July Ministry Report

 Dear Partners,

Thus far 2024 has been a full year of ministry opportunities.

·         Howard began the year with a trip to Zambia. Please pray for the missionaries there. The drought is having a huge impact. Praise the Lord; we received a report of a number of students at Amano Christian School professing to trust the Lord. Howard spoke at the school’s staff retreat.

·         In March Howard represented LMUSA at the Biola University Missions Conference. He also spent time with LMUSA missionaries George and Prisca Shakwelele.

·         In May Kathy and Howard returned to Guam where we spent extensive time with LMUSA

missionaries and other partners. Kathy spoke to a gathering of ladies. Howard also participated in the Pacific Islands University two-day board meeting. He was appointed as a member of the Board. Howard also spoke at the Founder’s Day event at the mission HQ in NJ.

·         May and June contained graduations and a wedding. Lots of good family time.

·         Howard is involved with several other missionaries in providing leadership to our missionary endeavors. A smaller group is working toward offering local church missionary conference type events, Network Z. Our goal is to help and support churches in having a greater global impact. If you want to find out more, please write.

·         In addition to these mission-related activities, Kathy and Howard continue to minister in an interim role at Woodland Church near Fincastle VA.

Future plans include:

•       Participation in a Member (Missionary) Care conference, next month.
•           Our hope is that Network Z will actually become a reality this Fall.
•       Howard will be representing LMUSA at a missions conference at Columbia International University.

A word about the difficulties that missionaries face:

Many things that we take for granted in the USA are uncertainties where some of our missionaries serve. Our colleagues in Zambia are living in a time of drought. Not only does this impact food production—in particular for the indigenous population—it also limits the availability of electricity. Zambia depends on hydro-power. As water levels go down so does electric generation. It’s just one of the difficulties that these precious servants face. We can’t raise the water level, but we can elevate encouragement.
A number of our missionaries are traveling over the next six weeks or so. Please pray.

We thank you for your support and encouragement. Please keep us in your prayers. If you are in our area. Please stop by. We’d love to see you. Please continue to pray as we seek to minister to those who are reaching.

I’m including two donation links below. One is for our account. The other is for a project that supports the infrastructure of our mission. Your generosity has enabled us to continue our ministry without dipping into the mission’s general fund. Our home office staff is mainly dependent on that general fund to keep serving. Click the link to find out more.

By His Grace,

Howard & Kathy

 

https://lmusa.org/give/general-fund/, https://lmusa.org/give/hk-merrell/

PS: The picture has nothing to do with this letter. It was just too cute to pass up. 😊

Here is a publication our mission just sent out. The editor was kind enough to include my article about trust.

 Here is the latest edition of around the world. It contains several items that may be of interest to you.

Click here.

HM

June Ministry Report

 Dear Partners in Ministry,

A number of encounters and observations over the past few months of ministry have impressed me with an essential component of any endeavor that involves teamwork, trust. Kathy and I are very aware that you extend trust to us. We don’t take that for granted. Thank you.

One of the ways we encourage our Liebenzell family is by hosting a Zoom meeting once a month, every second Monday. At our June meeting we’ll be discussing how to encourage greater trust between team members and partners. Pray that we can help each other.

The second half of May, Kathy and I were busy. May 17-18 we were at the Mission’s headquarters in

Schooley’s Mountain, NJ. We participated in a weekend in honor of Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China who was the inspiration for the start of Liebenzell Mission. It was my privilege to be one of the speakers at the event. Here is the handout that I gave to the guests. While there, we reached out to one of our missionary couples who serve at headquarters. They are dealing with a serious health issue. Please pray.

On Sunday, May 19, we drove to Newark Airport and left for Guam, where we served for four and a half years. Our time in Guam was full. Our colleagues there have had a lot on them in the recent past. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks of “stimulating one another to love and good deeds,” and “encouraging one another.” The two main things we did while in Guam was encourage our colleagues, often that took place over a meal. Encourage and eat.

Kathy was the speaker at a ladies’ luncheon. I was involved in the two-day Board Meeting for Pacific Islands University. The recent typhoon and other matters have been tough on the school. You can read more about it here. I have been appointed to serve on the

Board. Please pray that I and the rest of the Board can be an encouragement to the new President, Ian Richards. Pray for all of the personnel at Pacific Islands University.
(The picture is of us enjoying breakfast with the chair of Biblical Studies at PIU, Iotaka Chorum, and his wife Vivian. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Iotaka is teaching a non-credit program for Chuukese pastors and other leaders. He is teaching the classes in his first language, Chuukese.

While on Guam we attended the funeral of a good friend and colleague, Dr. William Wood. We were able to spend time with his wife Christel. Kathy spent time with a good friend whose husband had just died. On the way home from Newark, we attended another funeral. It was for Barb Schuit, the wife of the former LMUSA Global Ministries Director, Bill Schuit. We arrived back in Covington on the evening of May 30. Our Lord counseled us to work while it is day.

It is a privilege to minister to these servants of the King. Praise the Lord with us, for this opportunity, you help make possible.

On a personal note: We’ll be in South Carolina the end of June. One of our granddaughters is getting married. All of our family and two of Kathy’s siblings will be there. We’re taking our camper down for an extended time with family.  

Thanks for your partnership in our ministry.

 

By His Grace,

H&K

An opportunity to invest in a good institution

 I don't normally use this blog for fundraising, so let me say up front, "this post is about fundraising." I'm not making an appeal for funds for Kathy and me, though a report and thank you note will be in another post soon to be posted.

So, if you aren't interested in reading a fundraising note, now would be a good time to surf elsewhere. Do so with my blessing and thanks.

As most readers of this blog know, Kathy and I have invested a significant chunk of our lives in the ministry of Pacific Islands University (PIU). PIU is not operated by Liebenzell Mission (LM), though it was founded by LM and maintains a close relationship with the mission. Kathy and I serve with LM.

A combination of integrity and lack of space prevent me from going deeply into all of the causes for this, but PIU is in a difficult situation.  A couple of reasons I can mention are the devastation Typhoon Marwar caused to the campus and the ongoing deterioration that a tropical climate brings to buildings and equipment. As the former defacto maintenance director on the campus, I can speak with some authority about the latter. You can see some pictures and read more here.

When I was in that maintenance role, I noticed that it was important, when things were in the process of deteriorating, to reverse that momentum. Even if the upward progress was small, it was significantly better, for morale, than watching the campus rot, erode, and be blown away. A significant step forward that the school made was taken not long before I went there to serve as President. The installation of a solar panel array on the library roof not only brought a significant saving in utility costs but also enhanced PIU's position in the community as an institution that was helping to care for the vulnerable environment of Guam. All the public generation of electricity on the island is by diesel generators. Solar power makes great sense in that isolated tropical island environment. 

The two entropic forces I mentioned, above left the solar array inoperative. Currently, the school does not have funds to repair the system.

The new President of PIU, Ian Richards, is raising funds to restore the system and continue the repairs that become necessary from those relentless forces. The figures President Richards was given indicate that the money invested in repairing the solar-power system (some of the repairs costs are covered by warranty) would be paid back in utility savings in less than three months.

If you are willing to join Kathy and me in investing not only in fixing a broken solar system, but in helping President Richards to reverse the downward momentum in campus infrastructure, please visit the site I mentioned above, https://lmusa.org/give/piu/. Funneling funds through the fund at LM will make your gift totally tax deductible and allow LM to assume the clerical work of responding properly to your donation. (Truth in advertizing: LM uses 10% of project donations to pay for their administrative costs.)

Whether you invest financially in the project or not, please invest time in prayer. While Kathy and I were on Guam, I had the opportunity to talk to a graduate who had been in a couple of my classes. He and I had used some COVID relief funds to build picnic tables to maximize students being out in fresh air during the days when the virus was spreading. My friend was rightly pleased that our tables had survived the storm. :) He is currently working at the school, as part of the Student Development Team. He told me about his brother, who is teaching school out on one of the "out-islands" of Chuuk. I used to call this guy "my cousin" because he had a gap in his teeth, like me. I'll call these brothers "M and M." They are what it's really all about. Micronesia needs young servant-leaders who, M and M, teach and encourage from the viewpoint of a Biblical worldview. 

That's a power far greater than what is produced by a bunch of solar panels.

Thanks.

Handout from HM's Session at the LMUSA Founder's Day Celebration

 LMUSA, An Ongoing Heritage

Here is the book I spoke of.

You can get a free copy at
https://archive.org/download/cu31924023067972/cu31924023067972.pdfx

Here are some other resources that will help you learn more about Hudson Taylor and how Liebenzell Mission USA is a part of his heritage.

Here is a brief biography of Taylor published by Christianity Today:
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/missionaries/hudson-taylor.html

Here is the link to the History of LMUSA from our website (Note, this page needs to be updated. LMUSA currently works with around 55 missionaries).
https://lmusa.org/gm/history/

Henry and Anna Zimmerman were German missionaries to China, serving with Liebenzell Mission. They and other LM missionaries saw their lives and ministries disrupted by cataclysmic events of the mid-Twentieth Century. Those events, tragic as they were, provided the catalyst for what is today Liebenzell Mission USA. Anna Zimmerman wrote an account of the first sixty years of Liebenzell. The story led to this property where we are meeting today, but it hasn’t ended here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hq--wkZofBdUelfrmgRlrb2v1hvTj2bQ/view

Read results of a 2023 study that indicates how little American churches invest in missions. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/where-do-missions-dollars-go/

I know all of these links are difficult to copy. Here is a one-stop link where you will find a digital copy of this document. That way you can just click on the links that interest you. If you want, you can look around on the sight and find out more about what Kathy and I are doing with LMUSA.

 

Some Questions for Reflection:

·         Think about the way Hudson Taylor uses the word “claim.” Does this apply to us today? If so, how?

·         What resources do you have that you could invest? This question goes well beyond material possessions, but it includes them.

·         If you regard LMUSA as a worthy agency, how can you help us further the work that Taylor helped us start?

·         Many of you are faithful supporters of LMUSA.
Have you thanked the Lord for that privilege?
Will you commit to encourage those servants who are serving, often in difficulties we don’t know about, with a simple card or letter? If you don’t know how to do this, get in touch with me. I’ll be glad to share some ideas.
Can you follow in Hudson Taylor’s footsteps, by advocating that others join our team as prayer-warriors, supporters, or goers? One way to do that is to suggest to your church that they host a “Network Z” conference at your church. Ask Chris Matthews for more information.

 

I’d love to help you help. Feel free to get in touch.
Howard Merrell, 2106 S Carpenter Drive, Covington VA 24426
hmerrell@liebenzellusa.org, (540) 620-8429

Note: We’ll be leaving Schooleys Mountain to be on Guam for most of the rest of the month. The phone # won’t work there, but I will be checking email.

A Heads Up on Where We'll Be and a Request for Prayer

 As I said in our last newsletter, Kathy and I are very thankful for the support that our partners offer. This, and Divine blessing, is what makes our ministry possible.

We leave Covington in the morning, 5/16.

We'll be participating in an event at our mission headquarters, see here.

We fly out of Newark 11:30 AM, 5/19.

5/22 & 23, Howard will be part of the PIU Board meeting

5/25, Kathy will be attending a ladies brunch hosted by the ladies of Faith Church where we attended while living on Guam. (This might change because of what is below.

5/25, 11:00 we'll be attending the memorial service of our friend and colleague, Bill Wood. Howard has been asked to act as the LMUSA rep.

The 27th we'll be part of a gathering of the LMUSA missionaries on Guam.

We'll be visiting with and listening to our missionary colleagues on Guam, and reaching out as opportunities present themselves. Included in this will be reaching out to a dear friend whose husband recently died. We'll miss his memorial service by one day.

We fly back on 5/29.

Use email or facebook to contact us.

April 2024 Ministry Report

 Dear Prayer-Partners, Friends, Fellow-Laborers,

 

Kathy and I are very aware of the part you play in the ministry we have in missionary care with Liebenzell Mission USA (LMUSA). Thank you.

What do I mean, when I speak of “Missionary Care”?

I think the easiest way to describe it is to remember two simple facts: Before missionaries were missionaries, they were people. People need spiritual care. What we are seeking to do is to provide pastoral care to our missionary family. As far as LMUSA, we are the first personnel specifically tasked with this function in the recent past, maybe ever. What does that look like?

•       We host a monthly Zoom meeting for praise, prayer, news and encouragement. between three and ten of our missionaries (different folks from month to month)  participate.

•      I send out a monthly article called, “An Encouraging Word.” The name is self-explanatory.
•      We are available—sometimes we make ourselves available by making a call—to encourage, pray with, and counsel with missionaries.
•      I send birthday and anniversary greetings to the missionaries. When possible, I send a birthday present to missionary kids.
•       We travel to visit missionaries where they serve. I was recently in Zambia. We are sorting out schedule and other complications for a trip to Guam. I’ll be in New Jersey next month.
•      I serve as a “consulting member” on the LMUSA Board of Trustees. This gives me the opportunity to advocate for the interests of our missionaries.
•      I’m involved in encouraging churches in their efforts in working with the missionaries they send out and/or support.

    ·     When appropriate I am involved in speaking to churches and groups, and mission conferences to encourage Great Commission involvement. On my recent trip to Zambia, I spoke eleven times. I’ll be one of the speakers at the Hudson Taylor, Founder’s Day Event, May 17-19, at LMUSA Headquarters in NJ. If you’d like to join us, let us know.

·       As in any small ministry, we seek to help out where we can.

As we seek to minister to the fine folks who make up our LMUSA missionary family, I am often reminded that they are people of whom the world is not worthy (Hebrews 11:38). It is a privilege.

We are privileged to serve in this way as volunteers. Our personal and household needs are met by retirement income. We do, however, maintain an account with LMUSA to cover expenses. This year I’ve travelled to Zambia, California, and New Jersey. Both of us plan to go to New Jersey for the Founders Day, and we hope to travel to Guam, where several LMUSAers serve. You can donate to our account via the online portal at the bottom of this letter, or write us for other options.

Most of all we thank you for praying for us.

·       While in Zambia I spoke twice at the Amano Christian School Staff retreat, eight times at the Zambia Baptist Association Leaders Conference, and at the Sunday morning service at Luanshya Baptist Church. Thanks for your prayers. I made it.

·       Missionary service can bring stress to families. Pray for wives, husbands, parents, and kids. Pray that Kathy and I will have wisdom.

·       One missionary family I was just with is much in need of a car. If you’d like to help them, I’d be glad to help you help them.

·       Wash your ears out with this. We hear lots of bad news South of our US border. LMUSA missionaries are planting churches, discipling believers, training leaders, and raising up missionaries to reach the unreached. Our team in Latin America is growing.

·       Please pray that we can coordinate schedules to have a productive trip to Guam. Our folks there have had a tough time.

·       Pray that we’ll be creative and diligent to encourage and help these dedicated servants in the LMUSA family, and where possible, even beyond.

By His Grace,

 Howard & Kathy

 

 

 

      Recruiting at the Biola U Missions Conference with colleagues Prisca and George Shakwelele

 

****************************************************

A Supplemental Update from the Merrells:

I have mentioned for a while now a trip to Guam. At first, I mentioned Kathy going by herself, and then most recently both of us going. We have actually scheduled a trip, May 19 – 29.

I’m currently working on details for when we are on the ground on Guam.

LMUSA has several personnel on Guam, and we have several more allies who are involved in ministry at Pacific Islands University, where Kathy and I served for 4.5 years. We want to check on all of them that we can. I’ve also been asked to participate in the PIU Board Meeting.

There was a lot of kind response to our last report, which, described the work we are doing encouraging missionaries. Thank you. If you would like to partner with us in continuing this ministry, please pray and see the link below.

The picture was taken at the PIU staff appreciation banquet, shortly before we left Guam four years ago. The mask around my neck is a reminder of COVID days.

By His Grace, we continue to serve,

Howard & Kathy,