Deaf Harvest Missionary Update

Deaf Harvest Update - July 2011

2011-07-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Deaf Harvest Friends,

This year has been a year of restructuring, as we determined in 2010 that God wants to do far more with this ministry than can be accomplished through one person.

Therefore, in February, we re-defined the roles of each member of our board and added two more official board members.

Our corporation was renewed with the Secretary of State as an incorporation and charitable organization 501c3, which allows gifts to be contributed to our ministry, and donors to count it on their income taxes as a charitable donation.

Since we wanted to move our focus to the international ministry, we chose not to display materials at conferences this year. Rather, funds have been spent on Deaf Teen Ministry and International Missions. Donations have allowed us to support two Deaf orphanages in Africa, purchase 12 hearing aids for a Deaf outreach in India, as well as organize a more direct outreach to Deaf teens in the Atlanta area.

Our website continues to be active at www.deafharvest.org and has been updated with a more user friendly format.

We gave Bibles to several Deaf individuals in 2010 as they were in need of a Bible. The two Bibles we recommend for the Deaf are the FCA Game Plan Bible and the International Children’s Illustrated Bible as these Bibles are written primarily
in active voice which is an easy-to-read version. In addition, we recommend the new ASLV (American Sign Language Version) of the Bible which can be viewed and purchased at www.deafmissions.org .

As you can see God continues to do amazing things through this ministry. There are untold stories of how God has multiplied our efforts in ways that we may never hear about on this side of heaven, and yet those events are storing up
treasures in heavenly places. There are Deaf people in countries all over the world that have been reached this year with the gospel message of Jesus Christ through our direct and indirect ministry. None of this would be possible without
the constant prayer and financial support we receive on a monthly basis. To you, we give our most sincere thanks, and know that God will not forget your sacrifices for Him. We want to encourage you to come back often, especially to the
missionary pages, and pray for Deaf work world-wide. There is much work to be done in God’s Harvest of Deaf souls.

May God bless you for your obedience, and at the same time burden you with the reality that so many Deaf around the world have yet to hear about Jesus for the very first time. Thank you for your prayers this past year. Please, keep on praying, that we will have His wisdom in how to proceed in the future, and that He would receive the glory and honor for whatever is accomplished in His name.

We give God all the glory for allowing us to have the honor of working in His harvest again this year. We saw God do some mighty and wonderful things. We are expecting more things this year and I am....

Honored to be a worker in His Harvest,
Mrs. DeeAnn Harmon

PS- If you have a web site on the internet, you have our permission to post a hyperlink back to us.

TOLOSA July 2011 news and information

2011-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Dear Prayer Warriors,

WHEW!!!!! Today is Thursday June 30th. In less than 48 hours, we will be returning to our South America assignment with IMB as your missionary representatives to the Deaf. Our 10 weeks of service and ministry at the International Learning Center in Virginia is coming to an end. We look forward with GREAT anticipation and love to see those we left behind when we came to the states on April 23rd. You will not be receiving a regular news/prayer letter in July like you have in the past because of time constraints and other work related issues. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Since coming to Virginia, we (specifically Betty) has accepted a new role for our Deaf Affinity Group (DAG). She is now the new Affinity Group Prayer Strategist (AGPS) for ALL of the DAG world wide. This simply means that she will be responsible to mobilize, receive, arrange, and send out all prayer request and prayer related information from all the DAG missionaries. This is a big responsibility that Charles will be assisting her with and one that we ask you for which to regularly pray. Those of you whom have faithfully been praying for us over the last few years KNOW how vital prayer is on our behalf and you've seen the answers as you've read our newsletters and our updated ministry postings.

Please remember the following items in prayer:
~ Pray for our safe return to South America on Saturday morning July 2nd. We're scheduled to arrive there by 4:45 p.m. that same day. Pray that all our luggage arrives safely with us.

~ Pray for the 6 new DAG appointees who have just completed an intensive 10 week orientation program. They will be attending the Southern Baptist Conference of the Deaf (SBCD) in mid July after which they will then depart for their assigned mission fields on the other side of the world.

~ Pray for the pastor of our home/sending church in North Carolina, Pastor Ruffin Snow. He has some health issues that he has been dealing with recently and he/we would appreciate your prayers on his behalf.

~ Finally, please pray for the Lord to touch the heart of NURSE in the states to be willing to volunteer and come here for our February 2012 Baptist Deaf Camp. We plan to have between 75 and 100 Deaf campers, between the ages of 15 and 99, attend. There is no law that requires us to have a NURSE, but we believe it would be wise to at least pray that the Lord would make this need/want a reality for common sense reasons.

...and speaking about the Deaf Camp in February 2012, two-thirds of the needed money to help bring and pay for the Deaf to come to camp has already been provided. ONLY one-third is left to go. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! Keep praying for this need, too.

We Love you ALL and thank you again for lifting us, our needs, and the Deaf of South America up to our Father in Heaven!

Please drop us an email note to let us know that you are "kneeling" and standing with us as your IMB missionaries to the DEAF. We pray for YOU, too!

"Sign"cerely yours for DEAF Souls,
Charles and Betty

South America - Charles and Betty Thomas

2011-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Deaf Camp February 2012 Update!

We wanted to give you, our Faithful Prayer Warriors, a quick update concerning how the Lord is answering your prayers about supplying the needed funds for the Baptist Deaf Camp next year.

First of all, when we shared the need 2 months ago with our partnering churches, one Deaf Mission Church pastor in North Carolina immediatly responded by saying that his church was sending $500.00 for this project.

Then secondly, a Deaf Ladies WMU group held a retreat at Ridgecrest, North Carolina and sent $70.00 to sponsor one of our Deaf individuals for camp.

Thirdly, another Deaf Ministry led group in another North Carolina church recently conducted a Saturday car wash/bake sale (plus some donations, too) and raised $834.00 to add to our Baptist Deaf Camp fund.

Needless to say, our hearts are overjoyed with gratefulness, thanksgiving and love to our Lord and His people who have already answered the call for this important outreach ministry project.

We've also heard from some pastors who said that they definately want to help us with our Deaf Camp next year and will be getting back with us shortly to let us know what they and their churches will be able to contribute. Some have said that they will use this year's VBS offering as their contribution to the Deaf Camp. WOW!!!!!!

Thank you so much for praying and PLEASE continue to pray that every need will be met, that our Lord will be glorified, and that the hearts Deaf souls will be made fertile to receive His Words and be saved.

"Sign"cerely yours for the Deaf in South America,
Charles and Betty

South America - Charles and Betty Thomas

2011-02-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Prayer Supporters and Friends,

We are so blessed to be back in country and serving our Lord. We have seen 8 accepted Christ as Savior since our return and on March 13th we are having a special baptismal service. We ask that you play for the 10 candidates (as of this writing) who are excited to follow the Lord in obedience. During the next 2 months, we will be conducting in-depth Bible study with some of our leaders on a "one on one" basis along with a bi-monthly meeting with them.

Thank you again for your prayers for us. God is working and souls are being saved!

"Signcerely,"
Charles and Betty

Uruguay - Charles and Mary Swanner

2011-02-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Cherished Family,

We are so blessed to count you as prayer partners. Your prayers for us have helped over and over again moving hearts, removing obstacles and opening doors. We never take you for granted; you are a vital part of the ministry. Thank you so very much.

PRAYER REQUESTS/ ANSWERED
Please pray for Sandy a friend of Christopher’s who will have surgery on Tuesday the 1st of February, due to a tumor on her ovary. Sandy has had cancer before is single and the doctors want to do a hysterectomy. Of course she does not want a hysterectomy. Please ask the Lord to intervene, guide her doctors and heal her. Sandy’s surgery went well, they did not find cancer and she is recovering quickly.
Our camp is February 9 through 13; please pray for safe travel, and a blessed time of training and fellowship. Pray for Stacy Parks as she will be leading some of the workshops. Praise the Lord we had a wonderful camp. Stacy was such a blessing. Three were saved and one baptized afterwards.
Please lift Chad and Jennifer’s wedding March 12th to the Lord asking for blessings, that He will work out all the details, safe travel and a wonderful time with family and friends. Please continue to pray for this request.
Pray for Charles as he travels to Paraguay in February; please ask for safety and guidance. Charles had a good trip.
Please pray for the safe birth of Baby Martin and the health of his mother Caitlin. Praise the Lord mother and baby are doing very well.
Please pray for our Deaf leaders (Jorge, Amelia, Fabio, Lucas) that they will become confident in the Lord and grow more and more Christ-like. Please continue to lift our Deaf leaders.
Please continue to pray for the Deaf church in Wilson, North Carolina. Remember them as they go through grieving and start looking for a Deaf pastor. Please continue to pray for this request also as they decide whether to come back to Uruguay on a volunteer trip this year. They have greatly blessed us in their previous trips.

PRAYER REQUESTS
We have a situation we need you to pray over, it is an unspoken request. Please ask the Lord for healing, reconciliation and understanding in this matter. Thank you.
Charles has a meeting in Lima, Peru the end of the month. He has been doing a great deal of traveling with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Ask the Lord for safe travel, wisdom, strength and courage.
Please continue to pray for the two baby churches Las Piedras and Piedras Blancas. Ask the Lord to empower the leaders to reach Deaf in the area, ask Him to guide them to others who are seeking Him. Ask Him to tear down strongholds in these two areas. We have met a great deal of resistance.

It is amazing how the Lord works. There are times when I am discouraged and ready to throw in the towel. Then something wonderful happens, a God thing. I know you are praying, I know He answers and I am encouraged to get back into the battle. Your prayer support is so greatly appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

In appreciation,
Charles and Mary Swanner IMB
Uruguay, South America
2 Corinthians 1:11

Lord thank You for all You are doing here in Batangas. We ask that we may continue to meet persons of peace like Levi (Luke 5:27-29) who followed Jesus immediately and introduce a large group of his friends to Christ. We continue to pray for the removal of spiritual strongholds here in Batangas, especially the stronghold of fear. We also pray for the opportunity to present the gospel on the campus where so many students have recently been demon possessed. May it be soon before school lets out for the summer...in Jesus' powerful name - Amen!

You missionaries,
Dave & Ivette
http://batangas-batangas.blogspot.com

Ecuador - Parks family update

2011-02-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

Peggy Mulkey wrote in her Ecuador PrayerGram for Stacy & Jeremy Parks:

We prayed, asked the Deaf Christians in Quito for ideas. One of them (I think it was Rocio) suggested a town named Ibarra (2 hours away). So Jeremy went to see if doors will open for the volunteer team to present the gospel. The Deaf there told us to talk to the president of their Deaf association who lives and works in Quito. Jeremy got in touch with the guy and met with him. What was amazing was that the president told Jeremy he had wanted someone to come to Ibarra to teach the Bible. He heard about this Deaf guy name Jeremy but didn't really know how to go about getting in touch with Jeremy. He said in the past Deaf from different areas had come and caused problems in the Deaf community in Ibarra so the Ibarra Deaf are very closed off and reluctant. BUT the president said that because his friends know Jeremy and said that he can trust Jeremy, the president will go to Ibarra to work it out for Jeremy to bring the Deaf team there. He wants Jeremy to keep going to teach the Bible.

Amazing how God worked it all out and believe me, only He was able to do all this...glory to Him!

Philippines - Dave and Ivette Daggett

2011-02-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement. You're really going to be blessed with this prayer letter and the pictures and stories on our blog. Just click on the link below to go directly to our pictures - no passwords or funny business - click on the pictures and they enlarge nicely. You can also download them and use them in a PowerPoint or slide show.

Deaf - Lencio smiled a very special smile this morning as he could see his mother praying to receive Christ as her savior...see the story on our blog - click the link below and see more Deaf stories and pictures.

Your missionaries,
Dave & Ivette
http://batangas-batangas.blogspot.com

Deaf Harvest Update - January 2007

2007-01-15T19:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Deaf Harvest Friends,

This year has been a year of struggle as well as success. We have learned much from these experiences, and have learned even more to trust in the infinite wisdom of our Lord and Savior, the real CEO of this ministry.

In February, we officially moved our address to Monroe County which significantly reduced our business taxes, and we moved the Post Office Box to Locust Grove , GA ( PO Box 110 ; zip: 30248)

Our corporation was renewed with the Secretary of State, which allows gifts to be contributed to our ministry, and keeps the ministry separate from Al and DeeAnnâ€™s tax filing. Earlier, we had planned to drop the idea of pursing the tax-exempt status with the IRS, but we are again considering looking into it. Although this entails many hours and includes about 25 pages of information required by the IRS, it will benefit the organization in the long-run. In order to pursue this, we need to re-evaluate the structure of the organization and determine how to align our structure with the requirements of the IRS tax system.

We received many monetary gifts into this ministry this year. 100% of that money was spent on ministry (some was donated to other ministries, some was used to pay bills and to purchase postage for shipping, etcâ€¦) No one at Deaf Harvest receives a salary or compensation of any kind.

We renewed the domain for deafharvest.com with DirectNIC for the next two years, and we moved deafharvest.org from another registrar to DirectNIC. We also switched to a new host, Harpeth Technology Group, LLC. and we are very pleased with these changes so far. We set up the website so that the .com address points to the .org address, and the server will automatically open .org.

In addition to our problems online (being down since November), I, DeeAnn, made a huge mistake the end of October by changing something in the registry of my home computer and locked myself out. As a result, the computer had to be wiped clean, and all programs reinstalled. Unfortunately, the email address book was lost. Some of the addresses had been stored in other places, but there are many emails from conventions that may not be found. Lesson learned: â€œNever touch the registry without your "techie" person sitting next to you, and backup the address book every month.â€

DeeAnn and her daughter, Victoria, displayed Deaf Harvest materials at the Deaf Nation Expo event in Atlanta on May 13^th. We did not sell a lot of materials, but we did make some great contacts and had opportunity to meet over 4,000 people. Plans are to add some new sale items for this yearsâ€™ Expo event in May including Bibles, gift items, and religious tattoos (for the kids). We have decided to discontinue the sale of the butterfly posters, but use the rest of them as auction items for these events. In preparation for these conventions, we had a large banner made for Deaf Harvest International, Inc with the wheat symbol. Our former sign was getting old and needed to be replaced with something more professional.

We gave Bibles to some Deaf individuals in need of a Bible that is easy for them to read.

Additional Bibles have been purchased to sell through Deaf Harvest. The two Bibles we have chosen are the FCA Game Plan Bible and the International Childrenâ€™s Illustrated Bible.

We learned from our dear friend, Noah Butler from New Orleans, that during Hurricane Katrina, his church building was filled with water to 6 feet. When they returned to the church to see if there was anything left salvageable, he discovered the â€œLord, Teach Us to Prayâ€ teaching materials had not been damaged at all. Praise God! He has since moved to Texas to begin a Deaf Ministry there. As a result of the hurricane and being displaced from his home and community, he did not have the funds at this time to purchase the â€œPrayer Walkingâ€ materials. At the Lordâ€™s direction, we gave him the teaching package, free of charge. What an awesome thing to know - Godâ€™s mighty Hand protected these materials from harm, even from a violent storm like Katrina.

The next Bible Study, â€œLessons from the Holy Land ", is still in process. The power point is about 1/3 finished and the outline for the lessons has been set. Some of the script is complete, but much more needs to be added. This Bible study will include Scripture references associated with the Holy Land sites, actual pictures from Israel, maps, charts, and discussion questions for each lesson. I learned so much from my visit to the Holy Land - pictures I had formed in my mind while reading and studying the Bible, I found to be incorrect. I will show you those lessons I learned and clear up some of those incorrect mental pictures. You will want to plan to get this one.

As you can see God continues to do amazing things through this ministry in spite of the roadblocks we have had to deal with this year. There are untold stories of how God has multiplied our efforts in ways that we may never hear about on this side of heaven, and yet those events are storing up treasures in heavenly places. There are Deaf people in countries all over the world that have been reached this year with the gospel message of Jesus Christ through our direct and indirect ministry. None of this would be possible without the constant prayer and financial support we receive on a monthly basis. To you, we give our most sincere thanks, and know that God will not forget your sacrifices for Him. We want to encourage you to come back often, especially to the missionary pages, and pray for Deaf work world-wide. There is much work to be done in Godâ€™s Harvest of Deaf souls. You can participate in that work by clipping Campbell's labels, donating personal care items such as hotel sized shampoo and conditioner or donating money to this ministry, and by praying for His mighty power to be poured out in those countries.

May God bless you for your obedience, and at the same time burden you with the reality that so many Deaf around the world have yet to hear about Jesus for the very first time. Thank you for your prayers this past year. Please, keep on praying, that we will have His wisdom in how to proceed in the future, and that He would receive the glory and honor for whatever is accomplished in His name.

We give God all the glory for allowing us to have the honor of working in His harvest again this year. We saw God do some mighty and wonderful things. We are expecting more things this year and I am....

Honored to be a worker in His Harvest,
Mrs. DeeAnn Harmon