Friday, July 25, 2008

Camp Sychar, Mount Vernon, Ohio

Yep, we're heading towards Mt. Vernon, Ohio, this weekend to spend three or four days at one of the few remaining interdenominational holiness campmeetings still left in the eastern U.S. Camp Sychar has supported us for several years, and we look forward to being with friends we have made there in the past. I wish I could say that everything is air conditioned and comfortable, but I'm afraid it isn't. The weather is supposed to be in the mid- to upper-80s next week, and the humidity is always high is Ohio! We will be presenting our work and needs on
Tuesday, which is Missionary Day, but we want to be a blessing to the folks everyday that we're there. We will probably leave on Wednesday or Thursday and head west again toward Oklahoma and home. More to follow.

Living Free

Well, there's a lot to catch up on right now. I'm going to start with a two-day course we took in Chattanooga. It's called Living Free. You can see it at www.livingfree.org. The basic purpose of Living Free is to help Christians (and others if they so desire) to break free of life-controlling issues such as substance abuse, behaviorial problems, and difficult relationships with others. It is not a counseling program, as such, and it does not consider itself to be psychology. It works on the theory that small groups within the church can help everyone, not just those who seem to have problems. We can take a good look at themselves, sometimes through the eyes of others in the group, and find help spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. The program uses three things to help each one: the Word of God, the Spirit of God and the people of God.

Our training was to enable us to use the material in the church, and to train others in using it. Actually, the two days were just the beginning of the training. We have a list of books to read and we are supposed to participate ourselves in some of the groups. We have a year to finish up the training process. Our field leader in Ukraine, Ernie Smith, is really excited about us doing this. He feels that the program can really help new Christians in the young churches overcome some of the big problems that are keeping them back from becoming all that they can be. One of the best things about this program is that all of the materials have already been translated into the Russian language and will soon be available for free download from the internet by those who have been trained to use it.

While we were in Chattanooga we stayed again with Frank's childhood friend Ken Anderson and his family. We had a lovely time with them and especially enjoyed their backyard swimming pool! It was a real treat for us to cool off in the evenings in the pool. I can't swim, so I just paddled about the edges of the pool, but Frank got out into the water and and learned some new water games from Ken and his family. The Lord gave us a wonderful week with them before it was time to move on to far-western Pennsylvania for a service in Genesis Church which has supported us for quite a few years. The drive from Chattanooga to New Castle, Pa., was beautiful. We enjoyed driving along some back roads and seeing "wild and wonderful" West Virginia along the way.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pictures of Anika Faith

Evan sent us some pictures of Anika Faith, so we'll share some of them with all of you. They are all good, but I especially love the one of big sister Kirsten with all her fly-away hair and her big smile! Riley is still not sure how she feels about the baby. Lori went home from the hospital yesterday and is recovering quickly, surprising the doctors and nurses. Continue to pray for all of them.







We will add here that Laura took Brock for his three-month check-up with the specialist for his Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. The doctor took fresh x-rays and said that it appears that Brock has a mild form of this disease and it may not get any worse, while it may get much better. He has his next check-up in four months. Laura was very pleased and encouraged. As we were also.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

On the Road in Ohio

This past weekend we were near Canton, Ohio, at a little town named Waynesburg. The Little Country Church is there and has been a strong supporter of World Gospel Mission for many years. This is our sixth time to be at the church and we spoke in both the morning and evening worship services. Several folks there have had support in us through the years and it was good to see them again.

One of the nearby attractions southwest of Canton is the Amish country in Holmes County. It was super-busy on Saturday in Berlin, Ohio, where we stopped for a while. I love going through antique malls, and enjoyed the one in Berlin, not to mention all the quilt shops and Amish furniture places. The Amish food is delicious, but probably not so good for someone trying to watch their weight or cholesterol.

Tomorrow, July 10th, we are driving to Nashville, Tennessee, where we will visit an old friend from India, Dr. Paul Beals, who was a visiting professor several times at South India Biblical Seminary. From there we will go to Chattanooga for our counseling training next week. We'll try to write again from Chattanooga. Thanks for your prayers.

Anika Faith Dewey


Anika Faith was born on Monday, July 7, at 10:10am to our son Evan and his wife Lori. She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz., and was 20 inches long. Evan said she has a big mouth! We're not sure exactly what he means except that he said when she cried her mouth looked huge. Big sister Kirsten, who will be four in August, is being very motherly and wants to hold the baby all the time. Big sister Riley, who is two, was more worried about Mommy and wanted to sit by Mommy on the bed.

Not everything was rosy when Anika was born. When the placenta came it brought the uterus with it, which is called "inverted uterus" and can be fatal to the mother. This is a very serious and rare complication. In fact, neither of the doctors who worked on Lori had even seen it before! The doctor and nurses swung into action and took Lori to surgery where the second doctor was finally able to get the uterus back inside after a two hour struggle. Lori needed four units of blood and was given lots of medication to stop the bleeding as well as to help with the pain. She was groggy a lot of the day after being taken back to her room. But she was able to hold the baby, and the doctors say that except for being very sore inside for some days she is okay. We are thankful for people who were praying for Lori and the baby. Evan called us several times and kept us informed of what was happening so we were able to pray too. He says that Lori may be able to come home today, which is Wednesday, the 9th.

When we get more pictures of Anika, we'll be sure to post them here. By the way, Anika is Scandinavian for Anna. At least, that's what I read online.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Grandbaby on the way!

We just talked to our son Evan. His wife, Lori, is expecting a new baby any day now. She is having some contractions, but nothing else seems to be happening, so if the baby doesn't come this weekend, she will have labor induced on Monday morning, July 7th. The baby is a girl to go along with the other two sweet little girls they have. We're excited, but a little disappointed that we won't be able to see her until August after we finish this July roadtrip to Ohio, Tennessee, and back again. When we hear more, I'll write more.

I've been thinking recently about my own family (this is Chris writing). I have two sisters, no brothers. Evan and his family are kinda like us. Three girls, but closer together in age that my sisters and I are. We three are still pretty close and try to keep in touch. Email has really helped in that line, along with cell phones. I'm the oldest, so I think I have an idea about how little Kirsten (almost 4 years old) will feel as time goes by. I'm going to watch Riley (aged 2) and now this new little one to see if I find any similarities between them and my two sisters because of their birth order.

Sometimes I think I read too much! I read about the effect of birth order a long time ago and my sisters and I pretty much fit right into the characteristics that our places in the birth order are supposed to have. How will Kirsten, Riley, and ????? develop? It'll be fun to watch.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

July on the road

Friends, soon Frank and I will be hitting the road for the month of July, so I want to write a few lines before we leave home. We will be leaving early morning on the 4th of July and driving toward Ohio. On Sunday we will spend the day at the Little Country Church near Canton, Ohio. So we need to get there Saturday night. This is going to be another l-o-n-g drive from Oklahoma City.

We will be having services at several different places in the Ohio-eastern Pennsylvania area, but there are two major places where we'll spend some time. First, we will head to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a two-day seminar to help us learn how to teach others to be counselors in the church. This is a really serious need in Ukraine. Dysfuntional family life is one of the greatest issues that Christians face there, and we hope to be able to teach Ukrainians how to approach others and use good counseling materials (which are already available in the Russian language). The title of this program is "Living Free" from Turning Point Ministries. We are keen to take this course and give ourselves better preparation for our work in Ukraine. The dates of the seminar are July 14 and 15, during which time we will be staying again with Frank's long-ago friend Ken Anderson and his family. (See our earlier postings in February to read about Ken and his great family.)

Then toward the end of the month we will be at Sychar Campmeeting at Mount Vernon, Ohio. This is one of the old holiness campmeetings still in existence and it has supported us for four years. We are eager to get back there, meet old friends, and share our message about the needs of Ukraine.

We plan to stay at WGM headquarters in Marion, Indiana, for part of the time. While we're there, we're going to work on producing some DVDs to send to various churches and friends who haven't had a chance to meet us this year or to hear much of what we'll be doing in Ukraine. If you would like to see the video, the webpage is www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW5Hul1F_N4. Or, go to wgm.org----click fields----click Europe (find Ukraine)----scroll down and click Frank and Chris Dewey----click check out ministry pages----click our ministry video. It sounds complicated, but it actually goes pretty fast. The video will come up and you can see and hear us as we share our excitement about going to Ukraine.

No more for now. I'll write again next Monday to let you know how things go for us next weekend. Thanks for your prayers.

p.s. I notice that when I click on the above link, I get to youtube, but it tells me the video is not available. I typed in "Frank and Chris Dewey" in the Search box, and it took me right to our video. Hope this helps if you've tried it and couldn't get it to come up. (Sometimes I wish I was a computer wizard!!! Then all of this would work the way it's supposed to. I think.)