Lesotho

Hi all, I am finally in Lesotho! After so much planning and praying. It is so good to finally be here. The country and the people are so beautiful - though there are many challenges here. I have posted several posts on my church site with photos. Rather than rehash that let me give you the link. It is www.connect2riverside.com. If you go there go under the who we are tab and to the blog tab and then to the missions blog tab. My blog is interspersed with the blogs from a mission trip to Haiti also from our church. There is a correction - a typo-that I did on one of the blogs. I taught a woman's group last week on discipleship and talked about what it means to be a talmid - in the post it came out talmud. Sorry! This Sunday we will continue the study. I taught about the schooling that Jewish children around the time of Jesus would have had - esp in the Galilean area.  How those who had a passion and were acknowledged scholars would have then gone out in search of a rabbi to study under, and how they wanted to not only know what the rabbi knew, but to watch how he applied that to his life, and then to become like him. And how our following Jesus relates to all of this. Much of what I taught came from teachings by Ray Vanderlaan, David Biven, and Lois Tverberg. This week we will look at the passion required to be a true talmid. Please pray for me that I will listen well to the Holy Spirit as I teach. Got to run get ready to join Jo Fernandez, the AIM missionary I am visiting with and that I hope to join in ministry as she prepares for a one on one meeting. God be with you all.

Beautiful Lesotho

Summer 2012

Dear Friends,

Months go by. But God has not been idle, and neither have I.

In June, John Barry, who heads up the AIM team in Lesotho, wrote me and said that he and his family would start their year furlough late this summer. He has been taking care of the administrative work for the team until I could get there.  Because I am not there yet, AIM is seeking to find someone readily available to fill this position. John assured me that they still want and need me there in teaching, bible study, and prayer. Though I am so sorry that I was not able to get there in time to help with the administrative needs, God has opened up another ministry in prayer that is so dear to my heart and better suited to my gifts, and for this I am very excited, and very grateful.

Also in June, Jo Fernandez, who has been a member of the team for 19 years, contacted me. She had just heard from John that I had been trained in several types of healing prayer. She has as well. It is a vital part of her ministry. She is the only one on the team trained in this, and has been in this ministry alone. She has been praying for the Lord to send someone, even two people, to join her in this ministry. In a country, where there are so many deaths from AIDS, so much poverty, so much crime, and so much confusion of who God is and who we are in God, the need for healing prayer – mind, body, and spirit – is so very great.

So, the last few months I have been getting a refresher course in Theophostic Prayer from Christ Healing House, which includes so many hours of serving on their team. And I continue in the SOZO prayer ministry at Riverside Community Church. I am in the process of getting advanced training in SOZO prayer, so that I will be able to teach that to others when I’m in Lesotho. And I am increasing my library of books on this subject, and seeking out other teachers and teachings. I also continue to seek information about Lesotho, its people, its needs, and its beliefs.

Another missionary couple and I were to have a benefit in the spring. Difficulties cause this to be cancelled.  I was discouraged at first, so hoping that this would help with the support needed to enable me to go to Lesotho. I turned to God and He sweetly reassured me that I was to go, again placing John 15:16 before me, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, fruit that would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give you.”  And He placed in my heart other avenues to explore for opening doors for my sharing the mission that God has placed before me. One of these uses my love of Christian Listening Prayer, or Meditation. Over the last few months several people have said that I should make a CD of meditations. I felt that it was time to look into this, and approached Alamo Heights United Church. The Choir director, one of the ministers there, and the organist, have partnered with me in bringing this to a reality. It should be out very shortly.  Some of the cd’s will be used in the hospital ministry of the church there and at Riverside,  and others I will place on line, and also I hope at AHUMC’s alternative Christmas, asking for donations for them.

I have a little over 10%  pledged of the monthly support that I will need for the 3 years I will be in Lesotho, and 65% of the support for outgoing needs. There is also a vehicle special project fund that will need to be met. I will have to have a vehicle to be able to travel to another city to teach in a bible college or seminary, and because crime is so high and public transportation is so unreliable, for ministry in the city of Maseru.  The monthly support must be pledged and the other funds met before I am able to go on the mission field. It sounds daunting, but I trust that God will equip. It would only take forty two people or households pledging $50 a month to fulfill my monthly support needs.

Please pray with me that God will place on the hearts of the right people the desire to make this happen.

I do thank you for your prayers and support. Both are such an encouragement and a necessary part of my fulfilling this calling.

In Christ,

Millie Mitchmore

mmmitchmore@gmail.com

210-473-0684

PO Box 701273, San Antonio, TX 78270

 

30269 African Inland Mission

PO Box 3611, Peachtree City

GA 30269