In an effort to keep everyone current on our missions trips as well as prayer requests, updates, current happenings and praise reports from the many minstries we are associated with, we encouage you to view our website regularly to be encouraged and edified by what is happening in the global church. Please keep these specifics in your prayers. Our printed newsletters will cover updates in further detail. If you have additional information, prayer requests, praise reports or updates to missions and ministry that you would like to see posted, please email I.M.S. for consideration.

January 3, 2008

Getting Ready to Go

Christmas is over, the decorations are dismantled and put away for another year and we are in the process of preparing to leave in 17 days!

Since our last update, besides planning for this trip, we have been involved with an unexpected blessing as our daughter Leah finally became a candidate for eye surgery. She was born with very bad eyes (legally blind) and we have been waiting for about ten years for the surgical procedures to catch up to the degree of correction that Leah needed. At her routine checkup, we discovered that it was now available and within a few days, the doctor's office called and said that there was an opening on December 20! We quickly rearranged our schedules to include several trips to San Diego area for pre-op, surgery, post op, etc., and we are very thankful to report that, thus far, she is doing very well. Due to the type of surgery she will not have full visual clarity for another couple of weeks, but she is doing everything already without the aid of glasses or contacts. It seems truly amazing!

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for:

· Our preparations for leaving and our travel on January 20

· Continued and total healing for Leah’s eyes

· Healing from the cold that Leon has right now.

· Grace and strength to arrive in Malaysia, adjust to the 16 hour time difference and leave three days later for Indonesia (15 hour time difference)

· Preparation of all of the materials that we will be taking to teach

November 26, 2007

A Large Burden Lifted!

We are very pleased to report that the issue that we had encountered in September with the state tax board has been gloriously resolved! There had been an error in coding in one of their departments and as a result of many prayers, many phone calls and the efforts of one state employee, everything is taken care of and IMS will continue to function exactly as it has since its inception in February, 2003. We are so thankful for each prayer that was lifted up for us in this situation and so thankful to the Lord for answering our prayers.

Another Prayer Request Answered

Sometimes the Lord answers our prayers just as we would imagine. Other times, he modifies them to what He knows is best and then answers. Teresa’s dad had to be hospitalized last week to put in an emergency port to have dialysis, which he needed very badly. He came safely through the surgery to install the port in his chest and neck and has been having dialysis for over a week now. He is tolerating the dialysis very well and has lost over 12 pounds of water weight in his first four treatments even though he is still only on partial treatments! The port in his arm continues to heal and will hopefully be ready for use in about a month. Meanwhile, thank you, Lord for answering this prayer!

Teresa's Health is Improving!

Teresa is most happy to let you know that her health is improving and her strength is returning! It still seems necessary to take things a little slowly, but it does feel great to enjoy the improvement. Please continue to pray for total healing.

In the Midst of Planning

We are at present in the midst of planning for our trip to Southeast Asia in mid-Jan. through mid-March. Please pray wisdom in making the commitments and for all the necessary details to be taken care of. We expect to purchase tickets this week for the flight to Kuala Lumpur (the major flight!) and will soon need to purchase them for flights between KL and the other countries we will be visiting. Pray also please for increased finances for purchasing all the flights, etc…

Christmas Is Really Less than a Month Away!

Wow! It is officially less than one month until Christmas. We pray that as you all go through the holiday rush that God will grant you the ability to slow down, focus on and thank Him for the incredible gift that He gave us at Christmas and then share about that Gift with someone else so that they, too, can understand in the midst of all the frantic preparations, what Christmas is really about.

November 12, 2007

A Wonderful Wedding

October 7 was a wonderful day for our family as Sue Haydar became the wife of our son, Luke. What a joyous time it was as the two of them committed their lives and hearts to one another! We are so blessed to have a daughter-in-law who is lovely, bright, warm and has a great sense of humor and the two of them seem to complement each other so well. We are definitely enjoying having another Mr.& Mrs. L. Shearer in the family.

Another Month~Another Trip

We returned at the end of October from a nearly three week trip to the east coast. Just prior to leaving for the trip, the illness that I had in September returned and a trip to the urgent care confirmed our suspicions that it was pneumonia! The doctor reluctantly approved my leaving on the trip, and, armed with powerful antibiotics, we were on our way. I have to say that the first few days are a bit blurry because I was so sick, but I did rest a lot and Leon made sure that I had no responsibilities whatsoever.

We had a great time at the east coast reception for Luke and Sue and enjoyed being with her family. Leah also flew in and it was a great time enjoying a part of the country that we had never visited as well as seeing where Sue had grown up.

After the reception, we headed south to Virginia for our final certification with Leadership Training International. We were given a special certification seminar and are now certified for the highest level of training offered by LTI. We are Mobile Advanced Trainers and are now qualified to go to Asia, Mexico or any other area and set up both Certified Training Centers and Training Institutes for LTI materials. We are very excited to see what the Lord is going to do with this certification.

From Virginia, we headed down to South Carolina to meet with Irvin and Linda Rutherford and their assistant, Lilian Tan. We had a great time there discussing what had transpired at LTI and beginning to plan for a Certified Training Center for Malaysia in 2008.

To finish our time on the east coast, we had a brief visit with my dad, my sister and brother-in-law. My dad’s health is not very good at present and we would ask your prayers that he be able to get on dialysis very soon as his diabetes has caused his kidneys to not function very well at all. He has had two surgeries to put in the port for dialysis and our prayer is that this second one will be successful and he can start soon.

Back at Home

We are home once again and very happy to be in place for a little while. I am very sorry to report that I am still struggling with respiratory problems and have to go once again tomorrow for a chest x-ray. This illness is most tenacious and I am so very ready to be well again…and stay that way! Please pray for rapid recovery.

We expect to mostly be at home (other than brief trips here in S. Calif.) through early Jan. Leon is currently finishing another class at Fuller which requires a significant amount of his time and we have a number of “life issues” to catch up on. We do plan to be leaving between the 15th-20th of January for approx. two months in Asia. During this time, we expect to be going to Viet Nam, Indonesia and Malaysia. We already have a very full schedule for the trip and are excited to be going and looking forward very much to being there.

October 2, 2007

There and Back Again...

Sorry for the delay in posting. It was indeed a bumpy homecoming! Besides the death of our dog and the jet lag and tiredness, the cold that I thought I had turned out to be a flu that put me out of commission for a number of days. I haven't been so sick in quite some time, but it sure feels wonderful to be well again!

In addition to the difficulties that I had mentioned above, shortly after we returned home, we received a call that there was an issue concerning IMS that required considerable attention on our part. Leon has spent days since we got back working on this problem and our board has been extremely helpful and supportive. It seems that it is on its way to total resolution but please continue to pray with us that this gets completely resolved speedily. Those of you who support IMS and received a letter, thank you so much for your understanding and we appreciate you working with us through the means suggested in the letter. Your prayers and your support are vital to us at this time.

To Mexico and Back...

We just returned last night from a short trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. We had a great time visiting with long-term friends, Stan and Becky Tedrow, and the wonderful congregation at Penasco Christian Fellowship. This was our first trip there this year and it was such a blessing to get caught up on all that the Lord has been doing in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco in English). We also planned a time later in this year to be with Stan and Becky to work on leadership development and plans for assisting them in the next year.

Upcoming:

We are so excited to be looking forward this next weekend to Luke and Sue's wedding in San Diego. What a joy it is to see how God has drawn them together and called them to a life in Him!
On October 12, we leave for the east coast for 18 days where we will be going through the final level of certification with LTI in Virginia, meeting with Irvin and Linda Rutherford and their personal assistant, Lilian Tan, in South Carolina and traveling to a special reception for Luke and Sue with her parents. We will also get to see Teresa's dad and family in North Carolina. All in all, it should be a very full couple of weeks!
Prayer:

For prompt and total resolution of the problem we have had with IMS
For great blessing on the wedding!
For God's guidance and protection as we go to the east coast
For wisdom in all the planning for 2008 - it is already getting full! (See Calendar page)

September 7, 2007

A Bumpy Homecoming

We arrived safely back in California on Wednesday. But it has been a rather difficult homecoming for us as our dog of almost 15 years, died about ten hours before we got home. Leah was her faithful little nurse during Sherra's last painful days and was holding her as she breathed her last. We so appreciate Leah's strength and maturity in the way that she handled everything and are so thankful that God has given us such a responsible young woman as our daughter. Her brother and his fiance immediately drove out from San Diego to comfort her and were here until after we arrived. What super kids God has given us!

Teresa also developed a cold just before leaving Malaysia and it has continued to worsen. Please pray that she soon recover and especially that her fever goes down.

Also please pray for our readjustment - jet lag, sickness, loss of dog, etc. I will post again as soon as I feel better. Blessings to you.

• Leader’s Training:  Leon