Thank you for your prayers during our recent ministry in K'stan

We really felt the power. With all the logistical issues concerning visas and flights it was truly a miracle our 10 member team even arrived in the country. This was one of the finest bands in both musicianship and character I've had the opportunity to work with. In spite of challenges and sometimes rugged conditions team unity was high.

This country is truly interesting and challenging.  It is three times larger than Texas but with a population of only about 16 million.  The people are either Kazak (Asian) or Russian heritage and each group has their own language.  We spoke to people either in English or through translators.  We found them to be warm and open people eager to talk with us.



Most of our time was spent in or around the city of Chimkent with our last couple of days in Almaty.  We made connections with people primarily through daytime concerts at various colleges such as a music college, a business school, a language school and even fashion and art and cooking schools.


Our venues looked more like back alleys between buildings rather than traditional concert halls but in each place we had good conversations with students.


The first couple days when rain was a problem for the big stage set up, Kim, Todd and I pulled out the music we have been doing in our outreach in Jacksonville, added percussion, and were able to carry on in spite of the rain and keep people engaged. 

Because of government regulations, we were extremely limited as to what we could share from the stage, but because drug and alcohol addiction are such a deep concern throughout the country we had freedom to address that issue. That gave an opportunity for one of our members to tell the story of his journey out of addiction and the part that his faith played in his recovery.  Our final concert was in a faith-based facility that helps recovering addicts learn tools to re-enter society. 

Please continue to pray for your brothers and sisters in this country who are valiantly standing up for the gospel.


Thanks for the photos Terri Smalley  

Donate online to our ministry with Proclaim

Glory be to God on High

See our latest news at the link below including a little about our experience at the Proclaim Gathering in Germany and some plans for 2013. You will also get this in the mail if you are on our newsletter mailing list.

Never are we more thankful for our blessings than at this time when we celebrate the coming of the Word made flesh.

                                                       SEE JENKINS JAZZ DECEMBER NEWS                                                         

God invisible appears

Endless ages wrapped in years

He has come who cannot change

And JESUS is His name 

Tax deductible donations to Proclaim! preferenced for our ministry can be made at the Donate link on the sidebar of this site.                                                  

Proclaim in Asia

Our Proclaim team has just returned from three weeks in China where they were overwhelmed with the opportunities and open doors. The amazing thing was the openness of the people -- in the market place, in restaurants, on public transportation, in schools . . . There is freedom to share your faith and people are open to hear these challenging ideas and to interact. Proclaiming can't be done in the public way that has been our main Proclaim model, but just as we have adapted our approach in other less open cultures, we are seeing many innovative ways to have an impact there.

Our whole Tuesday morning Jacksonville staff meeting last week was spent learning about the intriguing ways we can work with believers there, and hearing how things have already been set in motion on this tour -- still using the arts to teach and communicate. God is so endlessly creative! The group went with only a vague idea of what they would be doing once they arrived. But God had put together a team that was ready to connect and build bridges through their gifts and passions.

Rino, our team leader in Proclaim!-Peru, was in demand as students at a music school saw mime in action for the first time and couldn't get enough of the basics he taught them in mime and movement. John and Diana gave voice lessons non-stop. Charles, a Proclaim-Jacksonville board member with an engineering background, connected in a special way with an unbeliever who traveled with the team as a translator and is  studying in that same field. 

Plans are already developing and tentative dates are forming for various projects that are coming out of the areas of exposure on this trip. A bit ironically, at the very time we were talking about these exciting new possibilities, our fellow citizens were in the process of setting a course for our country that could have a profound impact on how we continue to do ministry. That makes it all the more exciting as we have no basis for hope on a human level of success in expanding our ministries to include something this far reaching. God's provision and opening of doors will be undeniable and miraculous.

Proclaim GO Tournament Golf Fundraiser

This week on Tuesday we are having a golf tournament fund raising event -- our first for this bunch of non-golfers. The response has been weaker than we had hoped, so we are trusting God for what he wants to do through it. We know that even in this last day before the event we could get more golfers or financial sponsors. If not, God is still at work and we rejoice in what He is going to accomplish in His way. If you have not heard about the GO TOURNAMENT here is a link with details. Would you be praying that this will be a God-honoring event.

PROCLAIM GO TOURNAMENT

Sound, Silence, Heat and Treat

Kim, Todd and Jim have been regularly frequenting the park at nearby San Marco on Friday evenings to play and share truth with people out enjoying the milder fall weather.

 Last weekend Rino was here from Peru so he added interest with his mime act to the music.

They have recently been able to share the stage with a group of fire performers headed up by a professor at the local state college. The guys play for about an hour and then do some background music for the transition into the fire act when it gets darker. 

We have started to develop relationships with some of the regulars to the park and with some shop keepers on the square and have had some good conversations.

Earlier in the week a church event - TRUNK OR TREAT - was the setting for some tunes like The Munsters, Star Trek, Alfred Hitchcock Theme, Purple People Eater,Candy, and Candy Man. 

Cars lined up in the parking lot and treats and tracts  were handed out from the trunk to local trick-or-treaters. It was another opportunity to reach out to people from the surrounding neighborhoods.

 

Powering Up then Heading Out

We're going into an exciting and crazy busy week as July flies into August. Sunday night kicked off an annual week-long event that we get to be involved in this year. Power Up Clubs, led by teens in our church, meet in front yards of host homes all over the city. There are 78 clubs that meet either in the morning or 1 of 2 evening slots each day. So each team of young people puts on 3 clubs a day. They "camp out" at the church and have a full schedule of preparing and leading the clubs, then ending the day with a late evening worship time together.

As our part, we are helping host the club that meets at the church -- serving 2 large neighboring apartment complexes. Then Jim is in the band for evening worship sessions. The evening clubs started Sunday night and it was a wet start. The clubs that meet at 5:00 (including  ours) were timed perfectly to get drenched by about a 45-minute deluge! Water day was planned for mid-week, but God has his own event schedule. On Friday evening there will be a big Power Surge final event to further connect with families from the week. Please pray with us that this week many children and their parents will be introduced to the Savior! 

This week is also the first introduction of Patty (see more about Patty in the previous post), our newest Proclaim member, to the office. We are looking forward to distributing office responsibilities to best use all our gifts and strengths. I am in the office as much as possible this week to work with Patty and to finish up some projects since we will be leaving Saturday to head north. On that trip we will spend time with family and stop to visit friends and supporters along the way.

Jami will not travel with us this time as she is in training at her new job at Chick-Fil-A. She is enjoying it, doing well, and learning a lot. This job is a provision from God -- thanks to all who prayed for her through the long search!




(Trying to wake up for an early morning shift)

It's All Coming Together

Thanks for the prayers for our office transition after the seeming disaster with the lightening strike. It has all been pretty challenging, but not nearly as overwhelming as we had anticipated. All the upgrades have been made and new equipment in place, and I am quickly getting past the point where multiple times a day I have to Google what I'm trying to do in Office 2010. 

It was a big victory this past week when we made the decision to finalized the purchase of donor software we had been testing for about 3 weeks. This is a move we have needed to make for at least 6 years! Thanks to God's timing all this has been happening while the Smalleys are back in Jacksonville. Todd amazes us with his ability to make sense out of all this and make everything work like it's supposed to, making all these transitions more painless than we could have hoped. And even when there were frustrating times, I think all of us felt a peace and confidence that God was in control. I have no doubt that prayer carried us through.

So we are back in business just in time to welcome a new office staff member -- an extraordinary blessing and answer to prayer!  Patty and her husband John have been long time supporters and friends of Proclaim in our church in Jacksonville. Most importantly, Patty and John both have a heart for missions and a love for Proclaim. But on top of that Patty has had 12 years experience in administration with another mission organization that uniquely qualify her to meet a growing need within Proclaim as we have recently added several new or reappointed members. This is a lavish provision of God, beyond my most faith-filled prayers! Can you tell I'm excited?

Once again -- God has shown how pointless it is to fear and worry ahead of time about his provision and his enabling. I think he might have mentioned that a couple times . . . 

Kathie