🌎 Video Update from Central America...

View this email in your browser 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) I Give Up! I'm done trying…  Join us for a VIDEO UPDATE to understand why and what I'm giving up on.  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.  Copyright (C) 2022 United World Mission. All rights reserved.

🌎 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.

🌎 Kevin's ordination service!

View this email in your browser 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) Good Friday 2022, Sermon at Palm Vista Community Church Pastor Kevin? …Join us for the ordination this Sunday! Though Claudia and I received MA's in Theology nearly 20 years ago as preparation to work with pastors and churches in Cuba, I've rarely considered that God may be calling me to pastorship. For years I've corrected those throughout Latin America who introduced me as "Pastor Kevin" when called to the pulpit to teach or preach. However in working through bylaws and church polity with the elders and a fellow Deacon of Palm Vista Community Church, God changed my heart. Now, after a lengthy process including written and oral exams, interviews and references, I will be one of two men added to the pastoral team as non-staff, bi-vocational elders at Palm Vista Community Church where my family has worshiped and served for the past 18 years. Though our missionary work has and will continue to take us throughout Central America and the Caribbean, Palm Vista has become home, and in many ways a surrogate family to our boys as they've grown. So I won't be giving up my "day job" with United World Mission and will continue serving with Claudia as full time missionaries and Regional Leaders to Central America and the Caribbean, even as I contribute to the pastoral staff of the church that our family is privileged to be part of.  If you're available, the ordination service will be this Sunday, May 22nd starting at 10:30 AM Eastern at 4450 NW 183rd St. Miami Gardens, FL 33055. You can also tune in liveor view later on PVCC's Youtube channel or our website: https://www.palmvista.org/sermons As a family we are incredibly thankful for your prayers and support that enable us to minister and care for missionaries and ministries throughout Central America & the Caribbean, as well as locally. We are blessed to see God's hand at work across cultures here in Miami and throughout Latin America.  Anti Human Trafficking Teaching/Training Remember, we love hearing from YOU, our partners, 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.

🌎 Cent. America, Ukraine, Strip Clubs & Family

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) I've previously noted that when the US economically sneezes, Central America gets financial pneumonia. Often these days the needs of those we work alongside as well as within the mission can seem overwhelming. Still, we serve The LORD who is over all things, whose plans are perfect and cannot be thwarted, though we're often unable to see them with our own eyes. Over the past year I've been encouraged by the victories and even the grief of Elijah in 1 Kings 18-19, seeing God's care constantly present in both joy and pain. (Check the passage out, as always it's worth your time.) Please pray for our work and God's provision for us and those we serve. Here's few details to help in your thanksgiving and intercession: The Gospel and Strip Clubs? Anti-Sex Trafficking in Miami… In the coming months Claudia and I will be joining the advisory board of Scarlett Hope Miami. For years we've been praying for solid Christian ministries to help the few faithful anti-sex trafficking organizations providing care and a Christian witness to South Florida. Scarlett Hope trains women to literally enter the darkness of strip clubs and minister to the girls, many of whom see stripping, or selling their bodies, as a last resort to meet the needs of their children or to pay for an education in hopes of escape. Please pray for the Scarlett Hope Miami director Liz Pino and the women joining her team. Pray also for the board as we seek to assist in the rescue of those being drawn into the darkness of human trafficking. If you'd like to join us in helping to establish this ministry, consider donating through Scarlet Hope's giving page. UWM in the Ukraine -Theology & bullet proof vests! As news and images flow out of Eastern Europe most are aware of at least some of the horrors Ukrainians face as a result of the Russian invasion. United World Mission partners with seminaries in the Ukraine that are receiving, caring for and assisting with the flood of refugees. Our own son Nico was able to assist with the refugee receiving process during his 3-week stay in the Czech Republic last month, and we are so proud of how he chose to use his time there (more below). If you would like to help the Ukrainian seminaries, UWM has set up a fund and waved administrative fees to ensure that every dollar gets into the hands of those who are saving lives. Please pray for the pastors and seminary staff, many remaining in the war zones as they continue to serve. In a post from last month one of the pastors stated: "Friends, thank you so much for your support! Together with the help of the United World Mission and some Ukrainian businessmen from the US we were able to purchase 60 bulletproof vests which serve to protect our chaplains, paramedics and volunteers…" Visit: UWM Ukraine Assistance for more information. UWM Central America: Pray for existing and future laborers… In Jesus' words: "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). I'm blessed to be working with a small team on ways to help N. American missionaries enter into new cultures, and how to best partner with national (non-US) missionary sending organizations in mobilizing Latins to the rest of the world. Please pray for wisdom, open doors, and more Biblically minded workers gifted in planning, development and especially cross-cultural relations. All are absolutely necessary in collaborating to prepare non-US missionaries, who the Lord is raising up to take the gospel to unreached peoples and even "post-christian" nations.  Our Globally Spread Out Family… Abeggs in Transition: Nico is back from Czech Republic! Our thanks to everyone who prayed for him during his internship with a dear friend and photographer for the International Mission Board. God's timing, as always, was perfect with Europe emerging from Covid restrictions enabling travel and Nico's ability to serve multiple times into the early morning as Ukrainian refugees arrived at the Prague train station. If you're interested in seeing his internship pix you can visit his Czech Photo Page. Nico's Highschool Graduation Ceremony will be this Saturday 5/7 at 3PM Eastern / noon Pacific broadcast live on: https://youtube.com/c/954Church and  https://954church.com/watch-live. Feel free to join in if you can!  Please pray for Nico and the whole family as we prepare for his transition to Idaho to work with Cannon Press by the end of the summer. Jeremy is wrapping up his first year at New St. Andrews. He's done very well and is looking forward to next year. Apart from the rigorous academics he enjoyed intramural rugby and basketball and even trained with the rowing team. Quite the change from his homeschooling days! We're thrilled with how he's growing and though we missed him, we couldn't be happier. For years Jeremy has been part of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and always hoped to get his private pilot's license. We laid these desires before the Lord for a long time, knowing we simply couldn't cover that cost. Just recently however, Jeremy was selected for a 2-month intensive program at Purdue university at no cost to us! He was given a grant equivalent to $26,000 and should end the summer with his private pilot's license in hand! We are so grateful for God's mercy and kindness! Please thank the Lord with us and pray for Jeremy as he wraps up his finals, deals with a broken-down car, visits with us for a few weeks and then heads off to flight school. Family in Chile: Claudia's dad continues to gain strength at home after nearly 8 months in the hospital. Claudia and I hope to visit next month but increasing airlines costs at over $1k / ticket may limit our options. Please pray for wisdom and provision as we lay plans for the coming months and our desire to care for and encourage family that's far away. If you're encouraged to join our financial support team and help with both ministry and general expenses please prayerfully consider using the link below. Remember, we love hearing from YOU, our teammates, and we're thrilled to know how to bre 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.