FAMA NEWSLETTER
Volume 10 April 2016 Number
3
URGENT:
Please let us know if you are planning to come June 2-5 or even just considering
it.
URGENT:
Please notify Wil as soon as possible if you have a report to present at our
FAMA Reunion or know someone who does. Also notify Wil about any suggestions
for vespers or other meetings.
URGENT: Please urge any of your missionary friends to
come, too.
A.
Fellowship of Adventist Missionaries to Africa Get Together
1. FAMA Meetings
2016
2.
New meals arrangements in Fletcher NC
3. Places to see
B.
Letters to the Editor
Letters
C.
We Remember
1.
Rose Stickle
3.
Martha Toews
D. Reports
FAMA NL member’s
e-addresses
F. Registration Form for our Meetings in Fetcher, NC
* * * * *
A. FAMA Matters.
1. FAMA meetings, 2016.
Urgent: Please send an email
to Judy Harvey <brunju.harvey8@gmail.com>
telling us that you are planning to attend the June 2 to 5 FAMA Reunion in
Fletcher, NC. Or even that you are hoping to attend. Do not mail a check for
meals.
Urgent: We are starting to
finalize the program for our Reunion in June. Do you have any recent
experiences/news from Africa that you can share with the group at the Reunion?
What:
Fellowship of Adventist Missionaries to Africa (FAMA) Biannual Reunion
Where:
The fellowship hall of the Fletcher SDA Church in
Fletcher, North Carolina.
When:
June 2 – 5, 2016
Housing:
At
Fletcher Academy, next to the church, there will be dorm rooms available in the
boys’ dormitory. They have beds and mattresses in them but no towels or
bedding. The cost is extremely nominal--and possibly free--for the FAMA event.
There
are also many hotels/motels available in the nearby town of Hendersonville, NC.
The manager of Mountain Inn and Suites-Airport gives a
discount to people who have something to do with FAMA/Fletcher Academy. The
cost will be around $80 to $90 per room with this discount. It includes a
continental breakfast with waffles, cereal, boiled egg, yogurt, fruit, etc. We
need to let the manager know by April how many rooms will be needed.
You
can check at http://www.historichendersonville.org/ for
other places to stay. If you wish to camp or park an RV see http://www.historichendersonville.org/campgrounds_rv_parks.htm
Meetings
and registration: Registration will start on Thursday
afternoon about 3 o’clock in the church fellowship hall. There will be a
welcome meeting on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. Several meetings are planned for
Friday and Saturday yet leaving time to meet and visit with other missionaries.
We will choose new FAMA officers at the Saturday evening meeting. Sunday
morning there will be a brief worship and farewell meeting.
2.
New Meal Arrangements:
We
just got word that the Fletcher Academy cafeteria will be closed during the
FAMA meetings. They suggest we eat at the Park Ridge Cafe in the Park Ridge
Health, a nine minute walk (0.5 miles) from the school, our Adventist hospital.
I spoke with Maegan Henson, manager of the café, and they are fine with all of
us eating there. We will try to arrange a car pool system to get everyone to
the meals. We are still planning to have a potluck lunch on Sabbath.
Here
are the details:
Thursday and Friday:
Breakfast is served from 6-10 am
Lunch
is served from, 11 am to 2 pm
Dinner is served from 4-6 pm
Sabbath:
Breakfast is served from 7 to 10 am
Sunday Brunch is served from 11 am to 2 pm.
Each
attendee will pay for his or her own meals in the cafe. They accept VISA,
Mastercard, American Express, and cash. No checks. There is an ATM
upstairs if needed. The meals are charged by weight: 32 cents per oz, so you
can buy 1 pound of food for $5.62. Drinks and desserts are extra. If someone
wanted a full meal plus drinks and desserts it could run $7.50-$8.00.
They
have 2 vegetarian entrees and 1 meat entree for lunch and dinner. Two culinary
trained executive chefs lead the cafe team. You can go online to parkridgehealth.org and
click on Park Ridge Cafe to see weekly menus and more info. Apparently the Cafe
gets a lot of local business as a great place to eat with delicious fresh food,
so this should work out well.
We
will be sending refund checks to those who have already paid for meals.
Bruce
and Judy Harvey
3. Places to See
The Blue Ridge parkway which is about 30 minutes from Fletcher
and it’s a beautiful place to go on Sabbath afternoon or any other time, for
hiking or just looking at the scenery. At the Pisgah Inn on the Blue
Ridge is a restaurant where you can have a table so you can see the beauty of
the mountains from the windows.
Grove Park Inn is a historic hotel in Asheville which is
nice to visit. Biltmore House –the “castle” that was built by Vanderbilt--has
tours and is worth seeing on a beautiful setting. These are just a few
things which come to mind that may interest attendees.
B.
Letters to the Editor
1. Hi Wil,
You
probably won't remember me, as you were just a young boy living with your
parents at Helderberg College, but that was in the 50s and I graduated in
1953! Thanks for the FAMA Newsletter. And I knew Herb and Rose
Stickle well, as I was living in Harare when they were serving in the
Division. I now live in Modesto, California, with my daughter.
2.
Dear Wil,
We
regret that we shall be unable to be at Fletcher this year. We no longer
drive or move far from home (a senior residence in DC).
We
remember with great fondness your father who, when we were on our way in 1954
to remote Barotseland (Western Province of Zambia today), gave us an electric charger
to use, no strings attached!
We
served in (then) Northern and Southern Rhodesia (and Bechuanaland) from
1954-1972 and saw the transition from British minority colonial rule to
majority rule.
Only Ian Smith’s Rhodesia was still hanging on when we left in 1972. (It became majority-rule independent in 1980).
Regards to any who might remember.
By His grace, Warren and Shirley Zork <swzork@sbcglobal.net>
Only Ian Smith’s Rhodesia was still hanging on when we left in 1972. (It became majority-rule independent in 1980).
Regards to any who might remember.
By His grace, Warren and Shirley Zork <swzork@sbcglobal.net>
3.
THANK YOU FOR THE NEWSLETTER...I LOVE KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS
OF OUR CHURCH. JIM RUNKEL <jmrunkel@msn.com>
4.
Hi
Wil,
Please change my email address... I have officially retired!
I am sending this from my old address, but it will soon be taken over by someone else. Here are my details, not intended for publication, but may be used if something is newsworthy (which I don't think any of it is, just boring personal stuff which might be needed for someone's archives) [Editor: I have a copy of his mission service that he included, Wil] Alvin Evert New email address: <alvinjevert@gmail.com>
Please change my email address... I have officially retired!
I am sending this from my old address, but it will soon be taken over by someone else. Here are my details, not intended for publication, but may be used if something is newsworthy (which I don't think any of it is, just boring personal stuff which might be needed for someone's archives) [Editor: I have a copy of his mission service that he included, Wil] Alvin Evert New email address: <alvinjevert@gmail.com>
* * * * *
C.
We Remember
1.
Rose Stickle
It's
good to see the newsletter again. We had not heard of Rose's passing. Our condolences
to and prayers for her family. Carolyn Sutton <csutton8848@att.net>
We
hope you are well and will be able to put this into the next newsletter, which
we enjoy receiving. God bless. Ria
If love and doing everything the eight doctors
prescribe cheerfully, and then some, our dearest Rose should not have died! But
in the end she succumbed and is awaiting the call of the Life-giver. What a
magnificent life!
Somehow we started getting the FAMA newsletter, though
we really were missionaries from Africa working for the black indigenous people
of Africa from early in the 1980s. We first met Rose personally at the FAMA
meeting held in Keene during 2012, and though ours was not a long association,
her death left us feeling very painfully bereft.
Shortly after our first meeting at Keene, Edwin and I
flew up to Amazing Discoveries in November 2012. Among other things, they
recorded an advertisement of Edwin’s book on prophecy, The Truth About
666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy, plus some material for Enmity, the
new series AD was making with Dr. Walter Veith. Lo and behold, Herb and Rose
arrived towards evening with a warm cooked meal for four! She had become a
friend for life and we the recipients of her frequent loving and chatty
letters.
By the time we went up to AD again in May 2014, Herb
and Rose had arranged for us to see their paradise home on Vancouver Island.
They met us at the ferry, took us to see Butchart Gardens, which I had dreamed
of seeing for a long time. First Rose fed us a picnic lunch under the gorgeous
trees, and then Rose and I took pictures. Eventually Edwin, due to his leaking
heart valve, became too tired to walk the steep trails. Herb cheerfully fetched
a wheelchair and pushed Edwin around for a while! That night we slept in their
cozy and hospitable home under the quilts that Herb’s mother, also a
missionary, had made. Next day, we inspected their newly laid out vegetable
garden, surrounded by the apple and other fruit trees they hoped to harvest in
a number of years’ time. We then visited their famous Victorian museum and
picnicked in a park once more. Rose had a cardboard box with everything
necessary for a picnic neatly in its place, and the right, nourishing food,
ending with nuts. Yummy! When our too short visit ended, they made sure we were
on the right ferry back to Amazing Discoveries, Vancouver, from where we
eventually took a red-eye flight back to Texas.
In all the time spent with Herb and Rose, we never got
the impression of a woman desperately fighting for her life. She never
mentioned pain, fear, or weariness in all our association together, nor even in
her later letters. She was always bubbling over with joy in God’s creation
great and small, sending pictures, telling of the tasty food she and her many
visitors were preparing for Sabbath or the freezer, and how good God was to
them. She and Herb were to us the embodiment of what a Christian should be
like: totally humble, loving, giving of themselves without hesitation or hoping
for a reward. She instinctively knew what was needed and supplied it!
A special photo she sent about a year ago was one of
her and her siblings sitting together in the very pew they occupied as children
in their home town. Does anybody perhaps have it saved on their computer? We
would love a copy of it, please.
What we loved was how Rose and her twin sister sang
together in their little church the very last Sabbath she was able to attend
the Parksville Church. She was also planning to house the family for
Thanksgiving! Edwin and I admire Herb for staying on to nurture that small
church in spite of his loneliness. We look forward with him and their children
to seeing Rose again soon.
Rose made FAMA the wonderful newsletter it was and we
pray somebody will keep up that good work.
2. Martha Toews
I am a niece to Martha Toews. She passed away in
November of 2015. Served in Lesotho from 1973 - 1981 and in Zambia from
1983 - 1989. Twyla Reimche Gimbel <twylag13@yahoo.com>
D.
Reports
1.
News from Dietrich in Chad, received April 20, 2016. See Attached pdf document.
Jonathan Dietrich <jonathan@deserttreeministry.org>
We rely on your input for the FAMA Newsletter.
Thank
you for sending to FAMA Newsletter
any email addresses for current or former missionaries to AFRICA (and their
children) who might be interested in receiving this newsletter. Any
news on your present or past activities will help to make this newsletter
interesting to others in the FAMA family. It would be
helpful if you include information on where and when you served in Africa.
African mission stories would also be appreciated. If
you do not wish to receive the FAMA Newsletter,
please let us
know. - Wil
Clarke
FAMA News
Letter e-mail Search:
This
time around, we have had a huge group of bounced e-mails. Please
help us find the correct e-mail address for the following names:
From Last Newsletter
|
New Names
|
Gilberto
Araujo
|
Jerry & Helen Cullum
|
Victor
and Tonya Awuor
|
Maureen & Raoul Fuss
|
Francis
& Retta Chase
|
Ken Flemmer
|
Fred
D Brandt
|
Lisbeye Luchmun
|
Nick
& Gail Brightman
|
Kevin Maupin'
|
Ian
& Roger Bothwell
|
Sharon Miller
|
Arnold
& Marilyn Boram
|
Diane Mopelle
|
Natanael
Bernardo
|
Antti Oksanen
|
Dilson
& Lea Bezerra
|
W L & Jackie Parker
|
Nell
Davies
|
Thor Pederson
|
Ken
Flemmer
|
Terry Phillips
|
Walter
Lacks
|
Mark & Elbie Piotrowski
|
Helen
& Bill Markin
|
Norman & Beverly
Pottle
|
Thomas
& Anita Riederer
|
Terry & Shirley Pratt
|
Harold
Sheffield
|
Paulina and Usko Rinta-aho
|
Cristine
Orillosa
|
|
Bob
Parsons
|
|
Hermie
and Daniela Munez
|
|
Claude
& Farida Sabot
|
|
Goodwell
Nthani
|
|
Francis
Slate
|
|
Sebastian
Tirtirau
|
|
Robert
& Lorilee Thomas
|
|
Gary
VerStegg
|
|
Jerald
Whitehouse
|
F.
Registration Form for our Meetings in Fetcher, NC
Fellowship of Adventist Missionaries to Africa
Retreat, June 2 to 5, 2016
Fletcher SDA Church in Fletcher, North Carolina
In
July 2014, we had a wonderful time in our get together in Riverside,
California. We enjoyed sharing experiences and fellowshipping together. We are
looking forward to having a profitable time together in June 2016 and hope that
you will be able to come and join us. We are all ambassadors for Christ and His
missions, and there are still great needs in the mission field. Africa is dear
to our hearts, and we must continue to keep the needs and victories of Africa
before our friends. Let us pray earnestly and work diligently so that the
missionary spirit never dies in our churches. Please plan to come and join us
at this retreat in June 2016.
Name_______________________________________________
Number in your party_______
Address_______________________________________________________________________
Home
and Cell Phone Number(s)_________________________________________________
Email_________________________________________________________________________
Registration
Fee: $10 single, or $15 per family. Registration starts at 3:00 p.m. Thursday,
June 2, 2016. The first meeting is at 7:00 p.m. These will be in the
fellowship hall of the Fletcher SDA Church in Fletcher, North Carolina.
Housing:
At Fletcher Academy, next to the church, there will be dorm rooms available in
the boys’ dormitory. They have beds and mattresses in them but no towels,
pillows, or bedding. Fletcher Academy will let us use the dorm rooms without
charge for the FAMA event. But they need to know early how many to plan for.
Please plan to make a donation for the rooms. You may contact Marcella,
(828)-209-6800, for reservations.
Meals:
See the new arrangement described
above. We will eat in the Hospital Cafeteria and pay as we go.
Please
register as early as possible so we can give the academy a reasonable estimate
of the number of rooms needed for their planning. This is important.
Checks
should be made payable to “Judy Harvey”. Please send your information and check
to the FAMA Treasurer:
*Judy
Harvey
1242
Ruskin Drive
Medford,
OR 97504-5213
If
you have further questions, contact Judy at 541-772-0773. You
can leave your number for a call back. Email
her at <brunju.harvey8@gmail.com>
Registration
Fee
|
$10
or $15
|
|
Room
Donation*
|
||
Total
Cost Estimate
|
*There
are several hotels in nearby Hendersonville, NC.
News from Dietrich in Chad. Received April 20, 2016
Dear
friends and family,
We
are happy to write another report of how God is working here in Chad. This year
we have faced many challenges, but God is faithful and has given us the
strength and health to successfully complete the training program this year.
Twenty-two full-time students graduated with an additional six who came late
but benefited from most of the course.
Together,
we studied the message of the Gospel--the problem of sin, Jesus the Solution
for sin, and what that means to us practically in our every-day lives. We
studied how the Bible and the Bible alone is our foundation of our faith. The
students learned how to study the Bible and how to prepare and present Bible
studies. We also studied end-time events and the prophecies that show that
Jesus is truly returning soon. One of the special topics we studied was the
Sabbath/Sunday question and its significance in end-time events.
Throughout the training course, we stressed the importance of being loyal to
God above any tradition of man.
I
would like to share a few short experiences of several of our students.
Jacques
is a newly baptized young man. He attended our training faithfully and was full
of questions. At the end, he gave this testimony: "I want to first of all
thank God for the opportunity to be a part of this Bible training, and I want
to thank our director for the time he has spent teaching us. Before this
training I called myself a Christian, but I really didn’t know much of anything.
It is during this training that I began to really understand what is in the
Bible. I have been changed in many ways. Before, I didn’t read the Bible and
didn’t know the treasure it contained. Now, I can hardly sleep at night if the
Bible is far from me! Before, I didn’t really know how to be a good husband.
Nearly all of my time was spent away from home visiting with friends and
wandering here and there. But now I see my responsibility to my family. When I
return home, I am going to spend more time with my wife and child. My personal
plan of evangelism is first of all to lead my wife to Jesus and to encourage
her to follow my example and commit her life to Jesus and be baptized."
And
sure enough, Jacques came to visit me yesterday. I asked him how his evangelism
plan was coming along. He replied, "Thank God, it is going well. My wife
doesn't know how to read or write, but now it is my wife who wakes me up
at 5am to be sure we have worship together."
Let
me also share about Yamat, the former chief of Dabgue. You may remember him as
the chief who helped us get the land for the church. The drunk mob was opposed
to the church and the chief was going to go out into the bush to fight with the
leader of the drunk mob. My friend the peacemaker calmed the tension and God
performed a miracle so that the church could be constructed.
Well,
Yamat was well known in his village as a heavy drinker. In the past years, I
can hardly remember a time where his eyes were not red. He seemed to always be
near the alcohol vendors in the village. Last year, we held the Bible training
program in his village, and he attended some of the classes. He also attended
our two-week evangelistic campaign. Since then, he has been attending church
regularly. And, now that I am thinking about it, I can’t remember the last time
I saw him drunk! God has been working on his heart and he has been slowly
changing. When he heard about our training this year, he volunteered to come
even though he had not received an official invitation. He faithfully attended
the training this year. When we gave an opportunity for the students to decide
to be baptized, Yamat came forward!
Last
week, Yamat gave a short testimony: “I used to drink any kind of alcohol, and I
use to smoke and do other bad things. But Jesus has helped me and I am
different now. I do not touch alcohol, and I do not smoke now. I am happy
because I have given my heart to Jesus, and I am committed to Him. Please pray
for me and my wife who is suffering from illness at home.” Please join me in
prayer for him and us as we study with him and prepare him for baptism.
And
here is the testimony of another student: "I want to thank my friend for
telling me about this training program. I had no idea about it, but I thank God
that I was able to attend the training. It is here that I have discovered the
truth. In this training, you have taught what others have hidden and kept
secret. I have learned so much that I didn’t know before, and I know clearly
that it is the truth because you have shown it clearly from the Scriptures.
Please pray for me that I will know how to practice the truth in my life and in
my family."
We
have several more stories to share later, but we know that God was at work
during this training program and that He has great plans for us if we will be
faithful to Him. Please be praying for all the students who graduated and for
the people in the villages where they will be working.
Numerous
requests have been streaming in. "Please come to our village and help
us." "Please come and train our members to do evangelism." There
is no practical way that we can respond personally to all the requests. But
where we can, we send materials. Just today, we received several visitors
asking for literature. One person is from near Lere, one person from near Pala,
and another person from Bere. We are happy to be able to be providing people
with literature. Our initial stock of 12,000 books is nearly finished and we
are considering stocking up on those books, as they have been extremely popular.
Hundreds of The Great Controversy books are being circulated and read. May God
help us!
Thank
you everybody for reading this far and for keeping us in your prayers. Please
pray that as the results of the elections are about to be announced in this
country, that there will be peace and that God's work may continue to go
forward. In the next newsletter, we plan to discuss the literature work and
plans for this year.
In
His service, Jonathan, Melody, Gideon and Liliana Dietrich
For
more information, pictures, and stories, please visithttp://deserttreeministry.org/ If
you would like to know how you can help with the work in Chad, click on the
"How to Help" link on the left side of the page. Thank you. Our page
on OCI: http://www.outpostcenters.org/ministry/desert-tree
