Sunday, October 21, 2012

The First Meeting

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This past weekend marked our first official meeting of our pre-field ministries. We were privileged to be a part of a missions conference in a local Pensacola church just 15 minutes away from where we attend seminary.

To the right and below you will see pictures of our display. We were excited to finally be able to put all of our equipment to use. We acquired some of our table artifacts on our most recent Australia trip. The picture of the aboriginal artwork emu was a gift from the Maldoff's before we left.


The conference began Friday evening with an introduction to the missionaries and a presentation of gift package for each. Brother Carl Vonnoh, BIMI's CLAIM director, was the main speaker who preached at each service. Besides us, there was a missionary family to Nepal and a family that is doing construction work for churches in the States to help cut the costs of building and allow those churches to use that money more effectively for Christ through missions and outreach.

We really appreciated the gift and Amy thought the bag was very cute. In the bag was various food and practical items. In my opinion, the greatest gift was a set of audio cables and connectors. I meant to purchase a pack of those at BIMI, but I'm glad I did not. The Lord was able to provide them for us through this church. The cables allow me to route my volume from my laptop straight through any church's sound system using a microphone jack. Amy has taken a liking to the red pillow as her favorite gift. It has affectionately found a home on our couch and she uses it quite frequently.

Saturday began our presentations. There were two services scheduled for Saturday. The first service was at 5 PM, we had dinner on the grounds as intermission, and another service at 7 PM. The missionary builders gave their presentation at 5 PM and Amy and I gave ours at 7 PM. It was the first time our video had been played during a meeting and it was an exciting moment (for me anyway). Amy can't figure out why I was so happy to play it. She says I better enjoy it because after 2 years of watching it at every church I'll be sick of it (so she says! I don't think so).


I hope and pray that our burden for Australia was given to the hearts and minds of the people. If you have not seen our video, you can check it out here.

Sunday, we taught the children in Sunday School and the missionaries to Nepal presented during the morning service. That, too, was followed by a lunch on the grounds and their evening service actually during the afternoon at 1:30 PM. At the conclusion of the conference they had a prayer of dedication and protection for the missionaries as Bro. Vonnoh concluded with a message on how to effectively pray for missionaries.

We had a great time and met some new friends. We left around 3:30 PM and headed home to prepare for Mid-terms which we are currently studying for as I type. We have a big Hebrew Mid-term tomorrow and praying for God's strength as we've had little time to study this weekend.

Our next scheduled meeting is in December. We'll be doing some drop-in visits and focusing our ministry on Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church, our sending church, heading into the holiday season. We'll keep posting our email updates and prayer letters to the website here, but probably won't post another update like this until December.

We appreciate your prayers and would encourage you or your church to consider partnering with us to take the gospel to Australia.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Freeman Email Update 10-07-12

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Greetings All,

I wanted to write a quick email to share our latest prayer letter with you as well as tell you about some exciting things going on in our lives.

Since the school semester started, we have been able to visit five churches. Of those five churches, three have shown interest in scheduling us for meetings. We are excited about these opportunities and pray that the Lord will continue to work in helping us serve Him.

We are also thrilled to be able to continue working with the children's ministry of our sending church. I have the opportunity to teach the memory verse and share our missionary moment. Since missions is a huge burden on my heart, I desire to share that burden with the children of our church. As my pastor always says, the children of our churches are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. I pray that my burden for missions will become their burden. They love both Amy and I and we miss being away from them when we're traveling.

We have a busy month ahead of us with our sending church. There's a multitude of activities going on and I believe I mentioned them in the prayer letter, so you can read about it there.

Last time I updated I shared a blessing that the Lord gave us with providing ministry equipment. Since then, someone had heard about how I had lost a lot of weight and only had one suit that really fit me (and that was after having it tailored down from it's original size). That person donated a sum of money for me to purchase a new suit. When we went to purchase the suit, the store had a buy one get one deal going on. We ended up purchasing two suits for cheaper than the price of one because one of the suits was on clearance. Praise the Lord! Our God truly is amazing and wonderful.

School has also been progressing well. Mid-Term exams are less than two weeks away. The next time I send an email will be after those are over, so we would certainly appreciate your prayers.

As always, we thank you for our prayers and support. If we can help you in anyway, please let us know. We are here to serve.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Freeman Email Update 9-16-12

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Hello Everyone,

The past couple of weeks have been exciting for Amy and I. The school semester has officially started and we are well underway with our studies now. We have also officially begun visiting churches in the area to see where we can be of help.

Last Sunday we were able to visit two churches. One of our teachers was preaching a pottery series at a particular church and so we visited that church and were able to hear him speak. We actually ran into a lot of people who knew or recognized and it was a great time. After the service, we were able to meet the pastor and he invited us to present our ministry to his church in the future, we haven't arranged a particular date as of yet.

That night, we visited a church which participates with our church in various youth events as well as in the upcoming Men's Retreat at the end of the month. It also was a great time meeting new folks. The bound between brother's and sister's in Christ, even when they've never met before, is truly a a wonderful thing. Praise God for unity in Christ.

Tuesday was Church Ministries emphasis day at the college and that meant all of the pastors that get interns were coming to the college to meet new students who are interested in interning in a local church. During that time, Amy and I were able to meet several pastors and were invited to visit two churches with the very real possibility of presenting in the future.

Wednesday night also marked the restart of the Children's program at our church. One of the highlights of our ministry is being able to serve Christ in the Children's and Youth ministries. Throughout the year, we'll have the opportunity to present the weekly Missionary Moment and to teach the Bible lesson from time to time.

But the greatest blessing of all happened this evening. We visited a local church this evening that was about an hour away because BIMI's President and General Director, Dr. David Snyder, was preaching there. While we were there we ran into an old friend of mine from college who now attends the church and heads up the children's ministries. We spent a good 20 minutes talking with him, and then a lady walked up to us and out of the blue asked us if we needed a DVD player and projector for deputation. I told her we had one, but it was a cheap one and the projection unit was already starting to go out, plus it was back home in Pennsylvania.

She said that she used to be on deputation, but then God redirected her ministry and she no longer needed it. She had been praying and asking God who she could give it to because it was sitting around getting no use. Then she saw us talking to Dr. Snyder and figured we must have been missionaries. It was a great blessing because I hadn't even really thought about projection equipment and it is certainly good to have for smaller churches that don't have any equipment on hand. God has really been blessing us and we give Him all the glory.

We were truly blessed by the preaching tonight from Dr. Snyder and I asked God if He would provide another contact this week in His way. Will you pray with us toward that end? We have given our deputation ministry to the Lord and are completely trusting Him. We still have our eyes on getting to the field by the end of 2013 and know that it is possible through God's power. We certainly appreciate your prayers and support. May the Lord bless you.

In Christ,
Traver and Amy Freeman

Friday, September 7, 2012

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Freeman Email Update 08-22-12

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The following has been sent out via our email update letters. If you would like to be added to our email list, please send me an email at australia.freeman@gmail.com


Hello everybody!

Amy and I recently got home from our two week vacation to visit family. It was a much needed rest after a full summer of ministry that immediately followed a full semester of learning! Now that we are all rested up, we are gearing up for another semester plus the new and exciting time of our deputation ministry. I am actually in a class right now. The class began on Monday, we had our Mid-Term today, and the final exam is on Friday. My class lasts from 8-2:30 each day with a few scattered breaks to stretch our legs and eat lunch. I would certainly appreciate your prayers as I finish up this class.

Looking ahead, we are extremely excited to get started visiting churches in the Pensacola, FL area very soon. While we are still in Seminary, we will be limited to churches in a 3 hour radius, but that still gives us plenty of opportunities to minister and be a blessing to churches. We actually believe that this will give us a greater area of ministry in these churches. While most missionaries are only able to visit a church once to present their ministry, we will be able to make multiple visits to various churches to really get to know the people.

It also gives us the opportunity to continue to minister with the kid's program at our sending church, Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church. They have really missed us the past few weeks while we've been gone and we have really missed them!

The Lord has also blessed with allowing us to make new contacts with people and churches we otherwise wouldn't have met without his great work and provision in bringing us together. We hope that you will continue to pray with us that God will continue to work as He has to help us get to the field in a timely manner. We miss Australia already and cannot wait until that day we board a plane with a one way ticket.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support,
Traver and Amy Freeman
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