Prayer Update, #1

This is a prayer update for Howard & Kathy Merrell, 10/22/2015.. View this email in your browser

Getting Ready: Most of you have read our letter announcing our future ministry.  If you haven't, you can find the information here, and even read more by scrolling around on the blog. Support: Based on CBC's missionary-committee's recommendations, reports of supporters who have already begun sending funds, and one time gifts, we calculate that we have over a quarter of our budget for 2016.  We have been privileged to share about our ministry with our home church and another church here in Covington.  We'll be doing a presentation at a church this Sunday. PRAYER: Several folk have committed to pray for us.  One youngster has blessed us with his requests that we be preserved from solar-flares.  There are a couple of prayer requests at the end of this note. Transition:   We have continued to take steps back from our former role and are taking steps ahead.  Here are some thoughts on one step, mostlysymbolic, but real all the same.  We have begun putting together both an email, and postal mail, list.  Obviously you are on the email list. On November 15, Howard will leave for Guam.  He'll be at PIU's main campus for training until November 27.  Then he'll be in Palau a couple of days to meet with key folk and promote the spring semester at PIU-Palau.  He'll be back in Covington late on December 1. While Howard is in Micronesia, Kathy will drive down to Louisiana, where she'll celebrate Thanksgiving with both boys and their families.  She'll leave the car there and fly back home.  We'll both be here for the Live Nativity outreach our church is doing, December 4-6. While we aren't moving out of our house, we need to make sure it is ready to leave for the four months we'll be gone.  Likewise we need to make sure bills get paid, prescriptions are filled, and other stateside obligations met. Plans Coming Together: We'll be headed to Palau shortly into the New Year. We'll let you know when tickets have been purchased. Our church partners in Palau have already made housing arrangements for us.  We have contacts working on a car, and HM hopes to nail down some other details when he is there next month.  Our new role with Liebenzell USA is taking shape.  We plan to return to the States around the first of May, we'll fly to Louisiana.  Then we'll drive home after attending our granddaughter's high school graduation. We praise the Lord for: The opportunities we have to present the work into which the Lord is leading us. Good news we hear from other Liebenzell ministries. Likewise, good reports that my counterpart Iotaka Choram is having success in reinvigorating the PIU Teaching Facility in Chuuk. Folk who pray for, and support us. That our public presentations, letters, posts, etc. will not only be about our ministry, but that we will encourage others to step up in Great commission ministry. Please pray: That we can get what we need to get done, done before we leave. For coworkers in Palau and Guam.  What we are doing is good, but it involves work on the part of others. That we'll have sense enough to realize what we don't need to get done. We might have house-sitters for at least a part of our time in Micronesia.  Pray that we can use the resources that the Lord has given us to be a blessing. Pray 7.  If you see the number seven remember to pray for us.  Seven is the number of students that would make a core at PIU-Palau.  Let's start praying for 7. We'll let you know when to raise the number. Lot's of travel. The rest of our support team. Romans 8:26 Our home address is: Howard & Kathy Merrell 2106 S. Carpenter Drive Covington VA 24426.  We'll be making arrangements to have our mail shipped in bulk every few weeks, so if you send us a snail-mail while we are in Palau, our response will really be snail-ish.  We aren't sure about the speed of our internet, but we will have some connection, so email will continue to be the best option.  Our covbchm@gmail.com and kmusiq@gmail.com, addresses should be just fine.  We are using my PIU address, hmerrell@piu.edu as our "official" missionary email address, while we are in Micronesia. It depends on having a fast enough connection to use Skype, but we are hoping that our 540 784 1195 number will work.  We'll let you know.  If you are interested, you can find information on how to be a part of our support team here. Apparently Ava takes after her other grandpa, who is from Zimbabwe, where they drive on the left.  In Palau, though some of the cars are right-hand-drive, we drive on the right.  Either way we are moving on. Thanks, H&K