Resignation from AG US Missions

Penny and I have resigned from the Assemblies of God US Missions effective Oct 31. We plan to continue to coordinate the IL Special Touch Get Away and the IL Special Touch Fall Retreat. I will soon be assuming the responsibilities of the the Executive Pastor here at First Assembly of God, Normal IL.
The following two letters were sent to all of our monthly supporters. These churches and individuals invested in us so that we could be full-time missionaries to people with disabilities. Please read on and you will see that the Lord's hand is in this and that this has been a spiritual journey for us.

September 2008

Dear Friends,

Penny and I want to share our hearts with you. For the past 3 years, we have been asking our Lord this question, "Lord are we doing enough in Your kingdom?" The parable of the talents played an important role in the Lord answering that question for us. We believe the Lord has been preparing us for a transition.

Many of you know that we left a very successful ministry position Elgin, IL in 1996. We had been on staff at First Assembly of God for 13 years in children's ministry. From our first week away, we missed church life. We knew it was the Lord's will for us to pursue missionary status, and, these past 12 years with US Missions have been a wonderful, fruitful season. We have seen numerous people with disabilities come to the Lord and find loving church communities where they can grow. However, we often sensed that there was more for us to do as we were not involved in daily ministry but only involved in ministry events. If you want to read more of this spiritual journey please read the next letter.

The church that we attend when we are not doing missionary services is First Assembly of God in Normal, IL. We have taught Sunday School classes, helped in kid's church, helped in nursery, conducted training events, volunteered on workdays, and participated in men's and women's events. As our roots grew deeper and deeper, we began to see more ministry opportunities. Penny was asked to work as part-time receptionist, and her computer skills and Excel abilities began to open even more doors of ministry for her. Soon she was asked to work full-time. Larry was elected as a deacon and provided pastoral leadership for children's ministry during the time that our church was without a children's pastor. Several deacons and other church leaders began to speak to him about serving the church in a pastoral role. After a season of prayer and seeking guidance from associates, we believe the Lord is calling us to serve the people of First Assembly of God. Larry will be the executive pastor, and we will be resigning from US Missions effective Oct 31st.

Although we are excited for this next season of ministry, this was not an easy decision as our hearts remain deeply connected to disability ministry and to those with disabilities. We will continue to coordinate the Special Touch IL Get Away, the Fall Retreat, and will play an active role in the chapter ministry.

We want to ask you to prayerfully consider transferring your financial support to our daughter and son-in-law, Jeff and Abby Hunt. Their pledge form is included.

In 1996 our church in Elgin sent Larry on a construction mission trip to South Africa to help Ed and Sonja Corbin, missionaries to the children of South Africa. It was a life changing experience. Since then we have both made the trip 3 times, and Larry has been over 2 additional times. We expected the Lord to send us to Africa as missionaries, but He did not. He is sending Jeff and Abby. They met in South Africa (full story in the included saga), fell in love 10,000 miles apart and had an African wedding in Elgin on December 2, 2006. Not only did they fall in love, their callings to South Africa merged as well. They hope to return to Rustenburg South Africa as independent missionaries by Feb 09. We ask that you prayerfully consider investing in their calling. You will soon be hearing from them and will learn much more about Engage Africa. This ministry is near and dear to our hearts, and we plan to play a very active role in their ministry. To learn more, visit www.engageafrica.com.

If you want to continue to invest in disability ministry and the work we will continue to do in Illinois, please transfer your giving to Special Touch Ministry, IL Get Away (pledge form included).

We cannot thank you enough for your support. We have been partners in ministry and know that without the faithful support of our partners, the kingdom of God would have been smaller than it is today.
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LORD ARE WE DOING ENOUGH
On New Years Eve in 2001 in our home in Waupaca, WI, we asked the Lord, “Are we doing enough in your kingdom?”

We began a season of exploration and began to seek the Lord. Our discontent continued, and life in WI began to be unfulfilling. We were living in our dream house that we had built with the help of friends, we walked to work at the Special Touch National Office and all was well, except we were not at peace. Every time we loaded up to drive to an IL mission service, we always felt like we were going home.

At a WI minister’s retreat, the speaker was Mark Rutledge, the President of Southeastern College our Assemblies of God college in FL. During a break, we discussed the fact that none of our AG colleges offered a degree in Special Education or even courses in disability ministry. During the next few weeks, we discussed with colleagues in disability ministry the need for a college based disability major. Penny and I prayed about moving to a college town and beginning to work on a doctorate in special education. During our time in WI, the IL Get Away stopped growing, and recruiting staff became a concern. As such, Larry applied to IL State University in Normal, IL and was accepted into their doctoral program. We sold our dream house, left Abby in Green Bay, WI and Rachel in Minneapolis, MN and headed to a small duplex two miles from campus and planned to live there for the four years it would take to complete the doctorate. During these next few years, the IL Get Away grew to become the largest of all of the Special Touch Get Aways, we began two new IL Special Touch Chapters and were being invited to mission conventions and mission services throughout IL.

This was an exciting season in our lives. Classes were going well, and we were having great services while living on offerings and pledges. However, we were still unsettled and believed it was because we were only living in Normal until we moved to an AG college to establish a new disability program.

Then the perfect storm: ISU would now require graduate students to take two courses per semester, and Assemblies of God US Missions (AGUSM) would only allow missionaries to take one course per semester. AGUSM denied our appeal; Larry had to drop out of the program.

So with our free time we began to get more involved at our church. As we presented ourselves for service, we began to make new friends and to extend our roots.

We had been asked to develop an online course for Valley Forge Christian College called Ministry to Children with Disabilities. We are now teaching our seventh section of CMOU 210 to online students that we have never met, who live in several different countries and are all reaping the benefits of learning more about how to minister to children with disabilities.

Our church in Normal experienced a significant drop in attendance and was in the middle of a pastoral transition. Larry was elected to the deacon board, and the pastoral search committee had selected Pastor Ed Garvin to candidate at Normal First. We had been on staff with Ed and Jodi Garvin in Elgin; Pastor Ed had done Abby’s wedding and was a speaker at several of the Special Touch Summer Get Aways. Pastor Ed asked Larry to coordinate children’s ministry in a time of transition. This went very well, and Larry enjoyed his new role and interactions as an interim staff pastor. It wasn’t long until folks at church began to see Larry’s gift mix in action, and several leaders began to speak to him about the possibility of joining the 1AGN staff. Larry moved into an office as Missionary in Residence, and Pastor Ed told him that he would never ask Larry to choose between church and Special Touch. As the weeks progressed, it became more obvious that the Lord was directing Larry into a full-time position at church as the executive pastor. That position is flexible enough to allow participation in both Engage Africa and Special Touch Ministry and to allow us to be involved once again in daily, church based ministry.

As you can imagine this has been a heart wrenching decision. We coordinated the IL Get Away in Elgin for 8 years while we served full time in church ministry; so this is nothing new for us.

From Larry’s first mission trip back in 1996 to South Africa, we knew that Africa would be a place of ministry for us. When we took our first ministry mission trip in 2003 to South Africa and ministered to the children, the poorest of the poor, we knew that the African call for help would ring in our hearts forever. Many of you helped fund our trips to South Africa. You allowed us to help Abby provide a disability conference and we were there in Africa when Jeff and Abby met.

You know that both of our daughters (Abby 32 & Rachel 30) have played significant roles in Special Touch Ministry. Rachel has been a caregiver and fund raiser for us for many years. Abby has been a caregiver, speaker, and recreation director with Jeff, as well. We met Jeff as a result of him coordinating a Get Away event for us. He and his staff provided an incredible field trip during Get Away to a facility he managed as part of his pastoral duties at Calvary Temple Christian Center in Springfield, IL. Although Abby and Jeff never met in the states prior to meeting in South Africa, their ministries did over lap.

Looking back it is so fun to see how God worked this out for Jeff and Abby and for us!!!! John Crabtree, one of Larry’s oldest ministry friends (way back to children’s ministry days, and he spoke at the first Special Touch IL Get Away!!), had been involved with Jackson’s Ridge (Ed and Sonja Corbin’s Children’s Ministry Center in South Africa) for 20 years. He was serving as the executive pastor at Calvary Temple in Springfield and hired Jeff as a sports outreach pastor. He knew Jeff had served in South Africa as a missionary associate and was planning to return to the children of South Africa some day. After Abby and Jeff fell in love and their callings merged (read more of their story in the enclosure), John Crabtree recruited them as New Creation Ministry, Inc. missionaries. John’s passion was New Creation Ministry, his networking, training, and recruiting ministry that he founded as a para-church ministry to help churches and missions. This was to be Jeff and Abby’s ministry base and spiritual covering. John and Larry had worked together on many projects, and Larry was one of John’s informal consultants. John went to be with the Lord last December and never lived to see Abby and Jeff, his first missionary appointment, placed in Africa. John will live on in our hearts and in their ministry. We are now exploring the possibilities of incorporating Engage Africa; so please pray for the Lord’s leading in this area. We see the benefits of a new not-for-profit ministry that could stream line fundraising for the children of South Africa. We want this to be fruitful, accountable and most of all pleasing to our Lord.

In closing, let us thank you once again for investing in our lives and ministry callings. Please prayerfully consider how you will transfer your support. We plan to be involved in both Special Touch and in Engage Africa so we are sure you will continue to hear from us.

We plan to resign from AGUSM effective Oct 31. The two enclosed pledge forms will replace your regular giving procedure. I am sure AGUSM will be contacting you soon; they might have a third option for you to consider. So to contribute to Jeff and Abby via Engage Africa, complete the enclosed pledge form and send it to the post office box. Penny will be processing your contributions and will send you your receipt. Checks should be made payable to New Creation Ministry and are tax deductible. To contribute to the IL Special Touch Summer Get Away, complete the enclosed pledge form and send it to Waupaca, WI for processing. These funds will be used for scholarships and expenses related to the IL Get Away. These gifts will also be tax deductible and will count toward AG World Missions credit if you complete that section of the pledge form.

We have written this numerous times but always from our hearts to yours: Thanks for investing in our part of the great commission. It has been an honor to be your missionaries to people with disabilities.
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Here is Jeff and Abby's story:

Our Story – Jeff & Abby

Anyone who returns from a missions trip will tell you that it was a life-changing experience. But in March 2005, two missions experiences overlapped and set into motion a chain of events that would profoundly, completely, and permanently change the lives of many people.

Abby Sauter was just beginning a two-year missions assignment in South Africa. She was busy learning about the culture and learning what it takes to run a baby shelter that would provide care for abandoned babies while preparing them to be adopted into Forever Families. Although she had departed from the states expecting to work in Africa for two years and then return to stateside children’s ministry, the children of Africa were quickly finding a hold deep in her heart. She was beginning to think of a future in South Africa.

Jeff Hunt had been in ministry in the states for a few years after completing his two-year missions assignment in South Africa, and he was feeling a continuous tug in his heart to one day return to the country and the children who had become a part of him. He often found himself in conversations with God about His timing and His plan. He made frequent trips to South Africa, leading missions teams and introducing as many people as possible to the people who had become his passion. However, he continued to wait, watch, and pray, knowing in his heart that when God sent him back to Africa, it would be with a partner, a soul mate, his wife.

On March 3, 2005, Jeff and his team, including Abby’s parents Larry and Penny Sauter, arrived in South Africa ready to spend the next ten days working construction projects at Jackson’s Ridge Children’s Ministry Training Centre to help missionaries, Ed and Sonja Corbin, and their team get the grounds ready for another year of kids’ camps and training conferences. As Jeff and Abby were introduced, neither they nor anyone who witnessed the greeting realized that the two hands joined in that moment would lead to two hearts joined for life!

During the next week, the two talked about ministry, missions, and South Africa. They discovered many differences, some similarities, and quickly found they shared a common passion for the people of South Africa. With each encounter that was fit in between hard work and spending time with parents, Jeff found himself wanting to spend more time with her, and he wondered if maybe this was the lady for whom his heart had been waiting. It seemed impossible – two years on separate continents being just one of the obstacles to a relationship!

When he returned to the states, Jeff began to email Abby and found that she responded quickly to his notes, jokes, and chatting. Although he had to work very hard in the beginning to capture her romantic attention, their relationship deepened. Once Jeff had captured Abby’s full attention, she quickly discovered, much to her surprise, that he had also captured her heart. After Jeff spoke with Larry and Penny, his relationship with Abby deepened to courtship, and the two began to speak often of their passion for South Africa and the fact that the Lord seemed to be leading them to combine their passions into one future.

Jeff and Abby are now making plans and laying the groundwork to return to South Africa as full-time missionaries. Their hearts cry out for the thousands of AIDS orphans that are in desperate need of earthly families and a Heavenly Father. They desire to partner with South African churches and empower families to care for the orphans in their area. This will require patience, sensitivity, training, creativity, and leading by example.

Dan Betzer once said that you will know if a vision is from God if it is too big for you to ever accomplish on your own. Jeff and Abby are excited to step into God’s vision for their lives and are watching with great anticipation to see how God chooses to fulfill this vision through them.
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If you would like to request a pledge form for Engage africa visit their web site. Their address is on the links section of my Blog. Pray for us in this season of transition, Larry.