Category: Quick Update

Praying with all prayer

By Jon Stover on December 12, 2019 in Quick Update

Greetings, praying friends and family!

As the December season progresses, we are grateful for the prayers of God’s people on our behalf. We are happy to report that, after a quick spark plug change and a not-so-quick air sensor change, our car’s engine light is now off! Praise the Lord that the repairs were did not need us to hire a mechanic to fix them! Thank you for all who prayed for us! God truly answers prayers.
With that said (and thank you again for your prayers), we want to ask that you keep in mind your own pastors in prayer. There are a number of pastors that I have contacted that are having surgeries, or are in and out of the hospital with sickness (or their wife is). I try to make a note of which pastors are in need of prayer and to pray for them, but let us remember to pray for the man of God that watches over our own church. I am so tremendously thankful for our pastor, and I know he prays for us regularly. Let us not forget to return the favor and pray for our pastors.
Our year is filling up nicely. Our Sundays in January- April are mostly filled, our May is half-filled (need a few more Texas churches to give us meetings), and our September and October are mostly filled. Our summer is still fairly sparse (only two meetings for the whole summer), and our November and December could use some filling (November is in California). Pray that we would fill in those meetings, as well as the one or two still lacking in the other months. Also, pray that we would get some Wednesday night meetings scheduled.

That’s all for now. Thank you for praying!

Planning for Next Year

By Jon Stover on November 19, 2019 in Quick Update

Greetings praying friends and family,

We have been blessed to have some much needed down-time this month. It has been an opportunity to continue to form our schedule for the next year. The two meetings that we have had this month (Anchor Baptist Church and Grace Independent Baptist Church) have been local, so we haven’t done much in the way of travel. We have however been quite busy making contacts since we have been back, which is a difficult balancing act when you are traveling. I made far fewer phone calls and send fewer emails in all of October then I have these last two weeks. That is the advantage of being stationary, I suppose. However, we are gearing up for the next year, trying to fill up the remainder of the year.
Speaking of our year, we have a rough shape of how our travels are going to take us. In January, as has already been mentioned, we are going to be out in Arizona. February and March see us in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland. March and April have us in the the Great Lakes area. May and June is back in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, with the rest of June is in Alabama, Missouri, and . July is still somewhat open, but we will probably be in that Midwest area (Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc.). We are planning our survey trip of August, so pray that all the details will work out. September and October has us in Pennsylvania and New York, and then out to California for November. December is still empty, but there aren’t a lot of churches that schedule missionaries in December.
And a quick update on our survey trip: we had Olena’s biometrics appointment today. Pray that the green card application would continue to go smoothly.
That’s all for now! Thank you for your prayers; we can see God working!

This is a website!

By Jon Stover on November 6, 2019 in Quick Update

It’s official! Stoverstogermany.com is up and running! It is obviously still a work in progress, as I am still sifting through the many, many options available to us. It is a little bit overwhelming, to be honest, but I’m sure God will give me the knowledge to figure everything out. I know it has been a while since our last update: I actually had one written for a while, but I was waiting to finish the website to actually post it, so there will be two weekly updates today, rather than one! Consider it my penance for being late with our updates, and my guarantee that it shall not happen again (guarantee not guaranteed).
We are back in Maryland after a very busy October, but God has been good and it has been a time of refreshing reunions. We have been safe throughout all of our travels, so that is an answer to prayer! At the close of my last update, we were at the BWM annual meeting. God was very gracious to allow us time to spend with the Mitchums, Lena’s adopted missionary parents. They were such a blessing to the both of us! Pray for them as they are headed back to Canada; their furlough had to be cut short, sadly, and they are still in need of support, but we trust God to show himself mighty!
The Sunday we returned, we had the opportunity to present locally at First Baptist Church in Deale, where the Boyds (whose family is good friends of ours) attend. It was nice to see familiar faces and spend some time getting to know Pastor Mayes and his wife.
We also were able to spend a week with our good friends Pastor David and Miss Tina Jett. It was a relaxing but cold time to be with them in the remote reaches of Marienville, PA and Forest Area Baptist Church. The fellowship there was wonderful, and I know Pastor Jett is excited at all the Lord will do there! We had the opportunity to visit with Pastor Don Pendley and see his vast and impressive Bible room. It was an astounding collection, and we were truly privileged to see it.
During the week we were able to swing over to Truth Baptist Church with Pastor Thompson in West Salem, OH, and encourage the brethren during the Wednesday night meeting! They are a wonderful bunch, and we pray that God will continue to use them.
Last Sunday we had the refreshing privilege to be at Anchor Baptist Church, where Torrey Snow, my beloved friend and brother in Christ, regularly attends. With all of the busy travels in October, we hadn’t had much time to spend with the Snows, and it was just a joy to be able to do so again.
I am a little over time, but hopefully we will be able to keep regular updates now that this major milestone is finished! Thank you as always for your prayers!

Prelude to a Website

By Jon Stover on October 16, 2019 in Quick Update

EDIT: So, this was written in the middle of October, when I was hoping to have the website up and running, but fell into a little bit of a conundrum. Thankfully, the website is now up (it’s not perfect, but we’re working out the kinks), and instead of adding to this post and making a massive wall of text, I made it into two, slightly less-massive walls of text. Enjoy!

It is a novel experience to be on the road more than at home. No, I mean to literally be behind the wheel of a car for more hours in a week than I spend at home. It is something that I can’t say I fully anticipated. But, God is good; He has kept us safe over the many miles!
Our travels have taken us to Indiana, New York, Maryland, and Illinois since my last post. Thompson Road Baptist Church, Open Door Baptist Church, Odenton Baptist Church, and now First Baptist Church (although we are here for the Mission Board conference, not a mission conference of our own). We have met many faithful brethren, and have been encouraged by what God is doing in our country. Sometimes we lose sight of that, since we only get to see what God is doing in our own local church. Don’t lose heart, my brethren; God still has His remnant that hasn’t bowed the knee!
We have many more travels ahead of us this month; we are back in Maryland this Sunday, Ohio next Wednesday, and Pennsylvania the Sunday after. We have a fairly full schedule for October, but we have openings in November and December that we would like filled. Pray that God would help us get meetings for those dates.
My minute of time is about up, so let me finish by thanking you for praying for our refrigerator. It has been repaired, praise the Lord. We got it back just in time to leave it behind for about two weeks. Still, it is good that everything is working now. Thank you again for your prayers!