September 2018 MAP Update

In This Issue

Exciting Updates and Announcements                             God - and You - at Work!

Ministry and Family Expansion                                             CommUnity Crusade

Gabrielle and MAP                                                                    Sarah's Salvation Story  

We are thrilled to wrap up another busy summer with some exciting updates and announcements.

I want to start by giving an update on our New Beginnings housing ministry. The carpet has been installed and the upper-level apartments are fully finished. The only construction left involves installing trim and doors in the lower level to finish off the basement. In addition, we are still searching for good quality furniture to furnish the lower level units. We are also opening the search for former Amish girls who need a home, so we can begin ministering to them and helping them through New Beginnings!

Along with our update on New Beginnings, we have a big announcement. Over the past couple of months, we have been spending time with a young lady named Velda. Velda is from Michigan, and on August 13 she drove to MAP where we interviewed and accepted her as the caretaker for New Beginnings. We will have more information and details in our next newsletter.

In addition to Velda, we are excited to add another member to our ministry team. Stephanie Walters, from West Virginia, feels called to become a missionary to the Amish, and she has made plans to come to Ohio for a three-month internship. We are excited to work alongside her in ministry!

As you know, Esther and I have always had a heart to mentor and disciple young people.  Since January, we have been meeting with Katie, Barbara, Joe, Emma, Noah, and Daniel on a fairly regular basis.  Our goal is to let each one of them share what God has been teaching them; stay tuned.  Several years ago, I discipled a young man named Levi.  In time, he moved to Iowa and found the love of his life.  This past Labor Day, I had the privilege of doing Levi and Samantha’s wedding in Branson, Missouri.  

Clara was given one of two cars that was donated to the ministry.  She is the fifth person to use the car for six months before turning it back in for someone else.  By doing so, the guys and girls can get to and from their jobs sooner. All the while, they can save for their own car.  Pray for Clara.  Transitioning from her old culture has been very difficult and challenging for Clara — and for us, too.

Thanks to the many church groups that have taken the time to visit and tour the ministry. Our times together have allowed us to rejoice and encourage each other in the Lord, as well as pray together.  

One unique group that stopped by consisted of about twelve families from India. We all had a wonderful time sitting around the table talking about the cultures we were born and raised in, and how hard it was to fit into the mainstream American culture.

God has been doing big things through MAP, and we have enjoyed being a part of all His wonderful plans! We look forward to what He has in store for this fall.  Thank you so much for your faithful partnership and prayers.  You are indeed amazing and of great value to MAP.

—Joe and Esther Keim

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Greetings to you and your family from the Girod family. I praise God for sending His Son to die and to be raised up again so I can live forever. That same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave is the same Spirit living in me.

We have been blessed. In June, we had planned to go to Grace Conference in Lake Zurich, Illinois, but did not make it because Joanna ended up being in the hospital with double pneumonia. We were there for six days, but by God’s grace and your prayers, we made it home. The children were well enough in July that we went to a church in southern Indiana and presented MAP Ministry.

We are friends with a family that left the Amish several years ago. They are currently ministering to a young family with five children. The family just left the Amish, so we went and visited them and encouraged them, as well.

We also got to spend a night by a lake in Wisconsin in a cabin that a pastor let us use. The lake is called Devil’s Lake, but we got to see two people get baptized in that lake. From there, we went and spoke in two churches near the community where Polly’s sister lives. Before Polly left the Amish, she would go to her sister’s community every year and spend two months helping her sister. Polly had not been there for seven years, so we were able to go back and visit her oldest sister. We’d like you to pray for salvation for her and her family.

I have an update on the revival meeting in Hardinsburg. It got canceled until next spring, but Pastor McCreary was not able to get a location pinned down in the area, so please pray that it will happen if it is God’s will.

Our August was pretty full, too. We spoke at a church in northeast Ohio on August 12 (we stopped at Beyond Measure Market, in Savannah, OH, on the way back. You should shop there if you can!) and then went to Missouri to speak at a church on August 28. Our next couple months are mostly open, so if you know of any churches that would like to have us come and speak, please let them know about us. We would be thrilled to come.

We would like to find more support than when we first became representatives of MAP. When we began with MAP, I felt the need to get the awareness out there about the Amish and why they believe what they do so that you can better minister to them, but lately I really feel the need to find more support for the ministry, because we have over 35,000 students in the Bible club and 5,000 active students, and we really need more support; so if you know of a church that would like to have us come, we would happy to do so. Thank you again for your support. Without you, it would not be possible.   

May God bless you.

— Samuel, Polly, and children

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This summer marked my fourth year working at MAP. I began working part-time by entering Bible lessons during the summer. Once I was old enough to drive, I began working during the school year. MAP was very gracious and allowed me to work odd hours between my classes each school year.

Over the past few years, I have been able to do much more than enter Bible lessons. I enjoyed learning new aspects of the ministry and being part of the work that MAP does.

This summer, I took on some new responsibilities at MAP, including being in charge of the social media, emails, and advertising for Beyond Measure Market. I learned much, and I really enjoyed learning the ins and outs of how to advertise on social media. My generation is extremely focused on social media and what goes on there, so being able to advertise the Market and its purpose to my generation and others was a summer job I never expected to have. I enjoyed learning the inner workings of the Market and seeing a whole new side of business I had never before experienced.

I look forward to attending Word of Life Bible Institute in Pottersville, New York, this year. I’m very thankful for my time at MAP, and I eagerly look forward to what God has in store for me.                         

—Gabrielle Bouquet

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The Bible Club program is a Bible mail correspondence course, and because of God’s blessings, it has grown and continues to grow. We send out over 4,000 Bible lessons every two weeks, and so far this year we have recorded 229 salvations! To God be the glory!

It takes a lot of work by a lot of people to get the lessons done, and it also takes a LOT of money.  Neither the Bible lessons nor the postage are free. Each lesson costs 25–55 cents, and to mail each lesson costs an additional 35–45 cents. Multiply both of those by 4,000 and you have a good idea of what it costs us every two weeks to mail out the Bible lessons.

In addition to our Bible lessons, we send out delinquent-student letters to get students back on track who have fallen behind, and we send out prizes for our awards program, encouraging our current students to remain faithful. We also have our promotion program, encouraging our students to invite others to join the Bible Club. The work never ends.

The Bible Club program is run almost entirely by volunteers, but we need more people, and even possibly paid positions for data entry. This, of course, cannot happen until God blesses us with the volunteers or the financial means to hire the needed computer data entry people.

I am praying that God will bless the Bible Club with a trust fund or other steady means of support. This could be a gift that will keep on giving long after the person who gives it has gone on to be with Jesus. It would be a gift that will continue to see souls saved for years to come. Will you be that person? If God has blessed you financially, won’t you pass that blessing on to the Bible Club?

Whatever amount you can give, whether big or small, will be appreciated and used to reach children with the truth and love of Jesus. If you don’t have money to give, then come and be a volunteer. Give of your time. There is much to do, and the Lord needs laborers for His harvest. We need graders, tapers, lessons put together, and of course, our biggest volunteer need is for computer data entry people.

Won’t you help? The Lord needs you, and so do we!

Please mark your donations: The Bible Club Fund.

For questions on times and days, please call the office at 419-962-1515 and ask for Tina.

Give online: click here.

—Tina Duffield

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Exactly what does revival look like? Is it a feeling? An experience? A large number of people coming together in one place? Is it repentance, tears, and selling everything one owns? These were the questions we asked ourselves as we began our four-night CommUnity Crusade in Middlefield, Ohio, at the end of June.

We have not given up on revival; we believe it will come in our generation—possibly through the zealous and religious Anabaptists.  When true revival comes, will the church of God accept or reject it? 

Before our CommUnity Crusade began, many of us faced opposition from the religious community in Middlefield.  There were letters, phone calls, hurtful rumors, and some forms of force used to keep our crusade from happening; but despite the opposition, God allowed us to move forward. We had Amish, former Amish, and English come out to be a part of each night; some came as far as Kentucky and Missouri. I had the privilege of speaking three nights. Eli Lee, former-Amish missionary to the people of Nicaragua, also spoke one evening.

After four nights of fellowship, preaching, and worshipping the Lord together, we all went back to our homes. Although there were no big, huge explosions and the sky didn’t fall down, we know that God’s name was lifted high and made known among ourselves and throughout the community. Hearts were surely  changed for all of eternity, and that is something big and mighty!

Our next Middlefield, Ohio, CommUnity Crusade is planned for October 10-14, 2018.  Pray, mark your calendars, and join us.  Jonas Yoder from Princeton, KY, plans to preach the Word of God to us.  We are praying for true and lasting revival.

Also, we are in the midst of planning a missions/Amish Awareness Conference at Black Creek Baptist Church in Black Cree, NY.  The conference will run from February 20-24, 2019.  Mark your calendar and plan on joining us.            

—Joe Keim 

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My name is Sarah Yoder, and I’m excited to be able to share my testimony and all that God has done in my life. 

I am a mother to four precious little girls, and I’ve lived in Wisconsin for the past sixteen years. I grew up in a religious culture where strict rules and guidelines were practiced on a daily basis. I believed that it was necessary for me to follow those rules to an exact T in order to go to heaven. Therefore, I was very dedicated to my religion, even when rules didn’t make sense to me and I wasn’t always happy with them.

I got married within my culture, and my husband and I struggled a lot in our marriage. Because of our struggles, we went through months of counseling. Our counseling sessions kept us from our children for months at a time.

After my husband and I returned home, we noticed some of the same issues arising in our marriage. Since we weren’t able to find answers through our counseling, I turned to the Bible with an open mind and a longing heart. It took a lot to make me turn away from religion and search for something better, because I knew that if I followed anything other than the rules and guidelines of my church, I would be excommunicated from the people I was closest to—including my own family.

When I read verses like Romans 3:23, which says, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and Romans 3:10, which says, As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one, I knew that the Bible was talking about me. This realization put me on the same level with everybody else.

The Amish call anybody outside the Amish religion “worldly.” For this reason, I thought I was part of God’s chosen few, and I felt fortunate to have been born into the Amish culture. I thought I was so lucky. Today, though, I realize that we all have the same need, and that need is for a Savior. Jesus, the Son of God, came down to this earth to fulfill the law and to free us from the law, because we as human beings were not able to fulfill it. He took the sins of the world on Himself, died on the cross, and arose again victoriously from the grave.

Today, I confess that I am a sinner and that I need a Savior, who is Jesus Christ alone. I placed my faith in Him to bring salvation into my life, and I trust the Holy Spirit to lead and guide me for the rest of my days. I rest and have peace knowing that I am saved. HALLELUJAH!

My desire is to now be baptized in the precious name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit! May He use my life for His glory!

————————

From Joe Keim:  Originally, Sarah’s husband, a preacher in the Amish church, left the culture with Sarah and their family.  However, Ephraim’s siblings and the Amish church considered his vow to the Amish church more important than his marriage vow. Therefore, they urged Ephraim to separate himself from Sarah and the children and come back to the Amish church.  Today, Ephraim lives with the Amish in Ohio and Sarah and the children live with the English in Wisconsin.

In July, Esther and I spent the weekend in Rome, New York, where we met up with four Amish teenagers and the Dye family, who has taken in numerous runaways. While there, we spoke at God’s Missionary Church.                 

—Joe Keim

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