Email Update 5-10-13

Greetings Everyone!

Attached you will find our latest prayer letter. I usually get these out at the beginning of the month, but I wanted to make sure a special event made the cut. On Wednesday, May 8th, Amy graduated with her master's degree in Bible Exposition. We give God all the glory for this amazing accomplishment!

I still have one more class to go in July. Last summer, we had the privilege of going to Australia to help the Maldoff's for three weeks. Because of this, I missed two classes I was required to take. I made one of them up at the beginning of last semester. However, the last one is only offered in the summer. Being able to serve the Lord in Australia that summer was far more than worth it and I gladly pushed off graduation for that opportunity.

We are gearing up for an action packed summer. We will be helping two churches with their Vacation Bible Schools. This past week, I practiced one of my Australian lessons with our children at our sending church. Dressing up in full safari gear, I took the children into the outback looking for kangaroos and learning about what God can teach us through them. We're excited for what God has in store for this summer.

As I mention in the prayer letter, June 2nd marks our first meeting on full-time deputation. We are in a church almost every Sunday from that point until December. Please be in prayer that God would work in lives, that we'd be able to be a blessing and help to churches, and that we would raise our support in an efficient and timely manner. We know that with God, all things are possible.

Your prayers and support mean the world to us. Thank you so much for the encouraging emails, kind letters, and wonderful gifts that you have given to us. You are a vital part of our ministry.

In Christ,

Traver Freeman

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One Missionary at a Time

"Ye are the light of the world...Let your light so shine before men..." (Matthew 5:14, 16). We were blessed to be able to be a part the missions conference at our sending church, Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church. This year's theme was "Sending light into the world one missionary at a time." I was able to help out by putting my design abilities to use in creating our name badges for the conference.

We began our week on Wednesday with a brief skit. Our focus this year was emphasizing the importance of our responsibility in world-wide missions. Almost all of the missionaries featured are, or were at one time, members of PFEBC. The skit featured each of the missionaries who are currently members, including Amy and I, as well as a representative for the church with respect to our missions trip to Canada this summer.

The need of the countries of Peru, Australia, and Canada were presented. Then certain church members, representing those countries, stood up and cried out "Will someone bring us the the bread of life!" Then, each of us stood and professed God's calling on our lives to take the bread to those countries. We had a physical loaf of bread which we broke and gave out. It was a powerful presentation and a great way to kick off the conference.

Each night we had a series of messages from a variety of individuals. Our keynote speaker was BIMI's Caribbean director, Gary Sprunger (pictured right). Brother Sprunger is a member of PFEBC and is sent out of our church. The messages were focused on the Biblical basis for missions, the importance of the sending church, and the responsibility missionary. Messages were concluded on Sunday with an emphasis on Faith Promise giving.

Sunday morning, I challenged the young adult Sunday school classes to be open to God's leading. God does not call everyone into full-time missionary work, but I believe, with all my heart, that He wants each and every one of us to be willing if He calls us. That evening, we had an international dinner before the service.

Then in the evening service, each missionary showed a brief presentation and shared God's burden on their hearts for their country of service. At the very end, God's power was evident as the lights were turned off. In the darkness, our pastor broke a glow stick. He asked us to consider the darkness of the world. Then gave each missionary a glow stick. The light began to grow.

A call was given for anyone in our church to come forward and take a light if God had called to be missionary. One young man answered the call! I wanted to shout out loud in praise to God! Then additionally, pastor asked anyone who would be faithful in praying and giving to come forward and take a light. Family after family left their seats and began to turn on their lights. Lights filled the auditorium. What was once darkness was flooded with light. The picture here does not accurately show the amount of light in the room due to the abilities of the camera, but you can see just a portion of those standing.

We had a great time this week. It is now my prayer, that the commitment of our church to be faithful in doing our part for worldwide missions will be a lasting commitment. I pray that it is not a commitment easily forgotten, that God's work will be accomplished, and that many souls will come to place their faith in Christ. May our light, through Christ, bring hope and light into the darkness.

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February/March Prayer Letter

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Email Update 03-04-13

Hello Everyone,

Attached is our latest prayer letter. I do apologize for not sending many email updates over the past few weeks. With the rush of excitement of Christmas now past us, we've settled into work and class once again. As I mention in the prayer letter, the next big event for us is our church's mission's conference in April. Up until then life is pretty usual. We have class and work every, and I make phone calls when my schedule allows it (which is Tuesday's from 8AM-9AM). Also as I mention in the letter, God has been extremely good to us concerning those phone calls.

Once we finish in May, we will have no shortage of excitement. Our contracts end on May 24th and we have a meeting scheduled the 26th. We've had multiple requests and opportunities for meetings and mission's conferences during the school year, however we've had to turn them down because it'd be quite difficult to commute from Wisconsin or Indiana or whoever the church might be when we've got work and school each day. Unless someone would be kind enough to hire us our own private jet, we wouldn't make it.

Last semester we did quite a bit of visits to churches in the community during Sunday nights. We do plan to do some more visiting this semester. Last semester 3 of the 5 churches we visited allowed us to schedule meetings with them. I hope that you will pray with us that this semester will be as profitable.

As each day goes by and graduation grows closer and closer we are even more excited about what God has in store. But we also appreciate where we are now and thank God that we are able to continue studying for His glory and honor.

As always, know that we appreciate everyone of your prayers and that we couldn't do it without you. Your care and support are a continual encouragement to us.

Thank you!
Traver and Amy Freeman

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December/January Prayer Letter

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Email Update 01-14-13

Hello Everyone,

Attached is our latest prayer letter. It includes the months of December and January. I was not able to get out an individual December letter due to Projects, Final Exams, and the holiday season. I am entertaining doing the same thing with the February/March Prayer Letters. We do not have much scheduled. We will mostly be doing drop-ins and making phone calls. The next big event on our calendar is our sending church's Missions Conference in April.

Graduation from Seminary will take place on May 8th and our work contracts will expire on May 24th. It is at that time that we will begin full-time deputation. We have several prayer requests centered around the time we begin full-time. The prayer letter covers most of those details.

School begins in a week's time and it is our final semester. We are excited that the end is finally in view. The last time I was in this position, looking at only a semester left before graduation, I made the choice to stay on and get my master's degree. That meant another 3 1/2 years and I was only half way done. This time I can finally say the end is near. It's been a great experience, and I'm even more excited for this semester as I'll be taking the second half of Hebrew and also Life of Paul. Amy will be taking Biblical Theology and History and Preservation of the Text.

Amy and I had two weeks off over the Christmas holidays and two Sundays. We presented in three churches during that time, keeping it pretty packed. We enjoyed it and we pray that we were able to be a blessing to those churches. We look forward to being able to work with more churches in the future. Australia truly is a needy country whether they think so or not. It truly is an unreached people group, though most don't think of it as one. We are excited about what God has laid before us and we're praying that others will catch this vision and passion that we have to take the gospel to them.

I trust that you will pray that prayer along with us. Know that you do mean the world to us. Your prayers are important to us each and every day. We could not do it without you and your support.

In Christ Alone,
Traver Freeman

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Email Update 12-11-12

Hello Everyone,

I haven't updated in awhile and thought I would send a quick note out. Being that it's the end of the semester and the holiday season, life has been even busier. From a personal standpoint, we were blessed to be able to have Amy's parents visit us for Thanksgiving. They actually came in the weekend before Thanksgiving, not knowing how Amy's work schedule would be since she works in the college Bookstore. It was great to be able to see them and we had a great time.

After they left, it was Thanksgiving week which is a busy week on campus. There are so many holiday activities and work to be done. We had some friends over on Thanksgiving and had a big "Family Dinner" together since we couldn't be with our actual families. Everyone pitched in and it was a great meal.

Once the holidays were over, reality set it in again. The semester was drawing to a close and project deadlines were right around the corner. It was a busy couple of days. I did manage to squeeze some phone calls into the mix, but I'll talk about that in a bit. Right now, we are in the middle of Final Exams. Amy has already had one, we both have our Hebrew exam tomorrow, and my last exam is on Thursday. We would certainly appreciate your prayers during this time. Undergraduates students are permitted to leave this Friday, while Graduates need to hang around for work on Monday and Tuesday as the Academy still has school.

By 5:00 PM on Tuesday the 18th, we should be on our way home to Pennsylvania. It's a 16 hour drive, and we are praying that it will be uneventful. You never can tell at this time of year, especially traveling through West Virginia.

On the ministry side of things, once we get home we'll be presenting in three churches. We're looking forward to being with them, especially since many friends and family attend these churches. I mentioned earlier that I squeezed a bit of phone calling in during our busy past couple of weeks. One of those days was extra profitable as I was able to book 4 more meetings. It may not sound like much, but with classes and work, that's fantastic for us. Now more than ever, I look forward to finally graduating being able to begin our full-time deputation ministry. We're often so limited in what we can do, but we praise the Lord for the opportunities that we do get.

Speaking of opportunities, our sending church has been gearing up for the holiday season with a heavy schedule of special events. This past Sunday was our adult Christmas program. I privileged to have a part in the program as I played one of the servant's to king Herod. I had a blast and the program was a great success thanks to God and His blessings. This coming Friday and Saturday, we'll be putting on a live nativity on our church property. Amy and I will participate as cast members. CD's of the Christmas story will be handed out to each car that comes on to the property. We won't have any lines as the CD's will explain what's going on in the scenes.

Will you pray with us that God will use this nativity to bring someone to a saving knowledge of Christ? This is our burden and our heart's desire. This is our church's focus and purpose for having a nativity. We want to do everything we can to share the gospel with the people of our community.

We appreciate each and everyone of you. Your prayers and support mean the world to us. Thank you so much.

In Christ Alone,
Traver and Amy Freeman

PS. Because of our busy schedules, I am not planning on sending out a December prayer letter, instead the next prayer letter will be a Dec.-Jan. prayer letter. We will resume monthly letters in February.

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