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

Christmas Review 2014

2014 Christmas Letter

It’s always interesting to look back at the last year and see a snapshot of how you’ve spent your time and energy. And this year is no exception! We’re grateful for good health and the strength God gives us to accomplish all that we do. So, peek into our lives from this past year and see a quick pic of all He has done through us as well as some of the highs and lows we experienced.

January: We started the year with frigid temps and deep snow, which my brother Gary braved to drive all the way from New York to help us remodel the bathroom for our bedroom…what a blessing. We also held our first Renewal of the year with a great group of missionaries coming “off the field” to head into Home Ministry. We love these special days we get to share with them and hear their hearts.

February: We were once again privileged to have sessions in Orientation Camp (the last step for missionaries heading off to their field of service). We also traveled a good bit to continue raising support.

March: This month brought joy as we watched our beautiful daughter, Jessica, join her life with our new son, Zac Hiser. Friends and family came from far and near to share in this fun and blessed day.

April: As many of you will remember, we were scheduled to leave for Africa on April 1, but the day before my sweet oldest sister, Brenda, started losing the battle she had fought so valiantly against lung cancer. We headed to South Carolina and hung out with her precious family at the hospital until she passed from this life to the next on April 5. To say our hearts were broken would be an understatement. She is so greatly missed by all of us. Just two weeks later we found ourselves able to smile again as Marlene’s niece, Amie (Larry’s daughter) was wed in a beautiful ceremony in Tennessee to her beau, Dave. Marlene’s mom also fractured her hip in April and needed surgery to repair it.

May: We traveled to Nevada to be with the husband of one of our retired missionary couples as he, (Les Madsen) was treated in the hospital for injuries sustained in an accident that took his precious wife, Ruth’s life. Their daughter, Priscilla Kunkle (WGM missionary to the Texas/Mexico Border), was also there and we were grateful we could be there in this time of great tragedy to hang out with them and try to be a support.

June: A visit to Dearborn, MI gave us insight into the ministry our missionaries have had there working with Muslims.
July and August: These two months proved to be some of our busiest yet. We spent July 4-12 in Bolivia to attend a Discipling Nations Conference with our missionaries serving in South America. What a great time to reconnect with them and learn as well. We got back to the States just in time to do another Renewal with a large group of our faithful servants. God always shows up at these and we love it. We also once again got to do a bit of training in CMS and Orientation Camp. Then, off we headed to Colorado so Marlene could be trained in our Child Protection Policies and Procedures. (She used the word grueling to describe it.) Then we headed to Nigeria to debrief two of our precious single missionary ladies who were robbed at gunpoint in their apartment as well as experiencing some physical trauma. What a challenge, but blessing, that we were able to respond to this tragedy and walk with them on part of their journey of recovery. When we returned from that trip, we spent several days out West traveling to visit champion supporters as well as visiting with longtime friends. At our friend Jo’s Band B in the Black hills of South Dakota, we celebrated our 29^th anniversary. What a joy to still be so in love after all of these many years.

September: This brought us to our 3^rd Renewal of the year as well as leading more sessions in Orientation Camp and CMS (Champion Building). We also had the blessing of spending nearly a week at Lake MI in our friend’s cabin, far from internet and cell phone service...ahhh.

October: October 10^th found Marlene finally able to take the licensing exam for Indiana counseling licensure and passing! Apparently being licensed in MI for 10 years and passing the National Counseling Exam years ago was not good enough! J Five days later we headed out for our trip to Kenya, Uganda and Spain. We were overwhelmed by the amazing ministries our hard working missionaries are involved with. To read more about this trip, see our link below. This month also marked my mom needing to start dialysis three days a week for continued kidney failure.

November: We came home from our almost 4 week trip overseas on November 9^th and jumped back into our Stateside ministry. The third week of this month found us at The Member Health in Missions Conference in Angola, IN, learning and networking from and with some of the best in this type of ministry. Thanksgiving was spent in Ohio with Ned’s family and all three of our kids and son-in-law! What a fun time of hanging out, eating, laughing and, of course, watching the Buckeyes beat Michigan!

December: So, that brings us to this special time of year! A time for all to hopefully slow down just a bit and soak up the True meaning of why we celebrate! We started this month with The Gathering at headquarters. Missionaries who are home on Homeland Missionary Assignment as well as retired missionaries and office staff enjoyed several days of sharing together in sessions and meals.

Christmas will look a little different for us this year with Jessi heading to Florida to celebrate with Zac’s family and Josh only having Christmas day off. But, we’ll head to Ohio later that day to prepare to celebrate together with family on Saturday, December 27^th to celebrate Ned’s mom’s 90th birthday and Christmas with our kids! Then, on to Florida to see Marlene’s family and speak along the way.

So, as you can see, we are on the go go go, but so very thankful for those of you who travel this journey with us through thoughts, prayers, encouragement, and even financial giving. Thank you seems so inadequate. We pray you have a blessed Christmas filled with laughter and joyful moments, even those of us who will be doing that with memories of loved ones who have left this earth this year. We love you and thank God for you in our lives.

And, as always, we love to hear from you, too!

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

www.wgm.org/mcgrady for more information or to make a secure online donation.