Friday, December 15, 2006

Out There with the Beams -- December 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

Vanessa and I are excited to share with you the news that we are now officially missionaries with the Evangelical Free Church of Canada Mission (EFCCM). We are currently on furlough in Lexington, Kentucky, but will be heading back to the mission field in Santa Cruz, Bolivia as soon as we can get raise enough continuing support to fund our ministry budget.

We can’t wait to get back to Bolivia where we will continue investing in similar ministries that we were involved in with World Concern. Vanessa will be volunteering in several orphanages—working with the children and young adults in birthday, puppet, and clown ministries. Through these activities Vanessa is developing deep relationships with a number of girls who are working through the emotional traumas of difficult childhoods and are looking forward to productive adult lives out of the orphanages. Danny will continue to work in rural communities sharing the gospel and working in community development through water well drilling and other economic development projects that will help relieve economic hardships and raise family incomes.

I hate to always talk about our financial needs as missionaries, but it is the end of the year and I know many of you want to know how you can contribute to our work. I hope that all of our faithful partners have continued to set aside your pledges for this ministry each month since we left World Concern in June. My prayer is that 100% of our previous monthly partners will roll over with us to this new ministry and we can continue to serve in Bolivia with little delay. If possible we ask that our regular partners try to catch up on their monthly giving. And we hope that many new partners will make a monthly pledge, or will make a special year end contribution to our ministry. With our new ministry budget we need to raise $5000 a month in support. This is substantially more than our $3500 a month World Concern budget, but now that we are with the EFCCM we will be funding our family live expenses as well as ministry projects. Please contact us by email if you would like to see a detailed budget.

Because the EFCCM is a Canadian organization, donations made directly to the EFCCM by U.S. residents are not tax deductible. However, U.S. residents may make tax deductible contributions to this ministry through the Owingsville Baptist Church (one of their U.S. church sponsors). All contributions received through Owingsville Baptist will go directly to the EFCCM for our support and a tax receipt will be sent to you confirming the donation.

Please make checks payable to Owingsville Baptist Church and mail to:

Owingsville Baptist Church, PO BOX 662, Owingsville, KY 40360
Be sure to designate your gift to the Beams ministry by including a donation form or writing “Mission to Bolivia” on the subject line of the check. If you prefer to make an online donation (also tax deductible through Owingsville Baptist) using an electronic check or credit card – go to http://www.paypal.com/ and make a payment to: missiontobolivia@yahoo.com. Be sure to include your name and address in the appropriate dialog box.

If you do not need a tax receipt you may send contributions directly to the EFCCM at:

EFCCM
Attn: Donor Services
PO Box 850 Langley Stn LCD 1 Langley BC V3A 8S6
Canada

If you would like to find out more about the EFCCM or would like to make an online donation with a credit card (or set up a monthly direct withdrawal) at: http://www.efcc.ca/index.cfm?pageID=4 If you do make a donation this way, be sure to designate our ministry as the recipient.

Note: We would like to make a transition to email newsletters. Please contact us by email and inform us of your current email address.

Prayer Concerns: Please pray for our family as we continue to raise support here in the States. If all goes well, we plan on being back in Santa Cruz by March 2007. We would love to see you and speak in your church while we are in the States. Contact us soon so we can set up a visit with you or your church. Why not speak with the mission director of your church about making our Bolivia ministry part of your churches mission budget?

Pray for Vanessa and her aunt, Jacinta, who recently had surgery to remove a brain tumour. Vanessa is in Detroit until the middle of December helping Jacinta in her recovery. Pray for me too, as I am alone with the kids in Lexington.

I want to once more thank all of our faithful partners who supported us while we were working with World Concern. Please continue to partner with us in the future of this ministry. And to everyone who has probably been getting our newsletters for years but has not yet become a financial partner--thanks for your prayers. We hope that you will take that next step and begin making an investment in the lives of so many Bolivians who are poor and lost and will have the opportunity to hear the gospel and improve their lives through this ministry. Merry Christmas! We hope you enjoy this holiday season with your loved ones.

In Christ,


Daniel and Vanessa Beams-- EFCCM Missionaries
Email: beamsclan@yahoo.com
KY Telephone: 606-674-9253 or 859-368-0094

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