What's Up with Tony & Emily?
UPDATE November 6, 2009: Emily and I moved to Clermont at the beginning of September. My father passed away on October 16, 2009. We thank all of you for your love, prayers and support through this difficult time. We are committed to helping my mother through this transition. For that reason we will be extending our sabbatical for a while, until the Lord shows us otherwise.
In the meantime we are helping to send out teams to South America. Encouraging, equipping and rejoicing with them over what God is doing! I thank God that so many are rising up to go especially when I can't.
August 15, 2009: Emily and I are taking an indefinite sabbatical from travelling overseas. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer right after we returned from our trip to Peru at the beginning of February. The situation has progressed to the point where we will be moving to Clermont at the end of this month to be closer to my parents.
It has been an intense time on a lot of different levels. Through it all we know God has a plan and a purpose and we are resting in Him. However, we covet your prayers for my father and for us during this unanticipated season.
While Stateside I have been catching up on some needed administrative work for the ministry, writing a book, and staying in contact with our South American friends. We have hosted several of our friends from Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica and have coordinated ministry opportunities for them here. I have been teaching at my church and I would like to speak at more churches and groups here in the U.S.
We thank you for your faithful prayer and support of the ministry during this season. Our support for the feeding programs at 2 Ecuadorian churches continues and we continue to support the teams we are sending. It is not all of what I had hoped for this year but we are doing what we can with what we have.
I thought by this time I would be full time in ministry. God knew, and I didn’t, that my parents would need Emily and me to be home for a season when we sent our fundraising letter last November. While we are very grateful for the assistance we are receiving, it is not enough to cut back on work at my secular job. I can see now that God had other designs on this sabbatical time, including selling our home of 17 years and moving to a different sort of mission field.
We have heard from the Lord that this is also a season of preparation for the future. Preparation of the heart. I believe when the preparation is done and everything is in order we will go back overseas to teach and preach, lead missions teams and do what we can to strengthen the Church.
Time and timing… it takes faith to wait on the Lord. This is a good reminder to me that He doesn’t think much of my plans and He is the head of this ministry. I thank you for praying for us as we learn in new ways the meaning of PATIENCE and HUMBLE SERVICE.
Posted by Pat McGuffin
Aug 15, 2009