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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Busy at Work

A couple weeks ago we were involved in two major events at our sending church, Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church.

I would have posted this sooner, but I just haven't had the time. It's project time at seminary. Amy's parents are coming for a visit at the end of next week and we've got to get our projects done ahead of time because most of them come due the week or two afterwards.

Two weeks ago we had a ladies luncheon as an evangelistic outreach. Our church has taken this year and tried to focus more of our efforts on evangelistic outreach (inreach actually). We desire to bring unsaved friends, family, and coworkers to saving knowledge of Christ.

We can all talk to them about Christ at work, but let's be transparent. Sometimes that's hard because they don't want to hear about it or it causes a strain in the relationship because they get upset at us. Outreach meals and events give us the opportunity to bring those friends to a free meal and to hear the gospel presented in a dynamic message.

We helped setup for the luncheon, but our main responsibility was watching the children so that ladies could hear a clear presentation of the gospel without distraction. We work with the children on a usual basis, so when the call went out for someone to watch the children, we volunteered. Myself and our Sunday School superintendent watched the older kids while Amy and some college girls took care of the nursery. No photos from this, sorry.

The following week was a church work day. I love church work days. It's a time where I can get out, do something beneficial for the church, and get my hands dirty all at the same time. To a guy, there's nothing like putting the gloves on and getting some manual labor done. It's a workout, helps the church, and gives you that strong sense of accomplishment when the work is done.

Amy worked inside organizing the youth/children's closet (A MUCH needed
 task, trust me). We also had a breakfast on the grounds that morning. We always love every opportunity that we get to fellowship with our church family. We love our church and privileged to be a part of Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church and the work that God is doing there.

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Freeman Email Update 11-7-12

Hello Everyone,

I just finished up our latest prayer letter and wanted to send that to you all. I also thought it was an appropriate time to give you an update on what's been going on. With everything that's happened, I think we need a reminder of why we are here and what God wants from us.

With all the news media and social media, it's easy to take our eyes off of Jesus Christ and off of the prize. As many hearts are heavy, may we remember that Jesus said "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Peter took His eyes off of the Lord and focused on all the circumstances of life around him, and he began to sink into the roaring water (Matthew 14:22-33), but when he focused his eyes back on the Lord, immediately Christ reached down and saved him. Direct your eyes to God and remember why we are here.

We're here to serve Him, we're here to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and it won't do us any good to be downhearted. Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, Rejoice. Jesus Christ is the solid rock and on Him alone I stand! Are you standing on the Rock? May we allow this event to not drag us down, but lift us up and fuel a fire in our hearts to do all that we can for God. Ephesians tells us that the days are evil and that we must redeem the time. Let's use every opportunity we have to serve the Lord with all of our hearts and stand in that evil day, having done all to stand. Standing with the full armor of God and His Word as our sword. Fight. Press toward the mark, toward the prize of the high calling of God. If you do that, you'll never go wrong.

Attached you'll find our latest prayer letter. I won't say much else than that. We've been rather vocal on our blog this month. If you would like to read any additional updates, please go to www.shalltheyhear.com

In Christ Alone,
Traver Freeman

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November Prayer Letter

Click on the file to view it in its original size.

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The First Meeting

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.

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Freeman Email Update 10-07-12

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.

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How Shall They Hear?

Our official missions video is here for your viewing pleasure.

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