This morning, I was thinking of our supporters – and feeling a little troubled, knowing how much you sacrifice in your time in prayer, in your finances, and in other ways. I know that you pray for, give to, and invest yourselves in other ministries, including the ministry of your own daily lives. I know you face troubles and difficult situations and that you still give to others. Then, I was reminded that you are not just giving to our family, but that you are giving to God and his work, and that you are giving out of obedience to him. So, I am filled with thankfulness for you all over again, and also challenged to examine my own prayer life, our finances, and our daily lives so that we can also walk in closer obedience to the Lord. Thank you, again, for your partnership in his Kingdom!!!

In the past month, we’ve done more traveling! We’ve been able to visit Glen Elder, Bolton, and Derby churches and people from those areas. We were also able to hang out with some close friends from college and some of Chelsea’s extended family members for a couple of days in Missouri. Then, Brad and Chelsea spent some time in Colorado while the kids stayed with family members in Wichita. We are so thankful for the sweet connections and reconnections the Lord has allowed us to make with churches, friends, family, and each other during this last month.

This past month, we’ve also seen the need for more financial and prayer supporters, and we have also seen the Lord provide those in a short amount of time – we are 100% funded! If the Lord is still laying on your heart the desire to partner with missions in Africa, please feel free to sign up below or contact the EFM office about different ways to do that.

This week—our LAST week in the States—will be full of meetings, fellowship, family time, packing, shopping, logistical tasks, and emotions. We’d love your prayers for all of these things, as well as for our travel on August 18, 19, and 20. It has been an amazing time in the U.S., and we are also looking forward to being home in Rwanda soon.

Love in Christ,

Brad & Chelsea

Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

P.S. For those of you curious about our house wall project – the work has been completed!  We will have to rearrange the furniture and get settled back in, but we are so thankful that the moisture can now vent out of our walls instead of building up and causing problems.

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We currently have 974 prayer partners and still have a goal of raising it to 1,200. If you know anyone who would like to pray for our ministry, please forward this form to them.

The post The Carpenter Family | Deputation Update | We are Fully Funded! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you so very much for continuing to pray with us!

Would you please pray with us for the Lord to help us finish the remaining process of fundraising? God is leading us in exciting ways, and the expansion of his work requires more funds. We still need to raise about $2,000 per month in ongoing giving toward our ministry funds in Central/East Africa. These funds help with communication, transportation, and other things that are needed for whole-life discipleship and missionary sending in the region. We are confident that the Lord will lead those he is calling to give toward this ministry. Below is a group of future missionaries from Rwanda and the U.S. visiting a community in South Sudan on a recent trip.

If you have been giving and plan to continue, please let us know so we can know what to expect in the coming years.

One observation we have made is that many of those who have been giving financially for many years are over 60 years old. And in the last four years quite a few of them have passed away. We are asking God to raise up younger generations to catch the vision of God’s mission in the world. We believe that God asks us to give our time, prayer, finances, and lives to join him in what he is doing. If you have never given towards God’s mission among the nations, consider asking God where you should give and start by giving $5 per month to that ministry.

Is he asking you to join us with an ongoing monthly gift? If so, please see below for four ways to partner with us financially.

Thank you for partnering with us!

Brad & Chelsea and family

The post Partner with the Carpenters! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

We are so thankful for you who read our messages, pray for us, and support us! If you’re not already signed up as a prayer partner or as a financial support partner, we invite you to prayerfully consider if God would have you do so. We know he has called us, and that he will call others to be a part of this team! We are also so thankful for the other teams and ministries you are a part of, and we pray that God will empower each of you every day in every part of your lives.

It’s been about a month since we last wrote, and during that time, we have been able to travel to churches in Paonia and Denver, Colorado, as well as Plains, Haviland, and Hutchinson, Kansas. We loved visiting churches and spending time with family along the way – including a family vacation in Colorado. The past week, we have seen that all our travel is starting to affect all five of us in our emotions and attitudes a bit more. We need God to keep helping us and showing us how to still be loving and kind in the midst of this specific kind of deputation-tiredness.

However, everywhere we go, several people in each place show a special kind of sensitivity to our family. They give opportunities for rest, for fun things for our kids, and for helping with our kids when we are speaking or working. We have been so blessed to share updates from Rwanda with people who really want to know and who really care. One highlight was being able to present a (very short) basic training on some of the foundations of D for D (Discipling for Development) at Paonia Friends Church. We believe the Holy Spirit was moving in us, challenging us, and calling us to some new ways of thinking and living life with him and others.

We are so thankful for God’s protection on the road (for example: a punctured tire we were able to drive on until we found a place to fix it), for healing from sickness (yucky stomach flu on the way to Colorado), and for the amazing people we get to connect with in each place (if only we had more time with everyone!)

We’d appreciate your continuing prayers for:

• Our hearts, attitudes, and emotions during our travels.
• God to bring all the people he’s calling to partner with us – whether through prayer, finances, coming to Africa, etc.
• Our long lists of things we need to do – that God would help us do what needs to be done and let go of everything else.

Thank you, and God bless you all!

Brad & Chelsea
Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

We currently have 974 prayer partners and have a goal of raising it to 1,200. If you know anyone who would like to pray for our ministry, please forward this form to them.

We are currently at 84% of our ongoing monthly need. If you are a current monthly supporter, thank you. It is important to let EFM know that you plan to continue or increase your giving. If you are not currently giving, please prayerfully consider supporting our ministry in Central Africa.

There are four ways to partner with them financially:

• Online. Visit https://catalog.friendsmission.com/carpenter. You’ll be given the opportunity to indicate whether you are making a recurring or one-time gift.
• Credit Card. This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303-421-8100) to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer. Download the form aquí and email it to Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check. Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Make sure to mark your check “Carpenter Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

The post The Carpenter Family | Deputation Update #2 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

In each town, we have had the privilege of sharing the Sunday morning message at the Friends Church, meeting with small groups, meeting with some people in their homes, and having some fun along the way! Over and over, we have felt overwhelmingly blessed by love and support. We have also felt like people in the churches have connected with the messages and stories from Central Africa – like about Africans growing with the Lord in every part of their life, and those Rwandans and Burundians who are willing to give up country, comfort, and money to start missions movements to the unreached people groups in South Sudan and Tanzania. We have all been challenged to surrender more to the Holy Spirit so he can empower us to join him in mission wherever we are.

At Quaker Ridge Camp, we had a great time at the Future Missionary Retreat, as well as at the EFM Board meetings. Not only was the Colorado mountainside a beautiful place to be with the Lord and with others, but it was also so invigorating to worship, study, and grow with this group of future missionaries, mentors, and EFM staff and board. I (Chelsea) was personally challenged by them and by the Lord to open my hands more in surrender to the Holy Spirit and be willing to do hard or scary things for and with the Lord, who loves me and loves everybody! Being at Camp Quaker Haven in Kansas was extra special for Brad and I, since we have loved growing up attending and working there, but hadn’t been back in about 20 years! We were privileged to be the speakers for two evenings there, telling the kids about Rwanda and our call as missionaries. We hope and pray the Lord used us (even though we’re not used to speaking to kids!) to show that he loves and calls all of us every day, normal people to himself and to be on mission with him.

After we had been traveling for a few weeks, Brad asked our kids what they were thankful for. And they answered, “we have so many friends wherever we go.” It’s been such a blessing to introduce our “old” friends to the kids, and also have them be brave and make new friends in each place. We are so proud of them for their patience with travel and their fresh perspective each morning, even after a hard night or stressful experience. We’ve been hot and cold, tired and kind of rested, high-speed and low-speed, and trying to make awesome family memories out of all of it!

Here are some of our memories and photos from this first month:

• Getting through that long trip from Rwanda to the U.S.
• Being welcomed to Wichita by our family and also by our church family.
• Attending our nephew’s graduation from high school.
• Enduring a long wait at baggage claim, only to have a long wait to rent a car, only to encounter some broken glass in the rental car!

• Swimming in pools and playing in splash pads!
• Sarai and Gideon sharing at Uncle Jeff’s school and at the children’s church.
• Attending a friend’s baseball game.
• Seeing the ocean and petting the sting rays at Kemah Boardwalk.
• Visiting the Space Center in Houston, with its massive rockets, models, and displays.

• Going on a bike ride in Denver with friends.
• Visiting kittens, goats, peacocks, and ducks at QRC (Quaker Ridge Camp).
• Hiking up Soldier’s Mountain and seeing deer on a morning jog at QRC.
• Making new friends with the resident kids at QRC and building an awesome place to play in called “Car Land”.
• Getting to hang out with our niece, who came along to help with the kids at QRC.
• Sarai attending CQH (Camp Quaker Haven) for the first time and loving it!

• Gideon conquering the swim test, doing a flip off the diving board, and reaching the top of the climbing wall at the CQH pool – all for the first time!
  Ian conquering his fear of the BIG SLIDE at CQH – and then asking to do it again and again!
• Celebrating our nephew’s 14th birthday!
• Seeing lots of family, friends, and mentors: laughing, and reminiscing.
• Spending some family time at a bookstore, a big swimming pool, and the science museum in Oklahoma City.
• Joining the Friends Church and all the town residents at the big ice cream festival in Chandler.
• Ian learning how to jump in the pool for the first time, thanks to a new and daring buddy.
• Special times with our family – playing Barbies, planting flowers, playing board games, playing soccer with cousins, flying drones, and laughing around the table.

Thank you so much for your support!

Love,
Brad & Chelsea
Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

We currently have 973 prayer partners and have a goal of raising it to 1,200. If you know anyone who would like to pray for our ministry, please forward this form to them.

We are currently at 81% of our ongoing monthly need. If you are a current monthly supporter, thank you. It is important to let EFM know that you plan to continue or increase your giving. If you are not currently giving, please prayerfully consider supporting our ministry in Central Africa.

There are four ways to partner with them financially:

• Online. Visit https://catalog.friendsmission.com/carpenter. You’ll be given the opportunity to indicate whether you are making a recurring or one-time gift.
• Credit Card. This may be given online (as stated above) or by calling the EFM office (303-421-8100) to give your information to a live person.
• Automatic Bank Transfer. Download the form aquí and email it to Debby McElroy (EFM Bookkeeper) at debby@friendsmission.com. Please note that ACH payments are processed on the 10th or 25th of the month.
• Check. Mail a check to EFM, P.O. Box 771139, Wichita, KS 67277. Make sure to mark your check “Carpenter Support” and note if you will be giving on a recurring basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.). Pay to the order of “EFM.”

The post The Carpenter Family | Deputation Update #1 first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you for praying with us as Brad was with Matt Macy and Burundi and Rwanda Friends leaders. We had wonderful meetings talking with them about the next steps towards our Evangelical Friends in Africa sending their own missionaries. It was exciting to dream together about what God is going to do as we partner together for the Kingdom.

Monday, March 4 through Friday, March 8, Pastors Augustin, Gerard, Tertullien, and Brad will meet with key leaders from Burundi and Congo that we are mentoring in Discipling for Development. Please pray with us for:

• Safety in travel and while we are together.
• Wisdom as we mentor and coach our friends toward having what they need to help each Burundi D for D leader to successfully move their groups through the Mobilization phase of the D for D process and into the Empowerment Phase.
• Our families back home, for safety and blessing on each of them.

Love,
Brad & Chelsea
Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

The post Join the Carpenters in Prayer This Week! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Thank you so much for praying with us. It is hard to believe that there are only two months left in 2023!

Luke 10 Update:

Since we last wrote, Brad has been a part of two, second Luke 10 Exploration Trips to explore and discern if God might be calling Evangelical Friends Church (EFC) to start a mission in South Sudan and/or Tanzania. Hopefully, you have seen general emails from EFM about these trips as well as reports. But we will summarize here:

The trip to South Sudan took place September 10-17. Our group consisted of three Rwandan pastors and key church leaders, three who came from the US, and Brad on behalf of EFM.

On September 18th we visited a missionary training school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Then from September 19 to the 24th, four Burundi pastors and church leaders and four from the US (including Brad) visited an area in eastern Tanzania.

On these trips, we visited with Christians and non-Christians in various communities attempting to see what God was doing in each of those areas and to see if he is asking us to join him there! It is so exciting to see the Lord increasing the passion and commitment of our EFC-Africa leaders to send their own missionaries out to unreached / under-reached people groups. In both South Sudan and Tanzania, we saw that the Lord is working and our African Friends sense that God is calling them to join him. As EFM we are still discerning what God wants us to do. In the next few weeks, EFM will have several meetings to discern the next steps in the decision-making process. Regardless of whether the Lord leads EFM to send missionaries to South Sudan and/or Tanzania, we look forward to finding appropriate ways to partner with our EFC-Africa Friends as they work to develop their own vision, strategies, principles, and practices for mission work. Brad has been asked to walk alongside them as they work on these things. This is an exciting time! But we also realize that we need the Lord to give lots of wisdom and courage throughout this whole process.

Would you please pray with us for EFC-Rwanda, EFC-Burundi, and EFM as each group works to be faithful to God and his calling for us as Evangelical Friends?

Family Update:

We praise the Lord for how he is taking care of us as a family. Though we go through some difficulties and times of travel and exhaustion, the Lord is faithful to fill us back up, renew us, and keep taking care of us!  We recently had the privilege to go and visit Chelsea’s aunt and uncle, who live in the south of Rwanda, over a long weekend, so we had some beautiful family time. The children are all healthy and doing well in school. Gideon continues to love soccer and plays every chance he gets whether at school or home with neighbor friends! Ian is sleeping better these days than he has in a long time and is usually pretty cheerful at school and at home. He tends to keep us laughing with the cute and/or smart things he says! Sarai has been enjoying some reading and writing projects at school and recently participated (and did really well!) in a skit project for her Kinyarwanda class.

Current Burundi Trip:

Brad and Simparinka are traveling to Burundi from October 31-November 3 to help mentor the D for D groups there.

Please pray that what God wants is able to happen, even though the trip is only a few days long. Please also pray for travel safety for the group, and for Chelsea and the kids at home.  

Thank you, again, for your partnership with us!

In Him,

Brad & Chelsea

Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

The post Carpenter Family: Update on Luke 10 and Burundi Trip Happening Now first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Dear Prayer Partners,

The last time we wrote to you, we asked you to pray with us for our trip to Thailand for the EFM World Gathering. There was one point in our travel that the airlines couldn’t find our luggage, and we needed it to continue traveling. We waited for a couple hours trying to get this worked out – then finally it all showed up! Even the little stroller! We were so thankful for this answer to prayer, and it was just one of the first ways we felt loved and cared for by Jesus during our trip. So, thanks so much for praying.

Before the EFM Gathering, we took several days for a family vacation in Chiang Mai. It was amazing to explore a different culture with our kids – to see the wonder in their eyes and to hear them talk about similarities and differences to our home. We had a lot of fun together and built some special family memories. We also had to hear some complaints about the heat, about jet lag, about the food, and about the transportation. I think it was a good process to deal with the pros and cons together. We didn’t get a lot of rest because kids just keep us busy whether on vacation or not! But, we are very happy for our time together. Some of the things we experienced as a family were staying in a house on stilts, swimming, visiting water buffalo and bunnies at a rice farm, enjoying the sights and sounds and tastes of the night market, playing in indoor play places, seeing a Giant Panda and other animals at the zoo, and riding in tuk tuks. We also really enjoyed spending time with a special family that we can’t name for security reasons. It was amazing to see our kids play together, to relax and unwind a bit outside of our usual places of ministry, to share honestly about our lives, and to laugh at all sorts of things together!

As missionaries, we are so cared for. By our directors, by staff, by Yearly Meeting Superintendents, and by our prayer partners (and I am including you in that group!) That was the main thing I took away from our EFM Gathering. We heard teachings, we participated in discussions (but not business meetings), we worshipped together, we ate together, we participated in small groups, and were able to get to know fellow missionaries better. An amazing childcare team taught and played with our kids while we were in sessions, and even took Sarai to visit some elephants at a special elephant park! Some of my favorite moments were brief but sincere interactions with a few special people God put in my path. People who said, “I understand and relate with those difficulties” or people who said, “we’ve been following your news and we’re praying for you” or people who said, “you are very loved by God and very loved by us”. We could not be more excited to be a part of the EFM team and their desire to seek first God’s Kingdom and to let him take them anywhere in the world to do so!

The travel was really tough at times, but God got us through, and the trip was very worth it. We got home on December 10, and are settling back in and preparing for Christmas and the end of the year. As we wrap up 2022, we know we have so much to be thankful for, and we wish we could fully express how thankful we are that you are on our team. As you encourage us, let us encourage you: you are so loved by God and by us. Keep seeking his kingdom. And please let us know how we can pray for you.

Love,
Brad and Chelsea
Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

The post Home Again- An Update from the Carpenters first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

We are planning to host some future missionaries during the next two weeks. They had to deal with some flight delays due to weather, so we are so thankful they were finally able to arrive last night, two days later than planned. These will be fun and busy days.

Some of the key things we hope the team will learn while they are with us are:

• Learning about Rwanda and the Evangelical Friends Church of Rwanda
• Whole-life discipleship
• Life as missionaries
• How God is calling us to be a part of taking the gospel of Jesus to the nations

Thank you so much!

Brad & Chelsea

Sarai, Gideon, and Ian

The post The Team Has Arrived! first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

Dear Prayer Partners,

I (Brad) am excited to be a part of a team made up of Rwanda Friends, Burundi Friends, and EFM, who are praying about and planning towards Luke 10 Exploration trips. We hope to go to Tanzania in August and to South Sudan in October.

Our D for D team has finished visiting each of the Rwanda Friends Church pilot groups to help them to evaluate and develop their plans for discipling small groups from their local churches and the surrounding community.

Burundi and Congo D for D groups are preparing their teams so that they can launch into discipling a larger group from their local churches and their surrounding communities (which we call the mobilization phase).

Please pray for our leadership team as we follow up and mentor the leaders in those groups in Rwanda as well as in Burundi and in Congo.

My studies are going well. They are both challenging and very applicable to ministry now and towards our part in God’s expansion of his mission throughout Africa.

 (A Burundi Discipleship Group)

Our family has been through a rough patch lately, with all three kids sick with colds and Ian sleeping poorly for the past several weeks. This has affected us all, lowering our energy, motivation, and mood. There were times I (Chelsea) prayed and prayed for him to improve and my prayers kept going unanswered. It was really difficult, but God helped me to keep trying to put my trust back in him, to depend on him, and to persevere. I am thankful for the sense that he was with me, even in those dark nights. I am also thankful that Ian’s sleep has gotten a lot better now and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Otherwise, we are pretty busy as the kids’ school year wraps up and we look ahead to summer. We will miss the routine of school, but also will enjoy welcoming some visitors (including my family!), going to a missionary conference, and Brad joining a team traveling to Tanzania.

(Gideon, Sarai, and Ian on a trampoline on a special family day in Kigali.)	(Sarai and Gideon helping with a school service project in a nearby rural community.)

Alaki Tresor is the leader of the D for D group in the Uvira area of Congo Friends. He is the son of the current superintendent of Congo Yearly Meeting. He described some things in his testimony recently that showed new levels of transformation. Apparently, at least in their area of Congo, children are dependent on their parents for most of their lives. When he went to college his dad said, “I will pay for all of your expenses.” When Alaki brought home his fiancé to meet his family, his father reassured him that he would continue to provide for him even after they got married. After they got married and had children, his father continued to provide a place for them to stay in his home, and all the money they needed for everything.

In our trainings about becoming all that God created us to be, Alaki realized that he was completely dependent on his parents and was not using his strengths and abilities well. So, he told his parents that they were moving out. He moved 100 km away to Baraka, got a job, bought some land, built a house, and in the last year, as his father has been quite sick, he and his family are now caring for his parents in their home. He is discipling a group of people in Baraka and also giving some leadership to the other teams in that area of Congo.

The post Carpenter Family May Ministry Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.

We hope and pray that you are doing well these days and that you are living in the joy and peace of the Lord!

This has been a busy time for us and we are sorry for how long it has been since we gave an update about life and ministry. Our family is well. We are enjoying watching our three wonderful kids growing in knowledge and stature. Each day Sarai, Gideon, and Ian show us the joy and wonder of life.

From March 5th through the 13th, Brad will be in Burundi with Pastor Augustin and Pastor Tertullien. We will be meeting with pastors from the Evangelical Friends Churches in Burundi and Congo. This will be the first time that our D for D team has been able to visit in person since the COVID-19 pandemic began. We have stayed connected to them through WhatsApp and have been excited to see what God is doing in and through these pastors and their families towards whole transformation in Christ. It will be a joy to be with them again for learning and fellowship together.

Please pray for the trip, that God will bless each day, the conversations, the study, praying, and planning. The leaders have been preparing teams in their local churches for the purpose of beginning whole-life discipleship in their communities. Please pray for the Holy Spirit’s help in teaching, understanding, and making clear and effective plans that will be a part of God transforming communities to become increasingly more as God desires.

Please pray for Chelsea and the kids as they stay in Musanze and continue with the home rhythms of school, work, and play.

Thank you for continuing to partner with us!

Brad

The post Carpenter Ministry Update first appeared on FRIENDSMISSION.COM.