Fall Update

If any of you have happened NOT to receive this in the mail or by email, here is our most recent update that we mailed out last week...


Fowler Family Update

Fall 2009
This morning in Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest I read, “A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: ‘You are not your own’. He goes on to say, “Our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession, becoming responsible for him...The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him.”

This thought is encouraging to us right now as it feels like we are in a season of waiting. Waiting for our support to come in, waiting to see how we are going to ship everything to Uganda, waiting to see when we will be departing for Africa, waiting for a new mechanic to arrive, waiting for Malachi’s adoption to be finalized, waiting to see what good God is going to bring out of the AIM Air accident in Nairobi last month, waiting… When we are waiting it is easy to feel like we should be doing more, but there are some times when we just can’t. That is why it is so freeing to be reminded that our expectation as missionaries, and all believers, is to be. Be a perfect delight to Jesus. One way we can do this, is how we “do the wait”. My natural reactions to waiting are frustration and impatience, wanting answers and wanting them NOW! God has been reminding me that while we are waiting, He is working. My frustration and impatience are being replaced with anticipation and hope. We are excited to see how God is going to bring about answers to all of these questions, in His perfect timing.

Support: At this time we have about $1700/month more we need to raise. While this sounds like a very large amount, it also means that we already have about $5700/month that has been pledged or that God has provided for our family in other ways. We are extremely grateful for those of you who have joined our support team. Because of your faithful contributions, our Outgoing Fund is up to $35,662.95. Thank you so much. In order to depart for Uganda in January, we need to have 100% of our monthly support pledged by December 11th, which is only three months away! If you are planning to support us monthly but don’t want to start until we depart for the field, you can go ahead and send in the enclosed pledge card with the amount written in that you plan to contribute and just specify that you will begin the support when we leave.

We have contacted several churches about sharing and are excited to be a part of the mission conference at the Church on the Rock in Wasilla on October 25th-27th. If you are in the area, we’d love to see you there. Just before the mission conference, Leo and Ned are going to the Crown Ignite training in California. This training will equip Leo to take God’s foundational truth about how to handle money and possessions to people around the world.

Mechanic: When we first felt God was calling us to fulltime missions, we said that when a mechanic came to take Leo’s place in the hangar, we would feel released to leave Port Alsworth. So far, we have had two new mechanics/management personnel join the Lake Clark Air hangar and it has been wonderful to have them here. However, we are still waiting for God to provide someone to take Leo’s place. Specifically, we are praying for an experienced mechanic who loves the Lord! Would you please pray with us that God would bring just the right mechanic at just the right time? If you know of someone who may be interested, please contact us. We are confident that God already has it all worked out, it’s just another one of those situations where we have to wait and see how and when He is going to do it.

AIM Air: As most of you know there was an AIM Air accident in Nairobi on August 1st, which resulted in the pilot, Frank Toews, and copilot, Ryan Williams, going home to Jesus. We know our friends are now in the presence of the One they both served so well, but they each left behind a wife and four children. For these two young moms and eight children, our hearts break. Please pray with us for these families. They just returned to the states for a couple of months to hold memorial services and spend time with family before heading back to Kenya.

Our family: As I mentioned earlier, we are still waiting for *Malachi’s adoption to be finalized. He has had an adoption date set twice, only to be postponed. It is now set for September 10th, but we will see if it actually happens this time. We are beginning to feel like we’re doing an adoption in Africa instead of Alaska with all these delays and postponements! The adoption needs to be finalized before we can get all of his immigration paperwork that we need for our move.

We also learned last night that Leo’s mom, Eva, has been diagnosed with cancer. It is early in the whole process so we don’t know many details yet, but we would appreciate your prayer for her too as she begins this very difficult battle.

All of these things have made us question the timing of a January departure date. As of now, that is what we are still aiming for, but also have peace about delaying if that is what we need to do. Our next possible departure date would be next summer, probably June or July.

Uganda: There is a drought affecting much of Uganda. Please pray for rain and that God’s people will show His love to those who are in desperate need.

I feel like this newsletter is full of prayer requests. We’re so thankful to have such a wonderful group of people to be able to pray with and for. If there are things we can pray for you, please let us know too. We’re all in this together! You are a delight to Him.

Trusting ~Leo, Menda & Crew

mennleo@hotmail.com 23 Airport Rd, Port Alsworth, AK 99653 (907)781-2258

*Adoption update: Malachi became an official Fowler today, September 10th J Praise the Lord!