Hope to The Nations march 2016 - scroll down to read

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."

It began with a cough. "It's probably just allergies," we said. Isaiah has them for sure. But steadily the frequency and intensity of his coughs began to grow. Soon it became clear that some kind of sickness had hit us.

Now, we've tried the whole "cover your mouth when you cough," thing with Isaiah, but it just doesn't seem to compute. So the last couple of times he's gotten sick we've made him wear a mask in hopes of keeping everyone else well, and it's worked a couple of times. This time, though, it didn't.

I was the next one to fall victim, waking up on a Monday morning wheezing and coughing. The next one down was Lily followed by Cristy. Finally, Nadia joined us and probably got it the worst of all of us.

When Nadia lies down in one spot for longer than ten seconds we know she's not feeling well.

Being sick is no fun at all. We all felt awful. We needed healing. We needed medicines. We needed an earthly physician to help us with our physical need.

One possible up side to being sick is that it can force us to stop in the midst of our busy lives. I know for me, it gave me some time to rest and reflect and have some extra time in the word. Our sicknesses reminded me of Jesus' words in Mark 2:16-17. People who think they are well don't go see a doctor. It is those who are sick who seek treatment.

We serve in missions because there are people across Russia, Alaska and Canada who are "sick" and need healing. As Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors, so also missionaries are called to be involved in the lives of those who are lost. The gospel message is "good news," but it's good news because the reality of man's condition outside of Christ is such bad news. Our hope and prayer is that God would use us and our fellow missionaries to open the eyes of least-reached peoples of Russia, Alaska and Canada to their desperate need of the Great Physician.

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that [Jesus] was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." - Mark 2:16-17

Personal

  • The Kids - Most of February was spent just trying to get better, so there wasn't a whole lot of big activities going on.
  • Thrive Ministries - Living here in Oregon we also enjoy getting to serve through our local church. This past month I did a video for a family in our church that runs Thrive Ministries, a ministry to the foster/adoptive and special needs communities.

Left: Lily seeing Nadia with a Spiderman mask on.

Right: Lily after Nadia took the Spiderman mask off.

Publications

  • InterACTION - I completed the March edition of our monthly newsletter featuring a story about Russia. Dave and Kay Henry who previously served in Yakutsk, Siberia traveled back there to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of our partner mission organizations.
  • InterAct Blog Site - We've had a blog site for a while now, but I did a complete overhaul on it and transferred it to a new server.
  • Adobe Slate - You've probably noticed that our monthly updates are now in this nifty new format. This service we're using, "Adobe Slate" has had some very positive responses from many of you. So I've begun putting some of InterAct's publications into this same format.

InterAct missionary Dave Henry (left) speaking at the commissioning of Stas Efimov (right) in Yakutsk, Russia. Stas, a Native Sakha man, is now the head of the Association of Christian Evangelical Churches (ACEC) which celebrated it's 25th anniversary this year. When ACEC was founded there were less than 10 Native Sakha believers. Today there are almost 600!

Productions

Right now I'm in the process of planning some travel to all three of our fields where, in addition to spending time with each of our ministries, I hope to gather video footage and photos for future productions.

  • Canada - I will be in Canada the first week in May traveling around Calgary and southern Alberta. I hope to visit at least four of our mission families working among First Nations tribes.
  • Russia - The last two weeks in July I hope to be in Siberia. I will be helping our field director there with our summer internship (EnGage!) team. I'm looking forward to this opportunity to serve. We're excited about a good-sized team this year!
  • Alaska - While a date hasn't been set, I plan to travel to Alaska this year and visit some remote villages.

I hope to travel to Siberia at the end of July to help with our team of summer interns. This trip does incur some extra cost, so if you feel led you can give and help offset some of it.

People

  • Multomah University - I spent some time on the campus of Multnomah University representing InterAct during their missions week. I had the opportunity to talk with several students and share with them about InterAct's work. Several students were specifically interested to know more about our ministry in Russia and I was able to share with them the videos I produced last month about the ministry needs there.
  • The Master's College - The first week in April I plan to be down at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California. For several days I'll be on campus talking to students about missions opportunities with InterAct. I'll also have the opportunity to speak during several classes and some smaller student gatherings.

April 4th - 8th I will be representing InterAct on the campus of The Master's College in Santa Clarita, CA. Pray for good interactions with students.

Prayer

  • Praising God that we are over all of our sicknesses. Praying we stay well now!
  • Pray for my time at The Master's College April 4th - 8th, that I'd meet some students who are burdened for mission work among the least-reached people groups of Russia, Alaska and Canada.
  • Pray for me as I make preparations for travel to Russia at the end of July, specifically for there to be no problems getting a visa.
  • Please pray for our renter in Mississippi to be approved for a loan soon and for our town home to sell.

Please keep us in your prayers. And we'd love to hear from you!

Partner With Us

We are so thankful for the generous support and prayers from our ministry partners like you. If you are not part of our support team and would like to join, please click the link below.

An InterAct Ministry

InterActMinistries.org

Created By
Thomas Slawson
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