Friday, February 02, 2007

February, 2007

We really appreciate each one of you, and we’ve felt your prayers-- especially these past few months. Corresponding with you is very important to us, but with Tom’s health issues we haven’t been able to keep up with you as well as we would like. That being said… here’s what has been going on with us!

Thyroid Tales

In November Tom had his thyroid removed because it contained papillary cancer. The surgery went well; he breezed through the recovery, and by the first of the year he began a stringent diet to get ready for the radioactive iodine treatment that would kill any remaining thyroid or cancerous cells. The treatment was successful, and we celebrated by ordering pizza (which Tom hadn’t been able to eat for over two weeks!) Each step of the process has gone well, and we know that it’s because you are praying. Please continue to pray for him as the doctors figure out the thyroid hormone replacement dosage (this is different from person to person). This is the last step in his treatment, but it’s also the trickiest and can be discouraging when the results don’t happen as quickly as we’d like. Tom is still a little run-down, but is beginning to perk up. And just this morning, Tom’s doctor pronounced him “CURED!” Praise God!!

Thailand Travels

Many of you don’t know that Cathy is co-leading a mission trip to Thailand from Feb. 2-12 sponsored by our church. (We had planned on sending a prayer letter out the beginning of January to fill you in, but that didn’t happen!) Anyway… seven women and a family of six are going to do childcare during a home school conference sponsored by the Asia Education Resource Consortium. The people attending the conference are missionaries serving throughout Asia. Most of these families are so isolated in the countries where they serve that the only education option for their children is to home school them.


Our church commissioned us and prayed for our Thai trip as people gathered around us and laid hands on us at the altar.

The AERC Conference is an opportunity for them to be ministered to by the speakers, meet others doing similar ministry, swap school ideas and materials, and get energized to keep doing what God has called each of them to do. Most of the attendees are Americans who are really grateful that their children will be cared for and taught by American Christians. Cathy will be running the worship/music part of the childcare including leading each age group in worship, putting together a program the kids will perform for their parents (something most of them can’t do where they live!), and building into the lives of the small group of children who will help make the backdrop and props. She also hopes to have conversations with some Thai unbelievers. Check out cathy’s blog for more information:

cathyhowie.blogspot.com

Thailand Team


Sitting on the stage in the KidZone, our church’s children’s ministry, as the pastor tells the kids that we will be taking care of missionary kids. All the children gathered around us to pray for us just after this photo was taken. Left to right: Cathy, Deborah G., Carla V., Nicole C., Amy B., Darla G., and Kevin, Nicole, Lisa, Christopher, Matthew and Michael A.

Won’t you be my neighbor?

When we bought our house in Indiana, we thought the street (Sunblest Blvd.) and town names (Fishers) were really cool names to have in our address as missionaries. But shining our light in our neighborhood has been particularly difficult for two reasons. First—almost half of our neighbors are Christians! (Which has been great fellowship!) And, secondly—the unbelievers we have met really don’t want to socialize…. until recently. Two cousins moved in next door around Thanksgiving. After talking with them a couple of times, we invited them to church, and they’ve been coming! After church this week they volunteered to help with the Easter musical set construction and painting (they are painting contractors). They will only be here until the end of April, so please pray that we, including the believers in our church, will be good Christ-ambassadors to them.

Partnering with Strategic Ministries…

Our Keynote mission statement* begins with the word “partnering”. Since we often do concerts in places where we don’t live, we need to partner with other ministries. On the other hand, since we are able to reach people through music that many ministries can’t, they need to partner with us. Just another example of Christ’s body functioning! Also a good example of Paul’s observation that some till the soil, some sow, while others harvest. The following is a long chain of God using Keynote partnerships to reach students in Brazil…

About 6 or 7 years ago, Kristin, a college student, came to Keynote for our summer project. (Every summer we invite talented college students to come here for training, after which they rehearse with a band and tour for 2-3 weeks.) A few years later, Kristin came on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ in Brazil, where she met Janie (pronounced SHZON-yay) in her local church music ministry. She suggested Janie go to the US and participate in the 2003 Keynote Summer Project. Janie did come and spent the summer in the USA touring in a multicultural band—she plays an amazing basso nova guitar! Before she even met Kristin, she knew God was calling her to do music ministry using secular music (sound familiar?!?), but she knew she needed more training. She came back to Indiana for most of 2005, then went home to Brazil to start a “Keynote” ministry in her country.

Sure of her calling and equipped with Keynote paradigms and material (which she translated into Portuguese), Janie launched Musica & Missao—“Music and Mission”—in late 2005. Since she is the only person in Brazil on staff in this capacity, the going has been slow. But that is starting to change. M & M hosted the first ever Brazilian music summer project this January. (That isn’t a typo. Brazil is having summer right now.) Four Keynote staff made the long journey south to partner with her by teaching classes, running sound equipment, and building relationships with the students in the project. After the two-week training, Janie asked the eleven Brazilian students to pray about joining her in developing an evangelistic music ministry in Brazil with Campus Crusade. THREE students responded that they feel God calling them in this way! Janie is thrilled, “My team will increase by 300%!!” she said in an email. She also said that 3 or 4 other students are stilling praying about joining Musica & Missao with her. Please pray for the students in this Brazilian Summer Project band, the Brazilians who will be in their audiences, and those students who feel God calling them to partner with Janie.

Partnership!! Together with you, we are partnering with a sister in Brazil to reach Brazilians for Christ!!

Please pray for:
  • Pray for Cathy and the Thai team as they travel, and for their ministry in Thailand.
  • Pray that God would continue to meet our needs in His remarkable timing!
  • Praise God for Tom's healing - we are amazed at how He has been with us through every step in the process!

THANKS!!

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Our mission statement

"Partnering with strategic ministries to communicate God’s love through music and the performing arts"
  • Authentic
  • Dynamic
  • Catalytic
  • Worldwide
  • Life Change

Everything we do, from organizing equipment to processing finances, to performing and sharing the Gospel on stage is put through the filter of our mission statement and values.

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