Hello Church Family,
It has been almost six months since our mission to Poland. Though we only played a small role in the ministry of some dedicated missionaries, I am reminded that no experience is small if God’s hands are in it. My prayer is that our church consistently relinquishes it’s missions to Him.
I continue to pray for the people we met there and the ministry of the Dowdy’s and the Fletchers. I hope that you will join me in praying for them as well. Our mission didn’t end when we returned in May, it began. I am learning more and more each day that prayer can make thousands of miles drift closer and closer as God begins to build in you the love that He has for the people you pray for. That being said, here is the email update from Karen Fletcher that I received for her October update. You are loved my dearest church family!
Dear friends,
I just looked back to see when my last update was, and I was so surprised to see it was while I was still in the US in August. I was certain I had sent out one since returning home, but I suppose not.
So many people keep asking what it’s like to “just have one at home.” It is very different, much quieter, and less money spent on food but much more money sent to Texas. ha! I still haven’t adjusted to how much to cook, so we are having a LOT of leftovers. But, just for the record, having “just one left at home” does not mean our job as parents are done with the two in college back in the States. In fact, parenting those two is even more challenging from such a distance and a 7-hour time difference. We are SO very thankful for those of you who have stepped in for us as representative parents for Falyn and Tristyn. You know who you are, and we could not make it through this time without all of you.
Falyn is doing well in her junior year now. She is still as busy as ever, taking a full load of classes, working her work study job, and working part time at a church day care. She loves it all though. She is especially excited now because she has been accepted to the Disney college intern program for the spring. In January she will leave for Florida and work at Disney until May. Then she plans to return to England with her university mission team once again in the summer. Please keep her in your prayers. As a mom, sometimes I worry a bit about her overloading herself and not getting enough rest.
Tristyn is still adjusting to life away from home, but day by day, he is growing. For a while, he had an extremely difficult and dangerous situation with his roommate. God answered our prayers, however, and his roommate was moved. For now, Tristyn no longer has a roommate, and we don’t know how long it will be before he gets another one, but we would like for him to have a new roommate soon. He is doing really well in all of his classes, except he struggles with pre-calculus. Please pray for him with this class. In such a short time, he has already learned some valuable life lessons, though we know it is difficult to go through these lessons. Please continue to pray for his adjustments living there.
Daegan seems to be adjusting well to being the only one left at home. He has had a pretty good start to his new school year. He recently took his first PSAT test and will be taking his first SAT soon. He is still praying and exploring options for what he wants to study and do after graduating. Please pray for him as he seeks God’s direction for his future. He is also working on a rather big project of redesigning our church’s website here, which has proved to be a bit challenging. Daegan has a very close MK friend who lives in England coming for a visit next week. These boys are so much alike and love making funny videos together. We are so excited for his fellowship time with his friend. Though Daegan has made some great Polish friends here, it is just not the same as hanging out with an American buddy.
Our family’s Christmas gift to each other is getting tickets for Tristyn and Falyn to fly back home for a few weeks at Christmas. Doyle has always loved Christmas time, and he really misses getting the kids dolls, trucks, and Legos for Christmas, but we think this will be the best gift ever…for the kids and us! We are all very excited and looking forward to being together for Christmas.
Our fall ministries are in full swing now. On Monday evenings we have VOXBOX. The first half of the evening we teach basic English to beginning students and also present a Bible lesson. For the second half, we have intermediate and advanced English learners, and we usually have a themed presentation with interactive conversation, games, etc. This takes a lot of planning and creativity. Next week we are wrapping up a series on the five love languages. Each week we have our regulars and each week we have new people show up. Daegan is very involved in this also and helps lead a group of teenagers who come to these meetings. Please pray for us as we make plans for the next theme and for those whom God brings to us. Some names you can pray for are Helena, Sergey, and Tatiana.
On Tuesdays during the day we meet at a coffee shop called Sweet Surrender that is run by some other American missionaries. We meet to have one-on-one English conversation with those who sign up to meet with us. This is a great time for them to practice English conversation, and it is a perfect opportunity for us to have open conversation and build relationships. Please pray for Justyna, a young Christian mom with 3 small children struggling with parenting. Pray for Teresa, a young mom, and Arok, a Korean woman who has no faith at all. Also pray for Karol and Agnieszka, a young dating couple who are seeking truth.
On Thursday evenings we have a small group Bible study in our home where we study one chapter of a book each week. We will soon be finishing up Philippians and starting a new book. This study is a mixture of Polish and English, as we have several older Polish ladies and an American businessman coming. Please pray for Dave and his wife Anna. He is an American believer, but his wife is not, and they are struggling. Dave has also invited his co-worker and his wife, Andrzej and Monika. They are very open and seeking truth. Please pray for Andrzej and Monika as well.
On Fridays Daegan participates in a youth Bible study at our church. It is mostly Polish and very difficult for him to understand, but he continues to attend and try to interact. Please pray for those youth who come to this study as some are seeking. Please pray that Daegan can be a light there as well.
On alternating Sundays, Doyle and I are leading the youth Bible study class at church. Please pray for us as we seek to be used by God during this time.
And, as always, we are back at our Polish language lessons. We will forever be learning this language. There is a joke that in heaven people will speak Polish because it takes an eternity to learn it. Please pray for our language learning. As Doyle is an evangelist and his spiritual gift is all things evangelism, he really struggles not being able to share his heart in Polish as well as he does in English. Pray for miraculous breakthroughs in our language.
Please continue to pray for our health as well. We have seen how Satan can hinder our work through our health. I will be having a biopsy on my thyroid in November, so please pray for good results. I have had this done in the US in 2009, but I have some other larger nodules that are probably fine but need to be biopsied to be safe. I feel fine, however, and have no other problematic symptoms.
As I have said before, if you or a group from your church would like to join us for a short-term mission, we would love to have you here. Just let us know, and we will start planning. Please write to us also and tell us your updates and prayer needs. We are a body to minister to one another. Thank you for keeping up with us and praying for our family and ministry.
Karen (for the Fletchers)