Keep on walking…
Hello! Lately I find myself dealing with a “full plate!” I say, “Lord, I have taken ‘stuff’ off my plate, why is it still so full?!” Not sure If I am slowing down, or the momentum of the world around me is speeding up more and more. But, regardless of what is going on-we will keep going! I have been listening to an old song by a gospel group lately that says, “Keep on walking, you don’t know how far you’ve come. Keep on walking, for all you know you might be done; and the Father, may be standing up right now to give the call, and end it all, so keep on walking!”
This has been a good exhortation for my heart!
Happy New Year! Wait, what? The ground hog came out last week!? Whoa! Anybody else out there feeling these things, or is it just me? “Keep on walking!” What a joy to walk with our wonderful Savior! He promised to never leave us or forsake us! We can walk with Him daily! J
We have finished the processing for 32 new members who will begin their walk in “partnership development” and then heading out to their fields of service. That is very exciting! Always good to have more people coming on the team to take the Gospel to the unreached!
We spent our “New Year’s holiday” with George’s family in South Florida. It’s always great to have family time, and it is extra fun with the Grand-kids around. The “boys” had a deep sea fishing adventure the first week of January. They had varied reactions. George decided he is a “landlubber”!
Amy and Hector are back in Mexico, and finishing up his application and paperwork for a green card. We are praying this will be granted in time for them to travel this summer and visit supporters before beginning the missionary training in Missouri. Amy’s birthday is this month! Judah is growing and beginning to wave. So cute! They all have been sick since returning to Mexico in January.
Debby and Brett and girls have been traveling since early January. They are up in the COLD states, and Chloe and Lily have had their first experience with snow! Debby has some cute pictures on Facebook, (if you ever get there!) They will still be traveling for a couple more months, as they are connecting with churches to raise support so they can go to Nicaraugua. Chloe has some more intense dental work ahead of her this month. Please pray for her-she really does not like this at all! (3 visits during the time frame of February 10 to 20th). Please pray for peace and calmness–for Debby and Chloe.
Beka and Cody are doing well. Beka is still writing songs. They both participated in the last concert that Beka did with brother, David too! They have a couple more concerts coming up soon. Cody still enjoys his job with the airplane mechanical “stuff” (sorry, I am not exactly sure what he is doing-but he is doing well). They are praying about when they should go to Missionary Training; August 2014 or August 2015. Please pray for the Lord’s direction in their lives.
David is praying about what to do for work this summer. It looks like the fishing in Alaska will be a short time-3 weeks, not 6. He will continue shipping books for us, and working for NTM in their remodeling projects for the time being. He has enjoyed singing and playing with Beka at her concerts, and they have a couple more concerts booked in February and March. David is also leading music one Sunday a month at the church George and I attend. He recently had an incident while biking and sprained his wrist. He hasn’t been working at NTM this week due to that.
Tim is doing well in Waukesha. He gets some time off work, so he is looking for another job, and sometimes has time for an extra “Green Letters” Bible Study. Good teaching, there. His job at Golden Corral is fine, but he would like to be able to save up some money for next year’s school bill, and other things that may come up. We trust he is learning a lot during his time at the Bible School. His birthday is this month as well. (How can he be turning 20?!)
George and I continue in Member Services, serving our NTM family any way we can. We both answer the phone and write letters of verification of employment among other types of letters for our folks. We help our folks as they work through the retirement process, and help them to comply with the NTM policies. We encourage them to keep working as long as they would like, in fellowship with their leadership, just don’t work 40 hours a week! Most folks retiring come back later and tell us that they don’t know how they had time to work before, because they are so busy now! How thankful we are to be able to encourage our folks to take this step and trust God to show them how He will use them for the next chapter of their lives! They, too, need to keep on walking closely to their Savior.
George and I also continue helping our NTM families who have lost a loved one. It seems like we have several each month who have lost a loved one to death. This isn’t such an encouraging job for us, but we are thankful to be able to be there and pray for our NTM family members when they walk through a time of loss. Recently, one of our former students serving in Asia Pacific passed away leaving his wife and 3 kids. Please pray for Nicky and her family as they walk through this tough time. These are rough days. We don’t always see how God is working right away, but trust that His ways are best for us. We need to remember that we never walk alone!
Thank you, dear friends for your faithfulness to the Lord. Your care for our lives, our family, and our ministries has been an encouragement to us as we have served the Lord for these almost 28 years in New Tribes Mission, and for the years before we came on the NTM team. We thank the Lord for you and trust He will encourage all of our hearts as we continue to KEEP ON WALKING!!!
George and Linda Heckman
NTM US—Member Services Team
Sanford Florida