Tuesday, June 9, 2020

June Prayer Letter

June 2020

Dear Praying Friends,

33 years ago, I looked across at her and thought, “There is no way I could love her more than I do right now!” Oh, how wrong I was!  Over the past 33 years, my love for her has just continued to grow and my appreciation for her has deepened into lifelong gratitude to the Lord for her. 

Michele has stuck with me through thick and thin, she has been by my side in the victories and defeats, in the times of blessings and in the times of want.  She home schooled our son from Kindergarten until he graduated and he just completed his third year in Bible college preparing to be a Baptist church planter in Oregon.  She stood by me as we buried our daughter and during the grief filled months that followed. She has weathered the storms of life and never left my side. She has prepared thousands of delicious and nutritious meals for our family and many others, she has sewn thousands of stuffed animals for sick children in hospitals, she has taught hundreds of children in Sunday School classes, Vacation Bible Schools and at youth camps and many have come to Christ as a result of her labors!  She teaches ladies in online classes as well as in person, she disciples recently saved women and children, she plays the piano and/or accordion for our church services as well as singing with me and makes me sound halfway on tune! She makes our video ministry possible with her tech savvy. She has packed up and moved more times than we can count, she has endured danger, crime and hostility to the gospel with faith and courage. She has given up so much for the cause of Christ and doesn’t complain or feel sorry for herself.

Why am I sharing this with you?  Because we just celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary and I am so very grateful to the Lord for my Proverbs 31 wife!! I am SO glad I waited on God’s best for me – no one else could have come through these battles with me except her.  God has truly blessed me with a treasure and I am so thankful and so honored to call her, “my wife”. 

Gratefully in love,

Mark Hale

Monday, June 1, 2020

May Prayer Letter

May 2020

Dear Praying Friends,

We had no idea how God was going to use a last resort option to reach so many with the Gospel! As the world shut down over the Corona virus, we were forced to consider another way to continue to minister to our church. With the help of my wonderfully techie wife, we were able to begin a video ministry.  During the ten weeks of quarantine, I preached two sermons on Wednesdays (English and Portuguese) then two more on Sundays (again in English and Portuguese) and Michele taught a weekly class for the children. These videos went out at the beginning, to just our church members and those who were attending, but God was just getting started!

As the panic spread and more countries shut down, others began hearing about our videos and asked to be included in the video list.  At last count, we have people watching our videos in ten countries: USA, UK, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic and Lithuania. Both lost and saved have responded to our videos and it is amazing to see how this pandemic has affected people.  Where before they would not have had time nor interest, at least temporarily, people are focusing on eternity.
  
Just as Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes and fed the multitude, so He has taken a small local outreach and turned it into an international video ministry that is continuing even though the quarantine has ended here in Portugal. Other countries are still shut down and many people are still requesting we continue this ministry even when their quarantine is over. Please pray with us that God would continue to bless this growing ministry and that many would be saved as a result.

Serving an amazing God,

Mark Hale