it? Babies are such good reminders for us of God’s love. He looks after our every need and stands at the ready for whenever we let out a cry. Often times God looks after us through the care of His loving people. We have felt so well taken care of during this whole deputation. Everywhere we go we are welcomed with open arms and people go far and above ...

Sturgis Evangelical Church Sturgis, MI I have to make a confession of ignorance. I had always heard about the huge annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. As we drove toward Michigan I mentioned something to Molly about how it would be interesting to see where that was hosted. She gave a look that said, “oh you poor thing”. She then quickly corrected my misinformation and told me that the motorcycle rally is held in Sturgis, South Dakota. We drove through South Dakota earlier during this deputation, but somehow missed the rally. I wasn’t too broken up about it, because I don’t look the best in a bandana and leather vest. Getting back to the topic at hand… We arrived at Rev. Rodger and Joyce Moyer’s house and I let Rodger know that I’d be keeping an eye on him to report back to his brother Bruce in the mission office. He told me he would do the same for me. Of course this was all in good fun and we had a really great time all weekend. Along with having a good time playing some board game...

Wesley Evangelical Church (WEC) Shiloh, OH There are always some unique blessings at each church we visit. During the weekend in Shiloh, Ohio, one of those unique blessings was attending the Valentine’s Sweetheart Banquet. We had great food, great fellowship, and great times of laughter. Pastor Bryan Graham and his wife Kara organized a really fun “Newlywed Game” with 4 different couples in the church. We learned a lot about these couples and I think they learned a lot about each other. Along with the fun we had, we also got a really good message from the evening’s speaker. He shared an idea that really stuck with me. He said, “Rather than having your love sustain your marriage, your marriage should sustain your love”. Think about when you ask a couple why they want to get married. Whether the couple is Christians or not I guarantee one of their main answers, if not the only answer, will be, “We love each other”. Now think about the main answer couples give when filing for divorce....

Bridgeway Evangelical Church Kendallville, IN I think it is official. Molly and I are becoming Boilermakers by osmosis. We have been blessed to stay with two different generations of Wolheters in the Kendallville area. The Purdue fan transformation started at Dennis and Bonita Wolheter’s house when we stayed in James’ old room. The light switches are a bronze/gold and at the top they read, “PURDUE TURNS ME ON” while the bottom reads, “INDIANA TURNS ME OFF”. Our transformation continued later in the week as we stayed with Pastor Jeff and Andrea Wolheter. We were placed in the upstairs “Purdue Room” complete with everything Purdue themed from trashcan and pillows to pennants and posters. I woke up to black and gold surrounding me and even though I had no prior connection with the university, I had some strange sense of pride. We were in Kendallville for Super Bowl Sunday and had a good time just relaxing, watching the game, and of course watching the Pre-game interview with Bill O’Reil...

As many of you know, we raise our financial support through shares.  Some of you connected through this blog might even be shareholders on our team. Each week we share our story and God's vision at different churches and our team continues to grow. We are constantly amazed at how God provides for our need. In the right hand margin of this blog you can see the progress as shares continue to come in. These shares get us ever closer to our goal of returning to Bolivia. That goal has recently moved much closer to becoming reality.  The Evangelical Church Missions Office recently looked over our budget and decided to do some tweaking in the effort of getting us back to the field sooner rather than extending our deputation to fulfill the full operating budget. The results of these efforts take us from the goal of 273 shares to needing only 245. Of that 245 you can see the continuing progress in the right hand margin. We will continue to keep it up to date and are very excited to ...