Krepps August 2004 Update

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your ways may be know on earth, your salvation among all nations.” Psalm 67: 1 – 2

God has been very gracious to us. We have been blessed and have felt your prayers during the past few months as we ministered God’s love and moved across the country to a new home.

My time in Yangon in March was a blessing and more than worth all the effort. I was there primarily to teach at a two week long leadership seminar. Our national NMSI affiliates, James and Marta Khong, hold this seminar every year to train pastors, evangelists and church leaders throughout the country. Some people traveled for almost a week to attend. This year about 100 attended. Many of those living in the Yangon area travel over 2 hours every morning on public transportation to be there by 8:30 am when we started.

Each day started with a time of worship and a devotional. I was asked to give about half of the morning devotionals. The next hour everyone was together for a class that I taught. The men always sit on one side of the room the women on the other side. After the first hour of class there was a short break and then they broke into smaller classes. Next, I taught a class on Spiritual Formation for two hours in the morning and then another group of students for two hours in the afternoon (same material). So altogether I taught for at least 5 hours every day in 95 - 100+ degree heat. There was no air conditioning. (Much of the time there is no electricity.) I drank a lot of water. The church in Burma is young; most of my students were fairly new converts. Many basic concepts are new to them. Many students would come up to me and thank me, and then they would tell me how this class would change their life or have an impact on the church in their area. I was very encouraged by all God did.

Our days were very full. After classes we met with church leaders, heard reports from national leaders, visited church orphanages, visited a Bible School, etc... It was very encouraging to hear about and see all God is doing throughout Myanmar. The needs are also overwhelming. Believers minister under difficult circumstances. I was deeply encouraged by the vision and determination that the national believers have for reaching the entire country for Christ. I was sought out for advice and prayer support and had the privilege of praying with and for many.

Both Sunday's I preached in different churches (both planted in the last 5 years and made up of mostly of new converts). I have preached many times, but this was the first time that I preached with no shoes on (you don't wear shoes inside homes or churches). I was dressed as a proper Burmese Pastor, wearing a longi and a Burmese style jacket.

Thank you for praying, the Lord greatly blessed my two weeks in Yangon. I sensed God's protection and direction throughout my time there. I never got sick. The time, energy, prayer and finances that made this possible were well worth the cost. I am confident the Lord will multiply it a hundred times over. Pray that the Lord will continue to impact Myanmar for Jesus Christ.

I left Tucson on May 21 and drove across the country for four days, arriving in Fort Myers on Monday, May 24. My first two weeks here were spent at a retreat preparing summer missionary interns and new NMSI missionaries for deployment. We sent out teams to Bulgaria, Honduras, Kenya and Malawi for the summer. New missionaries going long term to Malawi and Haiti also received training.

Anne and Matthew left Tucson on June 3 and arrived in Fort Myers late on June 5. After they arrived, we started looking for a place to live and set up our office at the NMSI headquarters. Looking for a home seemed like a very long process. Finally, the same day the sale of our house in Tucson closed, our offer was accepted on a house in Cape Coral. We are now moved into our new home and most of our boxes are unpacked. Matthew used some of his free time volunteering this summer helping with landscaping and cleaning the NMSI grounds. He starts school on August 9.

We are already getting a lot more face to face time with missionaries and missionaries who are here preparing to go to the field. We can already see how we will be able to minister more effectively by living and working out of Florida.

Fortunately, we are doing well after being hit head on by hurricane Charley. We are OK and so are all of our NMSI co-workers. No one was injured. We feel very fortunate. Our home only had minor damage; we lost some shingles. Our co-worker's homes also had only minor damage. Many homes around us (including one next to us) lost roofs, parts of roofs, screened pool cages, etc... Trees are down everywhere. A number of telephone poles in our neighborhood were snapped in two. I have never seen so much destruction. We were without power and water for one week. Our phone service also out for most of the week but would occasionally work.

At the NMSI offices in Fort Myers 1/2 of the roof was blown off causing significant damage to our office building and contents. Nine NMSI offices flooded from the rain and had 2 inches of standing water in them. Desk, files, computer, phones, etc... were all soaked. Initial estimates are of damages of at least $100,000 to the building - not including the lost office equipment. No essential information was lost, since all systems were backed up. The electric & phone service was back on in the undamaged part the office building today and all departments are up and running. Our graphics/printing division is operating out of a home for now. You can see pictures of the damage and get some updates on the New Mission Systems website - www.newmissionsystems.org/hurricane.php

This is definitely something were not expecting and do not want to go through again. Until just before the storm hit all weather service predictions had it missing us and going north toward Tampa. Still, we prepared. Matthew and I spent over 5 hours putting hurricane shutters on our house. We filled the bath tub with water, filled containers with drinking water, etc... About an hour before the storm hit it turned our direction - when the power went out the eye of the storm was headed straight toward us - fortunately for us, it turned slightly north at the last minute - still we experienced winds well over 100 mph. for about 3 hours. Our cement block home actually shook for about 3 hours - until the storm passed. We spent most of that time in a bathroom closet. It was still raining we went out to survey the damage and make sure the neighbors were OK. We spent the next couple of days helping our neighbors clean up fallen trees, etc.... This has given us an opportunity to get to know our new neighbors. For a few days nothing was working - no traffic lights, gas pumps, etc... but slowly things are coming back. School started here on Aug. 9, but of course, Matthew was off school for 6 days. For us, having no running water in 90+ degree heat was the most difficult part.

We greatly appreciate your prayers! Thank you! We have been greatly blessed. Continue to pray we will adjust quickly to living in Florida and ministering from a new place.