Parker's Newsletter

The Parker Quarterly Post

Winter, 2008

Dear Friends,

Since the beginning of our ministry the “theme verse” we have printed on our prayer cards has been I Corinthians 4:1-2. “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” This verse calls us to strive whole heartedly towards a life of obedience and dedicated service to the Lord. But it also serves as a great comfort to know that faithfulness is the standard to which each of us will be judged. We often fall into the diabolical trap of comparison, which can only result in two sinful reactions: pride or discouragement. God only requires us to use faithfully the gifts and resources that He has graciously provided. Each of us has a unique combination of abilities, personality, opportunities and resources. The quantity we possess of these assets, many times, is determined by factors that are beyond our ability to control. God simply calls us to be faithful with what He has given.

We would like to thank each of you who have so faithfully given to the financial support of and prayed for God’s blessing on our ministry. In our last prayer letter we shared with you our growing concern over the declining value of the dollar and the impact that was having on our support level. Since that time the dollar has continued to fall, but many of you have responded by increasing your support level, others of you became new financial partners and still others sent in special one-time gifts to help make up the deficit that had accumulated in our account. Thanks to your faithfulness, the deficit in our account has been taken care of and our support level is much closer to where it should be. Thank you all for your generosity and faithfulness.

We have just finished our camping season and are praising God for His faithfulness. We had 455 campers in attendance 99 of which trusted Christ, 114 campers made consecration decisions and 17 committed themselves to missionary service. We are truly blessed to see the seed of God’s Word, faithfully sewn, taking root, growing and producing fruit in the hearts of these young people. This year we are starting something new in our youth ministries program and having a youth rally on campus the last Saturday of every month. We had our first one a few days ago, and were thrilled to have over 150 teens come out to hear the Word, fellowship together and renew the commitments that were made at camp. Please pray for these kids who have made decisions. It is our prayer that they be faithful to God’s Word; continue to grow in their commitment to Christ and one day come study at our school in order to prepare to take the Gospel to those who have never heard.

Our school year is just getting under way. The Christian grade school continues to grow each year and enrollment is now up to 220 students. God has given us a wonderful staff of believing teachers who truly want to invest their lives in the hearts of these kids. The Missionary Training Institute is also just now getting under way. We are thankful to be up over 50 students again and are praying that many of these will eventually be used of God to reach the river communities along the Amazon. Gary will be teaching two preaching classes this semester and we will be in charge of the married student ministry on the campus. This year we have ten married couples as students, so we have decided to make an additional spiritual investment in the lives of these young families. Please pray that we will be faithful in these responsibilities and help our students to lay a biblical foundation to enable them to be faithful families as they seek to serve the Lord.

God has, once again, shown Himself faithful in providing for our staff needs. A few weeks ago we welcomed Sergio and Miriam Victalino as new staff members. They come to us from the northeast of Brazil where they have been serving as senior pastor of a large church in that region of Brazil. They are a fantastic couple with over fifteen years of ministry experience. He is a gifted communicator and they have a wonderful family. Their passion is to be able to work in the river communities close to our campus and to work alongside the students training and challenging them to do pioneer missions after their graduation. We are constantly amazed at the quality staff that the Lord brings our way. Please pray for them as the transition into this new ministry.

Our family has welcomed a new member of the canine variety. Dakota is a Dalmatian that has been a lot of fun to play with and as she grows, has started to provide added protection to our home, as we continue to have a wide variety of security problems on campus. The kids are all doing well in school, and we are starting to look seriously into Mishaela’s college choices as she will be a senior next fall. We are striving to be faithful at discussing the Scriptures in our home and seeing how they should be applied to our lives each day. We praise God for the children we have and we pray that they will grow to be faithful servants of Christ wherever the Lord places them. We would appreciate your continued prayers for Sandy. For the last ten months she has been struggling with her breathing. She had asthma as a child, but for the last twenty years has not had any serious problems until now. We have seen several doctors here, and have tried a variety of medications which have been a help, but she continues to have regular symptoms despite her constantly taking medication and our efforts to prevent her from being in contact with dust and mold. This has been a very difficult time for her and all of us, so we would greatly appreciate your prayers for healing as well as grace and patience to handle these problems in way that is pleasing to God.

Our construction projects continue to move ahead, though due to a variety of factors we are behind schedule. We have done several refurbishing jobs on older staff homes, and are now in the midst of our snack shop and game room expansion. We are in the process of negotiating the sale of a small portion of our property to another mission that is looking to relocate. If this sale occurs we are planning to invest the funds into the building of a wall around our property as we believe that this will greatly reduce our security problems as well as protect our property from further encroachment on the part of our neighbors who seem to be constantly expanding their yards into our area. Thank you for making both the sale and the security issues a matter of prayer.

Thank you all for your faithfulness in following our ministry and lifting this work and our family up before our Father. God has certainly been faithful to provide for our needs and to equip us for the work of the ministry He has called us to do. Your prayers and gifts are a constant reminder that God is faithful. It is our desire to be found faithful by Him and that our faithfulness would be used to point others to Him. Your partnership is a crucial aspect of this work and we are forever grateful for you faithfulness.

Because of His faithfulness,

Gary and Sandy

Prayer Requests:
Praise the Lord for the fruitful camping season.
Pray for the campers to be faithful to fulfill the commitments they made to the Lord.
Praise for the increased enrollment in the grade school as well as the Missionary Training Institute.
Pray for Sandy’s health to improve and that we will be able to control her asthma.
Praise for God’s provision of additional support and extra gifts.
Pray the sale of a small piece of our land and the subsequent building of a wall around our property.