What's New

February 29, 2008

Our next Personal Growth Conference for Missionaries is coming up April 13-18 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We have just a few more openings, so if you know a missionary, please forward this on to them soon. You can click here to learn all the details. We are also starting to take registrations for our Nov. 2-7 conference as well. Thank you.

I thought you might be interested in knowing what has been going on with Caring for Others, but I need to mention something first. Confidentiality is something we protect dearly in the work we do in Caring for Others, and in the two stories I’m going to tell I want you to know I have permission from those involved to share them. I’ll start with a workshop for missionaries that Janet and I recently attended in snowy Chicago. We went to improve our skills in ministering to pastors and missionaries. At the end of this Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills workshop everyone was asked, “What was the highlight for you during this past week?”

One Christian worker answered by describing a conversation with another missionary over lunch earlier in the week. We sat at the same table with both of them. Our missionary friend described how moved and touched he was by hearing another missionary talk about the death of her son at birth 25 years ago in Ecuador. He burst into tears hearing her story, and soon disclosed that he and his wife also lost a son shortly after birth. I learned later that his son died during a heart operation, where the prognosis was an 80% chance of a living a normal life following the surgery. What a shock this must have been for them.

He went on to describe how hearing another missionary share of her loss greatly ministered to him in his. With his voice choking, he added “A few days later during our lunch break, I drove over to the cemetery nearby where our son is buried … and made a small snow man and set it on his grave. He would have been 3½ now, and I think he would have enjoyed this.”

Here was a missionary ministered to by a chance encounter with another missionary. It reminded me of how important our Personal Growth Conference for Missionaries is in giving missionaries opportunities to give and receive strength and encouragement from each other.

The second story I’ve been given permission to share comes from our latest Upper Room Group meeting. I facilitate these half-day monthly meetings where pastors discuss with each other issues they face in their ministries and personal lives. The issue we discussed in this most recent meeting was How can I best minister to my wife?

Imagine you’re a pastor, who gives and gives to meet the needs of your congregation, but when the most important person in your life – your wife – has needs, you don’t have much left in your tank to give again. How do you balance ministry with being a husband? Our group discussed this for several hours, and encouraged and strengthened each other with everyone’s collective experience and wisdom.

And we at Caring for Others are encouraged and strengthened by your prayers and financial support. Would you prayerfully consider a financial gift this month to help us continue ministering to those who minister?

We especially need financial help for our April Personal Growth Conference for Missionaries. To keep this affordable for our guests, we charge them just $100 per couple or single to attend for the week. But our actual cost for lodging, food, and other expenses is about $588 per person, or $1175 per couple. Please consider sponsoring a missionary for a

Week - $588
Day - 117.60
Half-day - 58.80

Thank you. We’d like to raise enough funds so we could refund the $100 fee our guests pay.

His care to you,

John Certalic

PS, We recently moved our office. Click here for our new address.

December 23, 2007

I never tire of the Christmas story that Luke tells us in the second chapter of his Gospel. Verse 19 in particular grabs me, where we see Mary’s response to the birth of her son – and our savior, and all that surrounds it:

But Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.

I’m finding there’s a little bit of Mary in me these days as I reflect upon what God is doing through Caring for Others. Like Mary, I am often in wonder in seeing God at work in allowing Janet and me to be part of what He is doing. The other day, for example, I had breakfast with one of the pastors in our Upper Room Group. Besides meeting as a group once a month to discuss issues they face in their ministries, I also meet with them individually to listen and encourage where I can.

At our breakfast meeting my pastor friend commented in passing, "One of the benefits our group has for me is just knowing that I’m not alone." I marvel at how God allows me to facilitate this group and to see the value it brings to each pastor who participates.

Another thing I am treasuring in my heart, and thinking about often, is the week I recently spent in North Africa. In addition to participating in a number of strategic planning meetings regarding member care, I was asked to conduct several training sessions at a retreat for 30 missionaries. This group serves in a creative access Muslim country where those caught evangelizing spend time in prison.

Following the retreat, and together with two colleagues from another member care ministry, we spent a lot of one-on-one time with these Christian workers, listening to their stories, offering hope, and helping them process the difficulties they were encountering.

At the end of the week so many of them expressed their appreciation to us with the refrain Thanks so much for coming. For some, the fact we came was more encouraging than what we taught. There’s something quite powerful about coming alongside people and being fully present with them, and caring for them in the midst of their difficulties. It is what Jesus does for all of us.

You also play a big part in encouraging pastors and missionaries and helping to increase their effectiveness when you pray and financially support Caring for Others. We couldn’t be doing what we are doing without your help. Thank you.

My hope for each of us this Christmas is that like Mary, we too will quietly treasure in our hearts, and think often about, all that Christ’s birth means.

Treasuring what Jesus has done for us,

John Certalic
john@caringforothers.org

"Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other." Colossians 3:16 (New Living Translation)