David Gardner’s prayer letter

Dear Pastors and Praying Friends,

We thank God for all of the opportunities that he has given us to glorify His name during the month of October.

At the beginning of the month we hosted the Eleventh Annual Pastor’s Conference here in Arequipa. It was a great time to spend with pastors and church leaders while we also tried to help them with certain ministry tools for their home church.

We had pastors visiting from many cities outside of Arequipa and even other countries like Bolivia and Argentina. We were very blessed to have these people with us.

We also had the greatest combined choir we have had in the history of our ministry. There were approximately 100 people who volunteered for the choir during the Pastor’s Conference and they did an outstanding job honoring and glorifying the name of Christ.

On a more sad note, we received a call during the middle of October saying that my paternal grandfather had a major stroke and was not doing well. Soon after, papers were signed and he was taken home with hospice to die. My grandfather passed away, but it was a time of rejoicing as he walked into heaven to see his heavenly father who he had lived for with such fervency and love. Several family member contributed to have us come home for the funeral. So we were able to be a part of that and see the great amount of lives that he impacted around the world. Who would have ever thought that an old farmer could have a global impact while never going to the mission field himself? God receives glory in every aspect of our lives! Praise Him! Glorify Him! In all you do!

There is a major prayer request that I would ask you to pray with us about. When we got back, we took Katie to the doctors to see about her recurring thyroid problems and see the solution. We thought about it, and at the time it was Radioactive Iodine. This Iodine would actually burn part of her thyroid and make her hypoactive. The doctor had prescribed us the medicine and we were about to go buy it so Katie could move on with this.

The Doctor had asked us to go get a pregnancy test just to make sure she wasn’t pregnant. I said, “fine” since I knew we were avoiding pregnancy because of her thyroid issues. I went and bought a cheap pregnancy test ($1) and it resulted positive! I thought “Ah, thats a cheap one. I’ll go get a fancy one”. So I went an bought the fancy one ($1.50) and that resulted positive also.

After seeing the doctor, we know that Katie is definitely expecting and we are praying that all goes well. If you could please pray for Katie during this time, because it will be a high risk pregnancy and we do not know how long God will give us this child. Of course, we would like to see this child come into the world and be part of our family, so we are doing everything in our power to keep Katie’s thyroid levels where they should be and keep her resting as much as possible. She will probably be on bed rest for a good part of the pregnancy, so pray for patience for her.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, we know we can count on you to pray and rejoice with us during all of these times.

For His Glory,
David and Katie Gardner
Missionaries to Peru
Macedonia World Baptist Missions