TRANSITIONS: NOVEMBER 2009

I am posting here a copy of the current prayer letter that we are sending out this month to all our supporters and prayer partners.  It pretty well explains how we are finally able to get to Ukraine after two years of trying to raise our financial needs. 

                         TRANSITIONS:  NOVEMBER 2009

In 2007 when we came home from India, we needed a new theme for our prayer letters so TRANSITIONS was born. Since then we have traveled across the U.S., sharing our love and enthusiasm for the ministries and people of Ukraine. We had to raise a lot of new support during tough economic times, and some of our Transition time here in the U.S. has been very difficult. But these two years have had a lot of happy moments. Two new grandbabies were born—Lance to our daughter, Laura, and Anika to our daughter-in-law, Lori. What fun that has been! Our other grandkids and family members have given us loads of joy as well. We have met wonderful people from New York to Oregon and many states in between. We have never had car trouble or severe weather problems in all our travels.


But now the big Transition has arrived! We are finally going to the field! We will be leaving for Ukraine on December 3 to begin our ministry of teaching and mentoring the pastors and laymen/women of the churches that World Gospel Mission works with. We have often mentioned that we feel like new missionaries all over again, excited and scared at the same time. That pretty well sums up our feelings right now. We need to empty our house and make arrangements for renters while we are gone. But our biggest concern is for Frank’s mother, Edna Dewey, the oldest living missionary in World Gospel Mission. She will be 103 on February 8, 2010, and it’s hard to leave her. But our Laura has stepped up to help her grandmother, and our son, Evan, will support her and be there if necessary. We praise God for our children. They love the Lord and take care of us.


We are very appreciative that so many of you have stood by us faithfully when our future was in doubt. Thank you so much for that. We must mention that we are still underfunded as we leave for the field. WGM has worked out a financial plan so we can get to the field, but we still need your financial support. The amount that WGM headquarters and the Ukraine Field receive from our ministry has been reduced. And we have agreed to a 20 percent cut in monthly income. As the economy improves, perhaps the Lord will ask you to take support in our ministry. You have heard us talk about the great opportunities and the great needs in Ukraine. You have heard about our ministry of teaching and mentoring. If you would like to be a part of it, we would love to have you as a ministry partner. You can go online to http://www.wgm.org/ and follow these links: Fields—Ukraine—Those Who Serve—Frank and Christine Dewey—Support Our Ministry. That final page will give you various financial options for our ministry.


As the weeks fly by, both before and after we get to Ukraine, you can keep up with our progress online on Facebook. Chris will write almost daily notes on what’s happening. From time to time, Chris will update our blog, www.deweydiary.blogspot.com. We would love to have you as one of our friends on Facebook! It’s fun, informative, and easy.


Praise God with us, and pray for us as we make this huge TRANSITION. We appreciate every one of you!


frank.dewey@wgm.org


A/C 39
Berdyansk 71116
Ukraine

The West and Mountains

I can't leave the Northwest without some reflection. I have always been fascinated by the American West. Perhaps it was because of the old western movies, but probably more because of the wonderful topography, the vast prairies, (Little House on the Prairie and all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books), the wildlife, and the colorful historical characters who inhabited it. Many of those characters had lives that were stranger than fiction. And I can't leave out the native Americans who lived somewhat primitive lives, but had marvelous resiliency and tenacity, as well as their own myths and spiritual elements.

Mostly this past summer I have reflected on Mountains. We were within view of mountains, or at least high, high hills, almost everyday of our seven weeks in the northwest. I love the mountains. They challenge us to be stronger and braver than we normally are. They inspire us with their beauty. They draw us closer to God, not just in terms of height and feeling physically nearer to Him, although that is definitely there, but also in terms of understanding a little more of His majesty and grandeur. I plan to begin writing a series of Bible studies on the significance of mountains in the Old and New Testaments. I was going to start them this past month, but other events have pushed this to the back burner for a while. It probably won't start until after we get settled in Ukraine, but I want to write the studies and post them to the blog here, perhaps twice a month. It all depends on our work schedule there. Stayed tuned.

Yellowstone National Park

Well, it's been two months since I wrote here, but when we got home from the Northwest we had lots of things to catch up on, and nothing much seemed to happen. So I neglected the blog. Well, things are definitely happening now, so I need to get back to it. And I think a good place to start is where we left off.

In my last posting I wrote about the casinos in Montana and South Dakota. After that we stayed with friends in Fallon, Montana, for a week or so and then decided we couldn't leave the northwest without a stop at perhaps our most famous national park, Yellowstone. It is definitely the first national park established. So we headed toward Cody, Wyoming, which we used as our resting place two nights. We drove into the park from the east and were thrilled by the forests and mountains and geological formations along the way. And of course the first part of the park we had to see was Old Faithful. I took pictures from the front side, but the wind was blowing the steam and water vapor sideways, so it really didn't show up very well. But later we were walking behind the geyser along the pathways and Old Faithful shot off again and I got some decent pictures from the rear.

We roamed the park for two days, saw lots of animals (mostly buffalo again), and were fascinated by the geysers, hot springs, mud volcanoes and Yellowstone Lake and River and the Grand Canyon of the park. All of it something everyone should try to see at least once in their lives. We left the park from the northeast entrance and drove the next day over Beartooth Pass, along one of the curviest roads we have ever traveled. We were finally high enough to be at a level with the peak of Beartooth Mountain. In the picture below you can see the bear's tooth in the center of the peaks. We were just about level with the top of the mountain here.

After leaving Yellowstone we had a meeting in the small, small town of Reed Point, Montana, and met some more great people there. We left Reed Point Sunday afternoon and headed south toward home. We stopped at Dalhart, Texas, to see Evan and his family again and stayed there for a day or so. We finally arrived home on August 26 after seven weeks of roaming the northwest.

It was a wonderful summer. We saw our beautiful nation, we met wonderful people, we shared about the needs of both India and Ukraine, we raised some new support for our work in Ukraine, and we learned more about faith and trusting God for all our needs. We have lots of happy memories of July and August, 2009.