They laid him in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths. The manager was made of the same hard stone that He would one day be laid upon wrapped in the same type of cloth in a tomb. This is the King that came to save us and give us eternal life. We are forever grateful to our Lord and Savior for His plan of how to redeem His people. The cross was the cost.
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December 2021 Dear Family and Friends, We are rejoicing in the Hope that was brought to the world many years ago as a baby. Many had longed for His birth and his coming. Today we still cling to that same hope for what is yet to come. What a blessing to finally have our family all together under one roof for Christmas this year, something we have not been able to do for 10 years. It was perfect! This is coming to you from our new location in Kansas in the Kansas City area where we will living while doing Home Assignment this next year and after that. The first days and weekend we spent the weekend with Shirley's family and enjoyed good food and fellowship. That same weekend we spoke in two churches in the MO, area, but Shirley was not much help as she had contracted a GI bug and supported by sleeping in the car and staying away from others. Before we arrived back in Kansas City, we were notified that we and some of our family had been exposed to COVID. Shirley cared for our 11 mo old grandson and made sure the others in the house had food and medicines to take care of the light symptoms. Praise the Lord no one was really sick and that we are all COVID free! That is how we started out our first days of coming back!! We said our final good-bye's to friends and left Quito on the 30th of Nov. The last two years were spent doing upkeep on the house and preparing it and our ministries for the ones to follow. There is much to do after living in one place for 14 years. The last couple of months we had a faithful volunteer, Ron Boeve, come and weld chapels and we took one out with him to set up with a good group of church people as well as our workers. We also set up another one with our workers in another area. We are looking forward to sharing in churches for our "Celebration Tour" of the 29 years of our ministry. There is so much to share of how God has walked alongside us and taken care of our many needs. Venezuela was where we started our ministry and it is good to keep in touch with them through their many difficulties in life and hear how the church is still growing. There are no words to describe how they continue to sacrificially send missionary offerings and even LINKS offerings when we know they could be using the offerings for food for their family's and other needs. We would love to catch up with you if we are in your area. See our schedule below. In a few weeks, we will be saying goodbye to our kid's Angel, Krista, and little Samuel as they will go to Ecuador to live in our house and continue our ministry. Now we are understanding what our parents went through when we first left for Venezuela with their only grandkids, but Krista is very good to call. We will be living in their home. Our other daughter Michelle and family will be 20 min away from us, close enough for grandparents to visit often and help out when needed. There will not be any more long goodbyes to have to explain to a three-year-old. We wish you all a good year and may it be filled with abundant blessings from God. For His glory, Jon and Shirley Fischer [email protected] January 9 Trinity-Independence Mo
January 16 Bonner Springs, KS January 23 Rolla, MO January 30 Nall Ave, Prairie Village, KS Feb. 2-16 AZ District Feb. 20 Lubbock, TX Feb. 27 Shelbyville, IL March 11-13 Richmond, VA March 20 Casey, IL March 27-April 3 Oklahoma District April 20-22 ID, Portland, April 23-May 1 Lewiston, Idaho May 15 Mt. Sterling, OH May 22 Crossroads, Elkhart May 29 Lee’s Summit, MO June 19-July 3 MN District Sept 2-12 Maine Tour Sept. 17-25 Anaheim, CA District October 8-9 Blue Springs, MO Faith Promise October 16 Pueblo, CO It seems that all our news is about family. If we were to write what we do everyday in our ministry it would be rather boring for you. Jon makes deposits, creates reports, keeps our workers working on projects at the seminary and around and many more things. I write a newsletter for the NAF, communicate with our LINKS churches and former team members. I do a lot of cleaning, painting and getting the house ready for when we leave. So yes, boring things you really can't write about. There is someone assigned to take over the finances for Jon. They will be coming for training in Sept and then will be moving to Ecuador in Jan. We are excited that our pastors Rev. Carlos and Rev. Nancy Cordero, from Venezuela will be coming soon to be the administrators of the Seminary which Jon was doing this last year. Lucho Flores, who is our assistant will be coordinating the work shop, vehicle and seminary maintenance. More News! Things are starting to fall into place for when we leave. It was God's plan to keep Work and Witness in the family, so Angel and Krista, our son-in-law and daughter were approved to be Sponsored Missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene to be the Work and Witness Coordinators here in Ecuador. The really amazing God part is that we are basically switching houses! When they get their funds raised which we hope will be the first of November, they will be coming here and that will give us 3 weeks give or take, together. The reason we had a mountain of suitcases when we were coming back, was were were able to bring 3 suitcases for Angel and Krista. Praise the Lord, we feel like we can breathe a little easier. Although that means we will be leaving our family behind we know that following God's will is the only way to live life. I was looking forward to being an in person mother to my daughters and a live Abuela to my grandsons but God's will is more important. I can be those to Michelle and her boys. Please pray for Angel and Krista and little Samuel as they prepare to make the transition. They have an active church and family and friends in their life they will be leaving behind and will need to make many decisions in the next months. Pray that God will bring people in their lives that will want to support them. They will be sharing in churches about their new ministry so they need to find churches other then their own, and individuals who will want to partner with them. They will need to raise money for VISA work, passport work, health insurance and all their expenses for the first two years. That adds up quickly. I try to think how did we plan when we were putting our lives in suitcases when we first left for Venezuela. Yes, we only thought it would be for one year. I feel it has been so long that I am not much help for Krista. Samuel will be close to the same age as Krista when she first left for the field. I know that God will bring people along side of them as they prepare and there is a wonderful mission family waiting for them here. Some of them they already are friends with. Samuel will have 3 little neighbor girls to play with and I am excited about him growing up here. It also helps that Jon and I know what their life will be like and all they will be doing and the people they will be working with. That makes it so much easier for this mom and dad to let go and allow God to take care of them. I am now having feelings of what our parents felt when we first left and I am thinking there are things I could have done to help the process. When we leave here on the 30th of Nov. we will go through all our boxes of things we stored away for 30 years. That will be exciting! Then we have 1 year of HA of sharing in churches and during that time we will be searching for what God has next for our lives. Thank you for your many prayers as we make this change. Angel, Krista and Samuel celebrating their 2 year wedding anniversary. Biggest supporters from home- Leaving for the mission field with your family is different than watching your sister, new nephew and brother-in-law leave. The cousins will have a lot to catch up on when they see each other. Josiah, Michelle, Arden and Fischer More family support! Jon's family. This was taken at our yearly lake vacation but we missed having Phil, Renae, Andrew, and Matt and Austin with us.
We returned from the States from vacation in July. We had planned for only 1 week but Jon, amazing as he is, asked for 3 weeks so we would be able to get our vaccinations. Our wonderful leaders allowed us 2 weeks working "from home" and our one week vacation. We were able to spend time with both sides of the family. The day before flying out, Jon saw that American Airlines requires you to have the vaccination 14 day before flying. Oppp's. We had gotten ours 2 days before. Krista and Samuel took us to the airport and it turns out that AA is pretty strict about that rule. I asked if there was a place to get a COVID test in the airport and she looked at me a little strange, and said, "That would be nice if we did". She did however give me a name of a place that was about 20 min. away. We called and they said they could fit us in. There was no place to store the mountain of suitcases we had so we called Krista back , who had gone to the parking lot to feed Samuel. They stayed with our luggage while we blitzed to the medical place. The medical place emailed the results of our COVID tests quickly and we checked in with time to spare. Thanks to our little flight savers, Krista and Samuel, and with God watching over us. We arrived into Quito early in the morning and Jon had made reservations for us to stay at a nearby hotel until noon. We celebrated our 35th anniversary with a nice breakfast. We actually celebrated our anniversary with Jon's family at the lake. Samuel likes to sleep on his stomach. He fell asleep while they were waiting for us to return to the airport. When we put him in his car seat he quickly flipped before we could strap him in.
We hope this finds you all doing well along with your families and loved ones. We are doing great here in Ecuador enjoying the cool rainy, and sunny warm weather. We get it all. We would like to see you during our Home Assignment/Deputation Tour starting Dec. of this year '21 throughout Nov. '22. We have a wide-open schedule and would like to come and share with you and your church, Sunday School class, or small group. As you know a missionary has many stories and likes to encourage others by sharing what great things God has done and is doing. This will be our final Home Assignment tour, the home- stretch tour, as we will not be returning to the mission field and will have completed the mission work to retire from mission service. Yes, we are that old but still lack a few years to officially retire. We had the honor to serve in the areas of Work and Witness and Finances in Venezuela and Ecuador for 15 years each. These plans have been forming for a couple of years and we were looking forward to working with many more teams. It was very disappointing to cancel all the teams last year but at the same time, we wanted to keep everyone safe. This year has allowed us to concentrate on other areas that needed attention. We are ready with open hearts to see what God has next for us, as ministry never ends. Our faith is just as strong as when we started out, taking that huge step to go to Venezuela as volunteers years ago. We would ask you to join us in prayer as we prepare for this transition. Our canvas at this time is super white and we know that God has already picked up the paintbrush and is painting his masterpiece for us. We are excited to see when he starts giving us little glimpses of what the masterpiece is. Thank you for your prayers. Picture of our home support team That has been such a great encouragement through our ministry .Michelle and Krista were a great part of our ministry in Venezuela. Josiah and Michelle Gould and 2 boys and Angel and Krista Sigui and 4 mo old boy. Our contact information is: Jon's Email: [email protected] Phone: 913-299-7974 The Home support teamAs you may have noticed we have mostly family news. If we were to inform you as to what we are doing day to day it would not make a very good read.
Basically Shirley, is doing computer work and doing some major cleaning. She has however taught herself how to crochet which she enjoys doing in the evenings while watching TV. Jon's work is a little more exciting in that he does a lot of computer work. Jon is keeping in touch with a few people about some projects they are working on. Our WnW pick-up had a clutch problem and you really don't want to know the saga of getting it fixed. We were glad that this new mechanic did keep in touch with Jon with may messages and asking him to come and look at the situation. Other than that we are making sure that things are going ok on the property, zoom meetings from time to time and making sure all the bills and deposits to districts are being made. We are still in phase 1 of Wnw which means no teams are traveling. As far as the vaccination being distributed we are in phase 0 which means essential medical help, and people in rest homes are first to receive the vaccination. Just recently 16,300 doses of Pfizer arrived from Belguim and 8,190 doses were received in January. Due to a recent election and Carnival the cases and deaths of COVID have increased and the hospitals are running out of room. Family pictures will be more real now with newborns, babies and toddlers, parents trying to get kids to smile and keeping Abuela's eyes open. The family in Arden's room checking out his jeep bed that his daddy built for him. Which means that Fischer graduated to the baby bed. Such big mile stones require celebrating. Grandpa and Abuela brought over donuts for breakfast to keep Arden occupied while they carried it to his room. Baby Samuel is taking it all in. Abuela has taken up a new hobby and taught herself how to crochet. Fischer is modeling the hat she got done the day they left. He just happened to be wearing green! She has many more to make. Arden: "Good job Remmi." We are not sure why?
On January 7, 21 Samuel Elijah Sigui was born at 6:5 pm, weighing 6lbs and a length of 18 1/2 inches long. The proud and first time parents are our daughter, Krista and her husband Angel. Those first weeks are so delicate for newborns as they adjust in their new world. Samuel lost some weight due to keeping his bilirubin count in balance but now is making up for it. This is our 3rd Grandson. We are so grateful that we made our second successful trip to the States without carry anything with us to keep our families healthy. While we were there Jon planned a birthday party for Shirley with all of our kids. It was the best birthday ever! Since it has only been us together in the house, which is pretty quiet, we realized quickly that when we look for a house we need to make sure it is big enough for these active boys to have fun. I am pretty sure they will have fun no matter how big the house, but for Grandpa's sanity we need to find that place until he gets accustomed to the noise. Samuel getting ready to go to his new home! Samuel listening to his cousin Fischer coo "talk" to him. Samuel was dedicated while we were home. He had two dedications in the Central Nazarene English and Hispanic services. Samuel was weighing 7 lbs and 1 oz before this picture. Mom and Dad are doing a great job.
We are finding much joy these days as our family is growing with boys! Meet the newest grandson, Fischer Oren Gould who was born on Oct. 18, at 5:58 am. He weighed a healthy 8lbs. 9oz. and was 20.75 inches in length. His parents are Michelle and Josiah who live in Olathe, KS. His big brother is anxious to show him how to play with cars and trucks and other things he enjoys doing. We as the happy grandparents are so thankful that we were able to take a short vacation to meet Fischer and visit family. They took a risk and welcomed us into their home after traveling internationally. Michelle said she was not worried too much because she sees all the precautions we take when we go out. I might look like a ninja as the only thing exposed are my hands. There are many pictures to enjoy of our short vacation. We were glad that we got to spend some time with Krista and Angel who will be having our 3rd grandson in January. Michelle and I held a family baby shower for her and the ladies of the family had a great time of sharing memories and just "talking". Ecuador News- There have been some changes in protocol since our last update. The State of Emergency for the country has been lifted. That means some of the curfews have been changed, we still have certain days we are allowed to drive. The protocols upon entering a large store are, masked, having our temperature taken, stepping in a solution, option of being sprayed down, front and back and sanitizing of hands are still in place. You can imagine our surprise when we entered the stores in the States, so much freedom! Our Convention Center at the seminary opened up for small groups and just a few of the part time employees returned. They need to make up time from when they we not working in the previous months , but still getting paid. Jon and I are fortunate to work from home and that involved doing some of the yard work of the beautiful gardens we have before the gardener came back. Mostly we do computer work and Jon has many meetings via zoom. Many are probably wondering about our main ministry of hosting Work and Witness Teams. We are still on hold for now, as it is super risky at the time. There are phases that the Global Work and Witness office is setting up and we will follow those. We want to thank you for your prayers and support as the days really seem to be flying by! Yep, this year is almost over, but not to say that the virus will be over. But we have learned a lot and count it an honor to work for the Lord and thank him for keeping us and our loved ones safe. May God be with you and your families during this special Christmas season, remember to mask up and be careful. Our love to all! Fischer Oren in the hospital. Little brother is getting hugs from big brother on his first night at home. A quick picture taken of some of the family. Grandpa and Abuela getting hugs and saying our last good-byes... for a while. So so hard. Cutest little conductor. He likes to watch a program on TV that is only different kinds of trains running on the tracks. Arden wanted to be a Thomas the Train conductor for Halloween. His Dada built him a Thomas the train out of wood to fit on top of a wagon. Mama was thinking a little cardboard cut out to wear over the shoulders! The Gould family of 4. Life is a little busier with a newborn and a toddler that is poty training. He is almost there but if you would pray for them as they learn to find a balance. Michelle will return to work in Jan. Josiah had 4 weeks off which was a great help but he is back to work and making lots of little kids happy by being Santa for the Parks Police Department as well as his normal duty. Photo credit: Becca Blackburn Photography Grandpa and Fischer are having some bonding time. This Thanksgiving, the pictures might be a little hectic from here on. It's a boy! Krista and Angel are expecting in Jan. Baby Sigui's due date is Jan. 21. photo credits: Attic Rose Photography Third grandson coming soon! Please pray for a safe delivery for both baby and mommy. In case you were wondering, yes there is room for another little boy on Abuela's lap. We hope that this finds you and your families doing well. We pray for ones that have lost loved ones or have family members that are ill. We hope that you are finding comfort in the peace that God gives. We are so thankful for the ones that are on the front lines and have made sacrifices to serve. We are locked -down, quarantined, and all the other fancy words that we have been assigned for during this time. Our time is a little different in Ecuador. We started March 17 with restrictions that quickly turned into more strict restrictions consisting of us being able to drive one day a week, only to the grocery, pharmacy or banking. Since Jon and I are over age, which is hard to come to terms with, we are not allowed to do any of these things. If we do go out which has been just a few times, it is to the seminary for a short visit or pick up things. We must wear a mask and wear gloves at all times as well as in our cars. Curfew starts at 2 pm - 5 am and no movement allowed on weekends. At the beginning, we had reminders of a helicopter with a siren and a loudspeaker to remind us to be in the house. The other day Jon saw a cloud of smoke outside our neighborhood and upon further investigation realized it was not smoke but there was a team of people in hazmat suits fumigating the inside of a car! When he drove into our neighborhood one time the guard had his hazmat suit on and sprayed down the tires of the truck! Our order will be re-evaluated on May 31. It is hard to imagine that everyone in the World is sheltering in-home just like we are. Although some have fewer restrictions than others. We have been thinking about this and it is not that difficult for us. We have been away from family for many years, and when we lived in Venezuela the last years we lived at a campground away from most civilization. I, Shirley, work at home every day, and it can be weeks before I am around other people other than my weekly walks to the mall to buy groceries. It has been nice to have Jon home every day even though he is buried in paperwork. The days seem to fly by and the cabinets and refrigerator seem to never run out of food. We are so blessed! Thank goodness we live on a large property where 2 other family units live also. Carlos, our neighbor is so kind to do our grocery shopping. We are catching up on computer work and many projects. Jon has a major accounting project that will take several months to complete. We do, however, seem to find other projects to distract us for a bit. We are so, so thankful for our connections to family and friends and have weekly family chats. At some times we feel more connected to our family and friends than we did before, through zoom, bible studies, and webinars. The one thing that we enjoy the most is being able to hear many church services online. Shirley's Sunday is full with following 5 different services. I, Shirley, feel that I am being mentored by our daughter Michelle who works at The Foundry Publishing, and is providing Live Bible Studies. Ecuador has made the International news a couple of times because of the devastation of one of the coastal provinces. Thank goodness it is more or less under control. We don't really know the real numbers or the real news. Our churches are taking precautions as they deliver food to the ones in their churches and neighborhoods. All the Compassion Centers are closed but the pastors and teachers are connecting with the families through online videos or calls and delivering food. Some of us will come out of this different, different sizes, different hair style or color, educated, new talents, increasing of family size, but we will all come out stronger! May God continue to bless you and give you courage as things begin to slowly open up to the new normal. Normal will never be the same. We have enclosed pictures of some of our Covid-19 activities. |
AuthorWe are Jon and Shirley Fischer and we are missionaries serving with the church of the Nazarene in Quito Ecuador. Categories |