The world here and going there!

Dear friends,

Full Guest Rooms...
It has been over a month since I have written. So very much has happened! We finished the new guest room where Jesse used to be and so far 2 missionaries from Ch!na, Jesse, Allison's friend Tyler, and Steve J. from Partners have all stayed up there. I am resetting the two X-tra long Twins into a King size bed for Rene and Faustine from Senegal (Jesse's African parents from last year) who will be up there later in the week. Downstairs the guest room has had several occupants as well...Jenni came home from CA for 5 days before returning to school for her sr. year. Then Allison and her friend Dominique stayed there and this week Susie from Partners was in there. Next comes Pastor Matt from the Gambia, and then Donna and Karen from CO.

Pastor Matt will be traveling and speaking around the US, but is starting here. It is his first time in the US and we get to host him! I am very excited. We just might have to take him to Cabella's to see a moose and to Coeur d'Alene on Sunday after church. He will be speaking at an event here in Spokane on Sept 30th, but Greg and I will be in Ch_ _ a by then and will miss that. He is one of the favorite partners of everyone who meets him. He was a Muslim and became a Christian. He has a very effective ministry of sharing Christ with Muslims in the Gambia. Jesse said Pastor Matt is one of the most amazing people he has ever met. He has huge respect for him. Jesse worked with him last year while on his West Africa experience for 5 1/2 months.

After he leaves, Donna and Karen are arriving to stay in the bonus room and Faustene who is here to learn English for a month will move downstairs to Pastor Matt's room. I get to have her for 1 1/2 weeks and hope to bless her and help her practice her English. She will move to another place in town when I leave for Ch_ _ a on Sept. 30th.

Mission ConneXion Inland Northwest NEXT WEEK!
We have been planning this conference for over 2 years. 75 workshops, 15 tracks, special music and plenary sessions, plenary speakers, fantastic workshop presenters, a missions bookstore, and attendees- hopefully a LOT of them! Tonight our steering committee will be stuffing 2500 folders for those who come. Since the conference is free, we have no pre-registration and have no idea how many will show up. We have done every kind of promotion and publicity we can think of and now we just have to see what God does and let Him bring those He wants to be there. We would love for you to join us in prayer for this conference to help Spokane to become more a part of the Great Commission both here in this region and to the ends of the earth.

I will be guiding a 3 hour pre-conference intensive for Children's Workers. My hope is to have many children's directors come together and establish an unofficial fellowship association. We would like to create a way for us to share ideas and resources between ourselves. Again, if no one shows up, this will not work very well. Please pray for folks to come. I also am teaching one workshop and am overseeing the Teaching Missions to Children track. I planned 6 other tracks also and have a few more details to work out on a few more workshops. Please pray for the details to come together. The intensive begins at 1:00, and the conference begins at 5:30 on Friday the 24th and ends at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday the 25th. Greg leaves for Ch_ _a on the 25th early in the morning. Then I leave for East Asia on the 30th early in the morning.

Three of My Kids Were Home
We totally enjoyed our time with Jenni before she left for her last year at Grove City. She learned a great deal and received great feedback from her summer internship and hopes to find a job during this school year. She could see herself going back to CA if God opens the door. She has a ready made family at the church she became part of this summer. She will be picking up Laura's car soon to use while Laura is overseas. (More on her a little further on.)

The next weekend, Labor Day, Jesse came home for 2 1/2 days. We had such a nice time visiting with him. He saw friends, ate good food, went to church and visited with us quite a bit. It seemed like enough time even though it was short. He doesn't know yet, but will probably be recycled on his last cycle of training- have to redo the last month. The instructors are civilian interrogators and are being recruited to go to Afghnstn to actually do their job there instead of training new soldiers in this skill. The idea is that doing this may end the war there more quickly. 120 of these trainers were layed off in the last 2 months and Jesse's instructor knows he will be layed off soon. He decided to take his vacation time while he still could. Soooo...he has been missing from the classroom more days than not during Jesse's month of training. He has had to teach himself mostly without the benefit of input from an instructor. Technically he didn't pass, but knows what he was supposed to learn. The last test will show if he actually did learn the information. They may decide he could go on, but he doesn't know yet. He will probably know soon. If he gets recycled he will finish in AZ in mid-November. If they pass him, he goes to Monterrey, CA at the end of Sept. to begin his Arabic training. We would appreciate prayers for him. People die at this AZ base too sometimes. One of his friends was stung 6 times by a swarm of killer bees and that almost killed him since he already had another health issue happening. And it is HOT there and they are still using live ammo for training and accidents happen. Thanks!

So, in the meantime let's switch to Allison in FL. She is nannying and just moved in to live with her best friend's family. Allison and Dominique decided to visit a friend, Tyler, in Seattle Labor Day weekend. They ended up coming to Spokane after a concert at The Gorge. They arrived late and surprised Jesse. They slept and we all had a big breakfast. Allison's friend from FL, Derrick, is attending Moody Bible Institute here in town, and he also came for breakfast. We visited until noon and then they returned to Seattle. So nice to be with all of them for even just a little while.

To the Regions Beyond...
Greg is scheduled to leave for East Asia on Sept. 25th and will be attending Partners leadership meetings there. He will then go to other locations in SE Asia for several days and when he gets back to Be!j_ing, I will be just finishing up with a Children's Ministry training. He and I will visit several Partners Intl. ministry partners in that region of that country. We come home on Oct. 13th.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to do some training with our brothers and sisters in that area. There will be about 40 of them. The church is started, but the work with children is now gearing up and there is a desire to make it better. They have tweeked a curriculum they were given by someone 4 times and don't know how to adjust it again. We will teach them how to develop their own curriculum. Story telling, verse memory, discipleship, object lessons, etc... We will have 4 days together. The "we" is another more experienced trainer and me. I look forward to learning from her. She has literally done this all over the world. Please pray that we would be excellent listeners and effective teachers of teachers. This training can freely be used and passed on to others, so it is strategic. Pray that we can connect effectively with each participant and for them to connect with each other. We have already sent the parts of the training that have previously been translated into their language. We will be sharing 'student centered' teaching rather than the 'teacher centered' teaching they are used to. Pray as I finish preparing for the sessions I will be teaching.

I am expected to raise the money for my plane ticket to and from East Asia. It is about $2000 and if you would be interested in helping with that, please email me at nancyfritz@aol.com and let me know. I have an account for this at Partners International and can explain how to give tax-free if you write.

Medical Update...
I went to the surgical oncologist and had an ultrasound of some areas with scar tissue that are constantly changing. The ultrasound showed only scar tissue since there was no blood supply to the enlarged lumps. If there is cancer growing, there will be blood flow, I was told my Dr. Moline. So praise God for that!

My wrist received a shot of cortizone and is now fine. The nerve test said I was shy of carpal tunnel by one tenth of one decimal point, so my hand doc decided on this treatment. I haven't had one incident of numb hand since the shot. He said it would probably work for 6-18months and may actually cure the problem in my wrist permanently. I am so grateful for this too, since it was really bothering me a lot, and it will be easier to travel without a numb hand.

My scar tissue gets to be more and more of an issue as the years go by since radiation. It has been 4 years and my left side is so very tight that muscles attaching to my arm, back and neck are all restricted and causing trouble. Dr. Moline sent me to a physical therapist who is specially trained in radiation scar tissue treatment. I met Barb on Monday and we started working on my left armpit area. I learned some gentle movements and massage techniques that I am attempting to do every half hour during the day for 1 minute each. I am setting the kitchen timer today to remind me to do it. I am already noticing a loosening of the tightness. I will see her one more time before I leave. After years of this I am excited to find someone to help me with it. She said in 2 weeks I will have noticed a huge difference.

Barb suggested that it seems that I have callogen issues in my body in general- knees, hernias, shoulders, bladder, etc. I will talk to my other doctors about that when I see them, but I think they have a clue from the other testing I did earlier in the year. I will deal with these issues more when I get back from my trip.

Laura!!
Guess what? My oldest daughter left on Monday to be a missionary! This has been her ultimate goal for her whole life. It is why she has chosen what she has studied and done with her life since I can remember. As a 3 year old she told me she needed to tell people about God's love through Jesus Christ. She is currently in Bradford, England for the fall. She is learning by doing how to share Christ with Muslims. She plans to come home for Christmas and after New Years, to fly to Israel to work with one of our partner ministries there for all of next year. She is going out under Partners International and has a ministry account. She has only a fraction of her support so far, and you can let me know if you are interested in being part of her team as well (nancyfritz@aol.com). I will get you the information you need. She is living on savings for the time being. She will be in the Carltons' home for the fall since they will be traveling quite a bit. Greg and I are so proud of our daughter and are excited that she has found her niche in reconciliation ministry.

I am unable to put pictures into my blog currently. There is something technically wrong and I am not smart enough to fix it. I am on facebook where I have been putting pictures if you want to look there. Back to lesson preparation and conference packet stuffing... God bless you! Nancy Fritz