Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

 We have had a wonderful partnership in ministry this year and we are thankful for all of our family and friends that have stood with us through prayer and support during this year. We could not possibly do this ministry without each one of you and we take this opportunity every year to say "thank you"at Christmas time.

This year we visited several of our fields including those in Africa and Mexico. We made numerous visits to missionaries serving with WGM and worked in countless hours of counsel and pastoral related ministry. God was faithful to go before us each step of the way and you were part of that ministry.

In February of this year, Marlene lost her mother, the fourth immediate family member to pass away in the past two plus years. We are grateful for the body of Christ reaching out to us during this time. We were able to have some vacation time to Lake Michigan with our family and some time over the summer to replenish our own souls.

We are excited to announce that in April we will be grandparents for the very first time. Jessica and Zac are expecting their baby girl April 10. Needless to say, we are beyond excited about being grandparents for the first time. Joshua is working for Speedway Corp. in the Central Ohio area and lives in Lancaster, OH. Jordan will graduate form Indiana Wesleyan University on Dec. 19 and plans to work for a new company in downtown Indy following the holiday season. We are thankful for our family and grateful for God's blessings in our lives and for your love and support for each one of us.

Our family plans to celebrate the holidays at our home in Marion, IN for the first time since we moved here four years ago. We will visit Ned's family over in Ohio during the season. The first of the year, our travel plans include gearing up for a missionary retreat in Paraguay, January 16 -25 that we will be conducting with our WGM missionaries. We will host a Renewal time in January for returning missionaries and an Orientation Camp for new missionaries in February. We will be going to McAllen, TX in February to hold a seminar for ministry development with our team of missionaries serving on the Border. We are looking forward to these ministry opportunities so much and we ask an interest in your prayers. If you would like to help support us as we go to Paraguay or Texas, please go to our secure web site at www.wgm.org/mcgrady and make a donation today.

Your continued support and prayers are appreciated. From our family to yours we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Anchored

As we sail through this life, it is encouraging to remember that we have an anchor to hold onto. With many recent events in our world, we remain focused on the fact that Christ is our anchor and to Him we can hold fast. We recently returned from a pastoral visit to our WGM Mexico team of missionaries serving Christ throughout the nation of Mexico. God was so faithful to grant us good travels, and wonderful times of ministry. Our team of missionaries lead by Bill and Lydia Allshouse met for their annual conference to plan and strategize for continued outreach and ministry to that nation.  

 We had the opportunity to visit several of our ministry sights in Saltillo, Leon', Irapuato and take in some of the sights there, as well as Guanajuato and Guadalajara where we held our conference at the YWAM training center on beautiful Lake Chapala.
The visit to Mexico was special to us as we reflected on the early days of our ministry as missionaries. God lead us to Laredo, Texas as newlyweds in 1985 where we served at the school, Christian Union Institute, and ministered throughout the border and down into the interior of Mexico for 5 years. God richly blessed our ministry during this time and we both recalled the fact that our love for missions and serving Christ cross-culturally was developed and nurtured. We knew that God planted missions in our hearts in those early years.
Now, some 30 years later, God allowed us the opportunity to return to the people of Mexico and to have the opportunity to meet some of our Mexican brothers and sisters in our WGM Churches and places of leadership and to allow us to be pastoral support to our team of missionaries serving the church there. It was a very inspiring visit for us to return to our anchor - the place that God gave us a call to serve Him in missions.
During our visit we had some great opportunities to meet with each of our missionaries and spend time hearing their hearts. We were then able to pray specifically for the needs that they are facing as they seek to share that Jesus can be the anchor for the Mexican people too.
We made our way to the YWAM training center located on a mountain side overlooking the beautiful Lake Chapala, near Guadalajara. During our time of retreat there, we shared with the missionaries the importance of Sabbath rest and that it is a worthwhile goal for all of us in ministry to strive to maintain. Ned shared a seminar on the "Spacious Places" that God has for us to enter into based on Psalm 18 and we talked about busyness as a condition of the heart not a problem with our calendar. Marlene shared a seminar encouraging the team to look at what things may be keeping them from experiencing a Sabbath Rest, such as baggage from the past or present, workload, relationships or other distractions that keep us from God. We had a wonderful time of worship on Sunday morning and Ned shared a message about being empty vessels made free by Christ's power to be filled with His presence. God met with us in precious ways as we shared together. We knew that many of you were praying for us as we made this visit and we thank you from our hearts.

Mark and Serena Dunbar, Chrissy Greenwell, Lydia and Bill Allshouse, Marlene and Ned

 

 

As we approach the Thanksgiving Season, we are thankful for you. You help to keep us anchored in the ministry that God has called us to with WGM. Your prayers and your financial gifts are certainly a blessing to our ministry and make what we do possible. We ask an interest in your prayers as we leave again Thursday for a weekend conference in Angola, IN for Mental Health in Missions and then fly directly from Ft. Wayne, to McAllen, Texas where we will make a visit to our Border Team of missionaries and join them for their annual conference. Please pray for us as we share with our WGM team serving Christ there. We want to encourage them to remain anchored!

Finally we want to wish you and your family a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. May you feel  God's close presence anchoring you through any of the storms of life you may be facing. You are loved and appreciated.

 

 

Sincerely,

Ned and Marlene McGrady

Directors of Member Health, Pastors to Missionaries,

World Gospel Mission

Box 948

Marion, IN 46952

765-671-7240

 



Spacious Places

The Psalmist says "He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out in to a spacious place: he rescued me, because he delighted in me." Psa. 18:16-19

We had the wonderful privilege of joining with our new co-workers Rev. Greg and Teresa Leeth, to attend the Pastor's to Missionaries Conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina. This was certainly a spacious place not unlike the spacious picture above taken at Lake Michigan. Nestled in the mountains, we spent the week receiving from the Lord his grace and his nurturing for our souls. We received training that encouraged us and better equipped us to help our missionaries enter in to the spacious place that God has for each one.

John said, "We cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to us from above." John 3:27 and as James says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17. We know as caregivers we have a tendency to be weak in the act of receiving what God has to equip and assist us in pouring out to others. God has called us to invest in the lives of our missionaries and to work to encourage and support their ministry as missionaries around the world. We realize for us to be effective givers of support, we must be willing to refuel our own tank and receive from the Lord.

As we think about receiving from God and getting all that He has for us, we are reminded that the posture of our hearts is so very important. We need a humble heart that is willing to allow God to speak into our lives and fill our hearts with the things we need from Him. We must allow God to walk with us and to minister to us in such a way that we can experience HIM fully. God is our spacious place and God personally delights in you and wishes to bring you to HIMSELF. It is certainly not WHAT we do, or WHAT we are, it is WHO.

The WHO is God and God desires for us to be WITH HIM. So many times we are too busy working for him and doing things for him that we miss being with him. The ministry we have with WGM is a shepherd's ministry. Shepherding is what we do with our missionaries and it includes all the things you can think of like counseling, preaching, teaching, listening, praying, visiting and much more. The tendency is to do God's work FOR God rather than WITH God. Our shepherding toward others is most effective when we have allowed our hearts to be shepherded by the Great Shepherd and we allow our hearts to be refueled by being WITH GOD.

While this may all seem like mundane words, we trust that your hearts will be challenged as our hearts have been challenged,  to be WITH Jesus and make Him the central focus. Our faith is not about getting to do more, but it is about spending time with the Master and in so doing we will be better equipped to serve. How many messages have you heard or books have you read that challenge you to do more? It seems like that message is big in the church today. How much more could we accomplish if we moved from doing God's work to being with God?

During the month of November we will be traveling to Mexico, Nov. 2 - 9. We will visit our missionaries serving in various parts of the interior. We are looking forward to this visit because it was Mexico that God first called us to serve him in 1985 -89. The people of Mexico are special people and we know that God is working in and through our churches there to make an impact into that country. We will join our field directors, Bill and Lydia Allshouse and the team there for a 2 day retreat in Guadalajara after we have visited the various ministries and work of WGM in Mexico. We ask that you will pray for us that we will go WITH God and be filled to the fullest so that we may be as an outflow of HIM and a blessing to all we come in contact with.

We will continue to hone our skills at the Mental Health in Missions Conference in Angola, IN Nov. 19 - 22, where we will join with dozens of other Member Care workers and professionals to learn more and be encouraged in this work. We then leave from Ft. Wayne Airport the evening of Nov. 22 for McAllen, Texas were we will present a Ministry Match Seminar to our WGM missionaries serving on the border. We will return home for Thanksgiving with family on Nov. 26.

As always, we ask an interest in your prayers and thank you so much for you on-going support both financially and spiritually. Truly your support reminds us that God is the head of this ministry and He has put us together, you and us, for this time to serve Him. We encourage you to take some time alone and draw near to Him, and to be WITH Him. God loves you and so do we!

Thanks for standing with us and being our champions! We'd love to hear from you.

Love and Prayers,
Ned and Marlene

Ned and Marlene McGrady
Pastors to Missionaries, Directors of Member Health
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952
765-671-7240

ned@straightpaths.org

To support our ministry financially
www.wgm.org/McGrady

Summer Time Happenings

Greetings to our family and friends,

"Summer Time Happenings" is the title of this month's blog post. We had a very full summer of ministry and happenings and the above pictures are just a few examples of what the summer of 2015 has been like for us.

July was a full month as we again hosted over 20 missionaries and their children in a time of Renewal as they came off their fields of service for Home Ministry. This is one of the highlights of our ministry as we pour into their lives. The first picture above is some fun times we had playing Putt Putt on a local course here in Marion. Also, we participated in training for our new missionaries preparing to be sent out to the harvest field. The opportunities we have to encourage, train, and help equip our people for service is one of the greatest ministries we have here at WGM. After our July events were over we were ready for a much needed vacation and renewal time.

Many times we are asked as we are out speaking and traveling, who do you speak to and who helps you stay encouraged. We recognized that our souls were in need of some renewal and refreshment and we were able to participate in a program at Link Care in Fresno, CA. We received much needed counsel and inspiration as people spoke into our lives and helped us. We are so thankful for WGM and the opportunity we had to receive this kind of care. Caregivers need to refuel and take in so that they can continue in ministry and we thank the Lord for this opportunity.

While in California we visited our Stockton ministry, Peniel Mission where Bob, Lisa and Sarah Margaron are working with marginalized youth in this city. It was exciting for us to spend time with them and see the great things that God is doing in the lives of the young people in that city. Gangs are plenteous in Stockton, but God is continuing to use this ministry to change lives for eternity through this ministry. You have a part in this work as you support our ministry and we in turn can encourage our missionaries.

The next couple of pictures are from Yosemite National Park. We hiked many trails and enjoyed the majesty of God's beautiful creation in this truly glorious park. We have traveled many, many places around the world and are amazed at the beauty that God has right here in the USA. We enjoyed the nature and beauty as our hearts were filled with His beauty.

We returned back to Marion and had a week of "staycation" to do some needed work around our home and accomplished many work tasks that we had wanted to do. We concluded our time with a week together with our family at Lake Michigan. We enjoyed a visit to Tahquamenon Falls in the beautiful Upper Peninsula and rode bikes around Mackinaw Island, swam in Lake Michigan and enjoyed our time together as a family.

We are back at WGM and busy preparing for our September Renewal with about 20 missionaries and their kids that will join us for this special time. We covet your prayers for us as we share God's love and encouragement and we ask for God's spirit to help and bless in great ways.

We thank you very much for your continued support and prayers for our missionary ministry. God is faithful and He is using you to keep this ministry going. Thank you for your financial support and for your prayers. Your partnership together with us is priceless. You are our Champions.

May the Lord Bless you,
Ned and Marlene McGrady
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952
765-671-7240

www.wgm.org/mcgrady

Summer Ministry at WGM

Summertime means a lot of training, conferences and visits from World Gospel Missionaries serving around the world. It is a joy for us to partner with some of God's choice servants to invest in their lives. The picture above is of our field leaders from 20 plus countries that have gathered for two weeks of renewal, and retreat to grapple with some ministry strategies to enhance the efforts to reach the world for Christ. Every other year WGM Marion hosts these leaders and this is the third opportunity we have had to work alongside of these great leaders. It is exiting to learn what God is doing around the world as the Gospel is transforming lives not only for eternity but also in the here and now.

During the past several months, Marlene and I have made several visits to Africa where God has used us in ministry among our missionaries. We are grateful that we can have this ministry of encouragement and to see God at work as we minister. Many of you faithfully support us both financially and through prayer and we thank you.

We are looking forward to Celebration, June 25 -28 at Huntington University in Huntington, IN. People from far and near will be gathering to celebrate what God is doing around the world in missions. You are invited to join us. We would love to see you there. For more information go to www.wgm.org or email us.

In July we will host 21 missionaries in a time of debriefing and renewal. Renewal is a special time of ministry and encouragement that we look forward to. We will also have opportunity to help prepare the next group of missionaries being sent forth from WGM to serve Christ among the nations. Helping to prepare missionaries and assisting in supporting and debriefing missionaries is a wonderful blessing and you as our partners in this work are so appreciated.

You may recall the story of Joshua in Exodus 17 when Joshua is fighting in a battle and Moses is up on the mountain with his arms raised up in prayer. As long as Moses has his arms up, Joshua wins the battle, but as Moses arms grow tired, and they come down, Joshua begins to lose. God sees this and sends two men Aaron and Hur to hold up Moses hands and Joshua wins the battle. We believe this is the picture of ministry that God has given us to do. We are holding the arms of our missionaries up as they serve on the front lines and we recognize that God is using you to help hold us up through your prayers and support for this ministry. We thank God for each one of you.

We certainly want our partnership to go both ways. We are interested in your needs and how we may serve you and pray for you. Please let us hear from you at ned@straightpaths.org

May God Bless you greatly,
Ned and Marlene McGrady
Pastors to Missionaries
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952

Grateful for His Blessings

The month of April is here and we are enjoying the birth of new life that springtime brings. So grateful to God for His blessings. We have enjoyed connecting with many of our supporters and friends of our ministry over this past month. Here are just a few of those connections!

We were able to worship one Sunday at our church in Marion at Lakeview Wesleyan. It is always good to connect with such a mission minded church. We appreciate Lakeview and their support for us. We had a cup of hot peach tea with a couple of our friends that serve on our missions committee back at our home church in Jackson, MI. Trinity Wesleyan Church blesses us regularly with financial support, cards in the mail, and most of all prayers. We were able to speak at Christian Fellowship Center in Jackson, MI. What a mighty group of Christ's servants, who love us, pray for us and support us so much! During the Easter Season we gave an update and thanks to the church Ned grew up in, Rockbridge United Methodist Church in Ohio. We spoke at Village Hope Church in Jackson, MI, as well as their newest church plant in Parma, MI. We love the folks at Village Hope, they bless us so much with their financial support and prayers. We enjoyed lunch with some of our great champions in Spring Arbor, MI while we visited. We enjoyed a great meal at a missions fund raising dinner at Somerset Congregational Church in Somerset, MI. We spent some time with a couple that supports us from Horton, MI and enjoyed traveling with them for a few days. We realize how blessed we are to have all of you in our lives and we thank you! In the midst of all of this, we have continued to be in contact with many of our missionaries, walking with them through various issues and situations.

Our work is progressing well and we are ramping up for a very busy summer of ministry at the home office in Marion. We have many meetings, seminars, and trainings to, attend, participate in, and facilitate. Summer at WGM is one of the busiest times of the year with so many missionaries coming and going. What a privilege it is to serve our missionaries and we are thankful to you, because you help to make it all possible.

Many of you have followed Jordan and supported him as he prepares to go to Spain with the Business class from Indiana Wesleyan University. We thank you for your prayers for their team as they leave May 4 for three weeks. Pray that God will reveal Himself to each of the students in a real and personal way. Thank you for your support.

May God Bless you each one and we just want you to know we are grateful for His blessings and you are one of those to us. Please let us know if we can bless you in some way, we'd love to hear from you.

Love in Christ,
Ned and Marlene McGrady
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952

Just a note of Thanks

This month Marlene and I just want to say a heart felt "Thank You" for all that you mean to us. During this past month we have been continuing our travels in ministry in special assignment and God has been faithful to us. We we experienced a death in the family as Marlene's mother, Mary Ellen Post went home to be with the Lord on Feb. 23. Ned had the privilege of sharing the Eulogy and assisting with the funeral that was held in Florida. Mom Post was ready to go to heaven and she was at peace as she transitioned from this world to Jesus' arms. We know there was a great reunion with family and friends that had gone on before. Marlene has had several losses in her family beginning in March 2013 when her brother Roger died, October 2013 when her father Raymond Post died, April 2014 when her sister Brenda Vincent died. We are so very thankful for all of your prayers, support, flowers, cards, and most of all your caring love that we have experienced through this time.

We are focusing our ministry at WGM Marion, as we continue to work with our missionaries in various capacities of support, counsel and prayer. We are currently planning for future travels in ministry to our WGM fields. We have a very busy June/July as the WGM Celebration will be held at Huntington University, June 25 - 28. We have several training sessions and retreat planning sessions ahead.

Our calendar -

April 12 - Speaking at Village Hope Church in both Parma and Jackson, MI at 9:00AM and 10:30AM.
April 18 - 26 Vacation

So we end this update where we started, "Thank you" for all that you mean to us. Your investment in our ministry through prayer, giving and caring means so much to us. Please let us know how we may minister to you. We always love hearing from you, our Champions.

Ned and Marlene McGrady
WGM Directors of Member Health Pastors/counselors
Box 948
Marion, IN 46953
727-459-2966
www.wgm.org/McGrady

How Do We Care?

One of the things we love about our job is caring for our missionaries. If you followed our blog you would notice that we have traveled a lot around the world making many visits. This month finds us more in the office catching up with missionaries via emails, phone calls and Skype calls. We also are involved in winter training events such as Orientation Camp for 7 new missionaries being sent out to their respective fields of service. We share with them in seminars concerning healthy marriages on the mission field, as well as child safety and protection. We are excited that God continues to call and prepare His servants for international service. This week Marlene will help to process 5 new applicants by doing psychological assessments and assisting them in answering God's call on their lives. We completed a 3 day Renewal with 7 of our returning missionaries as we spent time debrief and hearing their stories of their last term on the field. We have also had opportunity to speak in some local churches. We had a wonderful day at our home church Trinity Wesleyan in Jackson, Michigan on Feb. 8. We are so very thankful for great churches like this that stand with us to make this ministry possible. This Sunday we get to share at our church here in Marion, Lakeview Wesleyan Church during the Sunday School and worship services. We look forward to updating them about our ministry. We will be speaking at Christian Fellowship Center in Jackson, Michigan on March 15. And to these great churches as well as individuals like you, that we want to say "thank you." Thank you for helping us minister to missionaries around the world.

"Stationed locally, Serving Globally"

Ned and Marlene McGrady
World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952
765-671-7240

www.wgm.org/McGrady

Also we wanted to give you an update from Jordan's Corner - Many of you have responded with gifts toward his trip to Spain with Indiana Wesleyan University during May term this year. We thank you very much for supporting him in this mission/educational experience. He has reached just over 1/2 of his needed funding for this trip and we appreciate your gifts. Thank you to the many churches and individuals that have given. We thank you from our hearts.

Jordan's Corner - A special update!

Jordan's Journey

This month in our Champion's Corner we are featuring a letter that Jordan has written concerning his upcoming trip to Spain. Many of you have followed him as he ministered with us and now as he is in his Senior year at IWU he will be going on this business/missions trip.

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings! I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with your family and loved ones. As many of you know, I am in my final year at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, studying Marketing and Spanish. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a student and loved growing and learning about the field of Business.

Recently, through my university, I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend three weeks in Spain this upcoming May with fifteen fellow students in the business and Spanish programs. We will be traveling around to various businesses throughout Madrid and Barcelona, the largest cities in Spain, while learning about how they operate and run internationally, Our goal is to come along side these businesses and provide ideas, strategic planning, and marketing to help propel them to greater success in the future.

Because of my experience serving with my parents in Costa Rica and Ecuador for three years, I feel that God has uniquely provided me with this opportunity to use my Spanish ability as a translator for the group. I will be able to be the "middle man" between many of the owners, CEO's, and business people who speak Spanish, and translate to English for my classmates and professors. I am so excited about this opportunity to use the abilities that God has blessed me with to turn around and help others in such a tangible way.

Additionally, this trip will count as a business course for my degree and allow me to graduate in December. However, I was told that because this trip is for college credit, it is not tax deductible. Unfortunately, the university tried to find a way around this, but by receiving credit, the government does not allow it to count as a charitable cause for tax purposes.

However, I learned during my years in South America that no matter the classification, God could use anything for His Kingdom. Whether  that is playing soccer with teenagers in Ecuador or translating between business owner's an students in Spain, if God is involved, its missions. So even though our government may not allow it to be classified as a mission trip for tax reasons, I know that God will absolutely use this time to show His love through us to the professional business people we will come across.

Often I am asked what someone can do to help . The simple answer is always to pray. Our team will need prayer for safe travels, positive, encouraging engagement with the Spanish people, and wisdom as we provide business ideas and suggestions to the owners. Additionally any financial support given would be a blessing and greatly appreciated.

I truly feel that God ahs opened up this opportunity for me to help others through my growing knowledge of business and Spanish, and I believe that He will provide everything needed to make this happen through the love and support of people like you.

If you feel led to donate, please send a check to Jordan McGrady 6964 Mary Court, Marion, IN 46953

Additionally there is an option to give on line at gofund.me/mcgradyspaintrip

Thank you all for your support of my Family and myself over the years! God Bless!

Jordan McGrady
517-395-0455
Jordan.mcgrady@myemail.indwes.edu