MICHEALS’ MEMOIRS December 2020 Update
Dear Friends and Family, How things can change in a hurry! Who would have imagined the course of events these past 12 months. What started off to be a normal year, has turned into anything but that and has altered how we do our recruitment work with Wycliffe.
Go Teach
Our biggest challenge is to actually keep up with the pace of change. Fields of service were closed to sending people, then opened up and again some places have closed down. As you can imagine this has brought a lot of uncertainly and with that a hesitation for people to serve long term. What has increased are the number of people wanting to serve short term and that too is a challenging because you need long term missionaries to support people serving short term.
Over the past few months since the pandemic has impacted our world, we saw ahead of time a need to reinvent ourselves with some type of new name that described our need for educators. We have a big task in recruiting for more than 300+ open educator positions in the more than 30+ Missionary Kid (MK) schools we recruit for. Those MK schools are where most of the 1,700 Wycliffe MKs attend while their parents serve with us overseas.
These health challenges continue to also alter where we reach potential recruits. In our last newsletter we told you about a teacher recruitment fair which was held in November. What started off being a meeting with just three college campuses turned into an online only international recruitment fair. One would have thought that would have created a bigger response, but it didn’t. Last year this event was onsite and we had a Wycliffe teacher recruitment table display and we met 70 educators. This year online, we met only 11 educators. One thing we realized once the online teacher recruitment fair started is that with the name “Wycliffe”, we were at the bottom of the list and when the recruitment fair is only visible on a cell phone with 45+ other groups recruiting, that put us in a challenging spot. Also, with only the name “Wycliffe Bible Translators” at the fair to go on, that too did not broadcast our need for educators.
December 2020 - Chuck & Barb Micheals
Wycliffe’s New Go Teach Seal
Just as the recruitment fair was finishing Wycliffe approved our using the “Go Teach” name for recruiting educators. Work is now underway to also have a “Go Teach” website that will allow potential educators to see what educator jobs are open and in what MK schools around the world. Hopefully, next time we do the online teacher recruitment fair in February 2021, we will be able to use the name “Go Teach” and the new website.
BARB’S WORK Here we are at the time of year when many internship applications begin to come in. This year is no different except that because of COVID we cannot be certain of when Wycliffe will be sending people overseas again. Barb has had to become creative with our overseas entities in coming up with remote jobs that her interns can do from here in the US. We are hopeful that she will be able to send some interns out this summer. Along with Barb’s Wycliffe work she keeps busy with grandchildren both near and far. She also coleads a ladies Bible study at our church. Except for one time in person, they have been meeting by Zoom.
NEW STAFF COMING ON BOARD
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daughter’s family in Nebraska this summer and hope to see them again in Florida soon. We praise the Lord that three volunteer teachers were able to finally get to Papua New Guinea. After two weeks in quarantine one of them is in the classroom. The other two are still in quarantine and should be ready to begin their teaching assignments soon. We praise the Lord for an increase in support. We started the month of November at 85% support and ended it at 89% support. Thank you to everyone who has pledged to give monthly and for those who gave one-time gifts and yearly gifts.
PRAYER •
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Pray a larger number of people are willing to step out in faith and serve long term with us, especially in the area of education where the need is great! Pray for Barb as she tries to maneuver all the details of finding assignments for interns and volunteers in the COVID-19 world. Pray for our full 100% support.
We wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! FOR SUPPORTING US FINANCIALLY NOW
We are happy to let you know that Mont and Shannon Weniger, Wycliffe missionaries who finished serving a number of years in Papua New Guinea as Boarding Home Parents and Boarding Home Managers, will be joining Chuck’s Management and Professional recruitment efforts early next year. Please pray that their full support comes in soon so they can start in the new year.
PRAISE •
We praise the Lord that we have been healthy and while COVID has impacted our extended family both in terms of health and limitations, we are all doing well. We were able to visit our
Wycliffe Bible Translators P. O. Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32862-8200 Mark on separate sheet mark: “Preference for the Wycliffe ministry of Chuck & Barb Micheals, Account # 221879.” Online Giving: www.wycliffe.org/partner/cbmicheals FOR PRAYER SUPPORT / OUR HOME ADDRESS Chuck & Barb Micheals 5167 Poinsetta Ave, Winter Park, Florida 32792 (321) 278-2225 (Chuck’s cell) (321) 695-0281 (Barb’s cell) Email: Chuck_Micheals@wycliffe.org Barb_Micheals@wycliffe.org Web: www.issuu.com/wycliffe-cbmicheals www.cbmicheals.ning.com