Mike Myers Serving the Lord through Information Technology It’s been a while!
It’s Been A While!
It’s been a while since I’ve sent one of these out. In the last year I’ve had a number of opportunities to speak with individuals about my future ministry, serving as an IT Technician in Papua New Guinea, and as of now I’ve raised 25% of the $3638 I’ll need monthly. It’s been a challenging time in my life, looking toward the Lord for direction as I seek out meetings. I have a couple of opportunites lined up for the near future but it’s been difficult getting meetings with churches in Michigan. If any of you know of a church, small group or individual who might be interested in letting me come and share about Papua New Guinea please let me know. Any contacts I can get would be greatly appreciated!
Computer Classes!
As you may remember, I had the opportunity to take several computer classes with the aid of some grants provided by the state of Michigan. I finished those classes a few months ago. It was challenging at times, but what I learned has greatly helped me as an IT Tech. All of you know how fast the computer world is changing, for me to be the most effective in diagnosing and repairing computers it’s crucial that I stay up to date. It was a huge blessing to have the opportunity to fill in some of my knowledge gaps at no cost to me.
In a new apartment!
At the beginning of the year I moved out of my parents house into an apartment in St. Johns, MI. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately it has provided me opportunities to meet with individuals by inviting them into my home for a meal or a game. Something I could not have been able to do otherwise.
Church Life
I’ve had the opportunity to get plugged into my home church in Owosso, since I’ve been home I’ve served on the board of Trustee’s. As a Trustee, it’s part of my responsibility to take care of the church faculities as well as help make decisions and develop policies regarding the church usage. I’m thankful for the chance to serve in my home church!
Pray for Me!
- That the Lord will provide more opportunities to share with others and will continue to bring financial partners alongside
- For my time management, I’ve got several things pulling me, work, meeting with people and personal time.
If you wish to partner with me through financial support then click the Give button at the top of this letter. It’s tax deductable, you can choose a one time gift or set up an EFT which allows New Tribes Mission to conveniently deduct the funds from your checking account monthly. Thank you for your consideration!
Michael A. Myers
Graduated… But now what?
I’m done! It’s official, I’m a missionary with New Tribes Mission. After two years of bible school 2004 – 2006 and two more years in Ontario, I completed my training with New Tribes Mission on May 26th! And just yesterday I received my ordination certificate from NTM. Can you believe it! I’m ordained!
I can hardly believe I’m done! These past two years have been especially amazing. It was difficult saying goodbye to all my Canadian friends and especially difficult leaving the Williams Family, a family from Owen Sound who informally adopted me. Ontario was starting to feel like home, and it was difficult to leave. But I’m excited to see where the Lord will take me next.
So what am I doing now? Well long term I’m planning on being in Papua New Guinea by September of 2012. I’m going to be serving in the IT department in the supply center for New Tribes Mission on the Island of Papua. In the meantime I’m going to be setting up meetings with churches and individuals to find people who want to partner with my future ministry through prayer and financial support.
For PNG, the recommended support level is $3,391 per month but I can go once I reach $2,500.
The Lord has also given me an awesome opportunity to get certified in the IT field. I was given a grant which will pay for the training and testing for three certifications. The three I will be going for are CompTIA A+, Network + and MCTS Windows 7 Configuration. This will not only help me to be better prepared for an IT ministry, but it will make it easier to get a work permit for PNG. I start with this schooling in just a few days, June 9th.
I would appreciate your prayers for me as I start training toward getting certified and that the Lord will provide many meetings and the finances to make it to PNG by September of next year. Incidentally, if any of you who read this would like to get together please let me know.
A broken mug…
I tend to be quite sentimental so something as simple as a broken mug has great meaning to me. For most people, it’s just a mug but for me, it’s memories of my family.
I think about all the times mom served me milk in that mug to go with some cookies. I think about the time my step dad gave me black coffee at age 7 when he didn’t know that my version of coffee was a glass of milk with just a bit of coffee in it. A mistake he never made again!
You see, I’ve had this mug for as long as I can remember, for at least 26 years and I’m turning 28 in July. Before my parents split up my mother bought each of us matching mugs with our names on it. Well today, mine slipped and shattered. My heart dropped as quickly as the mug did. It hurt to see so many good memories shattered across the floor. But then I started thinking about how far I’ve come, how the Lord has led me here and where I will be in the months and years to come.
Lately I’ve been reminiscing as my 10 year high school reunion is coming up next month. I’ve been thinking a lot about the last decade of my life. It’s not only been 10 years since I finished High School, but it’s also 10 years since the Lord first planted the idea of missions in my mind.
Two weeks from today, I will have graduated from the New Tribes Missionary Training Center in Canada. It may seem like 10 years is a long time to get to the point where I’m finally preparing to head to the mission field but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s been a long journey, but He has been teaching me more and more how much better it is to wait for His timing rather than try and press on without Him. He prevented me from coming here a year earlier and then blessed me with one of the best years of my life. He prevented me from knowing exactly which country I would be going to through closing doors and then threw open the door to PNG with only a month left here. I cannot take any of the credit for the open door to PNG, he has orchestrated it beautifully.
If you would have told me a decade ago where I’d be now, getting ready to head to Papua New Guinea, I would have said you were nuts. Looking back, it seems so long ago now.
It’s neat how the Lord can use something as simple as a broken coffee mug to encourage me by reminding me of all the ways he’s been faithful and how He will continue to lead me throughout the rest of my days.
The Lord Provideth….
In preparation for graduation, I’ve been putting resumes out to different job websites like monster.com and career builder.com along with a few companies. I’ve been hoping to find work while I’m raising support.
I received an email a week ago Monday from a training center back in Michigan that does IT training. The state of Michigan has set up a grant program for those who are interested in working in the IT field but are not certified. They told me that they thought I would be a good candidate for this grant.
When I called them, they told me that they would need to set up three meetings with me over the course of a couple of weeks to see if I qualify for the grant.
I told them my situation, being that I’m in Canada and it would be difficult to get away in the middle of the week. I mentioned that I might be home for Easter break and could meet with them then. They said they would see if it were possible to combine the three meetings into one on Friday and that they would get back to me the next day.
The next morning they called me back and said they had worked it out to meet with me on Good Friday and combine the three meetings into one.
The meeting went very well. I met with a lady from the Michigan Works office in Alma and was approved for the grant, a $10,000 grant! I’ll be starting the IT training beginning of June. More details to come later as I get them myself.
I need to share something really awesome! In my correspondence with Papua New Guinea, they told me of a few certifications that would be beneficial to my ministry if I could get them before coming.
Here’s the awesome part, LESS THAN A WEEK LATER (5 days after the email from PNG) this grant opportunity drops in my lap. I didn’t seek it out either, I didn’t even know about it. They emailed me after finding my resume online. And 4 days after that I’m approved for it.
Something else really neat, the meeting was on Good Friday. The two ladies who were at the office volunteered to work on that day. Both of them were needed for my 3 meetings into 1 to take place. If either of them had not volunteered to work that day, then I would not have been able to have the meeting on Good Friday and I would have not been able to get the grant.
In a little over a week I go from wondering about getting certified to having all the training and test costs completely provided for!
WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW! JEHOVAH JIREH! The Lord we serve is awesome!
Thanks for all who prayed for me!
