Bartelt (Taiwan) Update – November 2022

Trust…

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
I’ve been traveling a lot in the last month. You might know that I have a terrible sense of direction and so I depend heavily on Google maps (the GPS on my phone.) The other day I was driving from Omaha to a church in Lincoln–a route I have driven many times, but I put my GPS on anyway and it routed me in a different way than I’d gone before. I pondered going the way I knew but decided Google maps must know about an accident or something that made this path better. I’ll never know if Google guided me in the best way, but it made me think about the times I question God and the paths He takes me on. I so easily trust that Google knows something I don’t, but I struggle sometimes to trust that God is God and knows more than I do. God answers Job’s questioning about why such hard things happened to him by telling him that Job is not God and cannot understand what God can (chapters 38-40.) God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. We can trust Him and His Word even when it might not make sense to our reason and feeble brains. Please join me in praying for faith that trusts that the God Who has saved us by Jesus’ death and resurrection will provide for and sustain us in all things!

Texas, Nebraska, Indiana, Michigan and North Dakota

Since I last shared, I finished three weeks in Texas, shared in Nebraska, attended a planning session and conference in Indiana and will be in North Dakota at the end of this week.

In Texas I was at the Lutheran High School of San Antonio where I shared about the music ministry planned in Taiwan and the idea that people new to Christianity need music in their own heart language and heart music to sing the Church’s song and to sing praise to their Creator and Redeemer. I saw many of my former colleagues, one of whom is a former student! I really enjoyed getting to see and catch up with my friends and Texas “family” members at Crown of Life Lutheran Church in San Antonio, where I was a member for fourteen years. They were so welcoming and generous! The students at Cross Lutheran School in New Braunfels, TX were incredibly receptive and shared their chapel offerings toward God’s work in Asia! I also got to share with the women’s Bible study at Cross Lutheran Church–New Braunfels, TX that same day and had dinner with a teacher and friend that evening. Finally, the people of King of Kings Lutheran Church in San Antonio welcomed me with a Texas breakfast taco fund raiser. I saw friends and former students and received a very warm welcome from the people and pastors.

Back in Nebraska I visited St. Paul Lutheran School in Utica, NE with the best-behaved students I’ve ever seen. They also have collected chapel offerings to help support music mission work. The Lydia Circle at Zion Lutheran Church in Omaha welcomed me two days later to their meeting. I’ve also reconnected with friends, colleagues and former students at Trinity Lutheran and Redeemer Lutheran in Lincoln, NE

At the beginning of November, the Rev. Charles Ferry, regional director for Asia, Deaconess Sandra Rhein, Dr. Martin Dicke and I met at the Good Shepherd Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana to brainstorm and make plans for future music ministry in Taiwan and Asia. We also got to enjoy some wonderful music and presentations at the Good Shepherd Institute.

At the end of this trip my parents and I took a side trip to Hillsdale, MI to see my nephew in his first college play, “Our Town.” He was the only freshman in the show and even played his violin, which made this aunt quite proud of him (among other reasons!) On the way back I got to chat and catch up with a former student who is a pastor of a church in Davenport, IA. It was such a blessing to hear how God had guided him to faith and into ministry and to hear that he remembered things I had said and taught him fifteen years ago. We don’t always get to hear how seeds grow, so this was something I will treasure!

As of now, my last presentation will be at my college church in North Dakota the end of this week. I am looking forward to catching up with old friends and sharing this new ministry with them.

PLEASE GIVE THANKS FOR…

• safe travel
• wonderful reunions and new friendships
• God’s faithful provision for all our needs, especially for salvation and faith/trust in Him

PLEASE PRAY FOR…

• continued safe travel
• my visa to come through so I can depart for Taiwan in January

PLEASE feel free to email me (Rebecca.Bartelt@lcms.org) with any prayer requests I can bring to God in my prayers!