Missionaries Write

I recently had five new people join the big family in my target city, the first guy I met here, his son and his son’s three friends. Every time, it just amazes me. However, some things have come up as a result of that, and I just want to be “covered.” Please pray for me.

Ben Wingate

East Asia

While in the United States God has opened doors for me to visit with students at Vanderbilt who maybe interested in missions in Japan, as well as partnering with several churches in Nashville, Birmingham and Mobile to send volunteer teams to work with us.

God has led two young adults- Lea, who was here with the University of Mobile (UM) team and a young man, Con, who is a contact through another student who was from the UM team- to come and work with us for several months. Please pray for them as they make plans to arrive. We are excited about what God has in store for them in their ministry in Japan. Pray for God to provide the financial resources they need for this volunteer experience too.

Also, our daughter, Rachel, has applied for a job at Yokohama International School. She wants to come “home” to teach for awhile. Her husband, Tony, has agreed to come for a year or two. He wants to experience Japan since that is where she was raised. We thank God for his willing spirit. Please pray for Mr. Sullivan, the principal over the preschool department, to hire Rachel. He is to make a decision within these next three weeks. We so want our precious daughter to be able to return to Yokohama, even if it is just for a year or two.

Darlene and Charlie Williams

Japan

We desire once again to thank you for your loving support of us during our years of missionary service. We wanted to share one last letter as our missionary service to Latvia has ended. We now live in Stillwater, Okla.

Moving back to the United States has brought both familiar and unaccustomed experiences for our entire family. They include:

Trey and Trent’s first county and state fair adventures.

Trent attending the same elementary school his dad attended.

A home mortgage payment.

Trey sewing (hand stitching and machine stitching) a stuffed penguin for his life management class at school.

Janet substituting in elementary school.

Monte driving a small pickup truck. Janet driving a minivan.

Monte being on staff at the church in which he grew up.

Being the recipients of a “church pounding.”

Monte has been training the students in ministry group.

Janet is writing for national Woman’s Missionary Union and is working on getting her alternative certification to be a teacher in the local school system. She teaches college students in Sunday School and works within the women’s ministry program.

We are also working with Oklahoma Baptists on projects.

We’ve adjusted pretty well to life in the United States. Yet our hearts remain in Latvia. We believe with all of our hearts that we’ll go back one day to serve among them; that is our heart’s desire anyway. We don’t yet know all the reasons why the lord led us back stateside and we may never. But we do know that He is faithful, and we testify to that day by day.

Monte, Janet, Trey and Trent Erwin

Stillwater, Okla.