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Dear Friend,
We hope that you had a great Christmas and a Happy 2003 Beginning. On Christmas Day we spend some personal time as a family at home, then we went to the home of the Gess family whom we met 14 years ago for the first time and since then have spend all of our Christmas' with them. We have felt blest beyond words so many times over the years to have the Gess's include us as part of their own family. The Gess family is very special to us. We ended the day with a group of former Amish at our home where we played games, ate candy and visited till midnight. For New Years Day we had a house full of former Amish friends. We had a white elephant gift exchange, played games and ate lots of food.
At this time we would like to say thank you for all you did in making the MAP Ministry possible in 2002. Because of your giving and praying the following lives were changed for all eternity.
Sonlight Club
1. You helped send out a total of (5,500) Bible lessons to Amish children and adults.
2. Our students live in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
3. During 2002 (176) new students enrolled which gives us a total of (593) students.
4. During 2002 (8) students wrote to tell us that they received Christ as their Savior. The youngest one was 6 yr old Linda Erb; the oldest one was Katie Hershberger, age 79.
5. We would like to thank the following people for helping us get first time lessons out...Annette Bradshaw, Carol Cockrell, Joyce Mohrman, Kari Carpenter, Kristi Candlish, Lucy Hackman, and Mary Schrock. A big thank you to all the Sunday school classes, VBS's, friends, and churches who helped provide postage stamps. May your hearts be blessed to know that (8) people claimed Jesus as their personal Savior. Many others, no doubt have had their lives changed and their faith strengthened.
Care Package Ministry Clothe Closet & Household items
1. The Ministry received many items from people and churches in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
2. We were able to help out quite a number of Amish and former Amish with the items that you gave. Page two of this newsletter has some of the people's names and thank you's to YOU for your help.
Tape Ministry
1. We praise God for the brother and sister who donated the money for our new Sony duplicator. (For those of you who got tapes from us that are of poor quality/old duplicator, let us know and we will send you better ones).
2. We praise God for the brother who donated (170) battery operated cassette players to MAP
3. We were able to pass out roughly (500—600) tapes during 2002
Bible Project
1. (800) New Testaments and (500) Gospel of Johns were donated to the ministry. We have passed a good portion of these out.
2. So far the ministry has received $500 of the $5000 needed to print the special Bibles/lesson inserts that Esther and I are working on.
Adopt-A-Person Program
1. This year (16) Amish and former Amish families/individuals were adopted by folks like you. To those of you who wrote cards, send gifts, invited them to your home for a meal, and just called them to say hi...THANK YOU! If you are interested in knowing more about this program let us know.
Working with Amish and Former Amish families
1. (12) People received jobs/drivers license/S.S. cards through the MAP Ministry
2. (25) Salvation decisions, (1) baptism (not counting the Son Light Club decisions)
3. During the year we have been able to help out with (5) separate abuse situations. The latest one from a case worker here in Ohio that needed help in dealing with a former Amish deaf girl in her twenties who is pregnant and is being taken advantage of physically and sexually. Please pray for this girl.
4. We have personally been working with (9) Amish families during the year. Very hard ground to plow but such a big need. We/you are just commanded to go...It is God's job to give us power and change lives.
Churches and MAP Presentations
1. During 2002 we had the privilege of ministering/presenting MAP to (38) churches in (8) states. For 2003 we have (13) churches lined up to go to.
New Missionaries to the Amish
I am aware of (2) other missionaries that have gone into full time ministry to the Amish people. One is the Coblentz family here in Ohio and the other is the Beale family in Missouri. Several others have expressed to me that they feel God leading them into ministry to the Amish as well.
Evangelistic Mailing
During 2003 you will hear a lot about the Evangelistic Mailing. It is taking some time to organize this ministry but when all is in place it will be a tremendous out reach tool. We would like to thank Carol Harmon, Kristi Candlish, and Nancy Gamber for helping us enter hundreds of addressees into a database. This mailing will be free to all the Amish and it will cover such items as the gospel story (salvation by grace through faith, not works), personal testimonies from those who have already come to Christ, maybe a small Q&A corner and statistics. Our good friend Eli Stutzman from Canada send us a name for the mailing that we are considering. Those of you that are former Amish will grin at this one...He says we should call it the Zeigness Brief. In Dutch Zeigness means evaluating the preacher's message; brief means letter. Some folks have already started giving towards this project; our treasurer has set up a special category within the bank account.
Your partner in spreading the gospel to some of the greatest people on earth!
Joe, Esther, Jonathan, & Rachel Keim
"Just a few" of our special testimonies from people during 2002
Lydia (Amish) lives in New York
Dear Joe's… I really think we are on the brink of something so huge that we can't handle it. I believe that it will take some miracles and I believe God wants to do it. Sometimes we humans just get in the way when our Father wants to do something big. So lets pray that we can position ourselves so that we are filling the spot that He has planned for us.
Roy lives in Norway
Hi, and thanks to GOD that I found you! I have not had any rest in my mind since I watched a television program about the lost sons and daughters of the Amish families. I live in Norway, and was so touched that I cried in my heart when I saw the tears in their eyes and the frightening hearts; when they told us that they could not turn back to the Amish life style, and they believed they are condemned to hell… "Jesus loves you", I wanted to cry out… I have been thinking and praying every day from that time on. I can't get rest in my soul without doing anything for them! Please include me in your Mission some way… Roy Lindquist in Norway 52, married and have two sons. GOD Bless you and your family
Mary (Former Amish) lives in Missouri
… I can not tell you what a real joy it has been to send out these letters (Sonlight Club Bibles Lessons) with the plan of salvation explained so clearly, to these people. What multiplied the joy many times over is the fact that almost all of the families I've send it to are people we know personally! It was an almost overwhelming joy to be able to witness in this way to my former church ministers, neighbors, classmates, teachers, and even relatives! I'm especially privileged to have the Missouri directory to use.
Dorothy (Amish) lives in Ohio
… It blesses me that someone is reaching out to the Amish. There are a lot of miserable Amish and they don't know why they are miserable.
Sonlight Club
Testimony
Rejoice in the Lord always! You helped me in many ways by becoming a true Christian. You also helped me in many ways to know what the bible is about and what it means. You helped me know how to understand the bible and to memorize bible verses, and to know that I am saved and going to heaven. I like to read the bible more often. I really appreciate your lesson's. You are helping me in many ways.
Charity, age 14
Sonlight Club
Testimony
I learned more about Jesus, and that everybody has sin in their heart when they are born. But we can pray and ask Jesus to forgive us. There are many things I like to do with the Son Light Club. I like to read them because they tell me more about Jesus. I want to keep doing them so I can be closer to Jesus. I love doing them very much.
Lori, age 8
Some of the following people wanted to say thank you -> to YOU for helping them get established physically and spiritually in 2002. These are all people that the MAP Ministry had a part in helping out during 2002.
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