Ten Years and We've Only Just Begun!

This blog is moved to:
mikeandkathysmith.com
We invite you to read our latest. Bookmark and visit for all updates.
Blessings,
Mike and Kathy

2013 Summary January-August

In lieu of our usual newsletter we are giving a summary of 2013 from January to the beginning of August. We know it is quite lengthy, but it has been quite a year. As you read, you will see what we mean. This post brings us to the night before we left for Guatemala. The next post will cover Guatemala and the remaining year.

We invite you to view our Facebook Page at "Mike & Kathy Smith: This Week at JAARS". There we give brief "bites" of happenings here at JAARS. For the following post, pictures are coming!

Mike and Kathy

January:   Mike begins the huge endeavor to begin writing a “Standards of Best Practice” for Land Transportation. This involves a lot of data gathering. This will be ongoing throughout the year. He is also involved in a new Land Transportation brochure.

We begin plans to accompany our sending church, Cape Bible Chapel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on a missions trip to Guatemala in August.

February:   A Kodiak airplane arrived to JAARS to be made ready for service in Papua New Guinea. Mike is involved in training Intercultural Communications Class participants in four-wheel drive, both driving and maintenance.



March:  JAARS Day. Lots of great conversations take place as Kathy is at the Information Table in the hangar. Mike is at the Land Transportation table or taking guests on four-wheel-drive rides. Blog post on our website on March 16 tells about a few of the conversations.

Mike is a regular at the Land Transportation Table

Kathy and Patti Wilson are regulars at the Information Table

To learn more about the Kodiak airplane go to http://questaircraft.com/

April: This month we completed "Family Rounds" and the Cape Bible Chapel Missions Conference. Didn't get to see everybody we wanted but managed to see most. 1900 road miles total—packed and unpacked at four places. Two days home and Mike headed to Florida for a one-week JAARS Aviation event. We mourn the loss of Margaret Zander, a longtime missionary, wife to Forrest Zander "Forrey". Margaret and Forrey mentored us in our early application process with Wycliffe.

Crossing the Bill Emerson Bridge between our beloved Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Illinois.

Mission's Conference at Cape Bible Chapel

Kathy's 87 y/o uncle and his 88 y/o wife, Agnes

Katie and Kathy with Uncle Ralph

Walking dogs at Kathy's sisters

Katie with her Grandmother, Patricia Smith

And of course, all the nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces and nephews!

We are still in preparation for a missions trip to Guatemala. Kathy will use her medical skills to fit people with eyeglasses. Mike will work with a team to repair a water pump at a children's orphanage. 

May:   Kathy’s brother-in-law, Stan McCall collapsed suddenly on May 16^th while at work and passed away one week later. He was 56 years old. Not only was he a dear relative but he was a strong believer and one of Mike’s closest friends. We are still feeling the void he left. He was especially close to our children as well.

Mike and Stan on a camping trip.

We are thankful as we look back at April. We usually don’t travel to Missouri in April but looking back we see it was the perfect time as it would be the last time we would see Stan on this earth. During the April visit Stan was excited to share all the new deep truths of the Scriptures he was learning at a men’s Bible study he attended.

Our daughter, Karen, had major surgery the same day Stan collapsed. We simultaneously helped her through her first few days and made travel plans.

We traveled to Missouri for an extended time for the funeral and to support family. Karen was cleared by her surgeon to travel by flight and made it in time for the funeral. But he morning of the visitation she began to run a fever and had to go to the Emergency Room to be checked due to the recent surgery. Everything checked out fine and it was deemed to be a virus. (What a trying day that was!) 

It was a sweet time with family as the funeral could not be performed until after Memorial Day. Stan’s children and Mike gave the eulogy and it was absolutely beautiful.

Mike, Katie, and Sean headed back home a couple days after the funeral. Kathy stayed behind to accompany Karen on a flight home a few days later. While booking the flight Kathy noted a sudden huge price increase on the day they wanted to leave. A much better priced flight was found but it was two days after they wanted to return. Turns out, there was a good reason for the delay.

A quick picture before running downstairs

A bad storm was heading our direction in St. Louis. It was Friday night and we just enjoyed a nice dinner of barbecue. The weather was nice and I (Kathy) was sitting on the front porch enjoying it. Suddenly we heard the tornado alarms blaring. Karen and niece, Schendell, just left five minutes prior to make a short errand. We quickly called them and they headed back home.

We made quickly for the basement and soon lost power. We lost cell phone service so had no idea what was going on. We just stayed put. We stayed down there until a neighbor came in and ran downstairs to see if we were alright. He told us the entire neighborhood was hit. And how right he was! With it being dark and not having any power, we all went to bed. The following link takes you to a video I took with my phone. It's what we woke up to the next day.

Trees and power lines were down everywhere. What a time of testing for all of us women wondering what to do. We managed to sleep through the night. Kathy, her sister, niece, grand nieces, and Karen. Through God’s provision a friend brought over a generator on Saturday and taught Kathy and her sister, Chris, how to use it. The weekend was such a story of God’s provision and Kathy and Karen left on Sunday. Chris’ power was restored on Monday.

So May was quite a month for us. We still feel the deep pain as we miss Stan so much. Despite this huge loss, how blessed we were to find out Samaritan’s Purse was donating finances toward the purchase 15 motorcycles to send to the Congo.

June:   Another JAARS Day. We enjoyed meeting a group of Christian motorcyclists from Virginia, who donated enough money to purchase a motorcycle for overseas. At the end of the month we enjoyed a visit from Kathy’s sister, Chris. Accompanied by niece and grandnieces, we were able to enjoy a wonderful time. It was also a time of great comfort as we spent time together. We are all still going through the grieving the loss of Stan.

July:  We make ready for the trip to Guatemala. Our financial support for the trip is complete! Mike has been in pretty high-gear mode. Here's a list. 1. Researching and compiling data to write a "Best Practice Manual" for mechanics world-wide. 2. Lots of phone and email consulting, as well as actual repairs to assist the Auto Shop when they need it. 3. Written material for our brand new Land Transportation brochure, that is now hot off the press. 4. Training ICC attendees in four-wheel drive driving and maintenance. (ICC attendees are new missionaries). They have arrived and are scheduling one-on-one time.

Mike has been helping a young couple with five children, serving in Indonesia, go through all the hoops necessary to provide them a suburban for their furlough in the states. They found the suburban. He is working on a few repairs to it, as well as helping them obtain the title, paperwork, etc, so it will be ready. It has been a three-month process so far.

What a blessed ministry we have here. It's rich in relationships, culture, and we get to hear all the stories of how the Lord is changing individuals and cultures through Bible translation.

August: It is now Friday night and we leave for Guatemala in the morning. Mike just told me (Kathy) he received a call from a mechanic in Papua New Guinea requesting he come and do some advanced training there. But for now, I just told him, “Goodnight, dear. We have a flight to catch in the morning. Let’s talk about it on the plane.” We appreciate prayers for safe travels and good health as well as the Lord’s blessing on our work there.

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support.

Mike & Kathy

Speeding Bible Translation at JAARS

Guatemala, Here We Come!

Dear Friends,

This letter is a bit different than our usual update but we are excited to share with you an exciting opportunity before us. Our commissioning church–Cape Bible Chapel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri–is going on a missions trip to Guatemala in August. Through a series of communications and “one-thing-led-to-another”, it looks like our skills can be of great use on this trip. We are very excited to be a part of this team, comprised of both long-time friends and new friends.

Our goal is to spend one week there using our skills to help a wonderful ministry at the Rehobeth children's orphanage in rural Parramos, Guatemala. Every ministry has a God story as to how it came about and this one is no different. Rather than go into detail here there is a website set up with more information. We invite you to take a look around. www.givejoy2one.com We depart on August 3^rd and return August 10^th 2013.

What specifically will we do? Mike will tackle repairs of a water pump station. Kathy will use her medical skills to fit people with eyeglasses. Anyone got any old prescription glasses laying around that you have no idea what to do with? WE CAN USE THEM.

They can be any type, as long as they are prescription. Using an oto-refractor, we will use them to match people with the prescription glasses. We hope to collect 300 pairs of glasses.

We are excited about this opportunity and hope you will consider your part in helping us.

There are several ways you can help us complete the goals of this trip.

•  First, pray for effectiveness of ministry and health and safety in travels.

•  Second, we need prescription eyeglasses. We would like to take a total of 300 pairs.

•  Third, we need donations of anti-reflux medications (over the counter is fine), anti-inflammatory medications, and medications for respiratory problems.

•  And fourth, we need to raise our financial support for the trip. At $1500 per person, we need a total of $3000 and we ask you to consider a one-time donation for this trip. If you choose to support us financially, we’d appreciate knowing your intentions as soon as possible or by mid-May so we can have everything ready for our departure date.

Important details:

•  Please let us know if you will pray for us regularly. We will keep you posted of detailed prayer requests.

•  If you have eyeglasses and medications mail them to the church address below in care of Joel Niekirk, Missions Committee Chairman. If you would, enclose a note stating you know us.

•  If you would like to partner with us financially for this trip, the following is very important. DO NOT mail your donation to Wycliffe. All donations must be mailed to Cape Bible Chapel at the address below. You will need to include a note stating your donation is for Mike and Kathy Smith expenses for Guatemala. You will get a tax-deductible receipt.

We hope you will consider helping us meet the goals of this trip. As you can see, there are several ways you can help. We thank each of you for your continued partnership in the ministry at JAARS and consider it an honor to be an extension of you here, and now to use our skills in Guatemala.

Sincerely,

Mike and Kathy

Address for Guatemala financial support:

Cape Bible Chapel:

2911 Kage Rd.

Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

c/o Missions Committee Chairman: Joel Niekirk

Attach a separate note stating “for Mike and Kathy Smith trip to Guatemala”

JAARS Day March 2013, Includes Dedication of JAARS' Fourth Kodiak Plane

Mike at the Land Transportation display. 

It was a beautiful, clear Saturday. Much prayer, preparation, and passion was complete as JAARS held its first JAARS Day of the year. Once again, we participated.

The day is filled with visitors with a variety of interests. Some come out of curiosity, some want something different to do on a beautiful Saturday. Some are just tagging along with a friend or there are church groups or youth groups. And then there are those who know deep in their heart God is calling them to serve in missions. It is here they can find direction and where their skills and talents can be used. It is inspiring to hear their stories and see their passion with God's call on their lives.

Kathy and Patti Wilson are the regular team at the Information Table in the hangar. There are three Information Table's on the campus. It seems people are always most curious about the planes so the one in the hangar stays very busy. 

The hangar is filled with numerous other displays—sign-ups for plane and helicopter rides, vernacular media presentations, Maritime services, a children's section where games are played, volunteer services where people can connect their skills and begin their journey in missions. Information Technology (computers) have their display in our second large hangar called the "T-hangar". This display is one of the largest as computer technology revolutionized Bible translation.

In the picture above can you see how to find the answers to all your questions about JAARS Day?

This is the fourth Kodiak airplane acquired by JAARS. Through generous donations and God's miraculous provision JAARS acquired this one in January of this year. The Kodiak airplane was designed specifically for missions. This one will be flown to Papua New Guinea (PNG) for use there. PNG has more languages than any other country in the world. The PNG Center there is the largest in the world.

 The control panel of the Kodiak.

Open for a peek inside.

 Gathering the crowd for the dedication.

Director of Aviation, Mike Brooks, introduces John Williams, JAARS Chaplain, who leads prayer for the dedication.

 

  The public joins hands for prayer during the dedication.

Prayers are offered for protection of the aircraft, the missionaries it will transport, the people groups it will be used to reach, and the mechanics who will maintain it. Every aspect of its use was prayed for.

 A Cessna was also dedicated to serve Bible translation in Australia.

Here are highlights of a few conversations we had.

• We met a lovely family with seven daughters. Their fifteen-year-old knows without a doubt she is called to missions, specifically to northern India. This JAARS Day was her birthday and her requested gift was for the family to attend and spend her entire birthday at JAARS. She made rounds to all the displays, investigating each one. Last we saw her, she had an armful of literature. Kathy had an extended conversation with her mother. What an inspirational young lady this is!
• Brian is a father of two elementary age boys. He received Christ two years ago and immediately sensed he was called to ministry. In the light of many older and wiser Christians telling him to take things slowly, Brian shared this calling would not leave him. He could not "not" do it. Brian shared how he then was laid off from his fifteen-year job in computers. With time on his hands and a passion for ministry, he enrolled in seminary. It was humbling to see his profound knowledge and application of the Scriptures. Once again, he was armed with literature and information, seeking the Lord if he is called now to missions. His wife was not there but she shares his passion.
• Two pilots shared how they were from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and came here specifically for JAARS Day. They'd heard of the ministry of JAARS and Wycliffe at their church and thought it was time for a visit. What a joy to meet them.

These are just a few snippets of the conversations that took place that day. It was a full day of inspiration, encouragement, and excitement. JAARS Day is held four times a year. A lot of prayer and planning goes into these. We are thankful to participate. The entire center is busy with other aspects as well. Four-wheel drive rides, boat rides, construction displays with small building projects for the public to do, solar computing, ethnic activities. The museums are open and there are several translation modules presented in the Townsend Building.

If you're coming this way, why not check out the remaining JAARS Days for the year and make a detour to our Center? We'd love to see you!

Blessings,
Mike and Kathy

2012 Summer Fall Update

Americans are a major sender of personnel and finances to translation projects around the world and there are three factors influencing this. First, nationals want to play a more active role in Bible translation. Second, the local population encounters few cultural obstacles. Third, current events show that Americans are now unwelcome in many countries.

With the world in a state of uncertain change, Wycliffe recognizes the need to use resources and talents to enable nationals to carry out the Bible translation work on the local level.

A translation consultant checking the book of Acts with a team of national translators

But nationals have their own issues. They would be active in the work of Bible translation were it not for two major obstacles—good training and adequate finances. We hear many express an interest in becoming pilots, translators, mechanics, and so forth. They say the problem is they can’t get the training they need and they have little or no money.

To overcome this problem and still speed Bible translation, our organization is responding in a new way. Instead of sending people to fill a single role we send people who can train several to go and provide that service in multiple places. The trainers duplicate themselves and remain a resource to those doing the work.

And that is where I come in. After an auto accident a few years ago I realized the need to duplicate and pass on my skills. My contribution to Bible translation could have come to an abrupt end that day. But the Lord had different plans.

While I was recovering I started working more aggressively with our recruitment department. The Lord blessed and our previous updates show how He sent us qualified staff. Our current staff handles the more physical work and I am called upon when problems become complex.

I also began the arduous process of assessing needs world-wide. And it got much more detailed than I ever imagined. For example, I recently went through all the job assignments in SIL and found who  is “out there” working strictly as mechanics.

Once again we served at JAARS Day in June. We had over 700 guests that day. Kathy greeted guests at the Information Table. Josh Mills and I had many
conversations with the public.

One volunteer is selected to receive a free airplane ride each JAARS Day. This time it was awarded to Kathy.

 

I went through over 8,195 names and discovered only eight people functioning exclusively as mechanics and some needed updated training. I am now in the midst of doing that.

After the assessment I focused on trying to recruit and train men who could go to different parts of the world to work as trainer/mechanics. Mechanics from the U.S. who join Wycliffe come to the JAARS Center where I can test their skills. I confirm they are qualified or give them additional training.

Since I began this approach an additional seven men are in progress or recently reached their assignment. I am helping them gather the tools and diagnostic information they need to do their job. The man I sent to Papua New Guinea, Jonathan Smith, has electronic experience so I sent him to train others. I am in the process of locating some test equipment and repair manuals for Jonathan. All of it requires that I study to stay current on technology and then I maintain contact with those who rely on me for answers. We connect through email and Skype.

In conclusion, my defined role is trainer/advisor for the Auto Shop here at JAARS, which  maintains our fleet and missionaries cars on a local level. My role for global services falls under my partnership with the Land Transportation Department. We reach out globally to provide answers and training to our overseas colleagues. Since part of this process involves recruitment, the quarterly JAARS Day provides a connection to the public.There is a lot of conversation that takes place and needs follow-up. 

On the personal front: this past summer my seventy-nine year-old father became seriously ill and tests finally revealed he had West Nile Virus. To complicate things, my mother had broken her should two weeks prior and my dad was her caregiver. In the hospital she would not leave his side. He nearly did not survive and after being hospitalized one full month, he is home recuperating. In the days when he was the most critically ill, he completely lost his memory. We read the brain damage from West Nile is permanent so there was concern about his prognosis. We praise the Lord and are happy to report his memory completely returned! He continues to recover and recently was able to begin driving again.

To end with, we are sharing some photos of road conditions our colleagues face. The photos are courtesy of our colleague, Dan Hudson, of Land Transportation, from his recent visit to Papua New Guinea.

Serving together,
Mike and Kathy

Praying together