2004 November

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Happy Holidays to you! Do you remember when you thought it took forever for Christmas to come around? Thinking of Christmas reminds me of one of the most memorial Christmas’s I ever had. It was the year that I turned 14 and my dad and mom gave me a black wool hat for Christmas. I remember how I was so overjoyed and could hardly wait to go to church and show it off to all my friends. By the way that was all I got for Christmas that year but at that time it meant the world to me.

Blessing #1:
Jonathan and Rachel—who is now a teenager—pray for us!, have been after us for probably two years to check into getting braces for their teeth and we always told them it would not be possible financially but in time they talked dad and mom into at least checking it out. When our very good friend and doctor got done looking at their teeth he said they definitely could use braces. Then he said, the normal cost to put braces on two people would be right around $11,000 but he said, I am going to give you a discount which will bring the total for two people down to $1,100. We were speechless and humbled beyond words. Needless to say, both kids are wearing braces now. In October Grace Bible Church from PA took up an offering to help us with out with our portion.

Blessing #2:
It was Sunday morning and our family was preparing to leave for church when Rachel comes running into the kitchen yelling “where is the camera, where is the camera—there is a limousine out front—Oh, it’s coming in our drive.” Our first thoughts were, maybe the president of the United States is here for a visit, or maybe the limo driver is lost and needs directions but then comes the knock on the door. When we opened the door the driver says, is this where the Keim’s live? Within minutes we were all in the limo and headed down the highway because it was Pastor’s Appreciation Sunday and our church wanted to celebrate. None of us had even so much as seen the inside of a limo before. We just felt so blessed by all the love from our church people.

Thank you so much for your faithful support. If we knew that we could swing it, we would just come around to your place and give you a big hug and take you out for ice cream. You are so much appreciated! Each time your gift comes in we pause and thank God for it. We praise God for the two new churches who took the ministry on for support. One from Berlin Heights OH and the other from Mt Gilead OH, the church we have been ministering at. At this time the MAP account is running at approximately $2600 on the plus side.

Prayer Update #1
In our last newsletter we shared two very important prayer needs with you and we would just like to let you know that some of your prayers were answered. On September the 29th I felt a strong leading from the Holy Spirit to go and witness to Katie. It just felt like it was the right time. We called some people up that we knew would pray for us and two of us went to their home and shared the 2,000 yr. old gospel story. A couple hours later Katie said yes and gave her heart to Jesus. Her husband was right there when it took place. He was so overjoyed that he got up and came over and gave me a big long hug. He had been praying for his wife’s salvation for a long time. They are holding their 3 week old twins.

Prayer Update #2
As for Joe and Irene, please continue to pray for them. Many of us have spent hours on the phone with Joe, trying to encourage him to wait on God to draw his wife Irene unto salvation but so far Satan has kept her blinded to the truth and very enraged at her husband for believing anything other then what the Amish have always stood for. The Amish church put Joe in the ban for awhile because of his new belief. They continue to threaten Joe that they will ban him again if need be. The church that Joe & Irene belong to, had their semi-annual communion service recently and Joe said, I went to the church leadership and begged them to relief me of communion service because he said, I could not possibly go through another communion service knowing that I would be double minded. He also told us that he has cried until he had no more tears to cry. Joe is one of the most humble men of God I have ever met. Please continue to pray for Irene and Joe.

Eight of us got in a van one night and drove nine hours to NC to be part of a 3-day soul winning conference that was put on by David Wood. The conference was absolutely outstanding. Our hearts were once again, so burdened to get out and tell people about Christ. It was a real blessing to watch as some of the young converts gathered up enough courage and witnessed to the waitress and gas station attendant on the way home. It is so easy to get carried away with so many good things and forget that millions are still without Christ. Lord, please give us a burden that does not go away.

Co-signing for some of the young former Amish has never been one of my favorite things to do but occasionally we will do if we think the Person is trustworthy enough. In the past we have co-signed for cars and cell phones with the understanding that if one payment is missed it immediately becomes our property until it’s paid up. Several months ago Vernon came to us to see if we could help him get a notebook computer for college. We co-signed for him and then helped him pick out a nice one at Best Buy. In the photo you can see Jonathan (our son) getting him all set up. Vernon leaves for Bible college in January to pick up where he had left off a year ago. We are all very excited for him but will miss having him around.

On October 16th I conducted my third wedding. Roman who is Esther’s nephew got lassoed by a young girl named Jen whom he had met along the way and she never did let go of him. Esther and I had a lot of fun going through the six lessons of pre-marital counseling with them. Roman is the kind of fellow that you only see dressed up once and that is in his own wedding. For their honeymoon they went to see the Grand Canyon. We wish them many happy years together.

God has been blessing the new church that we are helping to get started. Our attendance has been gradually growing to the point where we have been running over 40 people on Sunday mornings. Levi’s living room was so packed out that it was hard to find enough room up front so we cleaned out his furniture shop and built a nice little stage for the preacher, added a wood stove and 50 brand new chairs that were donated. The electric company is going to put electric in this week which will be a wonderful asset for the church. When the electric company found out we were using the building for church services they threw a couple hundred dollars off the bill. Thank you Lord! Several weeks ago a young couple got saved in the morning service. I am meeting with them this Wed to go over a baptism lesson with them. Please pray for Aaron and Abram who are also considering baptism.

Here are some of the things that go on after Sunday’s church services. Ammon on the left has enough energy to move a train. He is being home schooled this year with two of his other siblings. This is something new for the Schwartz family but since their excommunication from the church they are no longer allowed to go to their Amish school. The photo on the right shows what we do when there is nothing else left to do.

Three of our young folks (Daniel, Sarah, and Andrea) are preparing to go on a two week mission’s trip to Africa in February.

As soon as they get there they will be…

1. Joining the process of building a School of Evangelism which will provide Biblical training and education for all the Christian men and women in the Kenya area.

2. Share the gospel with men, women and children who live on the street. There are a high percentage of prostitutes and aids victims who need help physically and spiritually. It is their desire to help an already established care unit in getting these women and children the help and education that they need to support their lives in ways other then prostitution.

This has been a time of excitement for our whole church as we prepare to raise the finances for them to go. The cost for three to go is $6,000. They are raising the funds by baking pies and putting unbaked pizzas together for people who would like to help them out. They are willing to deliver your order right to your door step if you don’t live to far away. If you just feel led to help out financially, you can do so by sending a financial gift to the MAP Ministry, c/o African Mission’s Trip and we will get it to them.

Mission to Amish People got it’s start in 2000 and since then 24 churches have taken us on for support. In October we updated two of our supporting churches by being part of their mission’s conferences. One was on Shinglehouse PA (left photo) where we have come to feel like family. The other church was our own home church where we have been family for 17 years. The photo on the right shows a row of people dressed up in Amish clothes and holding a candle while singing a song about reaching the world for Christ. They did it for us as a surprise and as you might imagine it was a time of letting the tears roll.

The work on the new Donation Center has not been moving as fast as we would like it to but it’s coming along. Right now we are installing the electric and when that is done we will be ready to put insulation and OSB board around the inside. In the photo Pastor Mike from southern part of Ohio stands in front of a big pile of donations that his church had gathered up. The thing we need most of right now is small men’s and women’s clothing (especially long sleeved shirts), bed sheets & blankets, clothes hampers and vacuum cleaner.