Please remember to pray for Ben and Cindy Sustar, IMB missionaries to Niger West Africa

Dear Friends,
We leave the US on Monday at 1:00pm and arrive in Niamey, Niger 2:00am Wednesday the 5.
Please pray for:
safe travel and smooth transitions at the different airports.
Enjoyable travel for the girls
Good health
A smooth readjustment to life in Niger
For family we have left behind.

Thank for holding the ropes for us.
We treasure you!
The Sustars

We continue with our Bible Study on Wednesday nights. This week John Guillott will come and talk to us about Native American culture. That should be really interesting. Our team continues to change, last week we had news about four of our team members. Byrd injured his shoulder and has to have surgery mid August so he and Karen are unable to go at this time. Jerry and Mariann are Pastoring at a church in Mammoth and will be unable to go. Construction is our main project I am sure Harvey was reluctant to be the site supervisor of six women. God answered our prayer before any of us even knew we had a need.

Dennis and Joseph, Melanie's husband joined the team last week. So we are ten. And Harvey can breath a sigh of relief!

Our prayer list this week

comfort and healing for Byrd

wisdom, travel mercies for Jerry and Mariann

the church in Mammoth

the church in Many Farms

team growth and solidarity

provision for the ramps we are to build

God is stirring the hearts!

Just asking you pray for a church plant in Vancouver, BC

http://ioncommunity.wordpress.com/

If you feel led, sign up with them as they are seeking 200 prayer partners as they plant a multi-nucleated church in Vancouver.

Our team is really coming together now. We continue in Bible Study on Wednesday night and have good discussions concerning prayer! Only 6 more weeks until we hit the road! We are planning to build railings and ramps for peoples homes that need them. Harvey is working on specifications and coming up with a supplies list for us. Pamela has found out there is a need for blankets and school supplies so we are beginning to collect those things. Helen McDaniel has so graciously volunteered to be our collecter. The church in Many Farms is planning a revival in October and we thought we could hand out flyers as we prayer walk as a wayof getting to talk with the people .

We added to our prayer list Sean Bennesh who is a church planter in Vancouver BC He and his family have relocated from Chicago and he is looking for 200 people to pray for his ministry there. ION

Luke 10:2

"He said to them:

A large crop is in the fields,

but there are only a few workers.

Ask the Lord in charge of the harvest

to send out workers to bring it in.

Keep all of us in your prayers, we are excited to see how God will use us . We want to be a helper to Pastor Campsen and not take away from the work he has done there with the Navajo people.

We are working on coming up with the funds for this trip, pray that we do not allow money to keep us from going.
We need your prayer support.

Meeting again on July 15 6:13 pm

Don't forget to come to the planning/preparation/prayer meeting on July 15. Everyone is welcome whether they're going on the mission trip or not. Please come and pray for us.

We need your prayers!

Of all the things we are doing to prepare for the trip -- fundraising, planning for construction, making our lists and checking them twice -- the biggest one we don't want to leave home without is spiritual preparation. It's really been brought home to me that we might be able to fake education, or success, or expertise -- but we sure can't fake spiritual life.

Pray that we might really possess the fruits of the spirit, not just talk about them.

Pray that we might be sensitive, patient, and servant-minded.

Pray that we would be useful and not a hindrance.

Pray that we would see daily obstacles as training for our mission experience.

We are grateful for your involvement: if you're reading this, please pray for the team. Pray that each one would be granted the time off from work, the finances, and physical health. God bless you.

A prayer request

Pray for the missionary in Many Farms and his family. They've had a death in the family, so they'll be traveling to the funeral.

Reflecting on Prayer

This week, we're starting to read through a book together and we've committed to pray each day for our trip. Some of the things we are thinking about:

1. Name several blessings we receive from God through prayer.
2. In your own words, describe why prayer is so vital to every area of your life and relationship to God.
3. What do you think it means to pray from God's perspective rather than from a selfish perspective?
4. In your own words, describe God's purposes for your prayer life.
5. Do you think God has called you to experience a powerful prayer life? Why or why not?

Father God, I ask You to fill me with a passion to know You and love You with all my heart (Matt 22:37). Lord, teach me to view prayer as the heart of our relationship (Luke 11:1). Please enable us to hear Your voice and pray in the center of Your will (1 John 5:14-15).

Prayer Requests

Dorothea and Karen have prayer requests: Adrian turns 16, and Conor turns 18, on Sept 4. So these important birthdays will have to be celebrated at different times -- missing these milestones is kind of hard on grandmas and mamas! Pray for peace of mind.

Meeting this Wednesday 7-1-09

Missionaries, don't forget to meet Wednesday July 1 at 6:13 pm for continued planning and prayer for the mission trip. The meeting will be in the multipurpose room of the Family Life Center at Emmanuel. If you haven't made a deposit towards the cost of the trip, please come prepared!

Prayer requests? Let us know how we can be praying for you.

Plans to go - anyone want to come?

Our team met last night and made some plans. Looks like we have about 15 people signed up to go, but we could still take more if anybody's interested. We'll leave on Thursday Sept 3 and return on Monday the 7th. Depending on what the missionary wants out of us, we have people who are capable and willing to build wheelchair and handicap ramps for the elderly, and to make access easier at the church. We can do some painting. Everybody is ready to prayer walk, and we chose a book to help get us ready. The books were ordered today, so hopefully they'll be in by next Wednesday. We're going to be meeting at Emmanuel every Wednesday night at 6:13 pm in the multipurpose room. Anybody could join us for the Bible study even if they weren't planning on going on the mission trip. The book we're going to start out with is "Returning to Holiness: A Personal and Churchwide Journey to Revival." I am looking forward to being revived!

My daughter, Kate, helped out with the blog and found all the YouTube songs in Navajo. Just listening to them makes me more excited about going. It's beginning to feel real. Thanks, Katee.


-- Karen