A Timely Devotion

Have you ever read something in your quiet time and think, boy, that's exactly what I needed!  This morning I was reading from my favorite devotional, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.  The devotional was so applicable to where my family and I are right now.

Paraphrased and summarized. . . Be willing to go out on a limb with Me.  If that is where I am leading you, it is the safest place to be.  You are approaching a crossroads in your journey.  In order to follow Me wholeheartedly, you must relinquish your tendency to play it safe.  If your primary focus is on Me, you can walk along perilous paths without being afraid.  As long as you stay close to Me, My sovereign Presence protects you wherever you go.

Wow!  Be willing to go out on a limb with Me. . .If that is where I am leading you, it is the safest place to be.  How many times has God asked you to do something and it seems so strange that you think, nah, He didn't really say that?  The safest place to be is in the middle of His will.  In the middle.  Not on the edge.  With the calling He has placed on our lives to pack up and move to another ministry in another country, I don't want to be any other place other than in the middle of His will. 

The closing verse to this devotion comes from John 12:26, Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My Father will honor the one who serves me.

It's time to serve with all your heart.  Go where He is leading.  Don't look back.  Don't be afraid.  Go to another country, learn another foreign language, learn new cultures, minister to those who have never heard of Me.  Look up and enjoy the peace of being exactly where I want you to be!

Comfortable

How comfortable are we here in Honduras, well pretty comfortable.  The verse that has been convicting me lately is Luke 14:33 "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

Well there it is, in addition to a call to a new place, a new ministry God leads us to readings that satisfy.  While I do not practice Bible roulette, just asking something and then blindly opening the Bible, well at least not anymore.  God in regular readings, regular prayer, and regular praise time will reveal direction, at least in our lives.

Faith Installment December, 2013

Happy December to our friends and family, this email is coming out early in December to let you know more details on the excitement in our family. 

As you know December is the best time to seek donations in the US.  Last year 30% of our yearly donations came in the month of December.  We are asking you to prayerfully consider supporting us now, and into the future.   Donate a Financial Gift Here  This is a critical time for your prayers and financial support. 

Second if you click the links below this post that say Pete's E-Mail and/or Angie's E-Mail it will automatically email us saying that you are praying for us.  You do not know how much your emails mean to us.  We have just been through an election cycle here in Honduras and were restricted to our houses for two days last week.  Your prayers, Facebook posts and emails help us know that you are out there with us.  

Third, where are we with God’s call in our life?  In November we reported to you about how God has been putting a new call on our family that is awesome and exciting.  The Lord is leading us to a ministry that does church planting in Europe.  Pete during a time of praise and worship at our Honduran Church heard a distinct call to help in church planting efforts in Germany and France.  Angie later confirmed that and over the last month we have been seeking confirmation and guidance from our prayer warriors and Pastors in that call.  We have investigated ten ministries that do this type of work, and we have interviewed five of those.  One concern is that Nick and Lily can continue to receive a bi-lingual Christian education like the one that has been provided to them over the last six years here.  We have found a school in Germany in the exact same town that the one ministry has their European headquarters in.  This HQ has church plant efforts in West and Eastern Europe and has been around since the forties.  Our jobs will be in administration supporting church plant efforts, scheduling, hosting teams and managing the ministry’s internship program to various church planters in France.  We will be involved in discipling new Christians by means of Bible studies and home groups in the church that we end up becoming members of.  The ministry also has a strong missionary care program for their missionaries.  

  

We are in the second phase of their four phase application process and at this point are not yet ready to reveal this ministry as we are not sure if they will accept our application.  You know this is a big step, while not as large as leaving a well-paid secular job and moving to Honduras as we did in 2008.  This call does have its own issues, including leaving strong faith-filled friends who have raised us up and supported us over the years here in Honduras.  We would appreciate your prayers during this time of transition.

Financially how will this move affect us?  Well once we have been accepted we will ask our supporters if they will continue to support us in our future ministry.  We have been assured that our current budget is “close” to what is required to live and work with the new ministry. We will set a date to end our WGO support and commence ministry in our new location.  It is all God’s field.

As you might know this is a very hard decision and course for a family to take but as we have said we have faith that God will provide what we need at that exact time we need it. We pray that you will continue to support our work in God’s field wherever that is.  We are just servants who lift our lives up.

Pete's E-Mail          Angie's E-Mail

Faith Installment November, 2013

Ready, how is your heart?  Broken, available, hard? How many times have you prayed for someone and then wonder if that prayer has been answered?  Well over the last month I have seen an answered prayer that has been prayed many times over the year.  In October of 2012 a little girl and her mother came into our brigade and I was blessed to meet them and pray with them and her mother accepted Christ.  Over the next year I used this photo and story in my devotions on 2 Corinthians 4:7 “broken vessels” to all of our medical teams, each night asking the team to pray for Stephany. 

This October’s Good Shepherd team placed me in evangelism again and just before lunch my translator and I said good bye to one woman and we looked up and I saw Stephany, her mother and sister walking toward us.  God had picked that exact time for their little family to sit across from me again and be able to pray over them again.  Her mom did not remember last year at the brigade or how she had come to sit with us and how she had threatened to take her life.  She said she had been very bad over the last year and had been in and out of depression and had to do bad things to feed her children.  But I told her trust in God and he will continue to forgive you and that He had protected her and her children.  He held them when you could not, he fed them when you could not and he answered my and hundreds of North Americans prayers to keep you alive over the last year.  I want to praise God for his provision and how he can protect us forgive us and always keep the door open.  So if sometimes you pray for things or people that you have no way of knowing that God has answered your prayer, be encouraged that He is alive and will answer your prayers.  While I am not sure about yours but my heart again was broken to be able to love His children.

Prayer request: God has been working in and through us and we ask that you pray that we continue to listen to Him and continue to guide us where he needs us.  We are going through a time of prayer currently and have asked God to lead us where he needs us and God is not failing us.  He is leading and we are seeking clarity but next month we hope that our path is clear.

I cannot say how many times he has come through for us each day, not always in our family’s time frame but He is always there.  Our house in Bolingbrook Illinois has been an ongoing saga of pain.  But God is showing up and big.  There was a lawsuit between our mortgage holders that has now been settled and it allows this house to be placed up for sale again.  The settlement has allowed us to be able to sell this house with a clean title and a little bit of equity instead of a short sale which the bank and us both will lose.  Praise God, the house will be up for sale after we evict tenants who have not paid rent in over one year, If you know anyone interested in buying this house, 1582 Arlington St, Bolingbrook, IL is the address and let us know.

Good Shepherd church was in from October 12-19 with a medical brigade with WGO.  We had a great time and hope these pictures help describe the blessed time that we had.  Much prayer was prayed for our family and a vision was cast for the future.  Over 2,800 patients were seen, many heads of hair were washed and two churches which we had served with last year were lifted again and it was good to see friends and brothers and sisters in these churches.  Angie was filling in for our pharmacist who earlier in the week had her first child Samuel.  So Angie put all her skills regarding pills and medicines to good use, being responsible for the filling of about 6,000 prescriptions for the week, keeping 12 medical trunks updated, for handling any and all questions and of course there were two teams that were there for the week.

Pleased to report that Nick has been medically cleared to play soccer beginning November 12.  Also Lily has been her class chaplain for the freshman and now sophomore years at her school, she is very wise and prays really well.  This school year she was invited and joined a club at school called Stephen project, and last month she and others went to a government run orphanage to pray for some of the youth at this place.  

Faith Installment September, 2013

Transition time:  Over the past year and a half I (Pete) have felt torn between the two jobs that I have held with WGO these past five years.  Over the past year, in discussions with the COO and CEO, it was agreed that due to greater ministry needs that these two positions I have led need to be two separate roles.  So, I have begun transitioning solely to the Human Resource Director and look forward to the Mission House continuing to be a home to thousands of team members. I could never choose which job I wanted.  I enjoyed both jobs and while I will miss operations, our family will be in prayer to be sure this is where God wants our family to be.

 

Elder time:  Prior to leaving for furlough, Angie and Pete were approached by our Pastor in Honduras to pray about Pete becoming an Elder of our church, Centro Cristiano International (CCI).  Through prayer we received confirmation and on Sept 1, 2013 Pete was approved and presented to our CCI Fellowship congregation as an Elder.  Our Honduran church is an English speaking service part of CCI.  CCI is a large global church based in Tegucigalpa and has many church plants over the world including Honduran missionaries sent to other parts of the world.  Each of the five services a week has a structure set up of a Senior Pastor, an Assistant Pastor, and a group of Elders.  They oversee and organize each service and what is offered there.  Elders also teach from time to time and we ask you to keep Pete in your prayers regarding this.  One of Pete’s prayers that were answered was having time to devote to this position of Elder.  During the summer Pete was trying to arrange his schedule to see if he could accommodate this new responsibility and the time that it would take weekly.  He decided that he could take Thursday off from both of the WGO jobs and not upset his responsibilities too much.  However, God is a better organizer than Pete and He decided that one WGO job and Eldership was better than two jobs.  Now with his transition within WGO to one job in HR, Pete will now have Saturdays and Monday nights off from ministry duties.

Kid Time:  On August 12^th, Nick and Lily began their sophomore year in school.  Here is their First Day of School picture.  They will have AP Psychology, Algebra II and the normal set of other assorted classes.  Nick has been accepted on the Knowledge Bowl team again and they will begin practicing this month during lunch to defend their country-wide title that was earned last year.  Lily is on the track team this fall and will run in several sprints.  This is her first time in track and we have assured her that the “shin splints” will end at some point.  However, most of the normal aches and pains have already ended and it is good exercise.  She is amazed by the muscle definition she has developed just over a few weeks of practice.

Nick was going to join the Basketball team; unfortunately, the Saturday before practice was to begin he injured himself playing a pick-up game of b-ball.  He slipped on a wet spot on the gym floor and turned his leg.  His knee cap went in one direction while the leg went in another.  Pete and Angie were called to the gym that afternoon.  We have never seen or heard our son in so much pain.  In the states you call 911 and have trainers and EMTs come and help.  In Honduras, not so much.  We called our nurse from WGO and Angie went to pick her up.  When she arrived we taped catalogs to Nick’s knee and rolled him over.  Thankfully his knee cap popped back into place and immediately his pain was significantly reduced.  This was just the beginning.  We then had to place him on a shelf (the only thing long and firm enough that we could find), lift him up, and walk up the bleachers to our car parked outside.  Of course, it was dark and raining out.  We put down the backseats of our 4-runner and angled Nick, still on the shelf, into the back.  We drove down the mountain about 25 minutes to the clinic in the city where Nick received very good care.  He was casted since they did not have knee immobilizers in stock.  Angie purchased a knee immobilizer on Monday and brought it back to the clinic on Tuesday.  Nick had his cast removed and the knee immobilizer put on.  He will wear it for at least three weeks.   For what reason did Nick get hurt days before the basketball season started?  Why did God allow this to happen?  Why is this not more serious; no damage to tendons or other muscles or ligaments?  Only God knows the reason and we have to humble ourselves at times to allow him to work in us.

We are looking forward to our sending church being in Tegucigalpa with us next month.  They will arrive on October 12 and stay for the week serving in two local Honduran churches.  We will have a warm welcome for Good Shepherd.

Faith Installment August, 2013

 Hello Friends, greetings from Tegucigalpa Honduras where we made it safely home on July 28. 

Lily and granddaughter Sophia

Work, vacation, eat; yep that just about describes our time in the states.  The following sentence describes how Pete feels: You meet with people, family and friends and say hello, get acquainted with them find out how their life has been over the last year since we saw you, then say good bye… for one more year.  So here is our latest report, we will try to include as many grand-children pictures as we can, because we got to visit with them all.

Grandson Robert, 5 months old

Praise report, near the end of our furlough we were told that the remainder of the $2900 cost for permanent residency will be covered.  So this pledge to cover this is a blessing to us and a prayer answered. 

While we were in the states, we visited several churches to attend their worship services. We were blessed by our family at Good Shepherd who knows how to welcome their missionary families.  Thanks to our Good Shepherd family and staff, Pastor Gary and the rest you made our visit feel like home again.  We had several open houses for visitors and had a good response to those.  There is no feeling on earth that can match walking into a church where you grew up in faith and sitting down and soaking it all in, renewing and refreshing.

Chana United Methodist Church

We spoke at a Vacation Bible School that has supported us for many years, thank you Chana United Methodist Church, Pastor Javier, and the great servants who care enough to teach the children.  Also we were blessed to worship one Sunday with a long-time WGO medical brigade church, Rehoboth Baptist Church in Waynesville, NC.  Thank you Pastor Connor and the entire congregation for making us feel so welcome.  During that church visit we left Nick with friends that he had met during their brigade week in June.

Our family, compared to other missionary families that we know is blessed to have most of our supporters in the Naperville, IL area.  However, we took time this year to travel to Suffolk and Chesapeake Virginia to visit several of our supporters and family.  We went to the beach, ate seafood and played with Sophia (pictured above with Lily) and just got to catch up with the most recent life events.  We had not seen that son and daughter-in-law for two years. 

While in Naperville we had a great house to stay in while the owners stayed mostly in Wisconsin.  As a matter of fact most of our supporters happened to be on vacation during the time we were visiting.  Unfortunately that is one hazard of missionary life with kids that are in school. 

Son Steve, with grandchildren

Our favorite food on this trip was most anything that was BBQ’d and at one time had hooves. And then there was sweet corn and hot dogs and gyros.  Praise to you in the states that get to eat this and thanks for the added 15 pounds. 

Our visit came to an end too soon though and before we knew it we were back on a plane.  We arrived at about 9:00 PM in a city in Northern Honduras, San Pedro Sula. We saved $200 each ticket flying into this city; a 4 hour drive to Tegucigalpa.  That night we tried to start our car which had been sitting for those five weeks and it did not start.  So while at the hotel which we were going to stay the night at we put out a plea in a private Facebook page for missionaries.  At about 6:30 am something started to wake Angie and me.  Normally we should sleep until 9ish, but something kept telling us to wake up.  Sure enough Angie had the most motivation and she got up checked the Facebook for a response and someone said that their husband was at the hotel until 7am picking up a team and he had jumper cables.  Praise God we found him and he jumped the car.   Pete then drove it for about 30 minutes to get the charge.  We packed up ate breakfast and then got in and it did not start.  So right there a quick prayer “please Lord this car has to start” and it did! We then drove the 4 hours, not turning it off, to our home city and since then the car has worked very well.  We have hit the ground running and next week will finish our summer teams. 

Pete and Angie Norfolk VA

Thank You again for being there for us, we are sorry we did not get to see everyone but we had a memorable summer.  

Faith Installment May, 2013

Hello from Tegucigalpa where we ended our quiet time May 25.  Our summer line-up includes 25 medical teams in 13 weeks, then on August 24 we will get to breathe again.  Our prayer request at this point is for all the North Americans headed here for the summer that they will be blessed immeasurably and for the 52 Honduran churches and the estimated 65,000 Hondurans that will pass through our churches doors that they will feel the power of Jesus.  Thank You for that prayer.

Happy Father’s Day: If my picture was taken 30 years ago, this is my dad.  Eventually my dad, Pete, changed his career retired as a mechanic in a factory and managed a VFW hall in Summit, IL.  I find it a little ironic, that now in my fifties; I do the same thing for a smaller operation.  My dad started cooking in the Army and he said the best thing about being a cook in the military, toward the end of WWII, was that he was always well fed and warm.  So I guess happy father’s day to my dad early.   My dad just celebrated his 89^th birthday last month, however, as many of you know he is in the depths of dementia, and for those family members who have not lived through this disease, it is horrible.  My prayers for dad have changed throughout my five years here, from asking why this disease and why our family, but lately I just have prayed that dad is feeling no pain and only re-living happy memories that God is playing through his head.  When I talk with future missionaries who are all excited about missionary life, this is the one thing that no one wants to hear, but we must remember that we must “count the cost”, when we decide to move away from family and friends, and for our family… this is one of those costs. 

2008

Furlough:  Yes we finally bought tickets and will be in the states from June 19-July 26.  It has been 11 months and we look forward to seeing family and friends during this time.  This is a very important time for us in fundraising as well; we have been blessed by the response from Christmas time and look forward to seeing you.  Please contact Angie for meeting with you, coffee, lunch, dinner or small group, we are mobile, ready to travel and have plenty of pictures.

 

Five years complete:  On July 2^nd we will begin our sixth year, so here are a few pictures to help you see how we have grown.  I don’t want to break your downloads so will only include a few, before and current pics.  Personally, five years means many things for our ministry, a time to reflect and pray where God has us and where He is leading us at the end of each year.  Nick and Lily have spent five years in the states in school and five years in Honduras, they have grown, spiritually and size wise.   They are intelligent young Spirit-filled Christians who moved from their home country to a third world country, but God put them in the best school in Honduras and they have attained high honors in all their courses in their freshman year.  WGO has grown as well, up to 2008 the average was 21 medical brigades per year and they saw and average of 35,000 Hondurans per year.  This year we will host 47 brigades and see close to 150,000 Hondurans.  And finally in 2008 we hosted 757 team members and this year 1200, great growth on an exponential level that only God can do.

Residency Expense:  beginning immediately when we get back from furlough we need to apply for permanent residency.  This will allow us to stay for an unlimited time in Honduras with the only requirement being we renew our residency cards every five years.  So we have put in our purple donation button again, we need help in covering this $2900 cost.  So please if you are able to help us we thank you.

Faith Installment March, 2013

 Nick and Lily attend Academia Los Pinares which is located very close to our house.  We believe that this school is one of God’s blessings in our life for the kids.  Here is a story, and photo of the School’s Knowledge Bowl Team.  On February 7, 8 and 9 Nick and the Knowledge Bowl Team of 9^th and 10^th graders competed against all the bi-lingual schools in Honduras.  Four students from those classes were chosen during the year to compete in a “Jeopardy” style tournament.  Nick was chosen after a competition and meetings in September and October; finally the team was chosen and they began weekly meetings, studies and practices.  The three day event is moderated by parent volunteers and teachers according to standardized questions and answers in English.  Over three days of competition, the Pinare’s A team, junior varsity made it to the quarter finals, then the semi-finals and… they made it to the finals.  This competition is time limit based and each team receives points for each correct answer there are subtracted points for each wrong answer and there are also bonus questions after each correct answer during each twenty minute match.  To complete the match there are five final questions given.   Each question carries up to 5 points and then the final score is tallied and the winner is announced.  We are excited to announce that Nick’s team, after a back and forth struggle, won on the last question, the final score being 46-43.  Mom and Dad are very excited to see this!

Well, we might as well continue to be proud of our students!  As you can see in the picture Lily and Nick did make High Honors for the first semester; with Lily receiving all A’s in all her courses.  Just to give you an idea, there are around 60 youths in 9^th grade, divided by three sections.  As far as friends, there are four close friends in that list for Lily and Nick, and we are happy about that also.  Lily also has been appointed as the Chaplain of her class by the teachers.

We would like to introduce you to the newest addition to our family, Robert Raineri, Jr has joined the staff at our son and daughter-in-laws, Bob and Heather’s house on 1/27/13 at 4:08 am 8lbs 10oz 20 1/2 inches long. Congratulations, all are doing great, and have given up on the sleep idea for a while.  For those keeping score, this is our fourth grandchild; boys are winning at this point 3 to 1.

What is going on in HR and the Mission House?  It has been a busy beginning of the year.  As of March 9^th our 11^th team has left and we have a week off of brigades.  The 11 teams have worked in 22 Honduran churches ministered to over 29,000 Hondurans and 38 floors have been installed.  What do we do during off weeks? We have meetings.  We catch our breaths, review what the prior weeks have taught us, pray for the next teams and eat pizza.  No really, Pete has begun training our managers on the management of employees and team members.  After training we took the managers out to eat pizza, it was a great day and now we are praying over what role we have in training.

Our current home group is studying the book by Mark Batterson “Circle Maker.”  And what is better than a book study is the food and snacks that come with it.  This is a book about circling our issues with prayer and acknowledging how great God is that he gives us this prayer ministry.  Our attendance is around 8 people each Thursday night at 7 PM.

Early warning:  We will be in the US sometime around the end of June to mid-August.  The dates are not set yet, but we will be able to make it to the US and see our family, friends and supporters during that time.  Please let us know if we can speak to your group about the ministry that God is doing in Honduras.  Amazing stories and testimonies are taking place each week.  We are also due to go East this year to visit supporters and family and our granddaughter.

Thank you again, we are blessed to be here, your hands and feet in God’s field.

Newsletter February 2013

Raineri Family Faith installment February 2013

Thank You for your faith in what God is doing in Honduras.  We cannot describe how elated we are to report back about your funding effort.  With pledges made for the monthly support and one time gifts received in December and January we should have enough funding until August.  This blessing though reveals the importance for Angie and I to be very responsible though when we spend these donations.  An example of that is a note we received from a woman who gave a one-time yearly gift.  She reports that she was laid off last spring and has not found a new job yet, but she gave all that she could in December.  This gift reminds us of the “widow’s mite” in Luke 21:4b “but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”   Even though God has provided the funds from you, we need to be very exact with what we spend each month.  Please pray for that woman and also for our family that we might be discerning with this support.

Empowering not enabling is one of WGO’s core values and that brings us to Margoth.   Margoth is married to Ray and they have 5 children. . .Bessi (10), Josue (8), Margarita (6), and twins, Daniela and Pamela (4).  We first met Margoth the year we arrived in Honduras in 2008.  Ray and their children first came through a WGO medical brigade that was held at his church.  We immediately noticed Ray’s dedication to his blended family and the final day of the brigade four of their children were baptized with Pete and I the Godparents for the twin girls.

Since then we have watched the family grow, mature, change, and come closer to God, never asking or accepting handouts.  Margoth has had a tough life, was an abused single mom and with no place to stay and Ray a single father brought her into his home with her children.  Their living conditions were very poor as the “home” that they lived in was falling down around them slowly being pushed over by the mountain that it was built into.  But then, about 18 months ago Margoth became the first person that received a micro finance loan from the Carelink Foundation.  Angie in her spare time helps administer Carelink’s program in Tegucigalpa.  Carelink purchased a tortilla oven for her and the startup supplies to begin selling tortillas which in turn provides support for her family.  Business was slow getting started, and there were several setbacks, including Margoth becoming extremely ill and almost blind in one eye. 

Through much prayer and petition, God worked many miracles over a year and a half.  Margoth received the eye surgery she needed for very little cost.  Another ministry was in need of finding a house to build as the one they had planned for had fallen through.  So Ray and Margoth were blessed with a more solid home than what they ever had before, and when WGO was looking for a part time employee for the expansion of their concrete floor program Ray began working on concrete floors in January of 2012.

Even through all the trials, Margoth continued to make tortillas and in October of 2012 we were able to announce to Carelink that Margoth had re-paid her micro loan in full!  It took her about 15 months to repay a 12-month loan, but she did it!  She is not only selling enough tortillas to continue to buy supplies for her business, but to make tortillas for her family and still have a little money left over.

Please pray for Margoth and Ray.  Margoth once again is having problems with her eye, and we are trying to set up a schedule for another eye surgery.  Pray for her children…they start school again this month and they also live in an extremely dangerous area.  Please pray that God will continue to show his love for them in many more miraculous ways!

Christmas dinner at the Raineri house we hosted 27 missionaries and their families.  This was the first time in five years that we have hosted a family gathering for Christmas, and though we missed our families in the states, we needed the company.   Pete made ravioli and each family brought deserts and side dishes.  The weather was warm and sunny which was really weird when you come from an area that has cold and snow. 

Spiritual battles:  Monday morning January 28 proved to be a “Monday Morning”!  Pete noticed many small battles going on between the missionaries, not large issues just poor communication issues and some lack of good judgment.  Though we had a small team of 19 people at the Mission House, it sure seemed that satan did not want us serving in a new church in Tegucigalpa.  Finally half way through the day Pete was able to step back and see the fight as it was.  Over the next several hours prayer began to be lifted about this, a friend from the states was called and offered his prayers and finally Tuesday morning we were able to visibly see the result of prayer.  The team finished strong serving medical care and God’s word to 2,960 people.

Monthly price check:  oil filter for our 2000 Toyota four runner $15 and a quart of oil $7.   While we only put about 5,000 miles a year on our vehicle, we do change the oil every 3,000.

And finally, we have been extremely blessed over the year.  God and our church have confirmed that we are supposed to be here.  We went through a small trial in October and November with our funding.  But God again proved that He is in control.

Your family in Christ, Pete, Angie, Nick and Lily Joy.