KUNKEL PRAYER GRAM; FEBRUARY 27, 2009
Dear friends, family, and prayer partners,
We did not want to let this month pass without connecting with you all. This month marks our completion of 19 years of overseas missionary service. Yes on 2/13/1990 we were commissioned in Richmond VA, by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Commission as missionaries to Uruguay. We served there for 15 + years, and for the last 4 years have been assigned to and or lived in Paraguay. God has been so!! good to us. How could we ever repay to Him the debt of gratitude we owe Him, for ALL! He has done for us??? He has saved us, he has given us an unfading inheritance reserved for us in heaven, which cannot be taken away. ( I Peter 1); He has called us, and He allows us!! to be His co laborers, to rescue the perishing, care for the dying, and proclaim Him, who called us out of darkness into HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT! (1 Peter 2). What a blessing it is to be His ambassadors, (11 Cor. 5), and your missionaries in South America. How much we appreciate those of you who daily pray for us, give to the CP and the LMCO, and support us in so many ways! Thank you all!
MINISTRY NEWS.
Our church planting efforts continue well. We are about trying to start a Church Planting Movement, ( CPM ), of simple house churches. This is where we lead people to Christ, and then disciple them. We then begin to meet with them, in homes, under trees, anywhere a group of 5-50 people can meet and worship the Lord. We have seen three such churches come into existence in the 2.5 years we have lived in this city. One runs about 30-40, the other one fizzled out, and a new one we have helped to start has been up and running now for 6 weeks, and runs about 18 on average. We are busily passing on the vision, and disciple individually about 30 new Christians. We are discipling and or mentoring 6 new couples. Four of them, are baby Christians, and have brought with them MUCH BAGGAGE from their time in the world; broken relationships, infidelity, children with multiple partners, accusations, debt, etc., etc. To help them get past all this baggage is EXAUSTING. I spend sometimes 4-8 hours a week with 1-2 of these couples.
The counseling part is EXAUSTING, and Iracema almost cannot do it. It really affects her health. So please pray for us, in this regard. The goal is 100 house churches in this area. Once they get up and running, and start self perpetuating, this is a possibility, but it is a GOD SIZED GOAL, to be sure.
PLEASE PRAY FOR:
-A new outreach group ( NOG), in a local beauty salon. In this business 1x per week, Iracema groups together the beauticians and leads them in prayer and Bible study. Pray for the 6 ladies that participate in this. Several have made decisions for Christ.
- The workers in the mesitas. ( Little Tables ). These are ladies that work in the sidewalk flea markets near our home. Iracema visits them, and gives them Bible studies on the street. About 20 or so people participate in this study. They mainly fill in the blanks, and then she picks up the studies a few days later.
-Please pray for the workers in especially one large warehouse galleria, at the MERCADO DE ABASTO. (A more established flea market neighborhood, where we have another 15 or so involved in Bible studies like the one I just described). Many baby Christians are in this one place. Most of them work 12 hours per day 6-7 days a week, so it is VERY hard to get them together for worship. They are like slaves to their low paying jobs, but many have found new life in Christ. Pray for us as we disciple them.
- Those who we will baptize soon. Please pray especially for Beatriz, Olga, and Felix, all of whom we are preparing for this BIG STEP, which in the case of at least one will severely damage his relationship with his family. To follow Christ, he will pay a price of ridicule, and even possibly, by some family members, abandonment.
- For a young couple I am preparing for leading a new church. Please pray for David, and his family. For the two couples I am mentoring, on an almost daily basis.
-For a couple whose home is FULL of pagan deities. They want to worship them, AND JESUS. I have told them this is an impossibility. No one can serve idols and the one true God. Please pray that the bondage of idolatry will be broken! I meet weekly with them, to story the Gospel to/for them, and to counsel them.
-For the lost Japanese expats that live in Paraguay. Steven studies in a Japanese school, and also is getting more and more involved with a Japanese church in the nation’s capital, Asuncion. Please pray for Pastor Koki, and his wife Mari. Please pray for Steven as he ministers alongside of them, most every month, in camps, and in their home church.
- For Steven and the Japanese pastors as they go to Japan for two months later this year. Please pray for the logistical and financial aspects of this 60 day or so trip, to and in this land of so much spiritual lostness and darkness.
-For the 6 couples that make up the core of our new CPM; for us to walk in holiness and purity. For them to continue to progress in the Christian life.
-For a new NOG, in an exclusive Country Club Neighborhood, that will begin, in mid March. This will be for 10 or so lost ladies of the upper Class. Iracema will lead this on Friday afternoons. Pray that they will come to salvation.
FAMILY NEWS.
-We thank the Lord that Steven graduated from High School, in the last month. He finished the U of Nebraska, Home Study HS. Please check out a picture of this on our blog. johntkunkel.blogspot.com He is now enrolled full time, via distance ed. in Univ. courses, and is pursuing an A.A. Degree in General Studies. He plans to live at home with us for the next couple of years, and continue to develop his ministry with the Japanese people here in Paraguay
- John Glenn will finish up his univ. studies and GRADUATE!!! with his B.A. Degree from California Baptist University, this May 2nd. We plan to be there and cheer him on. Most semesters he has been on the dean’s list, and he will get a double major in Philosophy and Pol. Sci. He plans to immediately pursue at CBU an M.A. in Public Administration. Please pray for him, as he seeks housing off campus, and scholarships, loans, etc, to fund this second part of his education.
-Julia and Jason continue to live and work in Norfolk, VA. Julia teaches Special ED. students at a public school. Jason just got a new job as a loan officer. Please pray for him, as he adjusts to this new position, and this new field of work.
-Iracema was able to spend Christmas with her 94 year old mother, Ruth. She is doing quite well. She lives with Cema’s older sister. She is now a widow. Her health is good, and we thank the Lord for the great Christian witness she is to all. Her father was won to Christ by Baptist Missionary William “Buck” Bagby in the 1880’s in Rio! So Cema is a 3rd generation fruit of missionary efforts. Exciting, no?
-My parents, Glenn and Jackie, are doing well. My mom, is largely homebound, and is not too mobile, but from her chair she is a real prayer warrior, and counselor of/to/for a vast multitude. My dad had another heart operation this past year but he came through it well. He goes to his office at the Christian University he helped to start about 4-5x per week, and works there in the mornings. Please pray for them,
AND FOR ME,
“ … That whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should”. ( Ef. 6: 19-20).
Your fellow servants in HIS Harvest.
Tim, Iracema, and Steven Kunkel
Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
johntkunkel.blogspot.com also on FACEBOOK.
Dear friends, family, and prayer partners,
We did not want to let this month pass without connecting with you all. This month marks our completion of 19 years of overseas missionary service. Yes on 2/13/1990 we were commissioned in Richmond VA, by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Commission as missionaries to Uruguay. We served there for 15 + years, and for the last 4 years have been assigned to and or lived in Paraguay. God has been so!! good to us. How could we ever repay to Him the debt of gratitude we owe Him, for ALL! He has done for us??? He has saved us, he has given us an unfading inheritance reserved for us in heaven, which cannot be taken away. ( I Peter 1); He has called us, and He allows us!! to be His co laborers, to rescue the perishing, care for the dying, and proclaim Him, who called us out of darkness into HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT! (1 Peter 2). What a blessing it is to be His ambassadors, (11 Cor. 5), and your missionaries in South America. How much we appreciate those of you who daily pray for us, give to the CP and the LMCO, and support us in so many ways! Thank you all!
MINISTRY NEWS.
Our church planting efforts continue well. We are about trying to start a Church Planting Movement, ( CPM ), of simple house churches. This is where we lead people to Christ, and then disciple them. We then begin to meet with them, in homes, under trees, anywhere a group of 5-50 people can meet and worship the Lord. We have seen three such churches come into existence in the 2.5 years we have lived in this city. One runs about 30-40, the other one fizzled out, and a new one we have helped to start has been up and running now for 6 weeks, and runs about 18 on average. We are busily passing on the vision, and disciple individually about 30 new Christians. We are discipling and or mentoring 6 new couples. Four of them, are baby Christians, and have brought with them MUCH BAGGAGE from their time in the world; broken relationships, infidelity, children with multiple partners, accusations, debt, etc., etc. To help them get past all this baggage is EXAUSTING. I spend sometimes 4-8 hours a week with 1-2 of these couples.
The counseling part is EXAUSTING, and Iracema almost cannot do it. It really affects her health. So please pray for us, in this regard. The goal is 100 house churches in this area. Once they get up and running, and start self perpetuating, this is a possibility, but it is a GOD SIZED GOAL, to be sure.
PLEASE PRAY FOR:
-A new outreach group ( NOG), in a local beauty salon. In this business 1x per week, Iracema groups together the beauticians and leads them in prayer and Bible study. Pray for the 6 ladies that participate in this. Several have made decisions for Christ.
- The workers in the mesitas. ( Little Tables ). These are ladies that work in the sidewalk flea markets near our home. Iracema visits them, and gives them Bible studies on the street. About 20 or so people participate in this study. They mainly fill in the blanks, and then she picks up the studies a few days later.
-Please pray for the workers in especially one large warehouse galleria, at the MERCADO DE ABASTO. (A more established flea market neighborhood, where we have another 15 or so involved in Bible studies like the one I just described). Many baby Christians are in this one place. Most of them work 12 hours per day 6-7 days a week, so it is VERY hard to get them together for worship. They are like slaves to their low paying jobs, but many have found new life in Christ. Pray for us as we disciple them.
- Those who we will baptize soon. Please pray especially for Beatriz, Olga, and Felix, all of whom we are preparing for this BIG STEP, which in the case of at least one will severely damage his relationship with his family. To follow Christ, he will pay a price of ridicule, and even possibly, by some family members, abandonment.
- For a young couple I am preparing for leading a new church. Please pray for David, and his family. For the two couples I am mentoring, on an almost daily basis.
-For a couple whose home is FULL of pagan deities. They want to worship them, AND JESUS. I have told them this is an impossibility. No one can serve idols and the one true God. Please pray that the bondage of idolatry will be broken! I meet weekly with them, to story the Gospel to/for them, and to counsel them.
-For the lost Japanese expats that live in Paraguay. Steven studies in a Japanese school, and also is getting more and more involved with a Japanese church in the nation’s capital, Asuncion. Please pray for Pastor Koki, and his wife Mari. Please pray for Steven as he ministers alongside of them, most every month, in camps, and in their home church.
- For Steven and the Japanese pastors as they go to Japan for two months later this year. Please pray for the logistical and financial aspects of this 60 day or so trip, to and in this land of so much spiritual lostness and darkness.
-For the 6 couples that make up the core of our new CPM; for us to walk in holiness and purity. For them to continue to progress in the Christian life.
-For a new NOG, in an exclusive Country Club Neighborhood, that will begin, in mid March. This will be for 10 or so lost ladies of the upper Class. Iracema will lead this on Friday afternoons. Pray that they will come to salvation.
FAMILY NEWS.
-We thank the Lord that Steven graduated from High School, in the last month. He finished the U of Nebraska, Home Study HS. Please check out a picture of this on our blog. johntkunkel.blogspot.com He is now enrolled full time, via distance ed. in Univ. courses, and is pursuing an A.A. Degree in General Studies. He plans to live at home with us for the next couple of years, and continue to develop his ministry with the Japanese people here in Paraguay
- John Glenn will finish up his univ. studies and GRADUATE!!! with his B.A. Degree from California Baptist University, this May 2nd. We plan to be there and cheer him on. Most semesters he has been on the dean’s list, and he will get a double major in Philosophy and Pol. Sci. He plans to immediately pursue at CBU an M.A. in Public Administration. Please pray for him, as he seeks housing off campus, and scholarships, loans, etc, to fund this second part of his education.
-Julia and Jason continue to live and work in Norfolk, VA. Julia teaches Special ED. students at a public school. Jason just got a new job as a loan officer. Please pray for him, as he adjusts to this new position, and this new field of work.
-Iracema was able to spend Christmas with her 94 year old mother, Ruth. She is doing quite well. She lives with Cema’s older sister. She is now a widow. Her health is good, and we thank the Lord for the great Christian witness she is to all. Her father was won to Christ by Baptist Missionary William “Buck” Bagby in the 1880’s in Rio! So Cema is a 3rd generation fruit of missionary efforts. Exciting, no?
-My parents, Glenn and Jackie, are doing well. My mom, is largely homebound, and is not too mobile, but from her chair she is a real prayer warrior, and counselor of/to/for a vast multitude. My dad had another heart operation this past year but he came through it well. He goes to his office at the Christian University he helped to start about 4-5x per week, and works there in the mornings. Please pray for them,
AND FOR ME,
“ … That whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should”. ( Ef. 6: 19-20).
Your fellow servants in HIS Harvest.
Tim, Iracema, and Steven Kunkel
Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
johntkunkel.blogspot.com also on FACEBOOK.
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