Friday, May 15, 2009

Jericho House of Jewels

Dear Beloved Praying Friends,

So sorry to barrage you with Betsy blogs….there is just so much to share and so I thought I would send several blogs rather than hit you with one very long blog! This month, oddly enough in the midst of several difficulties, God gave us a vision for a new outreach of Jericho Ministries.

JERICHO HOUSE OF JEWELS

Nancy called and asked if she could meet with us. You might remember Nancy. She was the first woman to come to Christ in our ministry and she and her children have grown up at Jericho. Unfortunately Nancy has made some very poor decisions lately and it has affected her relationship with her oldest daughter Julissa (Julie) who is almost 12 years old. Nancy came to ask if we would consider taking Julissa into our fold. We have been praying for Julissa for quite some time now, and we sensed this was a direct answer to prayer. The problem was figuring out which part of the fold to put her in. This past year four members of our staff took in 10 children whose Moms are involved in prostitution so that was not an option. As we prayed and brainstormed, we remembered an idea that the Lord had put on our hearts several years ago. Photo: Julissa

We had pondered the idea of having a home here in the city for teenage girls who are at high risk for entering prostitution but who have not actually been on the streets. Julissa fits this description to a tee and there are many more like her. This would be another prevention wing of the ministry. We have asked two of our single Jericho Staff members to consider being the “house Moms” for these young girls and they seem very excited about it. We have a house picked out right across the street from my house. The girls would be at Jericho House during the day for their schooling and then return to the House of Jewels in the evening. We could reach out to 8 to 10 girls at a time in this home. Would you join us in praying for the purchase of this home? We already have two pledges of 1K each and our goal is to offer 100K for the home. The location is perfect, it is just the right size, and it is very safe.

TESTIMONY
These past few weeks the Lord has opened many doors to share the healing miracle that God performed in my life because of the body of Christ crying out to Him. After sharing in a remote village in the mountains of Honduras, the Lord allowed me to share with Seoul Baptist Church (SBC) in Houston. Photo: SBC church members.

Hae Young and I spent one week enjoying the lavish hospitality of these beautiful believers who prayed faithfully for us when I was going through the valley of the shadow of death. Because I visited them both before and after I was in New York City, they witnessed firsthand the immense changes that had occurred because of God’s healing power.

SBC is a church made up of cell groups (“mokjang” in Korean) and each cell group supports a missionary. They have around 170 cell groups and support that same number of missionaries. Photo: mokjang worship

One of these cell groups had adopted Hae Young and while I was in NYC, another group decided to adopt me as their missionary even though they were not sure it would be for very long! Many of the Mokjang members invited us to their homes, showered us with gifts and delicious food, and allowed us to pray for them. It was truly a wild and wonderful week! Back in Honduras a group of women called, “Mujeres de Victoria” (Women of Victory which is kind of the female counterpart to the men’s group called The Full Gospel Business Men’s International Fellowship) contacted me and asked me to speak at several of their chapters and at their television program. Each time I get up to speak, I beg God to give me the anointed words to explain what He did so that others will be encouraged to believe in His awesome power.

There is more but I will save it for the next blog! I am looking forward to seeing many of you when we journey to the Midwest this summer. I wish we could travel to visit all of you this trip but since flights are more reasonable I am praying about visiting again before the year is out to share with those of you who do not live in the middle of the country.

Always with love in Him,
Betsy

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Journey


Dear Beautiful Family and Friends,

Our itinerary for our journey so far is as follows:
June 9-12     Pewaukee, WI (Vicky and Dale Schaechterle)
June 12-14   DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
June 16-22   London, Ontario CANADA (Bob and Ann Dekraker)
June 22-23   Pittsburgh, PA (Fred and Fran Fetterolf)
June 24        Lancaster, OH (Ivan and Jesse Smith)
June 25        Grafton, WI (Marty Hake)
June 26-30  Appleton, WI (Ron and Beth Pagel; Marie and Roger Lackore)
J. 30-July 9  Grafton, WI (Marty Hake)
July 9-12     Chicago area (Gail Mellish, Claudia Nalven)
July 13-15   Indianapolis, IN (Betty Root)
July 15-16   Chicago area

Attached are photos of the crew who will be traveling this summer and several photos of our newest addition, Emma Isabella. I couldn’t resist showing you the cute photos of this precious child. She is a wild one, for sure, but little by little she is adjusting to life with our family. I often forget her past of living on the streets with her Mom until she does something like she did last night, which jolts me back to reality. While she was eating a drumstick, I turned my head away for one second and when I looked back, she had eaten the top part off which included part of the bone! All of our eyebrows rose up at that one! Fortunately she was ok. I think she has definitely done that before!

If you are interested in having us come to share about the ministry and God’s healing miracle, please contact me. The children are preparing some special things to share with you and they are very excited about doing all the gringo things that their Mama has told them about. I learned a great lesson the first time I brought Mari and Noe to the States. I had taken them to Six Flags etc etc and when I asked Noe what his favorite thing about the States was, he calmly replied, “I loved putting the coins in the vending machines and having a coke come flying out at the rest stops!” We will get to do that a lot since we will be doing all the traveling by car.

There are many new things brewing in the ministry. Please pray especially hard for us as we discern God’s voice in this time of expansion!

Warmly and with much love in Christ,
Betsy

Corona and Lyme: living it up in the time of Covid-19

Jency, Carmen, and me doing facials It was my friend Jaime who sent me this text. "Oh no, Betsy, not Corona AND Lyme!" I had j...