Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Summer Season

We are entering into a summer season of conferences, training and helping to prepare missionaries for ministry around the world. This week we will be interviewing six (6) new missionaries seeking to answer God's call on their hearts. We are very involved in the assessment process for these missionaries and assuring their preparation for service. Our work in the area of member care not only helps prepare workers to go out into the harvest field, but also allows us to support workers that are coming back from their fields of service for home ministry assignment. June and July are full of events that we will help to facilitate and participate in helping our missionaries to flourish in every way.

One of the most important ways that we suggest to our workers to flourish is to rest well, so that they can have the long haul in perspective. We talk about rest in the form of Sabbath. Sabbath is taking time out to care for the soul. Doing those things that feed the soul and bring life to the heart. We know that God desires for us to be healthy spiritually, emotionally and physically. This wholistic approach to health and well being often challenges us to emphasize the importance of taking the gift of time that allows the cares and concerns that are often weighing heavily on the soul, to be set aside. It is delighting in being aware of God's blessings, savoring the sights of creation, and giving thanks for the blessings that are so easily missed by our seemingly, necessary preoccupation with our work.
One of the ways we do this is through a Renewal time that we lead for our missionaries. Three or four times a year we lead the WGM staff through a time of refocus and renewal. There is time to refresh the soul and to regain a perspective on who God is and how He invites us into relationship with Him.

A big question we are often asked is, where are you traveling next? Perhaps that is due to the fact that over the past nine (9+) years we have been to 26 different countries for ministry visits. We often comment that it is hard to believe that a little girl for a small country town in up-state New York and a little boy for the hills of southern Ohio would some day travel the world and who would have imagined that we would be answering God's call to serve in missions. We have lived cross-culturally on the Tex/Mex Border, Costa Rica and Ecuador.

So what is next? Where are you traveling next? We will be heading to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Argentina, all three are new countries that we are yet to visit and that will bring our total to 29 different countries. We will have the privilege of leading retreats for missionaries in these locations and getting a feel for what ministry is like in these places that God has called for them to serve. We ask an interest in your prayers and we make these plans for this fall. 

In answering this question, "where are you traveling next" we are also reminded that we don't go anywhere alone. Through the prayers of people like you we have the confidence that God goes before as and we always know that we take each one of you with us. You travel with us through your financial support and and you travel with us through your prayers and we thank you for standing with us through these many years of ministry. We thank our God upon every remembrance of you!

We also want to extend and invitation to you to join with us for the WGM Day of Prayer on June 10, 2019. Every hour of that day, we’ll pray and fast over each field, asking for guidance, wisdom, and boldness in sharing the Gospel. We are inviting you to join us by visiting the Facebook page of  WGM Day of Prayer June 10 . The WGM facebook page will have a 24 hour prayer focus for every country where WGM has a presence and will allow you to interact with every country that we have missionaries serving. We are convinced that what our world needs most is prayer. More is wrought by prayer than anything this world can offer. So we want to invite you to join in and pray.

Perhaps you know of missionaries that have special needs, please make a commitment to pray for them and go to the Facebook site on the the WGM Day of Prayer June 10 to participate. It is also a great time for you to stop and pray for your own missionaries and ask what may God have you to do to support them even greater ways. 
One of the prayers we often share together at WGM is the prayer in Luke 10:2, praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth laborers into the Harvest field. This day is set aside to pray. Please consider joining and being a part.
We do thank God for you. We thank you for your care and concern and for your faithful giving to our ministry. God is enabling us to see great things done for His glory.

To make a financial gift to our ministry go to www.wgm.org/mcgrady  where you can make a secure donation to support this work. We appreciate you and wish you a wonderful summer season.

Sincerely
Ned and Marlene McGrady
WGM Missionaries
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952
765.671.7240


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