Felicity and her 3 year Birthday

Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you for your prayers.

Water situation:

This letter was received from Churie:

Yesterday we sent out a prayer request for water. We did not know that you could do this, but this morning the pastor had the fire truck come in and fill up his tank. We quickly ran over and asked them if they could fill up our tank. They said it would cost 300 dollars. We were ready to have them fill up our tank. However, they would not take a check. We went to the bank yesterday but the line was at least a three hour wait and decided that we did not really need the cash that bad. So when I found out we were not going to get water because we did not have cash I was pretty upset. Geoff and I thought for a moment and realized that I had been cleaning out mom and dad's room and had found some cash. We quickly ran into the house and counted the money I had found and knew we would replace in on Monday when we could get back to the bank. As we counted it all there was 300 dollars. Thank you God for taking care of our need.

The water truck came and it filled up part of the tank. The amount of water pretty much gave us about a fourth of a tank, which might last us a couple days on reserve mode. It was great to flush the toilet and get the dishes washed. Later this afternoon it started to rain and I just sat in the chair and watched it and cried and praised God for the rain. We now have about a half a tank which should last us about a week.

On Monday we will be looking at options for a well. They have had water problems like this for 9 years. Pray for us as we make these decisions. Pray that God will show us which pump would be the best use and which way would be the best financially.

Thank you God for taking care of us! And thank you to all of your prayers for us. Please continue to pray that we will get some more rain and that our tank will be overflowing. I would settle for full as well. We love and miss you all

From George and Nancy

We are almost ready to return to the Solomon Islands. Vacation time is coming to a close.

Highlights from General Assembly and our trip to Orlando.

We arrived in Dallas late at night on Thursday 18^th of June. Saturday we went to El Reno for the Van Gundy family reunion (my mother’s side). Nancy and I have not attended this annual event for a number of years,

because our home assignment did not coincide. It was good seeing my aunt and a number of my cousins. It was a good time of fellowship and catching up. Our Van Gundy family has a long spiritual heritage and many are still really actively serving the Lord. It was just an enjoyable day.

We went to family reunion packed and ready to go to General Assembly. Then Saturday evening we left by car heading to Orlando, Florida, the venue for General Assembly. Gloria, our daughter, was our driver. When traveling on the Lord’s day, we always stop for worship services as we like to worship with other brothers and sisters. Through Internet I find a multicultural church in Little Rock Arkansas and checked their statistics and saw that they were a growing church, and so I felt that would be a church I would love to attend. We were not disappointed as it was a great service. I don’t know how many were in attendance but I’d guess 450 – 500. There was a Baptism service, Special children program, and recognition of fathers since this Sunday was also Father’s day. Then on Sunday night we attended a small church in North Mississippi, with probably 10-12 (not counting us) in attendance. As we walked in the church on Sunday evening and introduced ourselves, one man recognized our name and informed me that they had been praying for us. I was surprised but reminded that we are a part of a great big family. When the service was over in about 45mins my grandkids asked, “Is it over already?”

By Monday night we were in Georgia and about 30 miles from Albany, where the Sherwood Baptist Church is located. When I saw that, I wanted to go and visit the church that produced some of my favorite movies “Flywheel”, “Facing the Giants”, and “Fire Proof”. So on Tuesday morning we backtracked the 30 miles to Albany and had a great visit with the church folks there. The Kendrick Brothers were out but we met and visited with Tracy Goode, the one in charge of the media and an actor in 2 of the movies.

Wednesday we arrived at the Convention Center and we met many friends but there were also a lot of our friends and prayer partners attended the convention that we didn’t meet. It was great catching up with many of our prayer partners and friends. There were 54 delegates and visitors from Papua New Guinea. I was reminded of 12 years ago when I led a group of 20 PNGers to the Assembly in San Antonio, TX. Many of the District Superintendents in that first group were supported by mission funds. Now there are 54 delegates with very little travel expense paid by mission funds. I was so surprised to see this large number present. There was also one delegate from the Solomon Islands.

The following information is primarily for my host of non-Nazarene prayer partners. (For Nazarene prayer partners this is old news, so bear with me.)

This year we had 3 General Superintendents retire and had to elect 3 new ones to replace these. We made history this year by electing our first Non-Western General Superintendent. Eugenio Duarte from the Cape Verde Islands was elected as the 37^th GS. Rev. Duarte has served as DS in Cape Verde and for the past few years he has been the Regional Director of our work in Africa. The Nazarene work in Cape Verde began in 1901 when a Cape Verdean named John Diaz was converted while living in Boston and returned to his home country as the first missionary in Cape Verde. The Cape Verde story is very thrilling and exciting. The work in Cape Verde is nothing short of a miracle and a result of intercessory prayer. They prayed for water and God sent water out of volcanic rock, and as I understand this spring God opened up from the rock is still flowing today. This is the only country in the world where the Church of the Nazarene is the largest Protestant Denomination. Cape Verdeans have served as missionaries to other countries like Brazil, and this assembly one was elected GS. Rev. Duarte speaks a number of foreign languages. (I’ve heard different figures, but probably around seven.)

The other GS’s elected were 38^th GS was David Graves. Graves was the pastor of College Church of the Nazarene in Olathe Kansas. He was the third pastor in a row from College Church who has elected General Superintendent.

Then Stan Toler was elected the 39^th GS. Stan is a longtime friend of ours and was recently elected District Superintendant at our Southwest Oklahoma District Assembly. Prior to his election as DS, Stan has served a long time as pastor of the Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City. He didn’t even have time to get oriented into his DS position before going to the General Assembly. Stan has authored a number of books and I felt he would have a fair chance of being elected but as I saw how the balloting went, he did not receive many votes until near the very end. (In our church to elect the General Superintendent one has to receive a 2/3 majority, and all ordained ministers in good standing are eligible for election. So it requires a number of ballets until one candidate receives the required number of votes.)

Also elected as President of the Nazarene Missions International (NMI) was Jennifer Brown from Jamaica. She also made history as being the very first NMI president elected from a country outside the USA. It is exciting witnessing leaders being elected and coming from the areas that were formerly referred to “Foreign Mission Fields”. We no longer use that designation, as a global church now the entire world is a mission field and every country can deploy missionaries. Our church is now ministering in 155 countries, the newest country being Norway. We have missionaries on the field from 40 countries.

While at assembly I talked to some people from many other countries. I met a pastor from Cuba. This pastor shared some of his challenges and requested prayer for his work.

I talked to people from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Africa, and others in what is commonly referred to as the 10/40 window. I was told that Bangladesh is now the largest Nazarene district in the world. The work in Pakistan has really grown during the past 3 years or so. God is opening the doors among the least evangelized in the 10/40 window. We are in some creative access countries (I believe 9) we are unable to name for security concerns for those working there. Continue to pray for the Lord’s work in the 10/40 window among our Moslem, Hindu, and Buddhist neighbors, and for open doors.

We fly out to return home tomorrow. (Sunday July 12th, It took a while to post. I forgot to send to the Blog.)

Your Partners in His Ministry,

George & Nancy Miller