Greetings, dear friends,

Thank you for your prayers for our recent Board/Staff retreat.  It was good to fellowship with our staff and international staff who were able to attend.  Staff from Maryland, Texas (India), Missouri (Pakistan), and Zambia were represented, as well as local staff and volunteers.  (Also, the night most of them arrived at the airport was the Thursday night that the Kansas City area had some bad weather, with lots of tornado warnings and one tornado damaging an area north of Kansas City....but thankfully, all of our staff arrived safely.)  Our retreat started on Friday with recreation at a nearby park....we all played "Wicketball"....a game created by our Board Chairman, Bob Zoller (check out my photo gallery). It was a lot of fun....a good day to relax and have fun before all the serious meetings the next day!

Also, I am happy to say I finished my Perspectives Class!  PTL!!  It was a great class, but I must say, I was ready to have a break from all the homework!  If you've never taken this class, it is a great way to learn more about missions, and if you're in missions already, it is a great encouragement as you "press on" in the ministry.  Bob Zoller and I did our class project together, as we did research on the Santhal people group, which is one of the unreached peoples groups that Fred and Bob have ministered with in India with some of our international partners.  So it was a very interesting project to do!  Pray that many students from this course will catch a vision for the mission field.  "...the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field." (Matthew 9:37-38)

Also, as a result of this class, I was impressed to pray on a regular basis for the unreached peoples groups in our world.  A helpful tool that I am using is a daily prayer guide from the Operation World website.  It was mentioned in our Perspectives studies that many times prayer is the only thing that will break through the darkness of many unreached peoples groups.  May I encourage you to pray with me for these groups.

Not only is "darkness" found in unreached peoples groups in other countries, but we need to pray fervently for those "walking in darkness" here in our own country.  May God help us to have a discerning spirit of what is good and evil around us.

Thank you for your friendship and partnership in my ministry, and thank you for your prayers!

Sincerely,

Vicky Rogers
Heartland International Ministries
www.heartforhim.org