October/November 2019 SWM Prayer Letter
Dear Friends,
What are you thankful for this year? We will hear this question in just a few days as we sit around a table filled with a bounty of delicious food. If your family is like ours, we sometimes go around the table and each of us tells one thing we are thankful for that we know God has provided for us that year. Obviously, we at Silent Word Ministries are thankful for each of you. You are receiving this letter because you have been gracious enough to invest in our unique mission, our 23 mission team members, and our worldwide outreach ministries. You enable us to continue on in this work that began in 1966. You read this every month, but it is true that without you, we could not do what God has called us to do … so we are certainly thankful for you. We are also thankful for what God has allowed us to be involved in within the scope of Silent Word Ministries and Silent Word International. Let me share a few things we are especially thankful for that you might not know about.
SWM missionaries Paul, Rachel, and Abigail Strosnider have been working very hard in the St. Louis, Missouri, area establishing a Deaf church. While working to do all that is required to keep a functioning church alive, they have also been raising their support. We praise that Lord that they accomplished that goal in this calendar year! Many of you are a part of that achievement!
SWMI missionary Nicole Condra has been working for a number of years to raise her support to head off to Romania. Praise God, as I write this letter to you, she is now in Romania preparing for language school! She has officially arrived to the people God called her to serve! We are thanking God for Nicole’s faithfulness and dedication to the task of raising her support and preparing herself spiritually for this undertaking. Her folks are praising the Lord, while missing their daughter at the same time. Both Reed and Donna have been greatly used in leading a ministry to couples in a local Deaf church. They remain faithful to the call of God on their lives, and for that we are thankful. I could go on and on about our missionaries, but let me just highlight a few more. SWM missionaries, the Ring family (Bud and Jenna and their girls) in Canada, recently realized their trailer was no longer road worthy. Unsure of what to do, they simply prayed, and God provided another trailer for them at no cost to them! We are thankful for the generosity of brothers and sisters in Christ! SWMI director David Bennett has held a several Deliberate Discipleship meetings with key leaders in Deaf ministries around the country. He traveled many miles to foreign lands and was a true encouragement to those he helped. We are thankful for what God is doing through the international side of our ministry.
There is not enough space for me to include all that we are thankful for, but let me close with what I think is the most important thing we can be thankful for today. Some of us have been through some very challenging times, including health, family members close to Heaven, financial burdens, ministry challenges, and even vehicles that don’t always run well. In all of this we are reminded that we are to “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). We are most thankful for the never- ceasing presence of God in our ministry, and personal lives. While I am thankful for people and the things we have been blessed with, I am most thankful that I have a God who promises to stay with me, no matter what may come. I am thankful for the on-going presence of God in my life. We thank you for all you do, and hope these praise items will be a blessing to you this month as you think of what you are thankful for today.
Jim Bracelin,
Director of SWM Outreach Ministries
