Pastor Mike's Blog

Gerden Riemenschneider in India / Article on Larry & Cindy Williams

This past week, Gerden Riemenschneider, an attender of Otterbein Church traveled to Calcutta, India with Dr. Bob Zimmerman, for a short-term trip ministry trip.  Gerden's role is to help care for the dental equipment and other technical needs during their trip.  Gerden has traveld with Dr. Bob in the past, but I know that this particular trip is one of the most demanding that Gerden has ever participated with because of the number of dentists that will be working.  Please pray for Gerden and the team.  Pray God would provide their needs and that they would be able to make a difference in the lives of the people of India in Jesus' name.

If you don't get the Waynesboro Record Herald, I wanted you to have access to a nice article about Larry and Cindy Williams - missionaries we partner with in Mexico.  As you will recall, Tom and Cathy Melloy and Todd Sheldon traveled to Mexico recently to celebrate the completion of the Mazatec New Testament.  Click here to read the Record Herald article.

Two From Otterbein Headed to Siberia

I wanted to remind you to pray for Ann Yorty and her son Stuart who leave on Friday, January 29, to travel to Siberia for a short term missions trip.  Ann and Stuart and their family attend Otterbein  They will be working with the Global Aid Network.

CLICK HERE to read a story that the Record Herald did last week about their trip. 

Please pray for safety as they travel to and from Siberia.  Pray God would work in them and through them as they serve the Lord.  Pray for the rest of the family who remains behind in Waynesboro.

Otterbein Team Still Headed to Dominican Republic

I wanted to remind you to pray for the team going from Otterbein to the Dominican Republic on Saturday to hand out Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.  Everything is a "go" for the trip and we have had contact with the people in the Dominican and they are expecting us and looking forward to our team's arrival.  The team will leave early Saturday morning. 

The members of the team include: Paul and Lori Newcomer, Barb and Denny Peckman, George and Lori Brent, Nancy Race, Teresa Lum, Megan Yellott, Denise Nolte, Ytha Lyons, Patti Hoover, and Pastor Dirk.

Please pray for them as they make final preparations.  Pray for safety as they travel.  Pray everyone would remain healthy during the trip.  Pray God would use them to make a difference in the lives of the people they will be giving the shoeboxes to during their trip.  Our hope is to receive daily updates from them that we will include on my blog and will be posted on Otterbein's Facebook Fan Page.

Otterbein Church Haiti Relief Fund Information

Since we heard about the earthquake in Haiti, we have been trying to determine how Otterbein Church can best respond.  We have been trying to make contact with Pastor Martinez Jovin in Haiti (he is the pastor we were planning to work with when our team from Otterbein went to Haiti on January 24) and have been unable to reach him.  We did hear again today that he and his wife survived the earthquake and their home was not destroyed.  It is unclear however how much damage the house suffered during the earthquake.

Because of our relationship with Pastor Martinez and our desire to help him with his work in Haiti, we have decided to recieve Haiti Earthquake relief funds through our church for anyone wishing to give financially to the people of Haiti.  We realize there are many good organizations like Samaritan's Purse doing work in Haiti and have no concern with people supporting them, but we also wanted to give an opportunity for people to give through the church to someone in Haiti that we know first hand could use our assistance and someone we hope as a church we will be able to visit and help in the weeks and months ahead.  We also hope to be able to get money to him as quickly as possible (through someone we know who plans to go see him as soon as it is possible to travel to Haiti) so he can use it in his ministry.

On Friday, we will provide more information about how you can give to Otterbein's Project Haiti fund if you would like to do so.  Until then, please continue to pray for the people of Haiti.  We also want to encourage you to pray specifically for Pastor Martinez and his wife Emma as they care for themselves and minister to the people around them.  Pray especially for God's provision of water and food for them.

Pray for Haiti

As many of you already know, Otterbein was planning to send a team of seven people to Haiti beginning on January 24 to distrubute animals from our Gift Giver emphasis at Christmas.  We also were going to learn more about the country and work of Pastor Martinez Jovin to determine if and how we might partner with them in the future.  Pastor Dirk and John Horton (one of our Elders) spent time with Pastor Martinez and his wife Emma a couple of months ago during their trip to Haiti. 

Pastor Martinez and Emma have a home in Port au Prince and that was going to be the staging area of our team when we arrived.  We have been trying to reach Pastor Martinez to see if he and his wife are okay and to try to discern whether it is best for us to delay our trip to Haiti. We have not been able to connect with them, but we have heard through a third party that they were seen at an orphanage and appeared to be fine. We do not know the status of their home nor do we know the full impact of the earthquake on his church and in the lives of believers that they minister to in Haiti. We would like to encourage you to PRAY FOR PASTOR MARTINEZ AND EMMA AND THE PEOPLE OF HAITI.  Pray God's provision and protection for them.  Pray that the help and assistance needed for the people of Haiti can arrive quickly.  Pray God would reveal Himself in powerful ways in the lives of people who are seeking Him.  Pray God will help to use this tragic situation for good.

At this time and in light of the news reports we are seeing, we are planning to delay our trip to Haiti.  As more information becomes available, we will evaluate how we at Otterbein can come alongside the people of Haiti and Pastor Martinez and the churches he serves.

You may also remember that on Sunday we shared we have a team headed to the Dominican Republic (the Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island) this Saturday .  We have been in contact with people in the Dominican Republic and they have communicated that they were not significantly impacted by the earthquate.  They are planning for us to arrive as scheduled this week.  Please pray for the Dominican Team as they make their final preparations to go.

If we hear additional information from Haiti or have suggestions about how you can give and pray more specifically, we will post additional information.