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As a part of our effort to bring before you the prayer needs of the missionaries connected with our church, I wanted to bring you an update on what is going on with the Gilpin family–Matt, Tara, Lydia, Samuel and Sara Beth. They are currently serving in the Amazonian Basin to help train lay leadership.
They have now been gone for about a year and a half and feel that they are just now beginning to experience some normalcy in their lives. They have had a whirlwind of adjustments. Where they are located, nothing in terms of travel is easy if it is not by air. Just looking on a map, one would not think that a nearby city of about a 3 to 5 hour drive would take 24 hours to get to. Nevertheless, because much of the Amazon Delta is a group of islands, unless they fly, they would have to take the river to get there. Add to this that it is very hot down there almost all the time. Right now they feel blessed that it is the rainy season and so that has caused it to cool down a bit.
All of them are still adjusting to language and continue to work at it. Apparently, there are stages to the language learning process when it is coupled with doing ministry. First, you are very motivated to go out and are making good strides in the language. Then after time, you lose both motivation and progress as one moves deeper into language communication. Then comes the time when you get better at the language but you are still in the slump from all the adjustments and investment. Finally, one returns to the point at the beginning but with much more fluency as well as motivation to go out and make good use of those skills in communicating the gospel.
They are still getting adjusted to having their third baby, Sarah Beth, who was born on December 20th. Matt frequently travels as he goes into the interior of the country which makes the adjustments more difficult to handle.
In spite of all these things, Matt continually told me that God is good and that the Lord continues to bless them and shower grace and mercy upon them as they maneuver all these transitions.
Now I want to leave you with a few praises and prayers on their behalf:
—Praise that they are making it and feeling that they are moving past the rougher parts of their culture shock and transition.
—Praise that Sarah Beth was born normally and without complication and currently is doing very well.
—Praise that the Gilpin Family was able to be in a house off the busy main street and that it has a place for the kids to play around (a rare treat I think).
In terms of prayer:
—Pray that an opportunity to secure a small plane might happen, which would make a lot of things easier for the work in that area where going inland means 2-3 day trips to the next sizable city by boat.
—Pray that an opportunity to be a part of some transition at the local theological and pastoral training center might be a significant way that positive and lasting change could occur in their work to equip lay leadership.
—Pray for Matt as he has 5 different short term teams that will be coming from the summer into November, asking that he might be prepared and that the work for them to do would indeed benefit the national people.
—Pray for increased language learning since Matt’s main role is to do teaching and training for the people. The language level to do that is difficult to obtain. So pray for his focus and perseverance as he continues to grow in his communication skills.
—Pray for their family to continue on the path of adaptation as they deal with the day to day of different foods, different customs, different climate, different relationships and different roles than they have had before.
—Pray above all that Christ would be glorified in their ministry as they work to be ambassadors for Him to the people.
I close this post with the prayer from Ephesians 3 that we studied this past Sunday.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
-NM from the Missions Team