The Myers Tribe

 

 

This morning, I received heartbreaking news.  My Uncle Tom passed away after a short fight with lung cancer.  I recently talked with my father about 2 weeks ago, and he said that Uncle Tom was given about 2 more months to live.  After praying about what to do, we strongly felt that God was telling us to stay in Taiwan until May 23rd to honor our teaching and discipleship commitments before going home.  But then we received word of Uncle Tom’s quick and sudden passing.  I really love my family a lot.  It was hard that I wasn’t there for my youngest cousins when they lost their father.  Tiffany is 24 and Melody is 22.  They are practically baby sisters to me.  It’s definitely not easy being so far away from family when serving God on the mission field, especially in difficult times like these.  So if you think of it, could you please just say a very quick prayer for us and for our family back in California as they are grieving and mourning?  I know that it would really encourage my heart today, and I could use a good bit of encouragement these days.  Bless you guys for reading this.

 

 

 

 

“You need chaos in your souls.”  The other day, we were sent out around town to simply listen to the LORD as part of our evangelism training, and this was on a t-shirt that was being sold on the street.  The phrase just didn’t sit right with me, and made me feel uneasy.  And yet this is the message that people accept and even want in their lives.  It’s easier to have chaos in our souls.  It’s easier to fill our lives with busy-ness, even if it’s unproductive busy-ness.  It’s easier to go through the day and book our planners full of things to do, people to see, places to go.  It’s easier to fill our ears with loud music from our i-Pods.  All this is easier than what-you may be asking.  It’s all easier than simply just sitting down by yourself and letting your soul be quiet.  Because truth be told, were we to really just sit down and quiet our souls, we would hear our innermost being crying out that we are lonely, that we are lost, that we are desperate for something greater than ourselves, that we are broken.  And yet there is SomeOne out there, or actually right near, who wants to silence the cries of our souls and give us peace.  God wants to be our closest friend, He wants us to find ourselves in Him, He wants to be that something Great in our lives that we live for, and He wants to heal our brokenness.  And really, this is the message of the gospel.  There is a God who wants to be near to you.  There is a God who doesn’t seek your obedience to rules and laws and religiosity, but a God who desires your relationship.  Because were you to really just take the time to meet with this God and have relationship with Him, you would find out quickly that out of this relationship would be birthed a desire to obey His commandments because they are life-giving, a desire to honor and respect Him because He is Creator God, and a desperation for others to know Him because He truly is the way, the truth and the life.  Try it for yourselves and don’t make me out to be a liar.

One of the greatest things about living on the mission field is that things are always changing. And you have the choice of either putting your feet down, hard, and trying to stop, or you can just take what the Lord gives you.

I use to think that it was about being flexible, being able to bend with circumstances. But then I thought about a piece of wood, you can bend it to a point, but then it breaks. Shattering into a bunch of pieces. So then I started to think of it in terms of water. Water doesn’t just bend or flex, it moves with the rocks. It changes shape. It adapts to whatever is going on.

I think as we are grounding ourselves in the word of God, we need to build our foundation upon the rock of Jesus Christ, while allowing ourselves to flow like water.

One thing that has helped us this past week was a shift in our teaching schedule. Because of some things that have happened back in the states, next weeks teacher in SBS had to go back for a little bit. And so I (dane) am going to teach in the SBS next week. I am so stoked to be teaching the book of Mark, one of my favorite books. I love the Jesus we see in Mark.

Bee and I will then be teaching weeks 5 and 6 in the DTS. We will be teaching on the Character and Nature of God, and then Relationships. So please pray that God would be using us in the lives of these students, and that he would speak through us.

And enjoy being fluid.

The past week we have been gearing up here in Taiwan for the arrival of our new students. Both the DTS and SBS are starting tomorrow (Friday the 27th). It has been a whirlwind getting things ready, but now that it is so close, everything feels worth it. Bee and I will be working with the DTS this quarter. Right now we have 8-9 students, and 4-5 staff. We would love your prayers as we are really believing God for huge things in the lives of all of us. We serve an amazing God, more capable then we can even imagine. We just pray to know more of God so that we can, in turn, show Him to the people around us. Our theme this school is “Life With Jesus First” What would our lives look like if Jesus was before all else. Pray for us as we strive to live lives worthy of the call.

Blessings
-dane

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your continued prayer support for our friend, Lori.  We received an update from her sister, which we have copied here for you to read and be encouraged by.  We are so amazed at the handiwork of our God and how He really does create each of us so uniquely.  For further updates on Lori’s condition, or to give a donation towards her medical expenses, please log on to www. loririetema.com

It is confirmed that Lori is missing one of the hugest veins in the body — her right vena cava(a large, yet short vein that carries deoxygenated blood from the upper half of the body to the heart’s right atrium — thanks wikipedia :))  If Lori’s body was normal, she most likely (medically speaking) would not be with us today.  Yet, in God’s design, her blood flows back to her heart through her spinal cord and a series of smaller veins in the area.  Because she is missing this vein, they cannot do surgery (my parents said the stress & pressure at the hospital when they arrived in Miami going through the whole admitting ordeal was unreal, and yet it seems God had a plan in all of that too).

She will continue on blood-thinning medications and doctors say her recovery will be very slow.  She still has a clot that goes from her ankles up to the point around where the vena cava would be, if she had one.  Right now, the doctors are still trying to figure out how to best treat her, and are also doing more tests to find the cause of the clotting.  The swelling has gone down ever so slightly from her knee downwards (thigh is still huge), but usually when the swelling starts to go down, it means the blood has started to flow just a little bit better.  If the swelling continues to go down, she will continue in the hospital for just a couple more days .

She would like continued prayer for:
– recovery process
– that the doctors would have time to see her, and as they do more tests, to figure out the cause of the clotting & whether or not she has a clotting disorder
– for the continued decisions they all need to make, and the implications some of the results might have for Lori (with what she is currently doing and wants to continue in)  (They are saying right now she may have to continue on blood thinners and compression stockings for the rest of her life, and travel/flying could be restricted)
– that God would work a financial miracle for her  — we all know God’s incredible greatness & faithfulness and are praying for yet another really cool God-story 🙂

Dear Family and Friends,

We are inviting and asking that you all stand with us in prayer for our friend, Lori Ritema.  She is a Discipleship Training School (DTS) leader under YWAM in St. Croix.  A few days ago, she was admitted into the hospital there because she had blodclots in her legs that had travelled into her kidneys.  The LORD was faithful and allowed her parents to fly out from Montana to be with her in St. Croix, and then escort her to Miami in order to be properly treated.  

Lori is now in Miami with her parents and one of her brothers.  The situation, however, is not any better simply because she is in Miami.  The ER is demanding that they be given $135,000 in cash in order to perform the operation she needs to stop the clots from reaching her lungs, which will cause her to stop breathing.  Her father and brother are willing to max out their credit cards in order to get her this lifesaving operation, but because it’s the weekend, the administration is out until Monday.

Please pray that God will give Lori strength and comfort, and that He will miraculously heal her.  Also, please pray that Lori’s parents will be given rest and an assured peace from God.  We are also good friends with Lori’s sister here in Taiwan, Amy Stevens, so please pray that Amy will also be comforted by God.  And please pray for intercessors to be raised up on Lori’s behalf.

 

 

 

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”  Proverbs 19:21

With that said, a lot of prayer and consideration has gone into our plans for this upcoming year.  Currently, we are enjoying a wonderful, blessed time with family and friends as we are taking our 5-week furlough for the year.  We were able to spend time with Bee’s family in Los Angeles for 10 days, and also were able to meet up with precious friends.  It was a time of refreshing and encouragement to our hearts and souls.  It was also a time of saying “good-bye” to loved ones as Dane’s grandfather and Bee’s cousin-in-law went home to be with our LORD.  

We’re now in Hawaii with Dane’s family and are enjoying it.  God’s creation is certainly beautiful and it brings us a lot of peace to our hearts and color to our skins.  🙂  

When we return to Taiwan in March, we will continue to work with the evangelism ministry at the ROCK coffee bar.  Something a little different we are embarking on is staffing the Discipleship Training School (DTS).  We will staff, teach, and disciple in the DTS for the 3-month lecture phase.  But what excites us even more is that when outreach time arrives in late June, we will take the DTS with us to Cambodia and plant our family into Cambodia soil!  We cannot tell you how much this excites us!!!  

What are we going to do in Cambodia?  Good question!  We are going to settle our family, then dive into language learning, and help pioneer the first School of Biblical Studies in that nation!  God is doing quite a work in this small country and we feel so honored to co-create with Him.  

So that’s what’s going on with us for now.  Please write us and tell us what you all are up to because we’d love to hear from you!  We love you and appreciate your partnership in all that we aspire to do in the LORD!  Bless you today!

 

Dear Family and Friends, 

I know it’s been a while since we’ve last sent out an update letter, but here is our debut blog site for you to enjoy!  Please feel free to come and visit us anytime you’d like and leave us comments so we know you’re there!  Thank you for being a part of our ministry and for believing in God’s call in our lives.  Once I know this works, I’ll update with another, more in depth blog to let you know what God is doing in our lives and in our ministries!  Bless you!

Love, Bee (on behalf of the whole tribe)