🌎 Latin Missions, Strip Club Ministry & Family Changes!

Love Letters from the Abeggs:  "…to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." (Jude 1:1) UWM Cent. Am: New missionaries to and from the region. The world continues to change. Missionaries from the US often need more training than sending churches are equipped to provide. This is a comment on much of the US church's ability to provide cross-cultural ministry training as well as the increasing difficulties on the global mission field. In Latin America we're restructuring how new missionaries arrive to the field and receive what essentially amounts to "on the job" training in areas of culture, language, theology, and spiritual disciplines. Conversely, countries in Latin America are sending more missionaries throughout the world. With UWM and Latin America Mission's history going back more than a century, we have the privilege of long-time, multi-cultural partnerships to respond to the missional needs around the world. I'm grateful for fellow Latin as well as North American missionaries who are willing and able to help lay plans in these areas, but it requires a lot of time and energy on many levels. Please pray for partner organizations like FEDEMEC in Costa Rica, PAAM in Panama, and a new potential partner in Guatemala. Pray for our ability to work together. I've referred to projects like these as "learning a new dance with old partners". Though we know and trust one another, it's easy to step on one another's toes. Pray for endurance, discernment, and compassion with each other as well as for the unreached or under-discipled around the world. Also, simply respond to Christ's words right where you are: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Mat. 9: 37-38). Finally, if you haven't already, please consider joining our financial support team to help cover the costs of training, discipleship and the necessary travel involved. Before the end of the year Claudia and I need to visit teams in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and possibly Honduras, but we can't do this alone given the increasing costs of airlines. If you would like and are able to assist in this way, please click here to visit our financial support page. The Gospel and Strip Clubs? Anti-Sex Trafficking in Miami… In a previous newsletter (see ELL 5/6/22) I shared how we're working with a new organization that reaches women working in strip clubs. Many of these are single moms, college students or those who simply can't support themselves or their families, and they do not realize the danger of being recruited by pimps and trafficked. Scarlett Hope trains Christian women to enter the darkness of these clubs and care for the women, extending the hope of the Gospel. You can help us get Scarlet Hope established in Miami, and prevent women from being trafficked by contributing towards our upcoming "Silent Auction". We're looking for services, experiences and gifts of all kinds. If you're local and would like to donate a basket or contribute towards one, please contact me directly. Even if you're not local, you can contribute an online gift card of your favorite national chain store, restaurant or service company and email it directly to Scarlet Hope Miami at: info.miami@scarlethope.org, or send it to me and I'll get it there. We need all donations no later than July 15th. Similarly, if you'd simply like to make a financial gift to Scarlett Hope, please visit: https://miami.scarlethope.org/donate/. Pray for Scarlet Hope and local director Liz Pino as she pushes ahead in reaching those who very few are equipped to share the gospel with. Catch up with the Abegg Family We want to thank all of you who are lifting us up in prayer during this time of transition (see ELL 5/6/22). Here's an update: Once again we're spread between different continents! - Jeremy is doing great in the private pilot's licensing training course at Purdue University thanks to a Civil Air Patrol scholarship he received last year. He's on track to graduate with his pilot's license in August right before school begins again. Please pray for his safety and that he can represent Christ well to the other cadets in training.  Jeremy and one of the planes he's training on.  - Claudia just returned from a 2 ½ week visit with her family after 6 years of absence. It was an emotional but powerful time of connecting and sharing the hope we carry in the Gospel. Her dad continues to physically heal at home from his 7-month hospitalization. Lord willing the both of us will return for another visit before the end of next year, as finances allow. Thank you for interceding for her time there and please continue praying for her family. Claudia with her dad Ramon as he continues recuperating. - Nico & I held down the fort while Claudia was gone. We spent much of our free time preparing him for his own Idaho transition. Lord willing, we'll be driving out of Miami next Friday and deliver him to Moscow Idaho the following week where he'll be working with the video production department of Cannon Press. Please pray for Nico's transition into the working world and that he would remain a faithful representative of the Kingdom as he continues to grow in Christ. Pray for safety in travel and our fellowship as a family before this new season of an "empty nest".  Sherlock is always ready for a family road trip! Remember, we love hearing from YOU, our teammates, and we're thrilled to know how to be praying for you. Send us a note whenever you can! Partner with us in the Great Commission:  Our work with and through believers in Central America is only possible with the prayer and financial support we receive from you, our partners:  Prayer Team: Send us note to let us know you're praying for us, and let us know how we can be praying for you.  Financial Support Team:  Visit: Abegg Missionary Support Page Give via US Mail: Send a check with accompanying note stating: "For the Abegg Family" to: 205 Regency Executive Park Dr. Suite 430, Charlotte, NC 28217 Give Via Phone: Dial 800-825-5896 and talk to a very helpful person. For past issues of our newsletters and other posts visit our Blog.