Celebrating 35 Years in Missions

Photo by Jeff Westcott Photography

 

2017 Blessings

We are counting our blessings as we finish this year!

We thought our friendship and life memories basket was already full after our travels and sweet times with friends in the US and overseas in the past few months. But now it is truly overflowing after November!

First to Budapest, Hungary, with our Proclaim community. Always an exciting time together as we hear story after story of new breakthroughs beyond our expectations. Stunned at God’s power and faithfulness on display and our privilege to be part of it. We go away energized for what  is ahead in the coming year.

Then we had the joy of making a stop in Belgium on the way home to reconnect more than 30 years after our time at the Belgian Bible Institute — our first missions assignment in the mid 1980s.

It all started with a class pic that was posted on Facebook and the realization that several students and staff we were close to were still in the area. It really completed the nostalgia fest that God has had us on the last half of this year. What a gift!

Here with the Mas Brothers -- students from Zaire, and now pastors in Belgium. So many memories from BBI plus a Proclaim tour together in the 1990s featuring their music in Poland. 

Thanksgiving dinner of Swedish meatballs at Ikea in Brussels with Mirella and two of her kids Sara and David. We stayed at their house and Mirella was the "hostess with the mostest" taking care of us and organizaing the social events.

Three hours at Pizza Hut buffet was not enough time to catch up with dear friends and music colleagues Jean-Claude and Miriam and another special student Arianne.

And we are glad for progress toward ending the year in the black financially. With all our traveling this year, a few months ago we had a projected shortage of $8000. Now that is down to $4800 still needed. We are grateful for the extra donations and new and increased monthly support, as well as additional prayer support. We so appreciate all who have encouraged us in many ways! 

Going . . . finally!

It was a change for us to do more sending than going in the first half of 2017, and a challenge to do our part in keeping the wheels turning for the tours that were going out. But the second half of the year has kicked off more going — sometimes barely unpacking between trips.  Our plan was to spend the majority of the year focusing on renewing relationships with our support team and seeking new support as many long time donors are not able to continue in this season of their life. The travel part was delayed, but we have been making up for it. 

In this time of more active ministry travel we have a need of $7500 to meet our support budget for the remainder of 2017. There is a deficit of $4500, and $3000 needed for additional ministry expenses. God has already provided some additional monthly support so the total needed is less than it was a month ago! We welcome any new monthly commitments or special gifts to help with the balance of the need. Donations can be made here: ONLINE AT PROCLAIM. Choose JENKINS on the dropdown menu.

Josua and Tabita

Our hearts are full--every trip has been blessed beyond expectation! 

Right after our July trip we made a personal trip to Croatia where we started off with 3 days at the Adriatic coast for our 43rd anniversary. 

Then a very special occasion -- celebrating with dear friends and Proclaim-Croatia ministry partners, the Kovacevic family, as youngest son Josua was married in Serbia. We have known Josua since he was born and have seen him grow into a young man of faith and a gifted musician. Some of you helped send him to play in Jim's Sax 4th Avenue team last year in Greece!

KOVACEVIC FAMILY

We returned to the US and then headed north to Tennessee to meet up with a group of long-time friends and supporters to view together the Total Solar Eclipse. One of this group--and the organizer--was Chap Percival, a science and astronomy teacher and eclipse expert. All of Chap and Bonnie's work and preparation made the experience so meaningful to all of us. It was not only a sweet time with old friends, but a spectacular and rare event.

A few days later we made a long overdue visit to Norfolk, VA, to our original missions sending church where we "grew up" as newly marrieds and were greatly influenced in our spiritual growth. We still have many prayer and financial partners, friends and encouragers there, and were able to spend time with many dear people and visit some nostalgic places.

Our first apartment in Norfolk upstairs from Marj --  40 years ago! It still feels like home.

God arranged the timing so we were able to be in Norfolk for the memorial service of Helena Garrick who made a significant impact on us through her example and her friendship. That relationship with Helena and the family has continued through the years. Countless others have felt the same way, as evidenced by the hundreds of guests who came together to honor her life and faithfulness.

 Later that week we had the opportunity to visit the fulfillment of a vision and passion of Helena's -- the Global Friendship House on the Old Dominion University Campus, a home and ministry to International students, a building that will be completed within the next year.   

One last quick trip was squeezed in to Grace College Homecoming with a special music reunion and performances of some of the music teams from years past. Once again concert choir alumni had a chance to bring back a few of the most performed pieces -- always an emotional experience.  That weekend a new music program of the college was introduced that will provide multi-faceted training for church music ministers. That gives us joy, as passing the torch of church music leadership was such an important emphasis of our dad.

Family at Music Reunion Event

Oh, yeah -- and we had a hurricane come through. There was no damage to our house although many in our city were severely affected. And this year it didn't cause delays in our travel plans as last year's did.

We are not yet done for the year! There will be10 days of International Council and the Proclaim Gathering in Budapest in mid-November. Then we will stop in Brussels for a few days on the way home to visit friends from our time at the Bible institute in the mid 1980s and see what opportunities there might be for Proclaim to partner and assist in evangelism.

We greatly appreciate your prayers for wisdom and for God's provision for the added expenses of going out. Thank you for the partnership with us through prayer and finances in these challenging times.

Sending . . .

It has been an action packed summer as 6 Proclaim teams went out within an 8-week period!

FRANCE       CENTRAL EUROPE       SERBIA         ASIA         2 TO PERU

It has been a whirlwind of activity getting these teams out and we are excited that this summer we have had more teams with more members than ever to date. All this ministry was the culmination of months of preparation involving recruiting and screening new short term participants and working with them, and with the returning members, through their support raising, travel logistics and orientation. Although we did not physically go with any of these teams this time, we felt a connection to each one through our part in their preparation.

Only through God at work in this whole process has this been possible! There were daily problems that sometimes seemed to have the potential to derail everything. But God had a plan and many times we even saw that things ended up being better because of all that happened. Certainly we saw God glorified through it all. Thanks for your prayers!

Family

A summer highlight was a reunion with more than 50 of Kathie's mom's family in Michigan. As we connect with our many family members and friends in Michigan and Indiana, we are overwhelmed again with the blessing that God continues to pour out on us through these relationships.

The Hope of Christmas and All Seasons

We recently returned from the annual Gathering of our Proclaim! International missionary community — over 40 of us who live and minister in six different countries.  Stuart McAllister of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries brought valuable teaching all week, lifting us to a higher perspective on the true biblical hope that is ours, and for which all the world is searching. The more deeply we experience that hope, the more peace we have in the realities of this life, and the more we have to offer to the hopeless and helpless in any society or culture.

We take this to heart as we end a full and busy year. There have been many things that have been fulfilling and rewarding, but we understand that our hope is not in the results of our efforts. There have also been failures from our perspective. But in those, our hope is in God’s sovereignty, his ultimate purpose, and unfailing love.

We are grateful and thankful for you who are part of God’s good purpose and provision in our life and ministry. We wish you a Merry Christmas and God’s blessings in the coming year.

May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our Hope in you.    Psalm 33:22    

                                                                                          Christianity offers a living hope, and sufficient reason for it. It carries assurance that God is at once Lord of the future and Sovereign of the present. That is all the reason one really needs for confronting the very crumbling expectations of modernity with the enduring principles of Christianity. 
Carl F Henry

Hope is not blind, nor is it alone. It is rooted in who God is, what He has done, and what He will yet do.
Stuart McAllister 

jimjenkins722@comcast.net

kathiejenkins@comcast.net

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    JIM AND KATHIE JENKINS    

                                   

                                                                                          

Help Send Josua and Anastasia to Greece

October 8-24 I will lead a saxophone quartet - Sax 4th Avenue - in Greece. Two young people have taken up my challenge to be a part of this team, both from families who are deeply involved with the gospel in their own countries of Croatia and Cypress. Both are vital to the success of this team.

  Make a secure donation at Proclaim International:

Select "Greece Tour" from drop down menu

Jośua Kovacevič has been involved in Proclaim!-Croatia and other ministries since he was very young. He has taken time to hone his musical skills at a conservatory in Austria, and his Christian band October Light has performed all over Europe.

      
 Anastasia Papadopoulou has a radio ministry in Cyprus, Kanali 7, a station that broadcasts Christian programming 24/7 throughout Cyprus and beyond. She is one of the music producers as well as having her own program in the evenings. She will be our onstage translator.

Because the Christian communities in their countries are small and have limited resources, we want to help with their transportation and ministry costs for this project. In total we need $4000 for that need.

If you would be a part of sending these two young people to Greece you can donate at the link above. Thank you for considering this opportunity.

For His Kingdom
Jim Jenkins