2016

November-December 2016 Prayer Letter

Pam 2016
November December 2016 Prayer Letter

Happy New Year Friends!
I hope you each had a wonderful holiday season, time with friends, family, and

focusing on all our Savior has done for us. The last two months have been quite a treat for me as I have had the chance to walk just a little in one of my heroes’ shoes. For years I have admired and studied as much as I can about Timothy, Paul’s own son in the faith. Not only did he get to travel with Paul for awhile and learn from him, but he travelled without Paul, travelling to and from different churches Paul or he and Paul had been to before, finding out how they were doing spiritually, finding comfort and rejoicing in the state of others and making connections between churches and between believers. Paul said of him that he has no man like-minded who would naturally care for their state, because all men seek their own. (Philippians 2) Timothy then of course went on to pastor and Paul still kept an eye on him, encouraging, edifying and exhorting him in his own ministries.

Over the last two months I have gotten the chance to travel to numerous churches and in each one found sort of connection to someone else I know, or to another church I love. I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years, seeing how they’ve grown, chosen to minister, and to continue allowing God to work in their lives. Between the holiday season as well as the passing of my grandfather I was able to make connections and spend time with friends and family I haven’t connected with in many, many years. To hear what God has been doing in their lives, to see the changes that might have been subtle over the years but are evident with the passing of time has been a joy and a comfort. I feel like I perhaps understand how Timothy felt.

Over the past two months I have had the opportunity to share the ministry in Peru with nine different churches between Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee. In one church I had the chance to talk and pray with two young women considering going into full time missions, and in another church I spent time with a wife and mother whose husband had just shared with her the burden God was placing on his heart for another country. While I don’t have permission to share names, please continue to pray for these women. In one church I was working in the junior church and a young lady raised her hand during the invitation indicating she wasn’t sure she was saved. Her parents had been in the back as they were the usual junior church teachers and that afternoon they got the chance to lead their daughter to Christ. Praise God!

God has allowed me to see His working in many ways these last two months; people saved and considering missions, a young man who years ago been a teen in the youth group I worked is now a youth pastor in Tennessee with wisdom that blew me away, and a passion for God and to serve Him in extended family I haven’t seen or spoken much with since I was a child. All of it has been such a joy.

Something else God allowed me to see over the next few months involved a surprise with my support. While I am not fully supported yet, I got to see a month where between regular monthly support, 2 love offerings and a few additional Christmas gifts the total made up exactly 100% of the support I need. I know it doesn’t mean everything is coming in already, but it was an encouragement to see and provided hope and the drive to keep going.

Please continue to pray as I visit and minister to other churches while raising support to head over to Peru. I hate focusing on the funds needed for the ministry in Peru while at churches, I would rather focus on ministering to the families in the churches, so please, partner with me through your prayers. Pray that I can be a blessing to these churches but also that the remaining funds will be raised quickly. Please also pray that I will be able to find and schedule other churches to fill in the remaining dates I have open this January – March. I greatly appreciate your prayers and never cease to take them for granted. Have a wonderful new year!

September-October 2016 Prayer Letter

Pam 2016

september-october-2016-newsletter

Hello Friends!
After two months stationed in Midland, Michigan working and training others during VBS and Youth Conference events as well as helping my church out with some projects, in the beginning of September I packed up the prophet’s chamber I was living in, sent most of my stuff to storage, and found myself on the road, living out of my car, and houseless. After the first two weeks of living on the road the novelty of traveling and meeting new people began to wear off slightly and I began to throw the term homeless around in my mind but quickly recognized that no matter what, I am not homeless, merely houseless. This world is not my home, I am just here for a little while to get to know my God better and serve Him with all I am, and then one day He will take me home. Charleston, West Virginia (where I grew up) was never my home. My apartment in Midland, Michigan, was never my home but rather I have a heavenly home still waiting for me and at the moment I am merely houseless and thankful for every place to lay my head.

I began my current stint of traveling on September 11, 2016, and since then I have visited six different states and put another 4,508 miles on my car. I have met numerous people along the way and once again I can tell you that I have had opportunities to serve and learn that I never could have imagined. My main focus for my time when I am not in services has been preparation for the field in any venue I can find. I have spent numerous hours studying Spanish, reading different biographies and writings from missionaries past and present, and preparing materials that can be used in children’s and adult ministries, however some of the greatest lessons and learning opportunities have come in other ways.

In the last two months I had the chance to work for a few days at a mission and homeless shelter, helping prepare for a big event but also asking questions and learning everything they were willing to share about the how’s and why’s of their particular ministry. I spent some time volunteering in two different public schools, helping in a library and observing how kids learn and interact with each other. I also spent a day at a Christian school, talking with the teens, teaching them about ministry, God’s will, and Peru, while listening to them talk about the issues they currently face.

I was also overjoyed at the opportunity to run a children’s ministry training program at a church which was in the process of starting a junior church. Many of the churches I go to ask me to work in their children’s classes or to run a children’s class while I am there which always fills me with joy and brings out the fun side of me, but I love the chance to explain and pass on to others why I do what I do, showing them just how kids respond, learn, and engage when they are surrounded by loving, caring and involved teens and adults.

While traveling, training and ministering in different places the last two months I read a quote in the biography of George Müller written by A.T. Pierson which has stuck with me and continues to work in my own life and ministries. “In fifty thousand cases, Mr. Müller calculated that he could trace distinct answers to definite prayers.” We were created to bring God glory, and II Corinthians 4:15 tells me the thanksgiving of many for God’s abundant grace redounds (results in) God’s glory. Am I looking for God to work? If someone asked me, could I tell them exact answers to prayer I have seen? Could I say I saw God answer my prayers? Am I sharing specific requests so that direct answers can be seen?

God’s teaching me a lot, so here are four specific requests I have for you. Please pray that I will hit my goal of having my $10,000 set up fund (includes plane tickets, storage unit payments, and home set up needs) by December 31st. I am currently 62% there. Please also pray that I will see at least 5 of the churches I have visited in September and October take me on for support before the end of the year. Please pray that God gives me the time and the aptitude to get halfway through my Spanish vocabulary textbook in the next two months. Finally, please pray that I will have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone directly each place I travel. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Serving Christ, Pam Drout

July-August 2016 Newsletter

Pam 2016

july-august-2016-newsletter

 

Hello Everyone:
Each time I write I try to find an easy theme to summarize the past two months and

the farther I travel down this road of deputation and missions the harder that becomes. Let me just say in the last two months God has shifted my focus from, “go, go, go, do, do,
do” (which I love), to, “slow down and let me teach you something.”

While I did continue to present the ministry opportunities I have in a few local churches, much of July and August I have been at Midland Baptist training others to step into the ministries I have previously worked with, learning how to let go and trust others to carry them on, and then learning new skills I will need to minister in Peru.

In July our church ran ourVacation Bible School, “Come See the Sea of Galilee.” Throughout the week we saw 224 different kids, 3 years old – 8th grade, pass through our doors. Praise God we saw 26 kids accept Christ as their Savior, and several others gained assurance of their salvation.

For me week was a bit of a challenge, learning to train others in what I love doing while I watched, but then it was also encouraging in many ways. I saw people step into positions dear to my heart, learning to write curriculum, teach, place volunteers in roles where they will thrive and minister best and more. I saw the members of my church step in, excel and fall in love with these ministries themselves. Each year at our VBS we do a penny offering for a missionary. This year we taught the kids how 1 child’s sacrifice can go far, like the child who gave his fish and bread to Christ to feed the 5,000. Our kids learned how 4 pennies will purchase 1 tract and 1 piece of candy, allowing us to share the gospel with 1 child in one of the schools in Peru. In the penny offering that week, our kids raised $1,900 towards sharing the gospel in Peru, the equivalent of 47,500 children. While it is such a joy to see such a large number and consider the opportunity of sharing the gospel with so many children, it is humbling to realize that is less than 1% of the school children in Lima. Still, praise God for what a child’s sacrifice can do.

For the last 6 years our church has run our own youth conference for our kids, and my joy has been to plan the week, as well as work with some of the programming, chaperone, and participate with the teens. During this week away the teens walls begin to drop and they begin acknowledging and dealing with the sin and struggles in their lives. This year I attended and helped train the people taking my place with these ministries and I had to learn how to step away and let others do what I enjoy and miss doing. God was gracious in teaching me how to let go.

This year we had about 92 people there and we saw the teens and the chaperones make many decisions to turn away from sins they deal with, a few young men surrender to be willing to preach, one young lady gain assurance of her salvation and one young lady get saved. God is so good.

Please continue to pray as God teaches me new ways to minister and I continue training to minister in Peru. In September I will be back on the road, traveling to different churches and ministries between IL, IN, OH, WV, VA, NC and KY, not returning to Michigan for several months. I’m excited at the chance to travel, meet fellow believers and find new ways to minister, while nervous at being on my own for so long. Please pray for safety as I travel, a focus as I continue to study Spanish and that God would touch hearts to pray and to give.

Serving as an Ambassador for Christ

Pam Drout

May-June 2016 Prayer Letter

Pam 2016

May-June 2016 Newsletter

May/June 2016

Hello Everyone:

In the last few months I have started a new adventure, full-time deputation.  If I have had the opportunity to share my testimony and my decision to go into missions with you, then you would have heard me say that full-time deputation was one of the main reasons I almost didn’t go into missions; giving up my regular ministries at my church, traveling around with no real sense of consistency, living my life in a state of transition, and a few other scenarios that come with full-time deputation.  I wasn’t willing to put myself in that place.  Has it been a struggle learning to adapt, I will readily and humbly admit that yes it has, but when I learn to see past my struggles and focus on God, to observe what He is doing and how He is using me during full-time deputation I can begin to relax and enjoy this time He’s given me.

After finishing up the last week few days of employment in May, I headed straight to West Virginia where I spent time at several churches as well as to spent some time with extended family and friends, neither of which would have happened while still working.  I was overjoyed to get to share the ministry opportunities God has given me with people I’ve known since I was young, friends I have made over the years, and people I have never met.   I love meeting people who have a burden for missions and desire to play any part they can.

While full-time deputation gave me several commitments in evenings and on the weekends, it gave me a freedom to minister in those moments between.  During those moments in WV I got vividly see struggles I only get glimpses of through the world of social media and enter into those battles, physically and spiritual with friends and family.   It was hard to know I am not at a place where I can fix everything as I have a tendency to want to do, but God had to let me know of the hurts and needs otherwise I couldn’t pray, which is the most powerful help of all.  So please, let me ask you to pray for these friends and family members with me.

In June I got the chance to head over to Peru with 12 other members of my church.  Even though I am still in the midst of deputation, we took the opportunity God gave us and the group helped me send many of my belongings to Peru without the cost of trying to ship items.

While we were in Peru, our group was able to complete numerous work projects around New Life Children’s Home as well as spend time inviting people to church, passing out John-Romans, presenting the gospel to upper level Peruvian intelligence, and going classroom to classroom sharing the gospel in several Peruvian schools.  We got the chance to love on the children in New Life Children’s Home, play with them, and spend time encouraging the staff who work with them.  We ran a special children’s program at one of the churches we visited and passed out tracts and New Testaments around the Presidential Palace.  We will never know how God uses the work to sow, water and reap the gospel, but we know the gospel reached thousands, and a large number professed Christ as their Savior.

It was hard coming back.  It was hard knowing that I can’t be there full-time yet, but need to continue to raise funds.  Currently I am at about 43% of my needed support.  PLEASE pray with me that it comes in soon so I can get back to Peru and start working.

An Ambassador For Christ,

Pam Drout

March – April 2016 Prayer Letter

Pam 2016

March-April 2016 Newsletter

March/April 2016

Dear Friends:

If you asked, I would tell you that one of the greatest gifts that God has given us is the gift of time.  (Don’t worry, I said “one of.”)  The time to serve, the time to pray, the time to fellowship with Him and others, the time to share, and yes, sometimes the time to sleep.  I continue to be amazed at how quickly this gift passes, and how we can choose to allow God to effectively use our time or how we can allow time to slip through our fingers.  These past two months have flown by and now I can only pray I was a good steward of the time God gave.

I am still currently working my job as an accountant while on deputation, but the time is drawing nearer that I will no longer have the steady income from that position but will be relying fully on the support and giving from churches, businesses and individuals.  My last day working my job will be May 10th.

Over the past two months while working my job, God has allowed me to be a part of 6 different missions events and to present in 3 other churches as well.  While I miss the joy of working with my Junior Church class, and teaching the single girls’ Bible study, God has worked to fill that void at each church He has sent me to through opportunities to teach in the children’s classes, surrounding me with the teenagers from these churches, and giving me chances to speak one on one with several ladies asking questions.  While I miss the consistency of my ministries, the joy of seeing what new ways God will use me is thrilling.

Please be praying for a young lady I spoke at length with about her burden for the mission field, as well as 2 other young people who have expressed a desire to spend several months serving on the mission field, helping out a missionary somewhere.

Please also be praying for me, that my support will start coming in consistently and God will provide for my needs as I will no longer be working but on the road full time.  Please also pray for the continual functioning of my car and safety on the road.  I praise God that my car continued working without any issues through the 3,700 miles I travelled in March and April.

Thank you so much for your gifts and prayers.  I continue to pray and strive to work that I might be a good steward of what you’ve given.

Serving as an Ambassador for Christ,

Pam Drout

January – February 2016 Newsletter

Pam 2016

January – February 2016 Prayer Letter

 

Hello Dear Friends!

I must tell you, I knew that as I chose to head into the ministry of missions, God would do a lot of training me, teaching me, and showing me even more of Himself than I could imagine Though I still feel I am in the beginning of this journey God has done so in ways even greater than I could have imagined.

 

Deputation Update

Until now, due to the holidays, and because I was at the beginning of deputation, my chances to travel to other churches and present this ministry I get to be involved in were sporadic. With the holiday season now behind me, the opportunities to share with other churches and individuals has grown almost exponentially. In the last two months, I have gotten address several churches as a whole, as well as work in Junior Churches, Wednesday night programs and then speak to a teen youth group regarding how they should prepare now for what God would have for their futures. I feel so unworthy to do so, and yet I get to see God work through this broken vessel every time. Please continue to pray for these churches as they must determine whether helping me service in Peru is a ministry they want for their church.

Preparing to head to Peru, for me, is not only about gaining support from churches and individuals financially and through prayer, but also about training other to step into roles I previously filled at my home church. I have a couple ladies I have gotten to work with in the area of setting up events and activities for the teens and college & career group, and I am thrilled to know they’ve got these ministries which are dear to me in good hands.

I also got the chance to help train the next generation. I had the opportunity to work with about 40 senior high teenagers, training them on how to plan a teen activity, but even closer to my heart, I got to work with them on how to teach children’s classes in church. I can’t wait to hear their stories as they step into some of these ministries in the months and years to come.

When I started deputation, I had been advised to hold on to my accounting job as long as possible to help with finances. God graciously filled most of my calendar through May with meetings and events a few hours from home. The time came in February where I had to meet with my employer to request a few key days off in that time span. Praise to God, my employer didn’t mind those days and requested that I stay on through my desired date of May 10th.

 

Prayer Update

Along with praying for and with the churches who are considering whether they want to partner with me in this ministry to Peru, please pray that God continues to fill my schedule through this fall with meetings at churches, and for a trip I will take to Peru this June. Please also pray as I personally learn to balance the priorities of work, contacting churches, working more on my Spanish, and maintaining relationships with those I have gotten to know.

Thank you so much for your continued support through finances and prayer.

Serving as an Ambassador for Christ,  ~ Pam