Now What: again!!!

    Around 1986 Scottville Bible Church closed and we were without a job, a place to live and we had no idea what to do next!!! Now What??? Ray and Sue Scholtens let us rent a small apartment on the top floor of their house and Ray also put me to work at the resort he had purchased and was remodeling. Linda found work cleaning houses and later a small restaurant in downtown Scottville. I helped her clean the restaurant a few times. But we still had no idea what the future held for us as far as ministry. We were burnt out on being a pastor - for now. We remembered what Howard Peterson (Regional Director for American Missionary Fellowship) had told us when he visited Luther Chapel a few years before. He told us that there were churches and ministries in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin that we would fit into. Howard passed away just a few years before, so I looked up Fern, his wife, who lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She gave me all kinds of brochures and information to look at and information about contacting AMF's Home Office. After talking with her, we realized that she had been seriously praying for years that Linda and I would become a part of AMF. God answered her prayers! She had others on the same prayer list that eventually joined AMF as well. What an amazing prayer warrior!!!  

   We waited a little bit, to give ourselves some breathing room, and eventually we contacted the home office of AMF. We filled out a preliminary application and then a full application. It was pages long and question after question about our doctrinal stand, family, past experience and more. I think it took us a good month to fill it out and finally send it off to AMF. We had one more test to pass before they accepted us. Claire Harstad from the Home Office came for a visit and interviewed us and gave us an evaluation test. The test had us nailed, as it confirmed that we were hurting from all that had happened.

    Eventually we heard from AMF and we were accepted as candidates. They sent us several books to read and other information that would help us get ready to serve. Now it was on to deputation and raising funds. They told us about, Clarence Ecker, an AMF missionary in Wisconsin who had retired and the mission was looking for someone to take over that ministry. Claire thought our ministry and life experiences would fit well with that area.. I took a trip to Barron, Wisconsin to visit Clarence and his lovely wife. He took me around to the different ministries he had been involved in (mostly Vacation Bible Schools) and introduced me to key people on each field. One of these ministries was in old abandoned school houses and the others at town halls. The whole ministry field covered 13 counties in N.W. Wisconsin, so we would be called "Field Missionaries". 

   Clarence also gave me a list of supporting churches that I could contact. After getting back to Michigan I started to contact some of these churches and set up appointments to meet the pastors and possible sharing with their church. Within a few weeks, I was off to Wisconsin again. This time with the goal of meeting pastors and sharing our future ministry. Our main goal as we shared in churches, was not to raise money but to build a prayer team and relationships. Then as the Lord lead they could take us on for support. During the next few months I took a few more trips to Wisconsin to do as much deputation as possible.

    God was providing and it wasn't long before our financial support was coming in. But we had to WAIT for AMF to give us the final OK to go to the field.......

 Stay Tuned to see what happened next! 

        

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