August Ministry Update

A Thought

As we’ve been cleaning up our house, we’ve come to realize not only how busy we’ve been since we got married 14 years ago, but also in our lives prior to marriage.  Our lives today, over the last 8 months, feels different as we are not being driven by lives that pull us in opposite directions, but by a life that is pulling us in the same direction.  The result of this has been, un-intentionally, us spending more time together, not only as a couple, but also as a family.  The change has been subtle, but palpable.  Near the end of July and beginning of August, we traveled as a family to the west coast for 11 days, visiting family, friends, and Temple Baptist church.  During this time, we camped for 4 days, spent a day at a waterslide park, played games and spent time with people.  It was probably, from my point of view, one of the most relaxing vacations we’ve had as a family so far, as we simply enjoyed the journey. Do not get me wrong, we have a lot on our plate including worries and work, as we prepare to leave, but there was a peace.  Is this God speaking into our lives?   A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God, pg. 125, writes “It will cost something to walk slow in the parade of the ages, while excited men of time rush about confusing motion with progress.  But it will pay in the long run . . ..”  We are grateful as we reflect for the gift of time we’ve been given.

Updates – Preparing for the mission field

Language school.  Language school has been set and confirmed for Sherbrooke, Quebec.  We will start on January 13, 2025.  We’ve given notice to our landlord here in Fort Wayne for the end of December, and have been assigned a fully furnished 3-bedroom apartment in Sherbrooke.  We are planning to bring our van with us.  To help us in the move over the next few weeks, we will be getting a U-Haul hitch put on the van so that it can tow a small trailer.  Our goal is to travel with about 15 suitcases.  In Sherbrooke, the kids will be attending an English-speaking school with French language lessons.  We are happy for this as it seems like it will be less stressful for the kids and with them getting the first part of the year at BCS, the school year, from a learning perspective, can be “salvaged.”

Fund raising and presentations.  Noll turned 5 on August 21^st and is now a “big boy!”  This has had two effects.  First, he is now required to wash his dish and put it in the dishwasher after meals.  Second, it has increased our child education fund requirements.  As such, our monthly support level has gone from 100% to 96%.  Our O&P continues to be at 100%.  For us to leave for the field, both have to be at 100%.  We are believing that God will supply what we need, as we continue our plans to leave on time!  Thank you to all of you who support us financially, we could not do this without you!  For those of you who would like to become financial supporters, support can be given through https://abwe.org/pfenniger.  Our presentation schedule has slowed as we focus on packing and cleaning up the house.  We currently have three additional presentations scheduled, Sept 29^th at Legacy ABF at Headwaters, Oct 19^th at Noah’s Church youth group (DS3) and Nov 17^th at Wirt Baptist in Madison Indiana

Exercise equipment.  As you know from previous updates, Fred is getting older (but not Lydia), and exercise is not only important to him but us as a family.  The kids all participate in sports and are encouraged to exercise daily in some form whether it be basketball, soccer, running or hitting balls with dad.  In this we were looking for exercise equipment to encourage this aspect of our life.  We started searching in the spring of this year, and were recently blessed by a promise for 7+ pieces of commercial grade equipment for not only ourselves, but also for the other missionaries at HBB to use!  Our next challenge in this process is finding a place to set up the equipment at HBB.  Currently plans are in place, and a design is being worked on, to build a very basic and simple exercise room.  The expected cost is $21,500.  As such, we are now looking for funding for the building.  Are you interested in supporting this project, either financially and/or with additional equipment donations?  If so, please email us at mail@fredandlydia.com.  To ensure that the equipment does not get put in storage when it arrives, a backup plan is in place.  We have been assigned an 1,800 ft² home on the hospital compound.  Attached to the house is a 270 ft² screened porch.  So, in the absence of a dedicated exercise room we will set up the equipment in the screened in porch of our house for general use by the missionaries.  In considering all this, and with the fact that the kids enjoy sports and there are 35+ kids on HBB’s compound, we are praying and thinking about doing a sports ministry that would be offered to all the missionary kids on the compound.  We would plan to cycle through 3-month sport seasons.  No, we are not “sports parents,” but we have learned a lot about different sports as we watch our kids play, and do believe that these are important skill sets as well as opportunities to grow in faith.  

Pre-field courses.  Progress continues.  Fred has completed all the required courses, and Lydia is on her last two.  The two required book studies have been set up and are starting this week.  If all goes well, all our pre-field requirements will be complete by the end of November.

Container.  As full-time missionaries, we have been assigned a house in Togo and will need to furnish it with furniture and appliances.   This home, which is 1800 ft², is almost as big as our current home.  We have been focused on going through our house –reducing and organizing.  This is and will be an on-going process until the day we move.  However, we now have a clearer understanding of what we have and what we will ship.  In this, we made the decision of shipping a container from here to Togo as it will allow for both familiarity and allow us to set up a functional home quickly.  Our next steps will be the purchasing of appliances, storage containers, area rugs, and new mattresses and reconnecting with the church in Lansing Michigan that organizes and sends containers to Togo on a regular basis. We have communicated with them in the past and have an understanding that they will work with us. 

Other.  Outside of above big items, we continue to make progress on multiple other fronts including a retirement plan, the kids’ education requirements, and personal/professional goals (family, midwife training program, and ministry) for our first term (Jan 2025-Spring 2029).  

Prayer Requests and Praises

• Praise for the exercise equipment that has been donated!  Prayer that the funding will come in for the exercise building.
• Praise for the progress being made in preparations to go and the pre-field tasks.  Prayer for the continued encouragement, wisdom, and strength to finish well and to be ready at the end of December.  Very specifically prayers for progress on the container and in our packing.
• Praise for how far God has brought us and prayer for the last bit of our funding to come in.
• Prayer for the kids as they enter this school year knowing that they will leave at the end of December.  Specifically pray for our conversations with them, their conversations with their friends, their goodbyes that will come as we leave Fort Wayne, and the hellos as we arrive in Sherbrooke.