June 2020 Prayer Letter

This is Not what I Bargained For

It’s here. Finally! The long-awaited package has at last arrived; and before the FedEx delivery man can even pull out of your driveway, you are there like a giddy three-year-old, pouncing on your package.

For one brief instant there is complete euphoria as you tear in, and then, well, everything goes drastically wrong. Perhaps the “some assembly required” really meant you should be a licensed contractor if you are even considering putting that contraption of a baby crib together, or perhaps you really should have checked those measurements twice, as that nightstand was much larger in the picture.

Either way, we have all at one point or another found ourselves thinking, this is not what I bargained for. And yet, in life, we often seem to get these types of packages. For our teammate Lauren Grant, this package came in the form of being unable to get into Peru. Because of the continued spread of Covid-19 in Peru, the country has decided to extend their lockdown once again. Please be praying with us for the country of Peru and specifically that the lockdown would end and that Lauren Grant could get into the country.

While I have already shared some about how the unexpected package of a pandemic has affected us on deputation, I wanted to go ahead and share with you our current plans. As of now, we are at seventy-five percent of our promised support, with about sixty-seven percent of that actually coming in. Under normal circumstances, a December deadline should be met with ease. However, with so many meetings continuing to cancel and with many churches not in a position to take on new missionaries, our December deadline will truly have to be a God story. Numerically it no longer makes sense, but we are stepping out in faith, and we would ask you to pray with us for the miraculous.

For our Pastor, Austin Gardner, this package came in a much more serious form. Due to double pneumonia and Covid-19, our Pastor has been in the ICU on a ventilator for over a week. While I have cared for many intubated patients over the years as a nurse, it is a surreal moment thinking of someone you respect and care so much for being in that same bed. Please, we covet your prayers for his healing, specifically for his lungs to heal and for his kidney function to improve.

Over the past few days, I have caught myself thinking: this isn’t what we bargained for; this isn’t what we expected, not my Pastor, my mentor, not him. But just as quickly, the words of Isaiah 55:8-9 play through my mind,“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” No one expected this, but my God did, and His ways are higher than mine.

Your Missionaries to Peru, Mitch, Jacqulyn, Landon, and Ryan McCormack

Prayer Requests

• Please be praying with us for Pastor Austin Gardner, who is currently on a ventilator in ICU with Covid-19 and double pneumonia.
• Please be praying that Peru opens up soon, so that our teammate can get into the country..