Ministry Update :: Feb 2020 – No Ordinary Weekend

Posted on February 13, 2020 by Troy

No Ordinary Weekend

Here in Alberta we are coming up to the Family Day long weekend. For the third year in a row, we will be attending an evangelistic retreat at a local Christian camp. This retreat, called No Ordinary Weekend (NOW for short), is a time for families to get away and spend time at a camp enjoying the winter activities and indoor facilities. The main purpose, though, is to have a time away from distractions and have an opportunity to learn about God. We are using the new GoodSeed series, No Ordinary Story, taking these people from Creation-to-Christ in these evangelistic booklets. In total, there will be around 140 adults and children in attendance.

Some of the people who are coming have been to a previous NOW event, and are now bringing unbelieving friends or others who are not strong in their faith. Children of attendees are also going to be learning the gospel message as they are taught lessons that are also Creation-to- Christ.

Things kick off on Friday evening and run through Monday afternoon, with around 9-10 hours of Bible teaching.

Please pray for our team as we teach or assist, and please pray for the attendees that they would have open hearts and changed lives as a result.

Ministry Update :: Looking ahead at 2020

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Troy

Remote tribal missions

In our last ministry update we looked back at 2019, but we want to share about our plans, hopes and dreams for the coming year.

Looking forward at 2020:

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

We have some big dreams for this year in our family! We are trusting the Lord for three big things:

1) A trip south (waaay south) – It has always been our desire to expose our children to other kinds of missions, other cultures, as well as life in third world countries. This summer our family has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do all three – experience remote tribal missions.

The village our family would be staying in.

Naomi’s cousin, Becky Preheim, has been a missionary for 20 years with Ethnos 360 (formerly New Tribes Mission). She and her team recently completed the translation of the New Testament into the Mengen tribal language, a remote tribal group in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the same country Naomi grew up in as a missionary kid (North of Australia). This summer they will be having a dedication service for the new Bible translation.

The Mengen New Testament

We’d be going to the largest island to the east of the big island of Papua New Guinea

We have long supported and prayed for Becky over the years and are excited about this major milestone. Becky will be traveling back to PNG for this celebration, and Naomi and our three kids have the opportunity to accompany Becky to see the fruit of God’s work among the Mengen people. We have been praying for something like this for years and are really excited about this opportunity!

One of the village children reading.

Naomi’s cousin, Becky, and one of the village women holding a copy of the book of Acts.

2) A trip east – Our last trip to the Maritimes and Ontario was our cross-country road trip of 2017. If the Lord supplies, we desire to get back again to reconnect with family, friends, and supporters (as well as keeping some Maritime salt in the kids’ veins) this summer.

3) New bedrooms – Our girls are getting older (currently 13 almost 15), and bigger. The little room they are sharing is pretty tight, with them literally on top of each other with a loft bed. For several years, we have wanted to take an all-purpose room in our basement and break it into a small storage room and two bedrooms. To do that, we need new windows that allow emergency exits, and also walls, doors, heating, etc. The fix-or-replace-broken-things-palooza of 2019 caused it to be delayed another year, but we are really hoping not to put it off for another year yet again.

Other 2020 plans:

Naomi has been invited to be the speaker at a mother/daughter equestrian camp this summer, and we are exploring having Ellie (who will be 15 then) stay after that as a camp volunteer.
Ellie getting her learner’s permit to start driving. 😳
In February our family will also be participating again in an evangelistic retreat weekend featuring the new No Ordinary Story books.

On the ministry end of things, Troy is currently getting budgets ready for the coming year for the various goals we have in GoodSeed. These include translation work and printing materials in various languages, reprints of English materials, ministry travel, moving various creative projects ahead (such as an audiobook and the musical), shipping materials to and setting up distrubution channels in Australia, UK and Europe and all the expenses that go along with seeing these things accomplished.

Doing a budget is essentially an exercise in faith, but the Lord has provided wonderfully for us as a ministry. We have a full warehouse of books, and the finances ready to reprint four more books in the next two months! We know the Lord is more than able to undertake for many more things in 2020.

Truly, while we think our plans for the year are wonderful and exciting, we are looking to see how the Lord leads and guides us.

These are some big dreams. Please pray for us as we make plans, consider our options, and try to save up funds. Please pray for wisdom and provision for these opportunities and our family.

Because of Christ,

Troy & Naomi

Ministry Update :: Looking back at 2019

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Troy

With the close of 2019, we have spent some time reflecting over the past couple years.

Missionary updates are often like people’s social media presence–only the positive things get shared. The last few years we have faced significant opposition, both personally and as a ministry. This has contributed to some health challenges, and often left us feeling bruised and discouraged. At times, we’ve felt a bit like this photo of Ethan sledding last week.

We know that God’s Word tells us there will be trials in life (and there have been!) and we continue to look for growth in our own lives as we go through them.

Looking back at 2019:

For our family, 2019 was a year of broken things being fixed/replaced around the house, as we replaced our shower, furnace, refrigerator, washer/dryer, and kitchen range. Yet despite that, we were grateful to see how the Lord’s hand worked to provide our needs over and over. The day before our furnace died in the coldest weeks of winter, and unknown to us, a supporter sent a cheque for $5,000–even before we had the need. This sort of thing happened several times, and we rejoiced in sharing stories like this with our children as we explained God’s provisions.

We continue to watch our family grow in age (kids are now 14, 13, and 11), height (2 are taller than Naomi), and wisdom. Our church has been a blessing to our family. Adelaine and Ethan are involved in a Scripture memory quiz club, Ellie and Adelaine enjoy the youth group, Naomi teaches a children’s Sunday School class, and Troy led the adult class during the Fall. Troy has also been speaking fairly regularly at a small country church, and has found that opportunity a blessing.

Other family highlights:

Adelaine got baptized.
Family camping trip to Jasper National Park.
Visit from Troy’s uncle and aunt from BC.
Troy was honoured to give the eulogy at his grandmother’s funeral during a brief trip to New Brunswick. She was a strong Christian, and it was good to reminisce and see many family members again after too many years.

From a ministry perspective in GoodSeed, we have seen many good things happen – reports from many around the world who are using GoodSeed evangelism and discipleship resources to reach many more. We will be sharing more of these stories in the months to come, but over the holidays, an evangelist in Kenya wrote:

“If you have never read The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, please make it part of your 2020 vision.
There’s no single book that pays my ministry greater dividends than this book. I wish I could give it to every Pastor I know.”

Another highlight was the completion of a new book series aimed at sharing the gospel in our secular culture called No Ordinary Story. This is the third new resource GoodSeed has produced in the last two years, and we enjoy seeing these tools get shipped out each week.

Partnerships with other ministries led to the distribution of up to 20,000 copies of the Spanish translation of The Stranger in Central and South America, and the last copies of the 300,000 Story that Matters were given away in Malawi. We’ll tell you more about some of these exciting stories in a later ministry update.

Despite the difficulties of previous years, we look forward to a new year and the new opportunities it presents with hope. The Apostle Paul knew opposition, trials, and betrayals, not to mention his former life of persecuting the church, yet he wrote:

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 (CSB)

We are encouraged in the Lord and are so thankful He has continued to sustain us in full-time ministry with GoodSeed. HE is faithful.

We would appreciate your prayers for us as we press forward with our plans for 2020 and beyond. We will be sharing more in the near future about these ideas and sharing stories from home and around the world.

Because of Christ,

Troy & Naomi

Mid Kid is 13

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Troy

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The one that doctors told us likely would not be born alive is now 13 years old! The miraculous creative little spunkmister with fight bigger than her continues to surpass expectations.

May she continue to grow in knowledge of the Lord and as a wonderful young woman!

In our usual fashion, we had a Family Birthday Adventure instead of a birthday party – Calgary for the Glenbow Museum (and some weird art), the Holy Grill (amazing burgers, beet chips, and hand cut fries), and Westside Recreation Center for time on the climbing wall, skating, and swimming (hot tub, water slide, lazy river and wave pool). Great memories.