Thanks to all who have been praying for me as I get ready to leave ministries here in good hands and as I plan a Home Assignment to be able to see as many of you as possible. Please continue to uphold me in prayer!!!
I prepared some visuals for you to see where I’ll be. My home base will be in Kitchener, but I’ll be moving around a lot. If you’ll be in any of those areas and we could get together, please let me know. I’ve been working on lining up the trips to visit supporters and churches that require travel, so please don’t think I’ve overlooked you if I haven’t contacted you. I may not get to that till June. Also, it’s easy for me to see who sends financial contributions, but not so easy to know who is praying for me. So I am asking for your help. Please do let me know if you’d like a visit and include your street address and phone number (a lot of people have moved!). I will read the email and make note of it, but I might not get back to you for a while. It seems there are more demands on my time than usual before a HA and once I leave, I’m not sure how I’ll do with correspondence.
The visual might need some explaining. On the first trip, the red arrows represent flights and the little cars mean I’ll be visiting people in nearby cities by car (no space to show the ferry I’ll take from PEI to NS). The dots for the cities only mark where I guessed the city is located… not it’s size or importance. Here’s the beginning of my HA: 
A week or so into planning the trips, it was like God reminded me by asking when it is that I renew my visa. I had totally forgotten about that and this year is important as I change from temporary to permanent residency – which means I won’t have to do annual renewals. I need to be back to get all the paperwork in before the expiry date and to do the fingerprinting and I can’t leave until I have the card. If any of that doesn’t work, I’d be back to square one. I’m sorry I won’t have that time to visit (and that I’ll be here during the heat!), but I have several other items to take care of in that time as well. When I return to Canada, there’s a small window of time to visit a friend from Germany who will also be in Kitchener – our schedules overlap on two days! – and then I’m off again. On Trip 2, I’ll be in Grand Rapids and Hudsonville twice, but in different homes and churches each time. The * mean it’s a day visit, the others are overnights. #3 is a cluster of St. George, Glen Morris, Paris, Brantford and Burtch. Barrie and Ottawa are tentatively at the beginning of Trip 3.
I’m very happy that I’ll be able to visit all my supporting churches and that there are three news ones lined up so far, two of which are Spanish-speaking.
A lot of time has been invested in preparing people to take over my responsibilities. There are four people committed to taking care of the visuals for church. A couple, relatively new to El Faro, are learning the ropes of editing the sermons and give every evidence that they’ll do excellent work. I’ll be teaching in the ladies’ meeting up to the day before I leave on HA, but they have a plan to continue, and one of the ladies from the Evangelistic Events committee will take over those responsibilities. I’ll be leading the cell group to the end as well. I’m so relieved that there is a couple who will take that over for me, but they can’t begin until May. Please pray for me as I continue with some training and for those taking over from me. Please also pray that I’ll finish well with the ladies’ group and the cell group.
I have another major prayer request. I’d like to invite you to pray with me about what I’ll be doing when I return. There are several interesting opportunities and I’d enjoy all of them, but I need the Lord’s guidance as to what He wants me to do. Please pray that the Lord will make it clear to me and the leadership here which areas to be involved in. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” Pr. 3:5-6 (NLT)
Thank you for your prayers for the workshop Belkis led on How to Control Your Anger. It was well-received with good participation and the pastor has asked her to present it again April 28th for the whole church. She’ll lead another workshop May 25th on Active Listening. She’d appreciate your prayers as well. This month is the Youth Camp April 15-19th. It’s held at Rancho El Camino and youth come from all around. Please pray for the Lord’s work in the hearts of the youth and that many begin a personal relationship with Him.
I had no idea that spending time in the US after leaving Mexico and before going to Canada would cause a health insurance problem. TEAM of Canada recently changed to a new provider of international health care, but they don’t cover time in the US. Please pray for a speedy and adequate solution. Neither of the options presented so far will work.
Apart from teaching and training, my main focus will be on preparing HA presentations. Please pray for the Lord to guide my thoughts and words and the preparation of the visuals so that the presentations will minister to those present. And please pray for the needed support to be provided and for safety traveling and wonderful times visiting with family, friends and supporters. It’ll probably be June or July before I write again.
Looking forward to fellowshipping with you!
Brenda
