Newsletter

Dear Friends and Family,

Meg and I are excited to say that after years of preparation we are finally planning to move to Peru and work with Peru Mission’s Parish Woodshop Project. We are now beginning the support-raising process by seeking partners in prayer, emotional, and financial support.
When I was first asked to bring my family to Peru and work in a woodshop, I admit that I was a little hesitant. I could not see how this fit in with my calling to missions. However, over the last couple of years while doing woodwork the Lord has taught me the value of building relationships and bearing witness of the gospel’s impact on our lives. One of the most effective ways for bearing witness of the reality of the gospel is to work with someone on a daily basis. As we share our lives with co-workers, they cannot help but see the change in us that the Spirit is working. This happens when they see our brokenness and the healing that takes place through resting in Christ. I am confident this is one of the most powerful ways God grows his Kingdom. When Christians walk with Jesus in the workplace, others will see Him and hear His message.
This is the goal of Peru Mission’s Parish Furniture Project. We aim to work with Peruvian carpenters to build good furniture and export it to the States (www.parishfurniture.com). While we do this we hope to build relationships, bear witness of Christ and teach His Word. We pray that the result will be that they walk with Jesus and bear witness to the world around them in their communities. We also aim to teach them how to do good and just business. Our prayer is that this will not only help them spiritually by the transforming work of the gospel but it will also help the economy in Peru.
My role will be to work in the shop along with these men and build relationships. I will also teach Bible studies before and/or after work and spend time investing in their lives in discipleship and mentoring. Meg will be taking care of our daughter Satomi and pursuing ways to serve using her Microbiology background either in tutoring, lab work, or research.
Meg and I only need to raise $50,532 per year for the first two years. This can either be in monthly commitments or in one-time gifts that total to the $101,064 we will need for both years. We are praying to have all our support raised and move to Trujillo by June of 2009. So far, the Lord has already provided about 20%.
Please consider and seek if God is calling you to partner with us in this ministry through prayer, correspondence, or financial support. As Paul asked the Colossians, “…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…” Colossians 4:3, we need your prayers. I do not ask you to sacrifice for this ministry or for us, but I do ask you to pray and ask God whether He would lead you to give of yourself to advance His Kingdom through this ministry or in some other way.

In the joy of resting in Christ,


Stuart Mills and family

Merry Christmas!

I pray you all had a good celebration of the birth of our Savior. We are having a good visit with my family. The LORD has provided in many ways since my last post. I have been blessed to have many jobs doing cabinets and/or trim for several friends and have been working at the coffee shop. Meg is still working on her degree. Please pray for her as many unruly bacterium are keeping her from finishing as soon as she hoped. Our little munchkin is keeping us delighted as she is almost walking and speaking in tongues:)!

We were excited to get our prayer cards in the mail the day we planned to leave for Zachary. Now they are finally in the mail! I would not have waited to send the letters if I had known it would take until Christmas to get these cards in. In August, I thought maybe one more month then by October maybe just a little longer and so on. I trust God was sovereign in allowing such a delay. It seems I may have missed many folk's budgets for 2009. Somehow I still think God is doing some amazing things that show He wants us to be a part of this project and that He wants it to work. For that reason I anticipate seeing Him provide in marvelous ways to make this happen! May He be glorified.

Blessings to all and a Happy New Year!

He will Provide!

It has been quite a week. I was told last Monday that there was no more work for me at the shop. So Tuesday I was at home watching our girl while Meg went into the lab earlier. As I mentioned in the last post I was wondering if I should quit work and do support raising work more. Well, it seems God answered my question in a way. However, it seems that I still need to do some work to bring income to pay bills until it is wise to start drawing on our support account. So the Lord provided several pick up jobs and I am starting training at Seattle Drip coffee shop tonight. I am hoping these two jobs will allow a little flexibility to watch our daughter and work on support raising.
When it comes to support raising, we are very close to getting our prayer card printed up and sending out our paper letters. We are very encouraged that even before we send out our letters, God has laid it on hearts to give so that we are at 20% of our support! We need around 50K per year. We are aiming for 2 years so raising for 100K total.

What's been going on

Meg and I went on a little vacation last week to visit her sister in Rhode Island. It was a very refreshing trip. It must say it was much needed.

We are getting much closer to sending out letters for our support raising. Our prayer cards might be going to the printer sometime this week. I am just about ready with the letter and addresses. I still need a couple of addresses for some on my list. If you want a letter either by email or paper mail please send me a note and include which address you want to receive the letter.

I actually have today off from work because there is not enough work in the shop. This is kind of good and bad. It is good because I am free to work on support raising today, and it is bad because I am not making enough money. Please pray for us in that regard.

It has definitely been good this morning because I was able to get most of the support letter written. It also makes me wonder if I should transition to full-time support raising. The problem with that is that we would need to raise more money to cover our living expenses now. We hope to wait to live on the support at least until we are about to move to Peru. Please pray for wisdom with that decision. I have definitely been encouraged so far to see God raising the money and making connections without us. That gives a real sense of confirmation that this is His work and He will see it done. When I see Him do things like that I think it would be best to continue working when there is work and work on support-raising when I can. Even with this economic crisis I am confident that God will provide for our needs. It is clear that He is calling us to go to Peru and I trust that He will make it happen.

Another big change in the Mills house

Satomi is mobile!

New Website!

Now there is a new website for the furniture project. You can find it at parishfurniture.com. They also have a new video describing the project on youtube.

Arrival of first pieces of furniture

Yesterday the family and I drove down to Zachary to help Don work on touching up some of the furniture that arrived from Peru. Don will be taking this furniture up to Charlotte, NC to meet Chris and Brad to start their trip fund-raising for the shop. Actually, I will be driving the furniture up to Jackson on Monday in case Gustav prevents Don from being able to leave.

Time to Pray

I remember a cousin of mine who is a missionary to Africa, Steve Mills, talking about the need to pray for missions just as an army needs to call in air support in war. This seems like a good time to pray for God to be preparing hearts and contacts for this ministry to work.

check out the website for a good description. critical time

Peru Mission Parish Woodshop Project

Recently, I saw an article about a completely un-contacted tribe on the border of Peru and Brazil. I started thinking about them and wondering what it would be like to have the privilege of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. I thought, “I used to want to do that,” that is, to bring the gospel to un-reached people in the world. I had to stop and ask myself, “What happened?” “Why am I no longer pursuing that?” Or “Why am I not there?” I have to answer partly because of sin. I have lost sight, forgotten, and allowed myself to get into sinful habits that turned me away from being of service to Christ. On the other hand, I must answer by saying God is preparing me to be of better service for His purposes. I am amazed at the sovereignty of our God and His graciousness in using such sinful people and even, dare I say, our sinful actions to bring about his glory. This brings even more confirmation and sears the gospel in my heart, compelling me to go out and share this wonderful news of our savior. While we are sinful, being clothed in Christ, God sees us as Christ and is pleased with us because of Christ. Though we often feel He is displeased with us, He is not because as one of my elders said, “He doesn’t see me, He sees Jesus in me.” What an amazing joy that all the world needs to hear.
The main reason I am not in the jungle right now is, I had this crazy idea when I graduated from college: I wanted to serve as a missionary but also wanted to learn a trade before going. Now it seems that without my realizing it, God has been preparing me for a particular ministry in Peru for the past ten years: The Woodshop Project with Peru Mission (http://www.perumission.org/content/posts/business-that-builds-community98.php). Over the years, He has given me a desire to learn the skill of woodworking and the privilege to work with men whose hearts were for Jesus and discipleship. He gave me a good taste of experience with ministry in rural Peru. He has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Megumi, and now our first daughter. He managed to get me through seminary with a Masters of Divinity and is even now allowing me to hone the woodworking and discipleship skills before we go to Peru.
My greatest desire is to be used by God to point the men I work with to Christ. I cannot change them but I have seen God change people through his Word. One of the most effective ways I have seen Him use me is in friendships working alongside and applying the Word to life. I may not always be the most faithful example but God is always faithful to make his Word real in our lives. The best way to put it is what my dear friend, Mike Boyett, has said, “While we shape wood, God is shaping us.” This can actually apply to any field of work. Can you imagine what the Church would look like if all Christians lived this way? Wouldn’t it be amazing if every believer went to work with Christ as their center and sought to bear witness to the people they work with. I know there are many faithful believers in churches who live this way, but I must confess there are far too few. Let us pray as our Lord commanded in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” It seems the Lord is raising me up to be a laborer for His harvest. I want to ask you to consider these things:

1. Please pray for my family as we prepare to serve Christ in Peru.
2. Please consider your own work and apply the life of Christ through it.
3. Please consider supporting us financially as all of the profits of this woodshop will return to the mission and to the community in Peru.
4. Pass this on to anyone you know might be interested in this ministry.

Still working!

The new post is getting closer to coming, though it has taken longer than I expected.

I also started a new job with another woodworker. This will be good experience to prepare for the work in Peru.

Our baby has been a blast! She might be part of the reason why we have not gotten this new post ready. She is also the reason why I have been posting so little lately. I have been too busy to get online.

New Activity to come!

There will be a new post in the near future about our joining Peru Mission!