Prestoncrest Missions

Heiderich News Brief - May, 2008

Family Institute of Latin America Website

jgheiderich@gmail.com

Elder Preparation

On April 11-12 we hosted a retreat for the servant leaders of the Curitiba congregation. Decision-making was the theme. Jerry and Gilberto led the men’s sessions and Gail led the women. The men discussed how to make the best decisions and how to lead the congregation to growth and maturity. The women talked about how to encourage the men and how to avoid conflict. The purpose of these retreats is to prepare competent men to serve as elders in the near future.

SerCris Training School

During the week of April 14-18, Jerry taught a course on Spiritual Growth for Leaders at the preacher training school in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. He teaches this class and one on Lay Counseling to each group of students that pass through the school. The elders at this church and the teachers at the school have been very supportive of our work and often ask us to help out with graduates of the school as they work with congregations throughout the country.

Brasilia Team Retreat

We traveled to Campinas, São Paulo, on April 30 and spent 6 days at our final retreat with the Brasília team before they move to the capital in January of 2009. This was a training and integration retreat with the leaders of the Brasília congregation and the project support team all present. We did individual counseling with each of the 3 couples, group counseling with all of them and integration exercises with the team and the leaders. Others on the support team dealt with financial concerns, moving issues and how to conduct effective meetings.

England and Greece!!

Jerry had a once in a lifetime experience! He traveled to Europe and met up with Kristofer after classes were finished. They spent three days in London, 4 days in Greece and 2 days in Oxford before going their separate ways, Jerry back to Brazil and Kris to Dallas. They went to Delphi, Corinth, and Athens and took a boat tour of 3 islands. The highlight for Jerry was getting to preach for the Athens Church of Christ where Dino Roussos is the evangelist (he is also supported by Prestoncrest). Jerry’s sermon was translated into Greek, Russian and Belgium. Kris and Jerry were moved to be able to stand where the apostle Paul preached on Mars Hill and where he stood trial in Corinth.

Other News

Next week Jerry will be attending two courses in São Paulo, which will serve to better prepare him for the work we do with missionaries, staffs, and church leaders. He will be studying about Servant Leadership and Mentoring.

Kris is now back in the US and looking for a summer job. Please pray he will find something quickly.

Gail will be in the US on June 5th and Jerry will arrive on the 20th. We will be visiting our supporters and family until August 18th. We hope to be able to see many of you while we are in the US. We would appreciate your prayers for our safety as we travel.

Please Note

All contributions for this ministry should now be sent to the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas: 12700 Preston Road, Suite 210, Dallas, Texas, 75230. We want to thank Continent of Great Cities for handling this for us for so many years and thank our sponsoring congregation, Prestoncrest, for being willing to take on the task. Please write to us if you have any questions about this change.

God bless you all!!

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

Beautiful Scotland!

Today is a beautiful day in Stirling. Just a few short weeks ago Scotland was still getting occasional snow showers. Today the weather is in the 70’s, the trees and flowers are in full bloom, and the sun is shining. It is a day to make us especially thankful for all God’s wonderful care for His children.

Stirling Church News

The past weeks have had their “ups and downs” for us. Our work continues to make progress, with some excellent Bible studies on a personal and group level with Pauline McGachy (Isobel and me), Jie Luo (Tristan and Leslie), and of course our regular mid-week classes. Despite a number of families being out of town at various times, which is normal for April and May, we have had excellent attendance in worship for most weeks. FriendSpeak has also gone well, and we continue to have enquiries from possible new readers. However, we also have been saddened by the news that one couple has left us after some spiritual struggles, and that has been a sore personal loss. We also learned that Bro. Craig Ferrie is moving to Glasgow for work reasons, and he will be missed especially in our youth outreach. John Renwick is now at home and making slow but steady progress as he recovers from surgery on his colon and liver. The surgery went very well, and he goes this week for further check-ups and a progress report in Glasgow.

Youth Club Frustration

Another setback over the past weeks was the news that, because of construction at the local primary school, our youth club for neighborhood children has had to be suspended indefinitely. This has been frustrating for us, because the youth club was going very well. So far we have not been able to find a suitable alternative venue. The plans for our congregational Youth Day in June are going ahead, and Tristan, Leslie, David, and Emma continue to work with our own group of young people to put plans together for this event.

Kirkcaldy “Social”

There have been several opportunities for inter-congregational fellowship over the past weeks. Several of us from Stirling were able to participate in the Kirkcaldy social afternoon in late April. Scottish “socials” generally involve an afternoon of singing, preaching, fellowship, and food (not necessarily in that order) and it was an enjoyable time for Christians all over the country to connect again with each other. Tristan and Leslie were also able to take several of our young adults to a weekend retreat organised by the Dundee congregation.

British Bible School Classes

For the past three Monday evenings I have been teaching a class on Thessalonians as part of the British Bible School extension program. In an effort to make the British Bible School more accessible and compliant to the needs of the church in this country, a trial program of classes which will offer BBS credit has been started here in Scotland, with the first classes taught by Jon Galloway and myself. At present we have between 5 and 12 students per week from 5 congregations, with two students actually taking the classes for BBS credit. I will be teaching a total of 8 three hour sessions in the Cumbernauld church building.

Personal Notes

All is going pretty well for us personally, though the days stay extremely busy. As usual, Isobel’s work at the hospital keeps her very challenged. We are beginning to look forward to late June and July, when Robin and Chrissy will be with us for about 5 weeks. Their work at Sunset is very challenging but goes well, and they are now in their last session of year one. One major purpose of their trip this summer is to look at options for a possible return to Scotland when they finish Sunset next year. Laura and Clay are well in Seagoville and are enjoying being a part of the Landmark church of Christ in Kaufman. Hannah has now finished her regular academic work in the Physician Assistant program at Harding and is now starting a year of “on the job” placements. It has been an especially demanding time for her.

Brethren, we ask you to keep our work in your prayers, especially in the weeks ahead. Thank you for all you do for us.

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

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers. God is truly good!

My trip to California was wonderful, and turned out to be a little different than I had expected.
As you see in the photo, they didn’t just invite me to teach a class about my 35 years on the mission field. They also honored me with a Distinguished Christian Service Award. Originally, the award was supposed to be for both Jim and me, but when he died they decided to go ahead with it for me. Although I am not either used to nor very comfortable with so much honor, it was certainly nice to be recognized and appreciated. It was truly an uplifting week. Just being on that beautiful campus was like a vacation and the weather certainly increased that feeling. Although I graduated from Pepperdine, it was my first time to be back since they moved from the Los Angeles campus to Malibu.

I was only gone 10 days, but on the way to California, I got to have a few days with my sponsoring church, Lake Orion in Michigan, meeting the new elders and their wives and being thoroughly pampered by all. They even let me do a “dress rehearsal” of my class, which gave me a better feeling about it. And, on my way home to Bremen, I made a 24-hour stop in Memphis as well, so that I could attend worship instead of traveling on Sunday. It was a short visit, but thanks to my hosts, ART and AMY, who arranged a gathering for lunch, it was enough time to get to see a lot of dear friends. Thank you again to all of you who made my trip so pleasant.

LADIES’ RETREAT

Monday starts this year’s national women’s 5-day retreat near the city of Heidelberg, and this year, the women of the Bremen church are in charge of the program. It has not been easy to get it together, but now we are all looking forward to it. Please keep us in your prayers. We have been able to delegate a lot of tasks, but STEFANIE will be teaching a class, INGRID will be leading a workshop, and MICHAELA is sort of coordinating things. I will be teaching twice, but both are presentations I have done before here in Bremen. Even though they had to be adjusted somewhat, the second time around is lots easier. There is quite a group of us going – 12, including two visitors.

HARDING CAMPAIGN

The Monday after that (May 19), we are looking forward to welcoming ANDREW, ASHLEY, LAURA and ROSIE, students from Harding University, who will be coming to Bremen for four weeks with CHUCK and MELINDA Hicks offering free English conversation based on Bible texts. Before Jim got sick, we were planning for this year to have a student campaign group without an accompanying faculty member, but when Jim died, Chuck offered not only to prepare the students but also to accompany them. Their stay will be shorter than has been the case with campaigns in the past, but with the very weak dollar, this was a necessary adjustment. Please pray that there is time for us to get to know the people the meet. On this end, the preparations have been a group effort. ALICIA has taken the calls of people answering our newspaper and internet ads and posters, RUEDI, MICHAELA, SERGEJ and MICHAEL have gotten the second floor of the church building set up to house visitors, and I have been encouraging and advising from the wings.

UPDATES

HEATHER: The studies with Heather continue to go well. This week her older son got married, so we didn’t meet, but before I left for California, she asked me for a book to read while I was away. She has been reading diligently, and we will talk about it when I get back from the retreat.

DAVID (who has colon cancer and shared a room with Jim in the hospital): I talk on the phone with David often but don’t seem to be able to get past the outer shell. He has more pain now, which doesn’t help him to think about other things.

TAXES: Thank you for all the offers of help. I was able to talk to a CPA while at Pepperdine who is willing to help me get through it. That comes after the retreat, etc.

I am looking forward to things slowing down considerably in the near future. It has probably been good for me to be busy, but I am ready now to deal with missing Jim in the quiet times, too, and feel the need to take stock of what has been, what is and what should come. Over the years, I have usually stayed pretty busy, but I could rely on Jim’s vision to make sure we were on course. For me to do that myself will take some time and effort – and quiet. Thank you for accompanying me through these changes. Between you and the Lord, I feel very blessed.

Your fellow servant,
Elsa Springer