Email Update 10-25-2013

Hello Everyone,

We've had a busy, but exciting couple of weeks. October is Missions Conference month all around the country. We are currently in the midst of a conference in Johnston, Rhode Island.

This is the fourth conference we have had the privilege to participate in. We've been in Texas, Canada, and Connecticut for our other conferences and will finish up with a conference in Indiana, plus we will be participating in another church's missions emphasis month.

We've seen God do a mighty work through these conferences. We've seen souls come to know Christ, lives surrendered to missions, large financial gifts given, needs met (both physical and spiritual) whether large or small, and hearts set on fire to serve the Lord.

In our current conference, the Lord has spoken to my heart each night and I have been encouraged to trust Him more and to give more of myself, my time, and my money to Him. I know that God is working in our midst and I would like you to pray with us. Please pray that God will touch the hearts of others concerning their giving, not only of their money, but of their lives.

Amy and I pray every day according to the Scriptures, and I hope that you will commit to praying this as well, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:38). We have a God who hears and answers prayer and we continually pray that God will raise up someone in this church, and in the next church, and in the next one, who will give their lives to Him.

We may not see the fruit of it, but we trust that God has allowed, and will continue to allow, us to plant the seed of missions in the hearts of people all over this country.

Praises in the Spotlight 

Additionally, I would like to say thank you to those churches who have recently taken us on for support. We are currently at 27% of our support in just 5 months. They say the first 20% is the hardest, and with that behind us we will continue to trust the Lord for the rest. Please continue to pray with us that God will allow more churches to partner with us.

I wanted to update you that our schedule for next year is continuing to fill, just 3 more Wednesdays for our time in February down in the Pensacola area, and 2 Wednesdays in April and 1 Sunday in July when we will be in Pennsylvania. Once we fill all of those spots, we will begin working on August-December which we plan to spend out west in Utah, California, and everywhere along I-15 in between.

As always, we appreciate you all so much. We heard a powerful message last night that reminded me yet again how your prayer support truly does mean so much more to us than your financial support. Your financial support allows us to do earthly things like eat, purchase supplies, and pay for a building, but your prayer support allows us to do spiritual things like see souls saved, lives changed, and many other wonderful works of God.

We desire to pray for you as you pray for us, many of you have asked for prayer from us in the past and I wanted to remind you that we are always here for you. We may be in another state, and eventually, another country, but we are only a click away. Truly from the bottom of our hearts, "Thank you!"

In Christ,
Traver Freeman


(P.S. We share this missions-loaded picture with every church, if you don't know what it means, either wait until we come to your church, or feel free to ask and I'll share it with you.)

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Traver's Ordination

This past weekend, September 28 & 29th, 2013, I was ordained by our sending church,
Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church, in Pensacola, FL. The questioning council was held Saturday from 8:30-11:00 and the actual services was Sunday evening.

The day of the questioning, I was more than a little nervous leading up to it as I paced back in forth in the fellowship hall snacking on the goodies that were set out for everyone. As it came time to begin the questioning, Amy was able to sit with me for a brief moment as she gave her testimony and then she took her seat with my mom in the pews behind me.

The following 2 1/2 hours were some of the most humbling hours of my life. Everything I knew (and thought I knew) was thoroughly questioned. We went through my doctrinal statement which I had prepared. Most of the questions were practical application of the beliefs listed in that statement. I was relieved when it was finally over.

Sunday was the easy part. We sat and listened to a charge to the candidate (me) from Dr. Karl Stelzer, one of my teachers from school who was on the ordination council. Then there was a charge to the church from our pastor, Mike Davis. The night concluded with the church ordaining us to the gospel ministry.


Here are some more pictures from the evening:

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Email Update 09-23-2013

Greetings!

Fall is here and September is just about over. Where has the time gone? I repeatedly find myself not knowing what month it is as we've been extremely busy on the road. Since our last email, we've gone from California to Florida to Texas to Louisiana back to Florida.

We've been in some awesome churches. We've seen a few more take us on for support and others that would like to in the coming months. God has richly blessed us.

Two weeks ago we were in a Missions Conference in Texas. It was an amazing conference and God's power was clearly evident. Four young men came to Christ that week and God used me to lead one of them to Him. We also saw two men surrender to missions that week, one young man having grown up in that church. We pray daily that God would send forth more laborers into the harvest and it is always thrilling to see God answer that prayer.

We have two more conferences coming up in just a few weeks. One is in Ontario, Canada, and the other is in Connecticut. Please be in prayer for God's continued work during these conferences.

We are continuing to schedule meetings and God is answering prayer there too. We are still seeking to fill our February calendar in the south. We have two Sundays and Wednesdays still open. February is quickly approaching and so I ask that you would continue to prayer for those dates to fill.

This Saturday and Sunday I will be ordained at our sending church, Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church, in Pensacola, Florida. Saturday morning will involve a 3-4 hour long counsel meeting that will basically be an oral test of Bible comprehensive knowledge from several pastors in the area. I would greatly appreciate your prayers at this time.

Remember to keep your heart up and eyes focused on God. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Let us not be weary in well-doing. Let's press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You have the light that a dark world so desperately needs. I hope you will be that light in your communities and that you will help us take the light to Australia.

Your servants in Christ,
Traver and Amy Freeman

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Email Update 09-02-2013

Hello everyone,

Attached you will find our newest prayer letter. It covers two months as I didn't have the time to send one last month.

These past few weeks we've been on "vacation" of sorts. We have spent some time with Amy's parents while visiting in California. It's been relaxing, but that doesn't mean we completely stopped working. I spent every morning calling churches until about 1 PM (4 PM on the East Coast), which was as late as I could possibly call and hope to reach someone.

On average, I scheduled one meeting a day. A couple of those were missions conferences, a few were Vacation Bible Schools, and several others were those Wednesdays I told you we were trying to fill. Only five more to go in 3 months and then we'll be completely packed. I've also begun contacting churches in Florida for February (We want to stay out of the snow if at all possible!).

While visiting in California, we've attended several churches, though many of them are not currently taking on any missionaries at the moment. I have not begun calling churches and mailing them our information packets yet, but our goal is to fill January and next August with churches in California. Will you pray that God would lead us to the right churches with whom He would have us partner?

We also have a few open Wednesdays in November that I am attempting to fill with churches in Indiana, however, we don't have any time in our schedule to book more next year. Would you pray for wisdom for me as I don't want to turn down an invitation to present in a church, but I am really only looking to fill a few spots this year as we don't know where we will be in the fall next year as of yet.

God is good! He has blessed us with wonderful success in scheduling meetings and I know He will continue to provide the financial support that we need. Thank you for your prayers and support. You are greatly appreciated! God is answering our prayers and blessing our ministry.

In Christ,
Traver and Amy Freeman

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August-September Prayer Letter

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Email Update 08-19-2013

Greetings all,

We have had a busy and exciting past couple of weeks. Summer has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Schools have been starting up again, but for once, we're not a part of that! It's so exciting to finally be done with school. We're looking forward to what the Lord will accomplish during the coming months.

Two weeks ago we helped out with a Vacation Bible School. This was our second one of the summer. This one was Australia themed, just for us. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time. I taught the Bible lesson and Missions Story while Amy assisted me and helped out wherever else she could.

The gospel was clearly presented each and every day and the kids were challenged to place their trust in Jesus Christ. On Thursday, Amy was able to lead a young girl to the Lord. Praise God for His work and saving grace!

Last week, Amy went home to Utah to visit her parents while I attended BIMI's Church Planting School. It was fast-paced week with loads of information. I enjoyed hearing the wonderful testimonies and instruction from the directors and look forward to the day the Lord allows us to put it into practice.

I have had little opportunity for making phone calls during these busy weeks, but God blessed through the many pastors who contacted me. Every Sunday in our March-May schedule has been filled. We will now begin scheduling Wednesdays and moving into June.

Our goal for next summer is to schedule a VBS almost every week. We have a couple lined up, but nothing officially scheduled as of yet. Would you pray with us toward this end?

We trust that God will connect us with people and churches that He desires for us to partner with. The coming weeks promise to continue to be busy for us as we have a Missions Conference at the beginning of September and two (possibly three) in October.

I know it can be easy to get "weary in well doing." But let me encourage you to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He is more than worthy of all praise and honor. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him is our reasonable service in light of His great sacrifice for us.

As always, we desire to be a part of your lives and ministries as much as you are a part of ours. If there is anything that we can do for you or pray for you about, please do not hesitate to ask.

In Christ,
Traver and Amy Freeman

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Email Update 7-25-2013

Hello everybody,

Sorry for the delay. It's been about a month since I last emailed. Attached you will find our July prayer letter. (Button at the bottom of the page. Please let me know if you cannot open this.)

As a side note before I got started with the update, we have purchased a new vehicle, a Hyundai Santa Fe mid-size SUV, and thank you for your prayers and a special thanks to those churches who raised some funds to help with it's purchase. It fits all of our stuff perfectly and gives us plenty of space. More will be said about that and pictures will be included in our August prayer letter.

My final class finished Tuesday afternoon and I couldn't be happier about that. No more classes, no more homework, no more tests. It hasn't completely sunk in yet, but I'm sure it will when September rolls around and we're not in class and everyone else is. I'm not sure when I'll get my degree, but I assume it will come in the mail. Thank you so much for all your prayers!

Since we last updated you, we've been in three churches. Additionally, we will be in a church this evening in Pittsburgh, PA and another this Sunday in Glen Burnie, MD. We ask for your continued prayers concerning our support.

We know it's tedious because you'll be praying the same prayer for the next year and a half, but your prayers and support are extremely important to us and we greatly appreciate your co-labor in our ministry and hope that you'll continue fervently in prayer on our behalf. Please be in prayer for God's leading for these churches on whether or not to partner with us to reach the people of Australia.

We've been rather busy scheduling meetings as well. I haven't been keeping an exact count, but I've emailed around 150 churches in Pennsylvanina, and have made around 700+ phone calls to those churches. So far, we have scheduled 8 of those churches, filling up all of our available Sundays in March and April of next year. We will begin filling Wednesdays as we can and move month by month from there. We also have about 15 churches who are interested in scheduling us, we just need to call back in a few months when they are putting their calendar together for next year.

The Lord has been blessing our efforts and I know that your prayers have been effective. Let us not be weary in well doing. The Bible tells us that Moses went to God and interceded on behalf of the people of Israel and God heard him. James tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

A pastor once told me that he has his watch set to go off at 3:33 in the afternoon. The reason for this was to remind him of Jeremiah 33:3 which says "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." I hope that you will pray with us. But more importantly I hope you will praise with us. Will you pray for God to do great and mighty things? Then let's praise God together for His amazing goodness.

In Christ,
Traver Freeman

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