Partner Profile: Joe and Laura Rule

Joe and Laura are extraordinary people. Let me explain. From the first time we met them we've known that they are caring, encouraging, and welcoming people. I guess you could say, we just clicked. They are a young couple, we are too. Lindsey and Laura grew up in the same church.

While meeting them, they shared about their involvement in many different areas of ministry even as a newly married couple. They've helped to build homes as volunteers for Habitat for Humanity on weekends when not at work. They serve at their church helping to lead the missions efforts locally and globally.

They welcomed us into their Sunday School class to share about our ministry. We enjoyed getting to know everyone there, learning how they are already involved in missions, and sharing even more ways they could get involved.

While meeting with them the first time, Joe zeroed in on one of the biggest struggles missionaries face in preparing to leave for the mission field...how to provide for yourself while raising support to leave for the field. Most missionaries face the dilemma: do I continue to work full-time which will provide for my family and delay our departure by reducing the amount of time to focus on support raising or do I work part-time or resign altogether which reduces the amount of money to live on but also potentially reduces the time required to raise support by enabling you to focus on it full-time. Thanks Joe and Laura for helping us in our pre-field journey so that we can continue stay focused full-time on support raising/partnership development and get to the field sooner.

People like Joe and Laura humble us. We don't deserve their support and encouragement. But it is evident that Christ worked in their hearts to have a passion for what Christ is doing in and through Lindsey and I. Joe and Laura's commitment to us through their friendship, prayers, support, willingness to help us connect to their church, and leadership in many other areas encourages us and motivates us to continue serving faithfully as God uses us both in the United States and abroad once we arrive in Uruguay.

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Partner Profile: The Barber Family

Meet Alan and Sherry Barber. We originally met when Lindsey first started going to Trinity Christian Academy in 10th grade. Soon after Lindsey became great friends with their daughter Shannon. Shannon and Lindsey have been friends ever since.

Alan and Sherry have come alongside of us as we go to the mission field in so many ways. They are a couple who have decided to partner with us through prayer, finances, and service, which is an incredible blessing to us.

On a monthly basis the Barbers have shown us that they are behind us by joining our prayer and financial support team. They exemplify the 3 John verse of: "Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth." They are truly coworkers alongside of us, because through their prayers and monthly support they are helping us serve the Lord and His people in Uruguay and Spain.

Another way that they joined our team is through service. Sherry is an extremely talented artist, who has a creative eye for projects. (You can check out some of her work at http://www.stonemanorpress.com )

She has made two display books for us to use as we present our ministry to churches, youth groups, individuals, and other ministries. Through the beautiful display of pictures from Spain, other individuals have gotten a chance to see a snapshot of what life and ministry is like in Spain. Many of you have seen it as we share our stories about Spain!

Thank you Alan and Sherry for your heart for the Lord's work here in the US, but also across the world. It is a privilege to have you on our team and serving alongside of us in so many ways!

Meet Shannon and Noah Barber. Shannon has been a huge encouragement to us as we go out to the field -- helping us with various tasks that help us be more efficient and productive as we continue with Partnership Development. Do these look familiar?:





Most of you have received one of our partnership brochures and prayer cards. Shannon has spent many hours paper clipping prayer cards to the brochures, and making sure we have them ready in time for our visits to churches, youth groups, and meetings. She has made it possible for us to focus more time on meeting with churches and individuals, while helping out our ministry big time! Noah keeps us smiling and is extremely cute! He usually "helps" Shannon out when she's trying to work on the brochures too! Next time you see your prayer card or brochure, you'll know that Shannon has had a huge role in helping us out!

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Partner Profile - Aaron and Carrie Kraft

Did you know that one of the best ways to partner with Lindsey and I is to connect us with other people?

I'd like to introduce you to Aaron and Carrie Kraft (and their two little children Jonathan and Jackie [recently adopted from Guatemala, check out the video]). This past week, Aaron and Carrie connected us to all sorts of people from pastors, to Uruguayans who could teach us about Uruguay, to friends of theirs who wanted to learn more about missions.

Another way that they have partnered with us is to allow us to stay in their home and use it as our home base for when we are in Washington, D.C. They held a dessert night at their house one night for us to share about our ministry with the church they are serving in. We also got to know many of their close friends from that area and were encouraged by all of their questions, advice, and prayers.

Aaron and Carrie also welcomed Brad to preach during both of the church services at their church. Not only did this give us an opportunity to meet another church but also gave us an opportunity to serve the congregation. It is so helpful for churches to get to know real-life missionaries :) like ourselves and begin to connect what they read about in the bible with what God is doing in and through people around the world.

We are so lucky to know this couple and deepen our friendship with them. At DTS in Dallas, TX Aaron and I were able to encourage and counsel one another as we not only were classmates at DTS but also served in full-time ministry at CAM International together for the past few years.

If you get a chance, pray for Aaron and Carrie as they serve faithfully in DC. Also if you get a piece of mail with our Year End Letter for 2008 highlighting YOUR IMPACT, thank God for people like the Krafts who spent lots of time helping Lindsey and I to send the mailing out!

Thanks Aaron and Carrie for the impact you are making on so many people (including us!).

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Partner Profile: Alfie and Karen Pfeifer

Alfie and Karen Pfeifer are pretty remarkable folks. If you are receiving this email, you should have also received a prayer card (click here to receive one if you haven't already), partnership brochure, and other info from us. Without Alfie and Karen we wouldn't have been able to do all of that.

You see Alfie has partnered with us in ministry by serving at CAM's headquarters in a support role. Alfie is a crucial part of our team as he creates our brochures, prayer cards, business cards, and more. When we run out of prayer cards, all we have to do is email or call Alfie and he gets the cards printed and sent to whereever we are within a couple days (sometimes on the same day). It is a HUGE blessing to us to be able to focus on meeting with people and have Alfie doing lots of behind the scenes work for us.

Every 3 months Alfie also lays out our update letters that we mail out and takes care of the bulk mailing for us. All we have to do is email him the text and a picture or two. He takes care of all the rest.

When we were going through Candidate Orientation, Karen served in a different capacity. Karen is also a missionary with CAM and she served by helping to prepare all of the meals for not only us but the other missionaries who were going through the interviews and training. Another thing that Karen does is come into the CAM offices to clean and serve behind the scenes to make it possible for others to focus on their specific ministries.

As you can see, a theme in the lives of Alfie and Karen is service behind the scenes in order to multiply themselves in the lives of others. How many of us are willing to serve without being noticed? Do you ever fall into the trap of taking for granted those who serve behind the scenes?

Let's remember to thank, applaud, and pray for those who serve in capacities where they get little attention but have a large impact. I can only imagine the thousands of people who are praying for CAM missionaries in general as a result of the faithful service of Alfie and Karen.

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