Jennifer Tibbetts

Dear praying friends, 

Thank you so much for those of you who continue to pray for us and especially for my work at OMF. Last week was one of the biggest weeks of my work life at the OMF office in Littleton. We had 22 missionaries and 15 kids attending HART, Home Assignment Reunion and Training, which we offer twice per year in February and July.  The purpose of HART is to reconnect with our missionaries when they are back in the States and give them an opportunity for debrief and training as they plan to share their ministries with individuals and churches in the US as well as prepare to return to the field. Our HART weeks are always some of our favorite weeks of the year as it is so good to hear stories fresh from the fields as well as connect with our workers. 

Last week we heard from one worker working in a remote area of an East Asian country doing therapy with children with cerebral palsy. There would not be an opportunity for these children to get this kind of care except for her work and this platform also offers opportunities for her to share Christ with the families of these children. Due to visa issues, she had to move to another city for 1 year but now she's in the process of starting a business so she can return and set up that ministry again. I really admire the perseverance of our workers. 

Another worker shared Christ with a friend for 15 years before that friend finally came to Christ and she is now reaching out to others. One missionary shared about discipling a university student in Thailand from a minority group in another country.  Now that minority woman is motivated to share Christ with Thai people even though that's a second language for her, and also excited to go back to her own people group and share Christ with them. 

We also heard stories of hardship and tears and discouragement as it is not easy for our workers to work in many places in East Asia and they have had to sacrifice much. But I'm so grateful that we were able to hear their stories, as well as encourage them this past week by bringing them together with others who understand and are like-minded. 

We were also able to offer them some tools for mobilization as they go to their churches and share. In fact, our organization offers free missions training to churches anywhere in the US, and would be glad to offer this to your church if they are interested.  Please just let me know, and I'll put you in touch with those who provide this training.

As I said earlier in this email, this was one of the busiest weeks I've had in the last seven years since I've been working regularly at the OMF office. We have had many other HARTs and I don't entirely know why this particular one was so full on, but I ended up working 54 hours last week from Sunday through Friday. And I was exhausted at the end! We had a lovely single missionary staying with us last week and I picked her and some others up from the airport on Sunday. We also hosted two families for dinner on Thursday - one who has been serving in Cambodia, one serving in Singapore, both of whom I had visited on my trip to Asia in January.  It was very special to be able to introduce them to Scott and Alysha. Funnily enough, Alysha had just had four wisdom teeth pulled earlier that day so she wasn't her usual bright sparkling self, butt she did very well and helped Scott a lot with making a delicious spaghetti dinner for us. I was very thankful for their ability to do that as I had been at the office all day. 

What a privilege to serve in this ministry and to be part of reaching the unreached! And thank you too for all that you do to help us reach East Asians through your prayers, and (for some of you) through financial support. I continue to be financially supported in my work with OMF and I'm thankful that I have received about 95% of my needed support so far this year.

An important part of my work last week was to meet with many of the missionaries individually to discuss their financial support.  One of my responsibilities is to make sure that missionaries have enough support to meet their budgets before they return to the field.  Having in-person conversations is special and encouraging as most of my financial conversations have to be done virtually.

It has been exciting that recently a woman named Kelly has begun to volunteer with OMF to help me provide support for the Kroger and Safeway grocery store programs.  Through shopping that partners have done at Kroger (King Soopers, Fred Meyer) and Safeway (Acme, Jewel Osco, Vons, Albertsons) stores, over $200,000 has come into missionary support at OMF.  If you shop at one of these grocery stores, and would be willing to help with my support (at no cost to you), please let me know.

Well, that's probably enough of an update on the OMF side.  Personally, Scott continues to love pastoring Faith E Free Church in Louviers, CO, and preaching God's Word.  He recently finished going through Joshua and this past week he began a series through the book of Matthew.  (No, the books of Alysha and Nathan are not next on his agenda! :) )  Matthew and Rachel recently moved to Oklahoma City as Matthew got a job promotion to Corporate Trainer.  They seem very happy to be there.  This week, they are coming for a brief visit - we can't wait to see them!  Joshua has completed 7 weeks of his second deployment on a Navy submarine, and will probably be out for another 6 weeks.  We look forward to visiting him in Washington state in October.  Nathan is enjoying his work as a computer engineer for John Deere in Dubuque.  He gave a presentation to 40 engineers today and said it went well.  He is also looking forward to visiting the factory that makes the hydraulic excavator that he is working on in China in November!  This will be his first time back in Asia since 2012.  Alysha is continuing to work toward her Bachelor's of Animal Science by taking a few classes at the local community college this fall.  She recently bought a horse and is training it.  She hopes to go to Colorado State University in Fort Collins in January.  I am busy between my 3 days at OMF and 3 Bible studies - 2 in our neighborhood and 1 with Alysha's friends.  I am hoping to do a Ladies' Tea with neighborhood women in August and invite them to join one of my neighborhood Bible studies in the fall to study "Children of the Day" by Beth Moore (on 1 and 2 Thessalonians).  I'd greatly appreciate your prayers for that!

Thanks so much for caring and praying.  Please update us on you and let us know how to pray.

Blessings,
Jennifer, Scott, Alysha, Joshua, Matthew and Nathan