Mariner Family to Suriname

Dear Praying Friends,

Travels

We are incredibly grateful for all your prayers on our behalf. We have experienced the Lord’s protection and grace through our extensive travels during this furlough. We know that the Lord’s goodness and your prayers make this possible. Since our last update e have traveled to meetings in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia all without any issues on the road. We were thrilled to be able to report at several supporting churches and present at one new church.

Blessings

Between church services, we have enjoyed the opportunity to visit family and friends while staying at our sending church’s prophet’s chamber. Mark has helped in various ways with our church’s camp ministry including saddling the horses that the campers ride. He was the camp speaker for one week which involved preaching in both morning and evening chapel. He preached about having the right kind of heart. We drew a life-sized depiction of Goliath and had the kids act out this and other stories from David’s life. Mark explained that only God can give us a new heart. During the week seven campers made professions of faith! It was a joy to be involved in the same camp ministry that greatly impacted Mark’s life.

Paperwork

We appreciate your prayers for William’s paperwork. We have received his passport! We have just sent his visa application to the Suriname embassy. We are praying and hoping it will be approved and returned by September 1st! Please pray with us that there will be no delays.

Amazon Medical Trip to Bolivia

Mark is scheduled to accompany the Amazon for Christ evangelistic medical team to Bolivia during the first week of September. Please pray for safety and for all the minor details to go smoothly as this is the first medical trip the ministry has made to Bolivia. Amazon for Christ led by BIMI South America director, Brother Sean Lunday, has the goal of helping church planters in all nine Amazon basin countries (including Suriname). The ministry has helped missionaries and national pastors launch over 20 church plants in four countries. Mark has made plans to go on this trip to be better prepared to effectively host a team in Suriname in the future. He is excited to be able to minister in a new country and appreciates your prayers!

Move to Suriname

We are prayerfully planning our move to Suriname for the 3rd week of September. This will be dependent on us receiving William’s Suriname visa before that time. We are optimistic that this can be done as our other visas were processed in about a month. Please pray as we work on details like housing, transportation, and moving our household belongings from Guyana to Suriname (an over 12-hour drive). We are specifically praying that we can rent a house (rather than an small apartment) and to purchase a van with eight seats rather than a small sedan both of which would allow us to minister to more people more effectively.