New Opportunities

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello Again! In case you were holding your breath, I did in fact, make it home to the USA (despite various ill-advised adventures, one of which is pictured at right). Thank you all for your prayers for my safety, and sorry to keep you in suspense! This here update will fill you in on what I've been doing for the last few months and also where I plan to go from here.

But first, I'd like to express my grattitude to you all one more time. I said before that I was astonished by your generosity, and I still am! Without your gifts, your prayers and your encouragement, I could not have gone to Ethiopia this summer and participated in the ministries God had prepared for me. Your support helped confirm for me that I was following his lead, and it also reminded me of the profound fellowship we have in Christ.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Now for the last two months… The Sunday after I arrived back in the USA, I was invited to speak at my home church— Calvary Baptist of Kenai, AK. I presented a slideshow of my Ethiopia experience, and also talked about what you can do to support God's missions program. It might not be what you think!

If you want to listen to that message, go to http://kenaicalvary.org/Audio/Audio.html and scroll down to my two messages on August 10. In the evening service, I told a few hair raising stories just to scare mom a little! The next few weeks I spent with friends and family in Alaska, just relaxing and trying to process all of my summer experiences.

In September, I came back down to Dallas in order to wrap up my seminary career. Technically, I had already graduated, but my thesis on Job still required a few touch-ups. Email me if you would like to read it… You'd be one of a very few!

I also agreed to grade for several Dallas Seminary classes this fall— Preaching 1 and The Spiritual Life. This has been an interesting, and humbling, task for me, and quite a privilege. In addition, I put in quite a few hours at Group Dynamix, the teambuilding facility where I've been working the last four years. (Our promo video, starring yours truly, is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49hZ2oY8Kq4).

Lately, I've cut back on my workload (thanks to a stimulus check from governor Palin!) so that I can focus on the future, which seems, from my current vantage point, to include a PhD. During my last year of seminary, I became increasingly convinced that God is leading me that direction, though for what purpose I remain unaware.

But I was exhausted after my four-year Th.M program, and I had little time to look into PhD programs during my final months. So, I am trying to remedy both situations at present: getting plenty of rest and researching doctoral programs around the country and abroad. I'm also attempting to publish several articles related to my thesis, both for posterity and to help make me a more attractive PhD candidate. I am hoping to improve my chances at substantial scholarships, grants or stipends as a published author. Naturally, this will be a lengthy and possibly frustrating process, and I may not begin a new degree program for a year or two.

So, in the meantime, I'm pleased= to announce that I've accepted a position as Interim Associate Pastor at my home church in Kenai for the next year or so, beginning in January of 2009. Calvary Baptist has been growing pretty rapidly in the past few years, and it has been getting difficult for my Dad to keep up with all of the needs in the church, despite the fine support of the deacons and the members. So, Calvary has asked me to come on as a full-time associate to help relieve some of the pressure on my Dad and to help facilitate godly expansion. We want to respond to our growth with carefully reasoned, prayerful decisions concerning the possibilty of new programs, new buildings, new positions and etc. In fact, one of my tasks will be to help establish the need for an Associate Pastor at Calvary and define his future role and responsibilities.

I am thrilled to return to my home church and serve many of the people who have supported me in a variety of ways over the years. And, of course, working with Dad will be a lot of fun!

Please pray for me as I step into this new role, that I serve the Lord and the folks at Calvary with wisdom and humility. Please pray also that the Lord directs my steps in my search for a doctoral program. If you didn't get a chance to see my pictures or read my email posts this summer, check out my blog at http://www.southernsalmon.blogspot.com. As always, I'd love to hear from you, and I'll be keeping you posted.

In Christ,



Joel Reemtsma

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More Pics

Hello Everyone,

Thought I might send out a few more pics before I go gallivanting around the
countryside for a week or so.

Tamene is the dean of students at ETC, and he graduated from the college
awhile back. He actually took Preaching while he was in school from Academic
Dean Freyo (who sounds like Michael Corleone's older brother) who in turn
learned preaching from Dr. Vic back in his Ehiopia days. But when he learned
that Dr. Vic himself would teach the course this summer, Tamene decided he
wanted to hear preachification from the horse's own mouth. Naturally, with
his experience and enthusiasm, he excelled in all three of his class
sermons.

There's me at Tsegaye's house, who was one of my students. You wouldn't know
it from the pic, but the place is about a stone's throw from the landfill in
the western slums of Addis. (Fortunately, I have almost no sense of smell,
which may be my spiritual gift.) Tsegaye had to miss several days of class
for a surgery, and I spent a couple hours outside of class with him to catch
him up. In gratitude, he brought me home one day and his wife fed me a fine
meal.

Mike and Gina are enjoying a meal at Metro Pizza, which was a pretty welcome
relief from Njera (Ethiopian food) for us. Mike doing his Ph.D. through a
British school (I always get them confused), but he lives and works in
Dallas. He and Matt (np) taught Survey of Bible Doctrine at ETC. His wife
Gina is a high-school Spanish teacher who worked with several VBS programs,
orphans, and women at risk this summmer, in addition to helping with Sunday
classes and dramas at the international church. Both are a lot of fun.

Our gang did a hike at a national park about an hour out of Addis last week.
Believe it or not, that picture was taken at about 10,000 feet above sea
level. The woman is doing laundry in front of a traditional grass hut.

Hope everyone is well. I'm off to see the wildebeests.

J

Pictures

Hey folks,

I'm in Kenya at present, where the internet is quicker and more reliable.
(Also, the government does not block blogs, which makes things easier.)

So all that to say. Here's a picture or three:

That poor mule is being loaded with Amharic books from SIM's pastor's
bookset conferences...

Minas is translating Christian literature into Amharic. (Either that or he
is carrying out secret correspondence with his minions.)

I'm up there speaking at the pastor's bookset conference, with my friend
Biruk translating. Note my fashionable wool-suede sportcoat, which hails
from my dad's closet 20 years ago.

Joel

Nearly Native

Dear Friends and Family,

I think I'm finally acclimated to Addis. Generally speaking, I know where I am going and how long it will take to get there. Sometimes I even know how much it ought to cost... A taxi driver tried to snooker me the other day, and I gave him the old "2-whole-burr-are-you-kidding-me?" look. He hung his head sheepishly, and I claimed a moral victory for myself.

I spend a lot of time on wiyatts, which are pretty much like taxis that take you where they want to go. I was riding in one the other day and the driver pulled over and got out to talk to a friend on the sidewalk. So that's the mentality. Wiyatts look like volkswagen vans and they are usually packed full of people, who will often strike up a conversation if they know English. A couple of university students showed me their report cards the other day, and I managed to look impressed, without having a clue what I was looking at.

Perhaps the most obvious sign that I am adjusting is that I've adopted the Ethiopian mentality to cars in general— pedestrians own the rode, while cars are simply nuisances. I'm doing at least two or three miles on foot a day now, and I'll walk into several lanes of oncoming traffic without hesitation. I mean, all those rich diplomat Land Cruisers  can go around me, right? I used to be pretty paranoid even on sidewalks, but you'll never get anywhere in Addis if you're afraid to wander nonchalantly in front of irritated cars.
 
So I'm starting to feel at home. I'n fact, a couple of the waitresses at my cafe of choice seem to think I'm a white habesha, a local. I just smile and nod when they chatter on in Amharic, and throw in a knowing look now and then. They love it. My laptop causes quite a stir too. Not because they've never seen one, but because, culturally speaking, meals are for eating and socializing, not working. The old-timers reserve a special frown for western ferenji's and their devious ways.

Our ministry is going well, and the whole team stays quite busy. Actually, today is our last day of class at Evangelical Theological College, and the students have come a long way in the last month. Learning to preach well is not easy, especially since we have condensed material from two whole courses at Dallas Seminary into a single five-week class here. Second-language issues further compound the difficulty for students, though most speak decent English, since they are in their third year of a bachelor-level program.

You might be wondering what I've been doing with myself... My homiletics (preaching) class was in the evenings, so I spent my days preparing for Sunday (sermon, dramas and classes), grading papers, and meeting with my students. I most enjoyed the latter, and students seem deeply appreciative of face-to-face interaction, both for the educational help and the friendship.

For my part, I have come to realize that a large part of effective ministry is simply hanging out with people. In Ethiopia, relationships are more important than business, and people view a weak or insincere greeting as a serious faux paux (French for "party foul"). I've also seen that a smile is pretty much universal— you just can't go wrong socially with a smile.

One of the guys from my Sunday Class offered me his sister's hand in marriage the other day. I'm pretty sure he was serious too. I mean, what do you say to that? I went with: "I'm sure she's very nice but..." Several of the elders in the church have told me it's time for me to find a wife too, which led me to suspect that my mother somehow called ahead.

I nearly bought a ticket to western Ethiopia the other day, after someone invited me to teach at a refugee camp for Sudanese folks. Since our class ends tonight, and I don't return home until August 1, I thought I might go for it. It didn't work out though. Maybe next time. I've also shelved a plan to take a bus to Kenya— didn't really want to spend 5 days cooped up in a smoky bus to get to Nairobi, only to have to return in a couple of days.

So all that to say, I'm not sure what the next couple of weeks will hold. I'd like to see more of Africa, whether that means Ethiopia or elsewhere. The famous Lalibela stone churches are three days north by bus. The buildings are centuries-old monuments of Ethiopian Orthodoxy, which is a pretty strange phenomenon, if I do say so myself. You see, Christianity and Ethiopian culture have been intertwined for centuries. Almost back to when the church began. In fact, Ethiopians see themselves as descendants of the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who supposedly returned to Africa bearing the King's child. So in many ways, the connection goes back long before Christ. (Whether this is true or not, their perception of reality here is the important thing.) For this reason, the Ethiopian people see themselves as the people of God, indistinct from Israel. They view themselves as a chosen people, perhaps THE Chosen People. Probably most do not consciously think this— rather it is built into their worldview.

So it's all pretty fascinating. Some intriguing discussion continues to take place as to whether Evangelical Christians ought promote conversion from Ethiopian Orthodoxy or reform within it. I tend toward the former, but it is a pretty complex issue.

Home in three weeks! I'll be sad to go, but ready. And I'm confident that several of my new friendships will survive time and distance.

I thank God for the opportunity. And I thank you all for your part in it.

Joel

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Ministry in Ethiopia

Hello Everyone,

It's high time I filled you in on what I've been up to for nearly a month.

I spent my first few days getting over jet lag, which proved difficult since I was also fighting a head cold. The SIM clinic doctor actually told me I had inner ear damage from the cabin pressure on my flights. The day I landed, we visited every pharmacy we passed looking for cough drops. (And when I say pharmacy, I don't mean Walgreens. Think of a tin shack with random piles of bottles and pills with Arabic labels.) Finally, one of the missionary women came to my rescue.

But this too passed, and I was feeling fairly decent by Monday, when we all jumped into the Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road. We were heading 5 hours south to Awasa, then another couple hours further on to Dilla, where Vic would be speaking at the Pastor's Bookset conference. This minstry— a subset of SIM that operates in several countries at a time— distributes translations of Christian books to rural pastors in their native Amharic tongue. (Actually, many probably speak a tribal dialect first, but Amharic functions as a trade language for them.)

It was fascinating watching Vic discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Ethiopian preaching with the pastors. He used a translator, even though speaks Amharic well enough to make do without (picture).  Some of the pastors have had a small amount of education. Others have had virtually none. Few had been taught to appreciate study and preparation in preaching. Greg Hinton and I, the only two team members in the country during the first week, did several book reviews for the group through our translators, B'ruk and Minas (picture). We also got to play some football with the locals.

The other keynote speaker was Mark Shaw, a Professor at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) who just published The Kingdom of God in Africa, one of the books in the bookset. Mark went to Gordon Conwell Seminary, and then on to Ph.D. work in England somewhere. To my delight, he proved quite sharp in conversation, and invited me to come check out his school in Kenya next month. This I am still considering.

Minas, who, as far as Greg and I could tell, is like the godfather of K'ale Heywet. He looks at you sideways across a plate of raw kitfo and you worry for your soul. Then you realize he is on your side, and breath a sigh of relief. Minas spent a few months in prison for preaching during the communist rule, and knows what there is to know about the church in Ethiopia… And style, for that matter. (picture)

After two weeks of conferences, we headed back to our home base in Addis. Our team, with the addition of Shannon, Heather and Julie (Vic's daugher) stopped at Lake Langano for a night, where SIM has a cabins and a lodge for missionaries to get away. Late in the evening, we managed to rustle up a belligerent hippo from the reeds. Fortunately, our zebunyah was at the ready with his seven-foot spear and WWI bolt-action rifle, complete with a bayonet and rust. He let me have the spear the next day for 150 burr ($14 USD).


When we got, we were able to move out of the SIM guest house and into the home of a retired missionary couple who were leaving for the rainy season. I preached at the International Evangelical Church (IEC) twice that Sunday. Our team is preaching through the Jacob narrative in Genesis, which has proven surprisingly complex for our study.

The IEC folks are pleased as punch to have us there; apparently they have had a bit of difficulty transitioning after the unexpected departure of their last pastor. Attendance has dropped to about half of its previous 1500. Greg preached the week after me, on IEC's International Thanksgiving Day, where we counted citizens of at least 40 countries. The challenges to such a diverse body of believers are extreme.

We are now two weeks into our Homiletics (preaching) course at Evangelical Theological College (ETC), which shares a building with the church. Vic likes to teach by discussion, so Greg and I do a lot of in class interaction. At first, Ethiopians were taken aback by this format, since they tend to view professors as dictators, rather than guides. Before long, though, they were enthusiastically participating. Our class runs two hours a night, Monday through Thursday, and we spend a great deal of time outside the classroom preparing, grading, and meeting students for one-on-one tutorials. More on all that in my next post.

The rest of our team finally arrived a week ago: Matt and Suki Lynskey, Mike and Gina Makiddon, and Cindy (Vic's wife) and Philip (Vic's son, whom we have already held upside-down over a toilet at least once). The women will be running English and Amharic VBS programs for IEC and area kids over the next few weeks, and they also help with skits and dramatic presentations and classes on Sunday morning. Matt and Mike are teaching Survey of Bible Doctrine at ETC, in addition to Sunday Growth Groups with Greg and I.

With a little humility and a shoehorn, we can pretty much all fit into a Toyota Land Cruiser. Whether we survive Vic's driving is another story.

Well, that ought to do it for now. I miss cheeseburgers.

Thanks for your prayers! Enjoy the pictures (if I can get them to work— they may appear tomorrow).

Take care and God bless.



 

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First Impressions

One and All,

Hello from Ethiopia!

I feel like I've been here for ages, though I'm not even in my second week. The jet lag has worn off, and now I am adjusting to life at 8,000 feet. It is so good to be in the mountains again. And Addis Ababa is surprisingly cool this time of year. Apparently, the rainy season is just around the corner, so my summer will compare to the weather back home in Alaska, except for the occasional afternoon heat.

The rain will provide welcome relief from the smog— the number of cars in the city has risen exponentially in the past decade, with little effort to control vehicle emissions. Just breathing the air here is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. There is trash everywhere, and people sleeping on sidewalks and highway medians. I'm pretty sure I stepped over a dead guy at one point.

On the other hand, the people (at least the ones with jobs) are exceptionally well-dressed and quite proud. It is disconcerting to see an immaculately dressed woman, one who may have stepped right out of a fashion magazine, walking carefully across a muddy parking lot in high heels. A man you might take for a high-powered attorney rides on the back of a donkey cart.  A boy drives his goats in front of a brand new sky-rise. And the Sheraton of Addis is pretty much paradise; I guess some Saudi sheik decided he needed a good place to stay in town. Palm trees, lights, colors, panache and such. It's all part of the show, folks.

Addis is a city of contrasts.

But 30 miles outside of the city, you find yourself back in the Stone Age. Gaunt cattle roam around aimlessly, and termite mounds spot the semi-arid landscape. A thin vein of modern civilization clings to the highways, and at the major intersections, the population congeals into ramshackle towns and villages. A few regional capitals could be called cities, even though livestock takes up more of the street than people.

Ethiopian food is fantastic. Traditionally, various stews, vegetables and meat dishes are placed on a platter covered with Njera, which is like a giant sourdough pancake. With your right hand, you tear off a piece of the bread and scoop up whatever dish delights you most. Spicy sauces and peppers on the side add a bit of a challenge to the game. And of course, Ethiopians pride themselves on their coffee, even claiming to be its birthplace.

I don't really understand the political situation in Ethiopia, and I'm not sure I can explain what I do understand. However, the country just threw off communist rule not 20 years ago. The Revolution did little good for Ethiopia, and much harm. Unity proves difficult, as there are over a hundred languages in use, and 30-something official languages of education.

People in the capital speak Amharic as their first language, though many speak some English as well. I've managed to pick up a few useful phrases, and I hope to know enough to be a nuisance to our guards before long. Fortunately, Amharic is a Semitic language, so the grammar and vocabulary bear significant similarities to Hebrew. Writing may prove more difficult for me than speech though, since there are over 200 letters in the alphabet. We'll see.

So those are my first impressions. The people are great. The landscape is inspiring. The city is intriguing... And appalling.

But the city is where the people are. People whom God loves. People who need to be embraced. People who need to be helped and to be taught. For that matter, I've got a good bit to learn myself.

I'll give you ministry-related details next weekend. I'll be down in the Rift-valley all week, so you can direct your prayers against the mosquitoes. It's the age-old battle of DDT versus Malaria. And I'm preaching twice this week, so you can pray I think and communicate clearly.

Lord bless.

Joel

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Thanks!

Dear Friends and Family,

You People Are Generous!

I am astonished and moved by your enthusiastic response to my request for help. Whether with wise words, a promise to pray, or financial support, you all reminded me of the awesome privilege we have to be in this together.

To be honest, I wasn't sure quite how things would turn out. I had this sort of "half-trust" thing going for awhile there. I mean, I felt pretty convinced I was making a wise, God-honoring decision in going to Africa, but not so convinced that I started practicing my rain dance, if you catch my drift.

So all that to say, I praise the Lord for his generous people… You. Through your efforsts, He has provided me with the means to go, the training to help and the spiritual and emotional support to endure. Thanks. Really thanks.

And please do keep me in your prayers. It wouldn't much do for me to get eaten by hyenas because you failed to pray for me. You would feel horrible. Or at least some of you would.

I really did want to send each of you who responded a personal thank you note, but I'm afraid I ran out of time in the midst of all the graduation hullabaloo. I'll have to save that for my return. Things have been pretty hectic these past few weeks.

In fact, my car blew out its intake manifold gaskets the other day. No doubt because some of you weren't praying. (Actually, it probably had a lot more to do with me neglecting some preventative maintenance… lesson learned.) But God be praised— the mechanic was able to fix it in a single day. I told him he had to keep the car until I got back from Ethiopia unless he worked on it right away, which seemed to add a little pep to his tinkering.

I board my plane in about 15 hours, and I'll be pretty hard to get in touch with after that. I decided to switch from email to this blog because it keeps your inboxes clutter-free and word has it, this is the best way to keep in touch via Ethiopia's spotty internet service. Apparently there is a wooden lever for each keyboard key, and a little Swedish guy hides behind the computer and makes the dial-up noise.
 
The blog also allows people whom I have forgotten (sorry!) a chance to read my updates. Let them know!

My prior posts (the earlier updates I sent you) give instructions on how to donate, should anyone else want to participate that way. I have received enough support to defray the cost of the trip and to cover my bills while I'm gone. (Although I am watching for unseen expenses.) Any further money I receive will go toward help me get back on my feet when I return stateside.

Frankly, I am flat broke after four years of seminary. But again, the Lord came through and provided enough help to get me through without borrowing anything on top of college loans. Just pray that Ethiopians have never heard of Peanut Butter and Jelly or Ramen Noodles!

Thanks for keeping up with my journey, and thanks again for your generosity! I praise our Father for the unity we enjoy purchased by the Son and enforced by the Spirit… Meaning it's good fun to serve the Lord with you! It amazes me that I know some of you barely at all, and others I have never met.

The story begins tomorrow!

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How To Help

Joel Reemtsma
j_reemtsma@hotmail.com
3909 Swiss Ave. #1392                   
Dallas, TX 75204

Dear Friends and Family,
Hello Again!
If you're getting this note of mine, it means you've replied that you'd like to stay in the know on my life and ministry. Thanks! (Or possibly, it might mean I disregarded your silence and sent you another letter anyway… I know how some of you procrastinate.)

Friends, I write to you in great pain. My shoulders are killing me because I had to go get immunizations in preparation for overseas travel. And my nerves are shot as well. It's what comes of having an otherwise-pleasant woman jabbing at me all morning with a giant needle. She looked so nice too. Still, I suppose it's better than growing a third arm or turning green, though I seem to recall yearning for one or both as a young boy.

How You Can Help!
I have been constantly astounded by the way God has provided for me as a seminary student. When I've got time to work, He has given me jobs I enjoy, that pay well. (Three right now, actually!) And when I am too swamped with school to work, he has sends generous people to me to help defray tuition costs.

So now, I am confident that he will provide the financial resources for this venture. I am trying to raise somewhere around $3800 for my two-month stay.  A plane ticket from D.C. to Addis runs about $2000. Immunizations are going to set me back about $900, which makes me a rather expensive dartboard. Cost of living (food, lodging) will be about the same.

If you'd like to help finance my trip, there's a couple ways to give. It is easiest for me if you send a check to:
Calvary Baptist Church
208 Lawton Dr.
Kenai, AK 99611.
http://www.kenaicalvary.org


Put my name on the memo line, and my home church in Alaska will put the money in a special account for me. You can also donate to my trip online now! Just go to www.sim.org and follow the links to donate, or copy this address in your browser [https://apps.easydraft.com/Payment/SIM/CCcredit2.asp] to go directly to the correct page. Make sure to put my name, Project Name and team account number in the appropriate field: Joel Reemtsma / DTS Ethiopia 2008 #030224.

If it's not in your budget to help, no worries! I would be honored if you would pray for me and continue to read my updates. It was great fun to read your emails!

About SIM
I also promised you some info on my organization, SIM International, so here goes. Originally, the letters stood for Sudan Interior Missions back in the late 1800's, but the situation grew too dangerous for missionaries in that particular patch of paradise, and the missionaries had to go someplace else for awhile. So they joined up with some missions agencies elsewhere in Africa and in South America and Asia and changed the name to Society of International Missions.

In 2000, they to switched to Serving In Missions or just SIM, which apparently sounds less sinister to foreign governments than the word "Society" does. (I think my nurse belonged to the Society of Giant Needle Operators). Today SIM has operations in about every African country and regional headquarters on every continent. They are an evangelical organization and state their purpose(s) as: 1) to evangelize the unreached, 2) to minister to human need, 3) to disciple believers into churches, and 4) to equip churches to fulfill Christ's commission.

My Role
In Ethiopia, SIM works with the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church. Kale Heywet means "Word of Life" in Amharic, not to be confused with a different organization by that name here stateside. The website is http://www.ekhc.org.et/ for more info. EKHC is an evangelical denomination of nearly 5 million of your brothers and sisters. Most couldn't read a Bible if they had one, and many count wealth in goats and chickens.. Lord willing, I will be preaching in some EKHC churches in rural Ethiopia, usually with a translator. How weird will it be to preach Christ while standing under a tree that the congregation used to worship!

As part of their desire to equip churches, SIM also provides support for the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Abbaba (http://www.etcollege.org). Our team will be teaching two 4-5 week summer classes at ETC (see team photo below). Matt and Mike will teach through Romans, and Greg and I will be assisting Dr. Anderson with his interactive Homiletics (preaching) course. My primary role will be to help future Ethiopian pastors learn to communicate the truth clearly and effectively, in a way that is loyal to the actual words and meaning of Scripture. Although I will probably be responsible for some lectures and discussions, my primary role will be to spend individual time with students helping them hone their skills and sharpen their understanding.

I am excited about this task, because frankly, preaching in Africa can be a pretty rum affair. Preachers often wander around a vast array of theological topics and texts without saying anything coherent about any of them. Little preparation goes into it. The Bible is not all that important to many African Christians, because the Holy Spirit tells the preachers what to say, right? Naturally, this dubious arrangement leads to a lot of misunderstanding and even heresy among churches. There is desperate need for quality biblical preaching in Africa.

A Heart-Warming Human Interest Story
At a recent team meeting, we  met these German folks who had been in the Ethiopian wilderness for thirty years ministering to some tribe… Some tribe with a population at least a million strong. And if I remember right, there was some bit of adversity in the story too. The locals were cannibals or headhunters or telemarketers. Something savage anyway. But now, as a direct result of their presence, there are 35,000 believers, which is terribly exciting. And of course the elderly couple was as humble as pie about the whole thing. You grandparents out there, imagine a walletfull of 35,000 spiritual children and grandchildren to show everyone!

Goodbye
Friends, family, thanks again for taking an interest in my life and ministry. Your prayers and support are a great encouragement to this fledgling servant of Christ. Please continue to keep in touch. And if you can recruit more readers for me, so much the better!


In Christ,



Joel Reemtsma

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Welcome!

Joel Reemtsma
j_reemtsma@hotmail.com
3909 Swiss Ave. #1392
Dallas, TX 75204

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello! You may be surprised to be hearing from me, either by the good ole’ USPS or by email. Lord willing, and if you so desire, you can hear much more from me in the future. Why? Because I like you! And I’d like to keep you informed of what’s going on in my life and ministry, so that you know how to pray for me, how you can be involved in what I’m doing, and how I might be able to encourage and pray for you!

Let me backtrack a bit and let you know what I’ve been up to for the last few years. If memory serves, (less and less these days) I’ve been battling my way through a Master of Theology program at Dallas Theological Seminary since 2004. It’s been a difficult pleasure… and a privilege for which I am eternally grateful to our Sovereign.

Anyhow, I am pleased to announce that I will graduate this spring with a Th.M. in Old Testament Studies. And to those who thought I would be a perpetual student, unable to face life in the real world… ‘Hah!’ (Although the laugh might be too soon, since I am still considering a Ph.D. as my next step.)

Although I am still waiting for the Lord to illuminate the next few years of my future, I do have a plan for this coming summer. After much prayer and deliberation, I’ve decided to go to Ethiopia on a short term missions trip through SIM International and with a DTS professor of mine. The dates are tentative (my dates are always tentative) but I will most likely be there from mid-May to late July 2008. Primarily, I will be co-teaching college classes in Addis Ababa and preaching locally, in English and through a translator. I am quite excited about this opportunity to serve, not to mention the opportunity to say ‘Addis Ababa’ every chance I get… So hilarious.

So here’s what I ask of you, dear friends and family- if you are indeed one of those amiable souls who would like to read about my ministry opportunities and misadventures and/or you know anyone who is, please let me know. To do this, send an email from the address you prefer to receive my updates to j_reemtsma@hotmail.com with “KEEP ME POSTED” as the subject line exactly as it appears here. (Otherwise, your message might not make it through my email filter). You don’t need to put anything in the text of the email, although I would love to read them, if you want to include the latest news. If you don’t have an email address, send me a note via passenger pigeon -unless you still use a chisel and stone tablet, which is needlessly taxing on the poor birds- with your mailing address and I will get you a copy the old-fashioned way.

Of course, your reply does not obligate you in any way, though I do hope that you will keep me in your prayers. I will make you aware of opportunities to help me financially, as I will be depending on the Lord to provide resources for my current venture, but mostly, I ask that you just read my emails… As I write, I like to imagine you laughing while you read!

If I don’t hear from you, I will (sadly) presume that you don’t want to bother with my rambling- quite understandable. Otherwise, please do write me back, except for those of you who have already indicated your desire in writing. (meaning Calvary Baptist folks) I don’t want to assume anything, and I may have out-of-date addresses for some of you too.

Thank you so much for your time, for your prayers, for past support and encouragement. May the Lord be with you, as you are with Him.


In Christ,




Joel Reemtsma

Coming Up Next: I describe what I am planning to do in Ethiopia, a little background on SIM, my missions agency, and what you can do to help! AND… Bonus Feature: Episodes in the Life of a Seminary Student