January Stepping Stones

Smith Stepping Stones
Psalm 37:23-"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way."

“IMPACT THROUGH INTERCESSION.”

February 5, 2010

Dear Friends,

As we have been reminding you, “Impact Through Intercession”, is the motto our Mission has adopted for 2010 and beyond. We are convinced that intercessory prayer is the most important part of our ministry and we believe the ministry of those who pray for us is absolutely vital. Amy and I are still seeking to bring together a “PRAYER FORCE” of 300 people who will promise to pray for us daily. In modern warfare, victory comes mainly through the air war. In the same way, the success of our ministry is dependent on the effective prayer support of our prayer warriors. We are so thankful that we now have about 180 people who are committed to pray daily for us. Will you please consider becoming a member of our prayer team? This would be a great blessing and encouragement to us.

Jerry began 2010 in Myrtle Beach for four days of golf with friends. Eight men braved freezing temperatures to “enjoy” this annual outing, but bad weather and a busy travel schedule have kept Jerry from playing golf since then. On January 6th, Jerry flew to Albany, NY for his first ministry trip of 2010. He enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the annual Mission Conference at Word of Life Bible Institute. It was a blessing to be able to spend time in fellowship with friends from our long ago ministry with Word of Life.

January 11-22 we were involved with Candidate Orientation at the BMW Home Office. 6 couples were accepted as new missionaries and are now part of our BMW family. One couple will join the Church Planting Team in the Southeastern USA. This couple will be working in a church recovery project in Fayetteville, NC. We look forward to working with Rodney and Chris Phillips, and are eager to make a trip to see their ministry firsthand. Tom and Selva Kweder will be nationwide Representatives for BMW and we are glad to have them on our team of Representatives.

We left home on January 21 for a three week ministry trip and are now getting close to the end of that trip. We were blessed to visit many friends along the way. Our first stop was an overnight with Doug and JaneAnne Smith in Little Rock, AR, and the next stop was Branson, MO, with Rich and Patti Toliver and our grandchildren, Eric and Sarah. Then we drove to Belton, MO where we stayed with Matt and Penny Mills until Thursday, January 28. We enjoyed ministry on Sunday morning at Grace Bible Church in Stilwell, KS and Sunday evening at Shawnee Bible Church in Shawnee, KS. I also spoke at Blue River Bible Church on Wednesday evening. It was good to represent our mission at the Mission Conference at Calvary Bible College, Monday through Thursday, along with two other BMW missionaries, Lee Whitworth and Justin Gort from our Mormanland field. It was a privilege to take our BMW MK’s, who are students at Calvary Bible College, out for food and fellowship one evening. They are a great group of young people.

On our way to Waterman, IL we spent the night with Gary and Chela Armstrong and their boys. We sort of “adopted” this family years ago and it is always a joy to spend time with them. Jerry taught the Mentoring for Ministry workshop at Waterman Bible Church Friday night and Saturday morning and we enjoyed meeting new friends there. From Waterman we drove south and spoke on Sunday evening at Open Door Bible Church in Memphis. We connected with many friends from years past and spent the night with Jim and Bobbie Leonard. We were thankful that, though we had some very cold weather in our travels, the roads were clear and God protected us as we drove many miles.

Monday –Wednesday of this week we were at a Pastors/Wives Retreat in Baton Rouge, LA. Dr. John Talley challenged us to have a more effective prayer life by praying Biblically, using prayers from the Bible as a basis for our prayers for others. It was a wonderful time of challenge from the Word and of sharing with other couples who are in fulltime ministry.

We look forward to getting home sometime on Tuesday. We will be home for 10 days. One of Amy’s jobs is to take down all of our Christmas decorations. Do you think we have set a record for having Christmas up for the longest time??? Please pray for safety and protection of the homes and families in our neighborhood. There have been several break-ins in our neighborhood recently and this week Vince and Jill’s car was stolen out of their driveway during the night (they live next door to us). The car was found but was damaged and papers were stolen from the car.

Jerry has started sending out daily prayer requests on Twitter and Facebook so any of you can follow these.

Thank you for praying for us,

Serving with Joy,


Jerry and Amy