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Quarterly Newsletter May 2001
Dear Friend,
Grace and peace be multiplied to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is truly a blessing to be able to team up with you in reaching the Amish people for Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for your prayers—they are indeed being felt. God is moving in the midst of the Amish people and we feel very privileged that God would choose you and us to carry out the Gospel to them.
The first month of full-time ministry has been absolutely great. At first, I wasn’t sure how it would be going from part-time ministry to full-time ministry. Suddenly, I had all day to devote to God’s calling, but I can assure you, it has been very busy and exciting. I feel like a kid that can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Like any other person in ministry, I do not want just an average ministry. I want God-sized things to happen, and I really believe that is possible if we make prayer priority over all things.
Our home church, Bethel Baptist Church, has allowed us to change one of our Sunday school rooms into an office, which has been such a blessing to us. It has lots of room to put our rapidly growing S.L.C. Bible Correspondence Study in place. A friend of ours made a 180 slot shelf for us to store and organize our material in. Someone gave us a desk, hutch and chair. We are in the works of getting our own personal phone line in place. We feel so blessed and just praise God for His goodness.
In the second-week of going full time we
spent 5 days in Spencer, Ohio at a Missionary Training School, that was put on
by D.H. Easter from Alabama. What a tremendous week of learning and preparing
for what lies ahead for all of us. All together there were about 45 missionaries
and a team of 8 instructors. Ten hours of instruction each day was grueling, but
invaluable for all involved. Classes included: Holy Spirit Leadership, Call
v. Burden, Presenting Your Ministry, Deputation, Culture, Nationals, Prayer
Letters Budgeting, Vision, Goal Setting, Finances, Debt, Time Management, Prayer
Life, Marriage & Ministry, Foot Shooting, among others. There were many
times when there wasn’t a dry eye in the whole place.
A year ago I met with a young Amish couple in their home and in our conversation I pulled a Bible from my coat pocket. I tried to share Romans 6:23 with them, but was told to put the Bible away, that they were not interested in discussing Scripture with me. After a lot of prayer and writing letters to them, our family stopped in at their place two weeks ago. They informed us that they are reading their (English) Bible every day. How encouraging it was for us to hear that.
Five years ago we were introduced to an Amish family with 5 children who had come to Christ and over the years we have tried to minister to them through a Bible Study and letters. My heart was broken the other day as I listened to her crying on the other end of the phone. She wants to serve Christ freely but does not find it possible as long as she is a part of the bondage of the Amish tradition. She mentioned how she had a dream of walking along a creek with one foot in the dirty water and one foot on the bank, meaning that part of her is walking with Christ on solid ground; part of her is holding on to the Amish ordinances, which hold her in bondage. Please pray for her, her name is Dorothy.
I had the privilege of being part of an interview by WCRF, a Christian radio station in our area. At first I was very skeptical of the idea for fear of doing more harm to the ministry then good, but after praying about it for several days and talking it over with our Pastor I felt very much at peace about it. I believe it will be of great help in getting the Gospel to the Amish people.
I had the privilege of meeting a former Amish born-again lady over the phone from Pennsylvania this past week. She has committed her life to full-time missionary work but so far did not know where God wanted her to go. I asked her if she thought ministering to the Amish people might be a possibility, and she was very open to that, if God wanted her to, she would. Our family is meeting with her the weekend after Memorial Day. We are very excited about it. Her name is Barbara Borkholder, pray for her to be open to God’s will.
Our family is doing well. School is almost
over and everyone is looking forward to having a break. We took a two week
vacation out West right before we went into full-time ministry. We traveled over
6,000 miles and were able to see the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, the Red
Woods, and so much desert and wildlife. It will be a trip we will always
remember. We slept in a tent for the most part—the kids loved that part about
as much as anything. Sleeping in a tent felt much better on the wallet. The
worst thing that happened to us was the morning I locked my keys in the van.
After hours of waiting and a nice bill to go with it, we were off once again to
roam the West.
The Lord has already blessed the sales of Esther’s cookbooks mightily. The money that comes in from these cook book sales will go toward the costs of the S.L.C.. Right now we have over 100 Amish people (mostly children) enrolled in the S.L.C.. Several kids have written to tell us that they accepted Christ because of what they learned in their Bible lesson. It has become big enough that we are not able to handle it by ourselves any more. Several people have been helping us out and we surely appreciate their help.
The devil is at work as well. I passed out Bibles the other day to four young Amish men on a roof only to have them returned to me several days later. We must keep praying and not be discouraged.
Because of Him!
Joe, Esther, Jonathan & Rachel Keim
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| President Joe & Esther Keim Vice President John Bouquet |
Secretary Jerry & Carol Gess Treasurer Sam Gray |
Randall Collins Harvey & Mary Lou Yoder Eli & Pam Shetler Edna Knight |
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