Family selfie at the
beloved train museum.
It’s wonderful to be back in Elkhart, Indiana, reunited as a family, after a lot of travel in the first quarter of 2016. In addition to spending two weeks in Congo in January, I (Candice) was away in India from February 29th through March 11th. Traveling with a team from the Morden, Manitoba area, the seven of us aimed to support and encourage the emerging church in villages surrounding Hyderabad, India. We dug a well, held a pastor’s gathering, spoke at churches, hosted a medical clinic, and provided food assistance to local families – all of which was financially supported through Christian Life Centre, a church in Morden. Persecution of the church is alive and well in India, and we witnessed firsthand the challenges that face the forefront of missions. During an evening gathering at a believer’s home, a man barged in and renounced his son (the host of the gathering), calling him a disgrace to his family and announced that he will kill him for his faith in Jesus. This is only one example of many we witnessed, not only from family members, but the community and government as well.
Candice praying with women
at a church in India.
The church is doing great things by meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people, and souls are being saved. Praise God! But please lift up these church leaders in countries such as India, to be bold and wise as they spread the gospel in populations that are hostile to it.
Back at the office here in Elkhart, Tom recently finished his work on some new software to help Radio Lumière, a radio station in Port au Prince, Haiti, digitize their music library. The station currently plays CDs, cassettes and vinyl records over the air but want to move to using computers and digital formats to improve sound quality and automation of the station. Digitizing music helps protect music assets (as hard copies of music degrade over time), and improve access to the collection. SonSet Solutions has been assisting Radio Lumière with technology-based solutions for 30 years.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, SonSet Solutions, where we work on loan from Reach Beyond, is very much an international ministry. In fact, in 2015 SonSet Solutions assisted 178 ministries in 68 countries via equipment, service, consultation, and training. We are grateful for such a ‘home base’ in Indiana from where we can serve various ministry partners in countries around the globe.
In June we will be traveling as a family to Manitoba, Canada. We will be there to present our ministry to churches, update supporters, and visit family and friends. We are currently putting together a schedule for speaking engagements; if you know of an opportunity/church/small group/or the like that may be interested in hearing our testimonies or about our ministries, we’d love to hear from you. We hope to squeeze in as many visits and get-togethers as possible. We look forward to seeing our fellow Manitobans and sharing first-hand about our joint work in missions.
God bless you for all you do to help keep us on the mission field. We are so grateful for your friendship and faithfulness.