Dave & Mitzi Shinen – Hessel Church

A Place To Call Home

Hessel Church

Ministries

Calendar/Bulletin

Media Archive

Sermon MP3's

Coming Soon!

Dave & Mitzi Shinen

Box 139
Gambell, AK 99742

dave_shinen @sil.org

Serving with SIL International in Alaska

Dave and Mitzi are with SIL International. The Shinen’s work is to provide the New Testament, portions of the Old Testament, and other Christian literature in the Yupik language. They work with the long-established Yupik church in Alaska, and the recently planted church among the Yupiks in Russia. This work enables the Yupik people to more fully understand God’s written Revelation to them in their own language.

Click here for a downloadable prayer card for your PDA.

Letters

April 2008

Dear Friends,

We notice by the calendar that spring has sprung, but it hasn’t arrived here yet. In fact, we’ve had an unusually cold winter which is continuing. We’re thankful for a warm house (and warm hearts!)

We’re also grateful for you and your prayers which keep us going here.

We initiated weekly readings from the test edition of the Yupik New Testament at the Presbyterian Church, and it’s been so good to have various people from teens to elders reading at each Sunday a.m. service. These have been received very well as people are hearing the Word in natural Yupik.

Dave wants to encourage the other church in the village to do the same, as well as the Yupik churches in Savoonga, Nome, and Anchorage. Please pray for this to be done. Besides being a blessing to the people, it is giving the translation team some good constructive feed-back as well as encouragement.

Beulah and Dave are working on getting the Scripture books, which have been approved by the consultants, ready for the graphics arts team to begin preparing them for publishing. The team has been doing some major tweaking as needed, which is improving them a lot. Thank you so much for your prayers for this, specifically.

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) have a team in Savoonga for a month and they will be coming here soon. Pray for an effective ministry here on the island. We are blessed to have a team coming here for about a month, twice a year.

There are three young men we’d like to ask you to pray for: Jonathan has been a Christian for about 4 yrs, and he struggles with self-esteem but wants to follow the Lord. Davis recently accepted the Lord but has a struggle with alcohol, and needs to lean on Christ for His strength. Sam also recently made a commitment to Christ. He is Beulah’s nephew and she is a big encouragement to him. He and his father lost their home to a fire about a year ago, so that has been difficult for them. But Sam is growing in his walk with the Lord

Please continue to pray for the church leaders. They have been continuing without a pastor for almost 3 years and they are growing in their responsibilities. We believe that God will continue to equip them with what they need as leaders in the church, as Paul wrote in Eph. 4:11-13.

An update on our family:

Our grandson, Erik and wife, Cami had a sweet baby girl named Isla (as in eye-lah). She is a happy, healthy baby, but her hip sockets seem to be not completely formed so the doctor is deciding what, if anything, needs to be done. Pray for Isla.

Our daughter-in-law, Lynne, has resigned her position as nursing supervisor in order to reduce her work load so that she can spend more time with their 7-yr-old daughter, Bailie. The family is in transition as David is seeking a job which fits his abilities, and they are trusting the Lord to lead him to the position of His choice. Please pray toward that end.

We pray for all of you, our prayer partners, and thank the Lord for you.

In His love,

Mitzi

Mitzi (and Dave) Shinen