http://www.graciouscall.org/ Wed, 22 May 2013 15:50:19 -0500 FeedCreator 1.8.0-nukeFEED (http://nukeSEO.com) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-190.html#190 no_email@example.com (Maneuses) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-190.html#190 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-189.html#189 no_email@example.com (Ninjabanja) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-189.html#189 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-187.html#187
]]> no_email@example.com (LeigHe) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-187.html#187 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-184.html#184 no_email@example.com (kridgerd) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-184.html#184 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-182.html#182 The Saga of a Chocolate Cake

The last Saturday of July when I did the object lesson for Romans 8:28 using chocolate cake ingredients, the cake itself must have made an impression. Late one Thursday night less than two weeks later I got a text message from one of our English students who had been at the seminar: “Hello Mrs. Nelson! I’m writing to apply for a cake in the aim to satisfy my grant-sister weeding next sunday at 2pm. S” Since the next day was a national holiday (Independence Day) and the day after a Saturday, I finally replied that I could make a small cake (as I didn’t have time to go into town for more ingredients). I knew there was a big wedding at church on Saturday; what I didn’t realize was that THAT was the wedding S was talking about…

The first hint was after church when another of our English students mentioned that they had waited and waited for us on Saturday afternoon. By the time we gave the cake to S’s big sister (when they stand together I can see they are brother and sister!), we realized that he had confused samedi (Saturday in French) with Sunday. But this way we figured the bride and groom didn’t have to share the cake with others!

I’m sure we have said many things in French that were about as clear as S’s text message was in English! We are currently saying good-bye to many friends as we prepare for four months in the US; we are so thankful for these relationships, all we have learned, and those who have been patient with us.

Missions is often called incarnational ministry – in other words, missionaries live among people and try to show by their lives what God wants people to know. Please pray for us during these last few days in Côte d’Ivoire – may our message be clear and without confusion.

Please pray especially for our trip to Abidjan on Monday, August 31 as that will be 4-5 hours on a public bus. On Thursday evening, September 3 we fly to Johannesburg, spend Friday – Monday early afternoon visiting friends and familiar places, then fly to the US Monday evening arriving in Boston about Noon on Tuesday, September 8. We will see many of you soon!

Clearly, Wayne & Melody Nelson

If you would like to help with the PEDEBE printing project, we have a special project #910 (CI/CDT BEE – manual production) to receive donations; 100% of the money given goes toward reprinting these workbooks. All gifts should be sent to WorldVenture, 1501 W. Mineral Ave., Littleton, CO 80120-5612. For personal support, use the same address and designate Nelson #502 support. Thanks!

Wayne & Melody Nelson (after Sept.
28 Southbridge Road, Unit 402
Charlton, MA 01507
Home: 508-248-9176; Cell: 508-468-0482]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-182.html#182 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-181.html#181
We want to thank the Lord for His wonderful provision for us these last few months. We have been busy with many things in the ministry. In July both Dona and I were at Camp Northfield. Dona was camp nurse for three days as the other nurse could only be there for a partial week. I brought Dona and Julia to Camp for the three days. It was an incredible time for Julia. She was given the opportunity to stay in one of the cabins with other girls. She had a awesome time with them and going swimming. Julia loves the water but she doesn't swim all that well. While at Camp, she also was confronted with the Gospel, and she received Christ as her Lord and Savior. Praise the Lord! We asked her about that as she had received Christ in Ghana, and she said that she really understood what she was doing. While Dona and Julia were at camp, I was shuttling Rebecca back and forth to Holyoke for driving school. Driving School! Yes - Rebecca is now "16" and wants to get her license to drive. I see it now, more gray hairs on my head!

During the week of July 20 through 25 I was camp speaker at Camp Northfield for Junior High. There were 47 Junior highers there, and I got to know a lot of them personally. We had mixed weather with a couple days that forced some changes in the camp schedule. I had two chapel sessions every day and then three seminar sessions. The Holy Spirit was working in the camp that week as 5 young people received Christ as Savior. Three of these young people were neighbors of the Camp Director Dave Byron. Praise the Lord for these decisions! There were 25 others that made re-commitments to Christ, too. Pray for these young people that these re-commitments will not be left at Camp but taken home with them.

We are currently filling our appointment schedule with some new churches and some supporting churches.

Peterson Family news:
There have been some changes in Rachel's wedding. The wedding has been postponed to a future date which has not been determined as of yet. We will inform you all when the date is official.

We have received Julia's green card and she now has official American status. Pray with us, as we will be looking into what we need to do for her to travel back forth with us. We will be contacting an attorney that specializes in Immigration Laws.

Dona is working per diem at Linda Manor Nursing Home. She has been working three to four evenings to cover for vacations. This may change when all the vacations are done with.

We also want to let you all know how our home church has welcomed us home. They have rented and furnished an apartment for us and also helped us purchase a 1997 Buick Park Avenue with 48k on it. This car was purchased for $6700. One of our dear friends used their line of credit to purchase this car and we are paying it back to them. The plan is that we will use the car for our furlough and then it will be sold after we leave with the money being used to pay off the balance of the loan, and if there is a surplus then that will be put in an escroll account for next furlough to purchase a car. If you would like to make a donation to help defray the loan, you can send it to the following;

Calvary Baptist Church
413 Main Street
Easthampton, Ma 01027

Please note that it is for the Peterson's car. It will be directed to the proper account.

Thank you for your prayers.

In His Service,
Jim, Dona, Rebecca, and Julia]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-181.html#181 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-180.html#180
In a recent letter from my older sister Colleen I was informed that my mom had to rush my dad back from vacation in New York to attend the hospital in Hartford, CT. She said, Dad has excruciating pain in upper portion of his neck (spine) shooting up over his head, also pain in his arm.

I called him on Monday to check on him and we had a very nice talk, but he is in a lot of pain with the only reason being given by the doctor was very high blood pressure. Please pray with me, last night he wrote me and told me he is still in a lot of pain and is scheduled for an MRI today (Wednesday).

If God lays him on your heart, please drop him a letter of encouragement and assurance of your continued prayers. His email address is volante_john@yahoo.com As his son I long to be with him in this portion of his journey in life because he has always been there for me as a son.

Home-Sick,
Steve]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-180.html#180 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-179.html#179
We want to write and thank you for your faithfulness in these economically difficult times. We also want to continue to share with you what God has enabled us to do because of your faithful support.

From May 26-June 12, we hosted a ministry team of 15 people from PCC. While they were here, we used them in every part of our ministry. The men preached in our church in Techiman and six of our daughter churches. The men and ladies also taught in our Sunday school programs, our Children’s Bible Clubs, our Christian day school, and in our school chapel messages. In order to broaden their hearts for ministry, they also visited our orphanage and one of our chiefs who has trusted in Christ as his Savior. They had the joy of attending two baptismal services , one in Techiman and one in Bolgatanga, and saw over 16 people baptized. We also used them in visitation in the villages and in street evangelism and public preaching at a crusade in Bolgatanga. While they were here, they and our pastoral staff had the joy of leading more than 100 people to profess Christ as Savior.

On June 11, I flew back to the United States with my daughter Samantha. She will be living with my parents in Manchester, Connecticut. She is looking forward to finding a job, getting her driver’s license, and then finishing her senior year of high school there. I continued my trip by flying to Las Vegas, Nevada for a wonderful mission’s conference with Liberty Baptist Church. After the conference in Las Vegas, I flew to Dallas to attend a two day meeting with the advisory board of MBBMI. In this meeting, I was able to share with them the fruit and goals of my recent trip up into Morocco. (If you are interested in helping with this ministry please contact me personally so I can share the details in a confidential manner. We desperately need your help.) From Dallas, I flew to Atlanta and spent two sweet days with my eldest son Jon and his wife Melissa, who by the way is pregnant and due in February of 2010. I am going to be a grandpa! From Atlanta, I flew directly back to Africa (through NY) with the necessary parts to fix our broken down car in Accra. After the repairs were made, we quickly drove home to Techiman to be reunited with Michelle and the little ones.

Six days after my return to Techiman, we hosted a pastor’s fellowship meeting and the seventh graduation ceremony of Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary. What a joy it was to have pastors from all over Ghana here for three days of oral exams, preaching, testimonies, fellowship, and EATING.

Right now, I am truly exhausted; but in a few days, I looking forward to going to Cape Coast to help Pastor Miguel Triano with the opening service of The Living Word Baptist Church of Cape Coast. Lord willing, Pastor Omar Torres, his pastor from Mexico, will be flying out to visit us here in Techiman on June the 19th, and then be here in Ghana for the first service of the new church plant in Cape Coast on June 26th, 2009.

Thank you for allowing us to represent you here in Africa!

For Eternity’s sake!
Steve & Michelle Volante]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-179.html#179 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-178.html#178 Surprises from God!

With the French soldiers gone, the campus is no longer a camp or miliary base – so we now refer to it as Village Baptiste. Officially the civil war is over although we don’t see major changes. People are looking forward to the elections which are scheduled for November 29, 2009. The change on campus prompted us to consider our future plans as it will no longer be cheaper for us to live here in Bouaké (the French paid the utilities for the entire campus). Although we will miss Bouaké, and especially our friends at church, it seems better for us to be up in Korhogo closer to the PEDEBE (the theological study by extension program) office.

Our biggest loss will be the English Bible study we have after church on Sunday, so one of our first questions was whether there would be a similar opportunity in Korhogo. Imagine our delight to find out that the Bible school needs English teachers – the students desire to learn English in order to read the many resources available to them in that language.There are 23 students at the Bible school, 10 in the year that will graduate in 2010 and 13 in the first year. (There aren’t enough teachers or classrooms for all four years at once.) We will teach four hours a week, which will give us plenty of time to continue working on PEDEBE.


Since PEDEBE desires to become a part of the Bible school and some graduates of PEDEBE go on to study at the Bible school, this move makes sense in many ways. We will not only be producing materials that train leaders for the Cebaara-speaking churches, but we will be helping students who are studying in French to learn English and have new resources that they can use in whatever language they minister. One of our delights in the English Bible study is to tell a little story in English and watch the faces light up as they get the point: some get it in English, some get it in the French translation, but either way they have a new illustration of a spiritual lesson. So we feel that God has given us a new opportunity to serve Him in helping “train pastors, evangelists and leaders of churches.” A surprise opportunity for us!

Please pray for our last three months with our Sunday English club: we’ve had many Sundays of combined services which begin at 8:30 and go until almost 11:00. This means little time for English Bible study. We have shortened our lessons to 30-40 minutes and will try to meet every Sunday, but now we face a new problem. The leaders of the group are university students and this school year has finally begun; to make up for lost time, classes are being held seven days a week in order to finish this year in four months and be able to begin the next school year on time! Some of the students skip classes to come to church, some skip church to attend classes, but all are feeling the pressure!

Milestone:
Sunday, June 14 is our 40th wedding anniversary! We are in the process of planning a special vacation stop on our way home in September. We hope to see many of you during our time in the US from Sept. 8 – Dec. 28. We begin at the Bible school on January 4, 2010.

On a recent trip to our hospital to take pictures, we met this Christian couple who waited ten years for a child. God gave them a surprise: two little boys! When the nurses announced the news to the happy father, he said, “God is strong!”


We serve a strong God who delights to surprise us,
Wayne & Melody Nelson

Wayne & Melody Nelson
BP 109
Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire
011-225-06-77-40-95]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-178.html#178 http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-177.html#177
This Peterson update has been a long time in the making and there are several reasons for this silence. In April just after Easter, my computers graphic’s card died, and then our backup computer’s motherboard died, too. Then I did some traveling to Accra for Julia’s immigration paperwork.

Easter was just a wonderful day, and the Lord poured out His blessing on the Tuobodom church. We were planning for 500 adults and 1000 children for Easter Sunday. The Lord blessed us with 325 adults and 800 children. The Lord used the message to touch the hearts of 17 unsaved people who received Christ after the service. Many have been coming faithfully to the church since then. One of them is the brother of Ben Opoku from the Techiman church. We have been rejoicing over his salvation and his faithful attendance to church. We fed everyone that came Easter Sunday. The woman of the church worked together as a team to cook the food for this event.

We are finally in the Unites States after six months of struggles getting paperwork for Julia to travel to the USA. We had hoped to be back in the states on April 15,th but that was the day that Julia’s Ghanaian passport was issued in Accra. We struggled with getting the passport issued because the Ghana Immigrations would ask for a piece of paperwork one day, and then they would ask for another piece on another. After they received everything they asked for, we still didn’t receive the passport until the 17th. Then we tried to file for a non-immigrant visa for Julia at the American Embassy. Getting an appointment is extremely difficult. I finally had to get tough and demand a meeting with the head of the Consultate. We were finally able to meet with him, and he assembled some of his best people to help us with paperwork. We had a meeting on Friday, May 15, with Department of Homeland Security and Immigration people. Here is where God started to open doors for us. We returned to the Embassy on Monday, May 17, and filed the I-130 paperwork with the Department of Homeland Security. We were told it could take up to 30 days for approval. We left the Embassy and headed to get Julia’s physical done by one of the four approved physicians. While waiting for the doctor to examine her, I received a phone call from the Department of Homeland Security. She said that our I-130 had been approved - an hour and half after filing the application. Praise the Lord! We then went back to the Embassy, and I talked to Nicole in the Immigration section. She had told us earlier to contact her when the I-130 was approved, and she would get us an appointment. When I told her that the I-130 was approved, she said she would call us with an appointment. While at lunch, Nicole called us to say we had an appointment on Wednesday morning at 8am. This all happened on Monday, May 17th. On Wednesday, May 19th, we brought Dona and Rebecca to airport, and Julia and I went to Embassy. In about hour we had an immigrant visa for Julia! Julia and I left Ghana on Delta jet on Friday morning and arrived at JFK at 5pm. So Julia now is a legal alien in America. We will be filing for an American passport for her later this year.

We want you all to know that our home church has worked very hard to make our arrival easy. Dona and Rebecca arrived in Easthampton to our new apartment with it fully stocked with furniture and food. We want to thank Calvary for it’s out pouring of love for us. We are completely overwhelmed. They have also helped us in locating a vehicle to use on furlough. Here is our address for those who would like to write to us; Pastor & Mrs. James Peterson , 30B Davis Street, Easthampton, MA 01027-1623. If you need to call, our cell phone numbers are: Pastor Jim’s 413-626-9288 and Dona’s 413-230-8854.

We have some good and bad news to report to you. Dona’s father, Allen Sylvester, passed away on Saturday, May 30th at 5am. We had a private family funeral on Wednesday, June 3rd. At the same time, Dona’s sister Brenda’s father in law was in very grave condition in a Burlington hospital. We were called last night that he also has passed away. So we will be traveling to Vermont next week for his funeral. On the positive side, I was able to be home for my niece Megan Marshall’s wedding on the May 30th in Taunton, Ma.

God has been very good to us during these times of increased stress. Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Prayer Requests:

We are planning on heading back to Ghana next July 2010 and we are setting appointments for our stay here. We need to raise an additional $1000 a month in support. We know that our God is able to meet this need but we are requesting your prayers that we will be able to raise this amount.

Please pray for Julia as she is adjusting to life in the States, and then as we wait for her Social Security number and green card to arrive.

We ask you to pray for Brenda’s husband’s family in this time of loss of Rodney’s father.

Rachel’s wedding on August 15th, 2009.

In His Service,
Jim, Dona, Rebecca, and Julia]]> no_email@example.com (doulos) http://www.graciouscall.org/ftopicp-177.html#177