Goldfuss update

Important News

 

Dear Prayer partners,

 

The Lord gives grace.

 

1.  Yesterday was extremely difficult.  Mike's sermon was about why we have to deal with sin in the church.  He preached the last 20 minutes directly to one church member--the lady in the last update.  Michael needed to lovingly administer the 3rd step of church discipline from Matthew 18.  It was very difficult to have her present in the service, and we had 5 visitors.   But it was very necessary.  What was strange was that the people had planned a surprise birthday celebration for Mike after church.  Imagine with me how it was........we literally went from, "Dear sister, if you continue in your adultery, we will need to love you, but consider you to have never known the Lord"......with people crying everywhere to ......."Happy Birthday to you."  Amazingly, it was a wonderful birthday celebration with great fellowship, and the people did not want to leave.  Everyone showed love to the one that was disciplined.

 

2.  We were wiped out and slept later than normal this morning.  Mike had a very important counseling session early.  They arrived an hour early.  We were still in bed.  This was heart wrenching situation #2 with another family that has been in our church for over 8 years.  Carissa said, "Mom, I think you need to come too to help because they don't look very good."  That lasted for over 5  1/2 hours.  We (Mike and I) finally ate breakfast at 4 pm which is our normal lunch time.

 

3.  Around 6 pm.,  Cheri came running in.  She had slipped in the garage and went to catch herself.  In the process, she tried to grab something to keep from falling and cut her pinky finger on a broken piece of glass inside of the garbage bag.   When she came in the kitchen, I knew it was bad because it was half-way through her finger.  The problem was that I couldn't get it to stop bleeding.  It was so bad that we had to put a tourniquet on her arm.  Mike was down the mountain visiting.  He had the one car (as the van is still not fixed from the fraud).  Carissa was calling him to come get us half way, I was yelling for Mikey to run to the end of the road for a taxi, the rest of the kids were running all over the house getting our shoes, purse----- and I still could not get the bleeding stopped.  The tourniquet was turning her arm purple and she was howling.  Mike was calmly visiting.   As he answered the phone, all he could hear was screaming.  With the tourniquet, I was finally able to stop the bleeding.

In the meantime, Mikey was having trouble of his own.  Our neighborhood taxi men were drinking and gambling and wouldn't come and help us---so he had to flag down another taxi.  After the 40 minute trip down the mountain, the ER doctor took one look and said that we needed to call a surgeon.  The final good news was that she missed the tendon and the main artery!!-- which seemed like a miracle to me after all of the blood. 

 

4.  On the way home at 10:00 pm, Carissa called on the cell phone to say that my mom called and said that my sweet Aunt Mary was rushed to the hospital with a brain aneurysm.  Aunt Mary and Uncle Dave Naff served The Lord for over 40 years in Liberia, Africa. They are amazing people and are the main tools that the Lord used to lead me to missions.   My mom had just talked to Aunt Mary at 7:30 pm.  They were sharing prayer requests.  At 8:30 Aunt Mary yelled out to Uncle Dave that her head was hurting.  He called the ambulance.  By the time I called my mom, they had life-flighted her to a hospital in Charlotte.  I was able to be on Skype while mom called my cousin Marilyn and my Uncle Nelson Grover, whom many of you know. 

 

We JUST received word that my Aunt Mary is in the presence of her Savior. 

 

If you are one of my many many precious family members hearing this through this letter, please forgive us for not calling you one by one.  I encouraged my mom to get some rest tonight. This is very hard on mom, but she is so strong in her Lord.  She is so happy that her dear sister is with her Lord.  Please pray for my Uncle Dave as we are his only family.  Please pray for my Uncle Nelson as his wife (my Auntie Vyla) went to be with The Lord the exact same way just two years ago.

 

As my Cristi just wrote on Facebook, "please pray with us that all of these things will continue to make us more like Christ." 

 

With much love,

 

Faith for the Goldfusses

Goldfuss updates

I'm enclosing two updates in one here:      Dear Prayer Partners,

Thank you so much as always for praying!

Praises:

1.  Our trip---(Faith and the three oldest) Was fantastic!!!  BJ is better than ever!  Everyone was so helpful and took so much time with us!  I was really impressed with the students care and concern for us too!  They just stopped many times to ask who we were and if we needed anything.  It truly was overwhelming.  All three of our oldest now have a much better idea of what their majors will be.  While we were there, Mikey got accepted for next year, and we got to thank the many people who help us --- like AHE (Academy of Home Education) which   is our homeschooling high school and GFA, our mission board.  The Lord even gave us delightful surprises.  I got to meet my best friend from college's daughter, who is a student.  I also got to meet my cousin's girls from California, who are also students.  

2.  We had 5 new visitors on Sunday!  Also, a new large family has been coming for over a month!

3.  Mike was able to purchase a small car.  He is also looking for a used van.

Prayer Requests:

1.  Just because we purchased a car doesn't mean we are driving it.  There is some problem   with the government giving us license plates.

2.  Some of you know Marcos, a young man who grew up in our church.  He had his company car   stolen last Friday. He said it was like something out of the movies with bullets flying and everything.    A group of taxis came to help him, and they quickly located the car.  (The police didn't want to leave   their post to help.). Four taxis surrounded the stolen car, and the men in the car tried to shoot them.    One  man with the gun got away, but the taxi men caught the driver and beat him until he lost consciousness.     Marcos took the man to the hospital, but Marcos may have to  pay for the damage to the company car and   one of the taxis.  How is this possible???  We are not sure since they have one of the four criminals in   custody.

3.  We have a young lady in our church who is now seeing a man that she met at our church, but has   not attended in over 9 months.  He has no signs of being truly converted.  Please pray for her as many   have cautioned her, but she seems intent to ignore our warnings.  This is particularly sad as she has   been a faithful believer for over 8 years. 

Thank you so much for praying!

Faith

SECOND UPDATE:
Dear Prayer Partners,

Please read this even though it is very long.  We really need your prayers.

Our last update was upbeat coming off of our amazing BJ trip.  However, when we went out as missionaries many years ago, my pastor looked at me and said," Faith, you tend to be positive, but tell us the whole truth when you write."  Even though he has gone to be with the Lord, I am going to take his advice.  It has been igvery difficult.

This last year has been very difficult.  The three men who were leaders have been tried.  One of the families, as I have written in the past, is no longer with us.  The other 2 are having major family problems.  At the same time, we have all grown through all of this, and the church has increased in number and in understanding of the Word.

Many of you have prayed through our own personal car problems.  The Lord provided us with a wonderful brand-new Nissan Tsuru!  Because the car was won at a gas station by a man in the north of the city and then later sold to us, we got a little practically brand new car for very good price.  The only problem is that it seats 5, but we have perfected how to cram all eight of us in it.  (The 2 men up front, 3 ladies in the back, and 3 little kids on top of us.). The best thing about the Tsuru is that it costs 1/4 of the gas money to run. 

But we really do need another van for our family and for the ministry.  So Mike was able to purchase another 15 passenger Dodge Ram Van.  It is a 2001 and looks very nice.  Last week was the grand initiation and about 30 of us crammed in to enjoy the ride to church.  Later in the week, the van conked out on me twice going down a large hill.  It was a little scary because the power steering and brakes stopped working.  But the Lord allowed me to gain control again and at the last minute-- (all while praying) the brakes worked.  To make a very long story short, the man sold us a lemon by putting a 1990 something transmission from another car into our van.  He also said the engine had been rebuilt—but it hasn’t.  It has the original 175,000 miles on it.  We have the funds to rebuild the engine and the transmission and everything should be fine, but the whole ordeal has been very tiring for Mike.  Even though we had a mechanic and another friend who knows cars with us, we still got hoodwinked. 

Another disappointment has been for the Crockers.  They found what they felt was the perfect apartment and were PROMISED to be able to have it by the first of November.  They waited two weeks only to be told that --- no, the former renters are staying.  They know that God has a perfect place for them, but are starting all over again to look for a home. 

Our above vehicle situation has only been annoying and tiring—going all over the city for different documents, etc.  However, the real heartaches have had to do with the people.  There are many in our congregation who love and are serving God, but right now we are dealing with 3 core people who are wanting to do things their own way instead of God's way. 

About 10 days ago, one man, whose wife had abandoned the family, was about to lose his job because he needed to go to a yearly, 4 day convention.  He was not able to go because of needing to take care of his children.  The church family stepped in to help.  The kids were already farmed out when he called us to ask us if we could take the kids instead of the other 3 families.  This would be from Wed. the 23rd through Sunday evening the 27th.  He did not want them to be split up after all that they had been through.  So we then had 9 kids again (6 of our own and 3 more).  This was the 4th time this year.   Add the 3 Crocker kids who are staying across the yard in the cabin, and we were VERY lively.  School was ATTEMPTED, Mikey was trying to study for a FINAL exam in a BJ college course, we had other dear ones coming by for help and needing shots, etc.  And all was WILD.  It wasn't that the kids were bad, it was that together, it was like an explosion or a circus---take your pick.

  I was sick on Friday.  That was when, playing hide and seek, Cara jumped from a very high place and mashed her foot.  It was sprained badly, and she is now recovering.  On Saturday, I whipped everyone in shape to have the whole house cleaned as well as the garage.   But I was then weak on Saturday night, became dizzy, and tripped over our fan resulting in breaking my little toe.  Amazingly, The Lord allowed us all to be in church even though 2 of us could barely walk. 

When we arrived, the mom of the family was there at church! This was a woman that was deeply involved with helping others in the past and who we thought was living for Christ.  Her arrival at church on Sunday created some chaos.  Her older children did not really want to see her because she has left 5 or 6 times this year.  They are tired and weary.  Various people in the church were trying to minister to the mother--- receiving her in love and forcing the children to receive her.   Others who have been involved in counselling her (and were more "in the know") were admonishing her to turn from her adultery.  I was unsure what to do because she had already taken the littlest girl for 2 weeks earlier this year, and I was responsible to get her back safely with her father who is trying to live for the Lord.  However, the littlest girl, who is 6, was of course, thrilled to see her mommy.  Imagine with me the turmoil that I had during the break between Sunday school and church:   We were happy to see that the church was packed.  Mike was ministering to many people.  I was trying to help everyone in the bookstore, help various people with counseling, as well as literally trying to keep the children from being kidnapped!  My kids were a huge blessing subtly being bodyguards and keeping me informed of all happenings as I was hobbling around and could not move as fast as normal.

The straw that broke the camel's back was that after church the mom was manipulating the youngest girl and causing her to cry continually.  Her manipulation hit an all time high when she stated, " Well, I want to come back, but it is really up to your father.”  I had to step in.  She was bribing her with candy and blaming everything on the dad while not admitting any of her sin.  In essence, she was torturing her emotionally.  As I talked with her, she started walking toward the gate with the little girl.  I slowly shut the gate, but Cristi had to step in front of her to keep her from leaving.  "Oh," she said, " I'm not leaving with her."  "You're right," Cristi said, "You're not."  Cristi then looked up to see various women of the church crying in the background.  Cristi, our 15 year old, then began to very pointedly tell her what she was doing to the church, her children, her husband, and the testimony of Christ.  It was rather amazing--especially for a girl her age.  When the little girl has been at our house, we have put her with our older girls so they could minister to her at night.  Cristi had been awakened many times to the little girl crying, so she had plenty of examples to share of what she was doing to her children. 

In the end, the father came, picked up the children, and the mother just wanted a ride to the corner, -----which then became staying for dinner, and now she is back at home.  While, of course, we want this eventually for the family, we also have recommended that he wait for evidence of true repentance--- since we have have been through this with him over 6 times this year.   We are also concerned that she will take them all away from church.  The husband has taken a stand, but he has also become very ill and thin because of the whole ordeal.  He is exhausted and in deep need of our prayers. 

I believe the stress has caused several of us to become very ill this week.  We are now finally beginning to feel better.  Please pray for school.  It has felt like never before that we are doing all that we can to barely maintain.  We just need your prayers.  In this month of thanksgiving, I am so thankful that we have you, our faithful prayer partners, to uphold us before the Lord.  I am also thankful for OUR ROCK, The Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much.

In Christ,
Faith for the family