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Alan & Jan Patterson & family
Missionaries to the island nation of Japan for years, the Pattersons have now moved back to the States to minister here at GFA. Dr. Alan Patterson is the assistant director of Gospel Fellowship Mission a fundamental, evangelistic, mission board. He and his wife Jan have three children: Hannah, Jeremy and Benjamin.
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TRIP TO CAMBODIA AND KOREA
On August 26 Alan will depart for a two-week trip to Cambodia and Korea.
One of GFA's deputees, Chris Seawright, had made plans to take a survey trip to Cambodia, and coupled with Alan's own desires to visit that field, the plans dovetailed into a workable arrangement. Alan will spend about one week with Forrest and Jennifer McPhail, GFA missionaries already serving faithfully in Cambodia, and with Chris, who will be there even longer. After Cambodia, Alan will be heading to Korea for about 8 days with the GFA missionaries there -Bill and Linda Stewart in the south and Ken and Rhonda Johnson and Doug and Barbara Threlfall in the northern city of Seoul. Cambodia has been reopened to the gospel for little more than a decade and is in desperate need of quality missionaries. Korea has been comparatively responsive to the gospel for over a hundred years, but creeping affluence has had a dulling effect on the witness and spiritual interest of Christians. This trip falls during the opening days of school for Hannah and Jeremy so Jan will need to stay back with the children.
RENEWED FELLOWSHIP
During our deputation days we were in dozens of churches, the majority of whom we have not had the opportunity to revisit over the last twenty years. However, in late July we did have the privilege of going back to one that Alan had visited alone when Hannah was hospitalized for meningitis in Columbus, Ohio.
As the Lord would have it, Hannah was able to be present this time. In fact, Hannah was the primary reason for our being there. She had spent the summer at Calvary Bible Church of Lima, Ohio, fulfilling her educational requirements for a church music internship. The people of Calvary Bible Church could not have been nicer to Hannah, and she came away with many new friends and experience in numerous areas of music ministry. An added blessing for her was the ministry of hosting several GFA families in the home where she was house sitting. As part of her training Hannah wrote an anthem, both the music and the words, and she played for the choir as they performed it on the same Sunday morning that Alan preached at Calvary Bible. Serving the Lord together was a spiritual treat.
THE DREISBACH LIBRARY
Though she does not go to the office every day, Jan is just as involved in our work as Alan is. She has several vital ministries, the most recent of which has been cataloging the Dreisbach Library. When Dr. Dreisbach's wife passed away, in order to honor her and to help the cause of missions, he generously dedicated their entire missions library to GFA. Jan and Pam Freeman have worked many hours and even days putting the information for these almost 1500 volumes into a database and then putting labels on each book. Now, in a specially designated room on the first floor of GFA, the Dreisbach Library is attractively arranged with the books on the beautifully stained wooden shelves and waiting for you to use them! Most of the books will be available for checkout, although some of the rare books are use-in-the-library only. We are planning a dedication of the library sometime in late September. It no doubt will prove to be an invaluable tool for those interested in missions.
PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Safety for and blessing upon Alan's trip to Cambodia and Korea.
2. Wisdom for the counseling and recruiting opportunities that always exist but that increase when Bob Jones University is in session.
3. The Lord's clear leading for a visit to missionaries in Europe this fall.
4. The Lord to save souls and add them to the church in Japan.
Some people have moved and though new contacts are being made, none have yet been saved.
In Christ,
Alan Patterson