Nathan Olmstead is one of RMM’s board members. He and his wife Denise and their five children live in Croghan, New York, where Nathan is pastor of Iglesia Hispana Luz Y Vida (Light and Life Hispanic Church), a church plant of Naumburg Mennonite Church. We interviewed Nathan about his work with the Spanish-speaking community in New York.

Feliz Navidad from Beth, on behalf of Team Chile!

What a week! Feelings were a bit all over the place with our anticipation of Christmas. We were missing our families, familiar holiday traditions and foods, and a general joy that Christmastime brings, but we were all looking forward to celebrating together as a team, and Skyping with our families on Christmas Eve.

New Team Members

We are excited that Joe and Lynn Troyer, with their son Brennan, recently joined the Thailand team in Bangkok for a two-year assignment as missionary apprentices. They will focus on learning the culture and language in their first year, then transition into more outreach and ministry in their second year. The Troyers are from Hartville, Ohio. A short introduction to each of them:

Brennan is currently five (his birthday is July 10). He will be starting kindergarten in May 2012. Joe and Lynn are hopeful that during their first six months in Bangkok, he'll do well with language acquisition and socializing with other children. His current interest is playing with toys, and Lynn says it will be wonderful if he's that passionate about beginning school in Thailand. In addition to dinosaurs and cars, Brennan likes snakes, fish, and spiders.

Repeated projections throughout the year of a looming financial crisis have become concrete reality at RMM, where upcoming spending cuts will include the elimination of several staff positions in the face of a projected shortfall that could have exceeded $300,000 in 2012.

The board and administrative staff made decisions on the cuts in November. RMM workers were sobered by the news of the elimination of three positions by the end of the year—Director of Church Relations (Tom Beachy), Donor Relations and Development Coordinator (Shawn Eicher), and RIC Maintenance Staff (Randy Nisly). Additional budget cuts came through a reduction in salaries and retirement benefits for all employees in the office and in the field, along with other miscellaneous reductions in spending.

REACH Discipleship Training School (DTS) ended November 18, 2011 with a commissioning service for the 21 REACHers. The service was held at Mechanicsburg Christian Fellowship in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. The theme of the service was taken from the passage in John 21 where Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you,” and Jesus replies, “Feed my sheep.”

“Dear Lord, I thank you for my friend Art. He has been a blessing to me and someone that has really become a good friend in my time here. Lord, he has no job, his money is almost out, and he has no place to stay. I ask that you bless my friend, your child Art, with a job, with a place to stay. I just ask that you help my brother out, provide for him, bless him. We know you can do all things and we put this all in your hands, Father. We love you Lord, Amen.”

As new SEND Ministries director Kevin Mayer settles into his role overseeing Rosedale Mennonite Missions’ short-term programs, he has something on his heart. Actually, he has something connected to his heart—a defibrillator. It’s a memento from an unsettled last year and a half that is finally starting to make a little sense.

In 2009, Kevin, his wife Wendy and their two children were adapting to their lives in Spain after three years working with RMM’s team in Granada. Then, confusingly, Kevin and Wendy felt God calling them back to the States. God did not tell them why. But even without clear plans, in June 2010 they underwent the major transition of a move back to Central Ohio, where they tried to fit back in and figure out what to do next. Finding a long-term fit came slowly.

I first met Carlos* about six or eight years ago. Carlos is a Mennonite pastor in Honduras. I don’t speak his language, but I understand some things about Carlos just from being around him a few times. Carlos is a prophet. He sees with eyes of faith. He sees what could be, if God were to act. He sees what will be, when God does act. And sometimes, Carlos acts, believing that God will act in response.

Dear Friend of Rosedale Mennonite Missions,

Greetings from us here at RMM. This is the season when many of us think of giving to others in response to the blessings we have been given.

On behalf of RMM, I’d like to ask you to consider including us in your giving this year. But I don’t want you to give out of a wrong heart, with a sense of duty or even reluctance. I don’t want to simply ask you for money, but challenge you to be the generous person God wants you to be. I hope that’s true of you whether you choose to give to RMM or the many other worthy causes out there.

Leadership gifts: $480,000
Sale of old training properties: $334,000
Gifts in kind/savings: $300,000
Church gifts: $66,000
Missions Day Offering: $33,000
Individual, estate and misc: $122,000

Total: $1,529,110
Percent of Goal: 36.41%

Paul Kurtz is director of Rosedale Business Group, an RMM program promoting business as missions. With his wife Grace, he runs Hemisphere Coffee Roasters in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. This article is made up of excerpts from his new book, A House Blend, about his experiences with business as mission in the coffee trade. HCR is a direct-trade enterprise with the goal of fair business and building up coffee-growing communities.