Team Wisconsin Update

Pastor LeRoy and Dorene Drake were honored this week as he steps down from active pastoral ministry. Thursday night about 50 specially invited guests – family, friends, fellow pastors – gathered to honor and celebrate his 43 years of ministry, all of them in the Wisconsin district. Sunday morning was a bitter sweet service as, once again, Pastor LeRoy and his wife, Dorene Drake, were honored. It was a beautiful service, even with everyone realizing that it would be the final one as the Gull Lake Wesleyan church. The entire Drake family was present, leading the worship service and doing a variety of musical selections. I was privileged to share the message and commissioned the members of the congregation to go out and serve Christ wherever He leads them. Appropriately, Pastor Drake led the congregation in celebrating communion as the final act of worship.

What is really cool is that Gull Lake’s offering on their 90th anniversary celebration was designated to go for church planting. The property will be sold, with the proceeds to go to church planting. And all of their equipment and furnishings that can be used will be distributed to any of the six newest congregations that have been started in the past few years. We celebrate with Pastor Drake and the Gull Lake congregation the ministry they had over the past 90 years, but also the way they will continue to impact the ministry of the Wesleyan church for years to come through the distribution of their people and resources into the mission field here in Wisconsin.

News and Notes

Senior High Camp is on! Pray for them this week that God will do what He wants to do in the lives of our senior high youth. And don’t forget to pray for Chopper Brown and his team.

Nicaragua Partnership has added two major projects this year, in addition to the other ongoing ministries. The first one is to find a property and building a district ministry center and central Wesleyan church. The second one is to provide funding for leadership training for the pastors and leaders in the churches. TEE is Theological Education by Extension. TEE is being produced and taught by missionaries Mike Knox and Jim Eckhardt. The cost per student per year is only $336 (which includes all expenses for 3-4 classes). Our goal this year is to have 25 student scholarships. 25 individuals or local churches, or combinations of local churches would cover the needs for this year. Our first donation was given by Iglesia Cristiana Wesleyana, our newest and most under-resourced church in the district. Hats off to Daniel Munoz and their congregation. To make contributions, make the check to “Wisconsin District Nicaragua Partnership” and send to Irene Tripp.

World Hope has added the Friends of the King School in Tipitapa to their child sponsorship program. This is a brand new school that has started out of the Tipitapa church – Amigitos Del Rey. A delegation from World Hope was there last spring and distributed school packs to students at several schools in Nicaragua, including the ones that are affiliated with the Wesleyan church. They are accepting 25 sponsorship applications through their Hope for Children project. Please pray that these children will find sponsors quickly. You can go to the World Hope website http://www.worldhope.org/ for information on how to sponsor a child. If you are interested, you need to put a comment in the comment section that you want a child from Nicaragua -05 project or Tipitapa. You will be sent a child’s bio and photo along with a welcome booklet that explains the HFC program in detail.

Please pray especially for Bessie Winterberg, Pastor Dwayne Winterberg’s mother, as she faces a difficult surgery on Wednesday. Bessie is a member of the Beulah Wesleyan church.

Dates for your Information

July 30-Aug. 4 Senior High Camp
August 4 Iglesia Cristiana Wesleyana visit
August 5 The River, Spooner, Hayward visit
Meet with Gull Lake leaders
August 9-11 Willow Creek Leadership Summit
August 11 Jason/Alya – Transformation City
August 12 Our Savior’s, Mukwonago visit
August 19 Parkway visit