After a very short break for the holidays, I had my first meeting of 2010 this past Sunday, at a church in southern Illinois that has supported my family for over 30 years, since the days when my mother was a single missionary (before she met my dad). Also, the pastor and his wife went to school with my dad, and the church secretary is a former classmate of mine at Faith, so I have quite a lot of relationships with this church. I had a great afternoon of fellowship with the pastor and his wife and my friend the church secretary. My presentation in the evening went very well, and the people asked good questions.
This week I've started calling churches again to try to set up meetings, since the holiday season is finally over. Yesterday seemed full of "no's" from churches that are sometimes so short on money that they are just desperately trying to keep themselves and their committed missionary partners going. It's hard not to get discouraged after a day full of such conversations! But today I received an email from a pastor at a church that I had contacted some months ago and had wanted to set up a meeting, but we had never settled on a date, and I hadn't been able to reach them since then. But today the pastor emailed me wanting to set up a meeting, so we were able to settle on a date at last! So I was reminded today that there are still churches out there that are bringing in new missionaries, even though such churches seem scarce sometimes.
In the midst of all this deputation-related stuff, I'm also gearing up for my trip to southeast Asia next month. My visa application should be sent this week, along with those of quite a few others who are headed to the same region at around the same time. Please pray for no visa problems for any of us.
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