Dear friends and family;
What a joy it was to celebrate the graduation from college of our youngest child Gabriella on December 12th! Gabby finished her undergraduate degree in English and we were blessed to have both Mary’s mom and some great friends in attendance. As Gabby moves into a new phase in life, we are amazed at the brevity of life! Seventeen years ago I walked with Gabby onto the campus of the University of South Alabama and heard her ask me, “Daddy when will I get to go to college!” I assured her it would be a long time before that happened…..and now it’s over! The brevity of life assures us that living with humility and wisdom is so very important. When we arrived to Mobile in July of 1998, I had no idea that we would still be actively involved in doing what we initially came to do at that time--- loving and ministering to international students.
We had a great meeting with Brenda Hinson the director of international student services at the University of South Alabama this past month. She is excited to have Mary and I working full time again with Friends of Internationals. The timing of the Lord is always correct as she informed us that USA is expecting a record enrollment for the spring semester. We are expecting 200 new students from Kuwait alone! We are being given a lot of favor from the University as we are planning on hosting our welcome dinner on campus. Due to the large numbers of new students, our use of the Wesley Center is now inadequate. In the past a hindrance from using on campus facilities has been the cost of catering but Brenda thinks she can get a food waiver and allow us to have a ‘potluck’ dinner. We will also request donations from local international restaurants who are in many cases owned by friends of ours! Please be praying for continued favor with the international students services staff on the campus. We are grateful for a good relationship with the university over our entire 17 years of ministry.
In order to help us build a new foundation for our involvement in the ministry of Friends of Internationals we called many who have been involved in the ministry over the years to a special Friday night prayer meeting. With so much going on in the world internationally including a recent terror attack on American soil, we felt it vital to seek the Lord together for wisdom and to hear His plans for us. We don’t want to do ministry based upon our own good ideas. Sometimes we just need to ‘wait on the Lord’ and let the Holy Spirit to speak to all of us in a special time of prayer. We would love to have you praying with us for wisdom and God’s strategy for reaching international students and refugees in 2016 and beyond!
Since we have stepped down from leadership of All Nations Community Church we are now partnering with a local missionary agency in Mobile to help with administrative and spiritual oversight. Jim has known the President of IGO for over a decade and has taught in their missions training school. It is with great excitement and anticipation that we begin a new partnership with this missions agency! Our financial support and newsletters will now be coming through this organization. You can give online at www.igoministries.org or by ordinary mail. Thank you for your continued support!
Love in Christ;
Jim and Mary
To Support the ministry of Jim and Mary Mather donations can be made to IGO with a memo for their support.
International Gospel Outreach
P.O. Box 1008
Semmes, Al 36575
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