Greetings in the precious, unconditional love of our Lord Jesus, Who came to earth to set us an example, to die on a cross to shed His blood for the remission of our sins, and to rise again the third day, victorious over sin and death. Through all that JESUS has done for us, He has given to us a blessed hope. This is one of our favorite times of the year, when we have another opportunity to bask in the love of JESUS and to share His love with others. God has blessed us, in spite of us, and we thank Him for those He has brought into our lives through the years. We thank Him for family and friends who have stood by us in the good times and the difficult times. Our desire is to finish well for His glory and His precious Name! This has been the year of transition. Praise The Lord, Dr. Lex and Shelley Reed and family, became the new IGM Executive Director on February 1, 2022 and in June moved to Rochester, NY and started their journey of leading, with God’s help, the IGM Family, around the world. Nancy and I will be Missionaries with IGM and will depend on our supporters and prayer partners. We have been active helping with the transition. We believe God is in control! So, bear with us as we share a bit of our life for 2022. His mercy, grace and love grows sweeter as the days go by.
Gary: Traveling has been driving (KVJ) Vijayanandam Kummaragunta, India, March 6–March 30, 2022, to some of his meetings. Also, driving Vijay Polimetla, India, September 11—October 16, 2022 to all of his meetings. Traveled to ST. Vincent and Grenada, October 18—25, 2022. We drove over 2888 miles Nov, 5—28, to visit one missionary, one missionary coordinator, one church, one supporter, and four prayer partners. We praise the Lord for giving us good weather, safety. and strength for this trip. Drove Alex Boamah to five meetings, Dec. 4-18. On June 2nd, Nancy and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary. On September 13th I had an angiogram and the heart was given a big okay! Since this has been a big transition this year, I kept busy, with phone calls, writing letters, emails, and counseled many, from February to June, during the time when the Reed’s were still living in Tennessee. Our Council Meetings were conducted at the headquarters and by ZOOM. I now work from my office in our home, being the ambassador for IGM. Nancy and I praise the Lord for His wisdom, strength, and encouragement for the awesome responsibilities of serving the Lord over 22 years through IGM. I have a heavy heart for those in the IGM family who cannot get to the USA—The Unserved Ones. This will entail making contact visits with individuals and churches. We praise the Lord for the journey ahead. Thank you for praying and giving to meet our personal needs. My email is genewhart@igmgo.org
Nancy: She has severed as IGM Office Manager for 22 years. (2022 she served January—October) and will be available if any office help is needed. Being Office Manager entails many different tasks. Presently Cheryl, Holly, and Shelley have taken over Nancy’s ministry. Faith and Steve, Jonathan and Rachel, Mia, Zachary, Megan and Dillan visited us July 1-7, Steven and Syndi, visited us July 1-3. Of course, Luke, Jennifer, and Aubrey were with us too. They all came to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. Sunday night July 2nd Steve treated us to a delicious meal at a local restaurant. Then on Monday, June 3, we had a cook out at our home. The rest of the days we did different activities together. We had a special treat when our daughter, Faith, came to visit us August 3-7 to celebrate our birthdays, mine July 29th, Nancy’s August 12th and Luke’s August 7th. Nancy’s health is pretty good. She is still taking thyroid and blood pressure medicines. Nancy and I go to the chiropractor every 2 to 3 weeks, which helps our back issues. Also, if she stays on her eating plan, that helps her health. September and October she has had pain in mostly her left knee and also some with right knee. (It was very painful to walk.) She had cortisone shots, and taking pain medicine which helped and has had several weeks of therapy. Pray for Nancy as she serves her Savior daily. Her email is ncn359@yahoo.com
Luke and Jennifer will celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary on February 9th, 2022. Luke continues to work at Wayne Finger Lakes BOCES in Newark, NY, as a Student Data Service Coordinator. It will be his ninth year. Also, Jennifer graduated with her Masters in School Counseling and she has accepted a job at the Academy of Health Sciences Charter School working as a School Counselor, in Rochester, NY. Aubrey started eighth grade, at the local public school, in September. She celebrated her 14th birthday on November 3rd. Do continue to pray as they seek God’s will and as they raise Aubrey for God’s glory.
Faith and Steve are headed toward 29 years of marriage in July 2023 and still live in their home in Forest, VA. God continues to bless their family. Faith is working at Forest Elementary school as a kindergarten teacher. The little ones are a blessing; she loves watching their progress throughout the year. Our son-in-law Steve continues to work for Houston Christian University leading their online learning program. We had a wedding last year, and this year we celebrate the engagement of our youngest grandson, Jonathan, to his fiancé Rachel. They plan for a 2023 wedding, on September 3rd, after Rachel graduates from James Madison University in VA. Jonathan will continue to pursue his undergraduate degree in business. Please pray for this young couple as they plan their wedding. Our oldest grandson, Steven, just turned 26 years old. He lives in Lynchburg, VA, and recently completed his Master of Business Administration at Houston Christian University. He stepped away from working in the golf industry and is now working in retail planning for his future. Our grandson, Zachary, is now 24 years old. He continues to work at Liberty University as a computer programmer and loves it. He recently will join the homeowner ranks moving into a new townhome sometime in December. He will settle in nicely and will love his close location to Liberty University. Our granddaughter Megan and her husband Dillan live in Blacksburg, VA, while Dillan nears the completion of his degree from Virginia Tech. Megan is a graphic designer with an advertising agency in Roanoke, VA, and she loves her work. They plan to move back to the Lynchburg area next summer as Dillan has accepted a position with a local company. Our granddaughter Mia is a junior in high school and has enrolled in the culinary program at the Susie G. Gibson Science & Technology Center. She enjoys the program and can practically apply to some of her classes as she works at a Japanese Steak house near her home. She is still working on driving and recently purchased a new car. Of course, our grand fur babies Toby and Ivy are always a joy. They have lots of energy and love to go for walks. Please join us in praying for God’s blessing for their family.
M i n i s t r y N e w s:
Transition—Serving as Executive Director and Office Manager for over 22 years it is very emotional to step out of these positions. We both want to continue to serve the Lord by serving with IGM until he calls us home. As we mentioned before we are not retiring but will be serving with IGM as the Lord leads. Dr. Reed is learning all about IGM, all the many unique situations and serving the many IGM partners around the world. Dr. Reed’s wife Shelley started helping out in the office. We continue to praise the Lord for our staff—Holly Baltich, who started serving IGM in December 2018 as Finance Manager, Cheryl Smith, who started with IGM in December 2012 and now serves with many “hats”, and for Michael Grubbs who served as Mission Liaison, booking meetings for Mission Training Conference teams and others needing meetings. Because of health reasons he had to retire in July 2022. I took over booking meetings, and finished up booking meetings for the Fall teams. Bob Lynch, a blessed volunteer of 88 years young has been a tremendous help in the office.
We continue to praise the Lord for our IGM Mission Central Headquarters. It will be 16 years in July that we moved into the building. Several rooms have been upgraded and the outside of the building will be upgraded sometime soon. We have added five to our IGM family of National Church Planters and Missionaries, one serving in Kenya, one serving in India, one serving in Burkina Faso, and two severing in the Ivory Coast. We still have National Field Representatives serving in many countries, helping with accountability. If you are receiving a paper copy of our prayer letters, etc. and have an email address, please let us know as soon as possible to help save on our mailing costs. Thank you. We continue to use email to communicate with our Mission Family to save on postage and to keep up-to-date with communications. Thank you for faithfully praying and/or financially supporting our missionaries, national church planters, orphans, and the Mission Service Account (in great need). Please visit our website—www.igmgo.org to see prayer letters from the IGM family. We are also on Facebook and Twitter.
Note: Nancy and I will still be Missionaries with IGM and will continue to depend on our supporters for their continued financial support. We will be very active in helping to raise support for IGM and “The Unserved” (National Pastors and Orphans ).
Email: Igm@igmgo.org Web: www.IGMgo.org
On-line donations: www.igmgo.org: Click “Donate”
Mobile giving: Text “igmgo” to 77977