Prestoncrest Missions

Heiderich News Brief - April, 2008

Family Institute of Latin America Website

jgheiderich@gmail.com

Annual Easter Encounters

Easter weekend is huge in the Brazilian church. The men have their biggest yearly event, ENOC (National Encounter of Christian Workers), at the camp in São Paulo. The young single women gather at a retreat center nearby (ENOCÍTA), and the married women meet in Campinas at ENOCA. This year Jerry was a keynote speaker for the 450 men at ENOC and Gail spoke to 60 young single women at ENOCÍTA.

Leadership Couples

At these events we always spend considerable time counseling with Christians from all over the country and setting up workshops and seminars for the rest of the year. The week following these national encounters is an intensive study for church workers in Campinas. This year we were two of the featured speakers. Jerry spoke to the whole group on Family and then we split into men and women where Gail directed the women’s group and Jerry the men’s. These retreats give us the opportunity to spend quality time with preachers and elders and deacons from all parts of the country.

Uberlandia

We spent the first week in April in the city of Uberlandia (3/4 Million) in the state of Minas Gerais. Golf Course Road in Midland, TX is supporting a full-time Brazilian coouple in this city and has been looking for another couple to help them out. We interviewed a potential couple and evaluated how the two couples would work together, including psychological testing and group dynamics. It was a very productive week and we believe both couples benefited from our time together. We were pleased to be able to worship with the loving and growing congregation of about 60 members. Jerry gave the Bible lesson and the sermon.

Other News

One or both of us will be traveling almost non-stop between now and our furlough to the US in June. In an eight week stretch Jerry will be in Curitriba only 7 days! We could really use your prayers for safety and for stamina as we continue to serve God in this unique ministry. We feel blessed every day for the way He has prepared us and for the doors He has opened for us to help strengthen the leadership couples, church planting teams and congregations in Brazil. Gail will be going to the US on June 4th and Jerry on June 19th. We will be in the states until August 18th. Our plan is to visit all of our supporting churches and spend some time with family. We hope to be able to see many of you.

God bless all of you and thank you for your prayers and support.

39 Wishart Drive
Broomridge, Stirling FK7 7TR
Scotland, U.K.
Tel: 011-44-1786-816259
Email: mitchvick@btinternet.com

Hello from Scotland

Just as we thought spring was on the way in Scotland, we found ourselves on the receiving end of more wintry weather. Thankfully, the days are longer and the weather is – slowly – getting better! In the changing of the seasons, as in all other things, God is good.

Congregation News

The church continues to do well. Our new sister Jie is attending faithfully, and Tristan and Leslie Block continue to work with her. We also have her husband Danny and her friend Carey with us regularly in worship. For some in the congregation it has been a difficult month. Anne Carter, the wife of our elder Dick Carter, recently lost her sister Margery Sharp to cancer. Others in the congregation have battled illness over the past weeks. Meanwhile, John Renwick is in the Western Infirmary hospital in Glasgow, where he has successfully come through surgery for the remaining cancer in his liver and colon. His doctors are optimistic that he will make a full recovery, and they continue to talk in terms of “cure,” which they were not doing a few months ago. We are so thankful for his progress and ask you to keep him in your prayers during this tense and difficult time.

Youth Club

At the moment our Tuesday night Youth Club is off because of the spring school break, and it is scheduled to resume in mid April. However, this restart may have to be delayed because of construction work in the school. During the first weeks of Youth Club we regularly saw 12-15 kids every week. Tristan has done a great job with planning a weekly life lesson, and David McCready has done well planning the games. For the moment our youth emphasis is focused on planning a Youth Day, a first for the Stirling church, which is scheduled for June. There will be more information as plans take shape, but Tristan and Leslie are working with David and Emma McCready, as well as our young people, to put things together.

FriendSpeak

Our FriendSpeak program has continued to do well, though it has been a little up and down with the Easter break at the university. Even so, in addition to Jie, Danny, and Carey, we continue to see Cristina (from Mexico), Ann (from China), and Wendy (also from China). Several are progressing beyond the first study book, and we are thankful to see their continuing interest. We hope to increase numbers again once the university schedule gets back to normal, and some special activities are also being planned.

Personal Notes

All is going well for us personally, and Isobel and I had a very good, and MUCH needed, break in the Inverness area for a few days. Even the uncertain weather cooperated, though the snow on the hills meant we were never very far from our winter coats! My mother is doing reasonably well and recently celebrated her 86th birthday. Isobel’s dad is also doing well, though he remains very frail. Robin and Chrissy had a great campaign in Mexico, and were also able to be in North Carolina for the retirement from the Marine Corps of Chrissy’s dad, Matt Ingram. Laura and Clay are doing well also. Laura has left her job with the law office to concentrate on the library work, and hopes to get into a graduate program in the future. Hannah is well, and staying very busy in what should be her last month of academic work (more or less) before “on the job” placements start in May.

We love and appreciate all of you so very much. We ask you to please continue praying for us and for our work.

Yours in the Lord’s service,
Mitch and Isobel Vick

Church News

The month of March is always a busy time for the church in Santiago. March is when Chileans return from their long summer vacations and school starts. This month was no different and actually a little busier than usual because of a few special events that we hosted. One was a singing seminar for local congregations in Santiago that was led by Steve Austin. Steve is the son of our good friends Clyde and Sheila and a former missionary to Buenos Aires. He also is the editor of the songbook that we use and the director of the Gulf Coast Bible Institute where one of our Chilean members, Renzo Mayorga, is studying. During the seminar we learned new songs, talked about the purpose of our praise to God and practiced four part harmony.

Easter also came in March this year and we had our Sunday service as well as a picnic and an egg-hunt for the kids. The last Sunday of the month was our going away party for Mark and Denise Dean and their children. The Deans arrived on the field with us 9 years ago and returned to the U.S. last week. The church honored them with some videos about their time here, special gifts and many kind words of love and affection for their dedication to God and the Providencia congregation.

Thank you to all who prayed for Felipe Montecinos. His whole brain tumor experience has been a journey of faith for their immediate family as well as our church family. His surgery on Mar.7 went better than expected. The doctor was able to remove all of the tumor and so far, there have been no negative side effects. The biopsy came back BENIGN! PRAISES to our LORD! The family met with Felipe’s team of doctors on Friday, and it was determined that there was no reason for any additional treatment. He will only have check-ups twice a year.

Team News

The Deans lived with us for the last two weeks of their time here and Chile as they were finishing up last minute errands for their departure in addition to numerous lunches and dinners with Chilean friends and church members. Our children enjoyed having Pierce and Mikayla around the house to play with. It was a little cramped with four more people in the house, but we all agreed that it turned out better than any of us thought it would. We are still friends after two weeks of living together and we were even sad to see the Deans leave.

Family News

Kelley led worship for the month of March and has started up his small group Bible Study again in the home of church member Erika Labbe. The group took a break over the summer. Kelley has also started a new Bible Study with a couple from the last Marriage Encounter in October. Claudio and Pamela Zalaquet are both financial advisors and have two children. They have recently been attending church and have three or four couples committed to go to the next Marriage Encounter weekend in May. We have been writing their testimonies for Marriage Encounter. This is a long process that takes a lot of editing to get the final draft, but is essential to be the coordinating couple for the weekend. We took over the coordinating couple role for Marriage Encounter from Mark and Denise in November.

The kids are back in school and are enjoying being with their friends again. Duncan is in 5th grade and is playing soccer and recently started playing chess in an extracurricular class after school. Abby is in 3rd grade and is still in choir and started taking drama this year. I guess she is following in her mother’s footsteps. Victoria started pre-kinder and enjoys being an expert in English as most of her classmates don’t know how to speak English yet. Konner goes to pre-school 2 days a week to help him with his Spanish. The pre-school has decided to potty train him for us, which we encourage, but still have our doubts that he is ready as he comes home every day with a plastic bag with multiple articles of wet clothing from his potty training experience.

We recently met Julie’s Niemann cousins! We found out from our distant relatives in Germany that some “cousins” had also immigrated to Chile. Once we received the list of our relatives, we had been unsure of the best way to make contact. In a crazy “small world” experience, we met 2 couples through a mutual friend that know the Niemann family here. Soon after, Jorge & Soledad had us over for dinner and a comparison of family trees to discover exactly how we are related. Jorge’s great grandfather and my grandpa’s great grandfather were brothers. We can trace our Niemann line back to the early 1700’s in Germany. We hope to meet the rest of the family soon!

All in all the Grant family is doing well. We are keeping busy as usual and praying that the US dollar will make an incredible jump over the next few months. As is the case in other countries the US dollar is at its lowest rate in the last 10 years and fell about 15% in January.

Please keep our church family and the Dean family in your prayers.

Blessings,
Kelley, Julie, Duncan, Abby, Victoria and Konner Grant

Santa Magdalena Sofia 577
Las Condes
Santiago, Chile
Phone: 011-562-247-5715
Email: kjgrant99@gmail.com

Dear Friends,

Sorry this is later than usual. I had the good (but unrealistic) intention of writing to you last week during the ETM Intensive Week Seminar, but there was no time to do so.

ETM

Yes, it is really happening! Last week was the Intensive Week of the first ETM basic course since Jim’s death, and I think he would be overjoyed both to know that his vision is extending beyond himself and to see what a great job Larry Sullivan (from Chemnitz) did in teaching it. It is quite a job to teach another man’s lessons. He is 3rd from right in the back row of the photo. As you can see, it is a large group – the largest ever with 14 participants from 6 churches in Germany and Switzerland. What I didn’t realize until we came together is that it is an extremely international group: 5 Germans, 4 Swiss, 1 Hungarian, 1 Czech, 2 Americans, and 1 Russian. Of course, all of them speak German at least as a second language, but the various cultural backgrounds certainly added a special flavor. The group also includes a mother and son; a mother and daughter; and a father-in-law and daughter-in-law, but little Heidi in the front row was not a participant.

Larry, his wife, Pam, Stephan Kallus, and I are sharing the mentoring duties, which means accompanying the 14 through 10 weeks of Bible work and a great deal of self-searching, hopefully motivating and enabling each of them to take the initiative for their own further spiritual growth. It was very rewarding this week to watch them discover where they are at present and begin to get an inkling as to where spiritual growth can lead them.

Over the weekend, a number of ETM-ers from previous years joined us for a brainstorming session about continuing the ETM advanced courses, which yielded several very usable ideas. It was also a time of sharing about how the ETM work has affected their lives, which was basically an outpouring of honor and thanks to Jim, and, of course, I got to bask in the warmth as well. It is good to know that our lives have touched so many and helped at least a few. And it was icing on the cake that Karin, Christoph, and my sweet Swiss granddaughters were there, too!

HEATHER

You will want to hear about my neighbor Heather who asked me if I might be willing to study with her in the Bible. We have had several very good studies so far from the Gospel of Mark, and recently she said she thinks that her 12-year old son, Robin, would also like to study with me. He is very frustrated with the confirmation classes at their church because he wants to know what the Bible says. Apparently the classes are more about ethics and politics. I hope this develops further. Robin is at about my favorite age to teach, and he is special anyway.

DAVID

Do you remember my telling you about David who shared Jim’s first hospital room? Yesterday, for the first time since I last mentioned him, he called me. Apparently he has no friends and very little contact with family, with a long history of hurt on all sides, so that most of his thoughts are filled with his illness and hopelessness. He wanted my opinion about going to Switzerland for euthanasia. Basically I told him I didn’t understand why he would want to hurry to what awaits him after death since he is not interested in going to be with God and must reckon with the alternative. (He says he is an atheist.) I was shocked at my directness, but it started a good discussion about God and Jesus and hope, and he seemed to be listening – even asked some questions. He had experienced what a difference hope in the Lord made for Jim, so I hope I was able to challenge him to spend what time he has left getting to know the One he has been ignoring. There is no telling how long he has left to change directions, so please pray that it will be long enough. After the call, which lasted for about an hour, I felt totally drained, but I will try to contact him again in a few days.

SPECIAL PRAYERS FOR ME

As I mentioned in the last letter, I will be reporting about my experience in European missions in a class at the Pepperdine Lectures at the end of April, and I can certainly use your prayers in my preparation. It is very hard to know what would be of interest as well as beneficial to the hearers. In any case, looking back has been a very encouraging exercise, seeing what the Lord has done. Looking back that is more visible than it was at the time.

My other challenge is doing my taxes for the first time, both German and American. That was always Jim’s job, and although I can use his worksheet, etc., it is a daunting task. Fortunately I have an automatic extension to June 15 because of being overseas, but when I looked at the 1040 instruction book yesterday, I decided to definitely ask for your prayers!

Thank you so much for those continued prayers. May the Lord bless you as you have blessed me with your caring. Gott mit euch!

Your fellow servant,
Elsa Springer

Heiderich News Brief - March, 2008

Family Institute of Latin America Website

jgheiderich@gmail.com

March Maddness!!

Not the basketball kind! Our update is a little late this month because for the last 5 weeks one or both of us has been on the road nonstop!

The last week of February we ministered to two different groups in São Paulo. First we spent three days counseling with a group of 40 Christians who have been worshipping with the Itaquera church. They all left, in the past several years, a church that was very cult-like. They now want to begin a new congregation of the Church of Christ in the area of São Paulo where they all live, but first they wanted help to overcome the hurt and fear they have over their experience in the controlling, manipulative church they came from. We were humbled to see the desire on their part to serve God in spite of the way they had been treated. Please keep these brothers and sisters in your prayers as they begin a church in the city of Mauá.

Next we traveled to the city of Praia Grande to spend 4 days ministering to two families who have begun a new congregation in that coastal city. Chris and Alessandra Kelley were missionaries in Buenos Aires for 7 years. They have now come to Brazil, where Alessandra was born, to work with her parents Francisco and Liduina Lira in establishing a church. Their supporting congregation, Southwest in Washington State, asked us to help them through the adjustment of beginning a new work together. Junior and Patricia Lira, from the Brasilia team, are helping on weekends before they go to Brasilia. He is son and brother to the other two couples. This is a very evangelistic family!

The beginning of March found us back in Florianópolis with the church we have helped back to health over the past 4 years. This time we opened an evangelistic series they are conducting this year on the family. Our topic was Dealing with Crises in the Family. Several visitors took part in the weekend and are now studying with members of the congregation.

March 4-18 Gail was able to fly on our free miles to Dallas to help Angela and Joel paint their new house. What a job! Meanwhile, Jerry stayed in Curitiba counseling and mentoring members of the church here and preparing for the next several trips we will be making in April. He also met with the new Niteroi team on their survey trip to Brazil to share with them about our ministry. They are due to begin their ministry in October of this year.

Other News:

Angela and Joel are now moved into their new place and there is room for Kris and for us when we are there visiting. We thank God for this blessing. Kris is still in Europe. He has been to a concentration camp in Germany and canyon jumping in Switzerland. Such an awesome experience! Please pray for the work we will be doing in Uberlandia, Campo Grande, Salvador and with the Brasilia Team in the next few weeks.

Thank you all for your love and prayers on our behalf.