Gordy & Bear Grover

Gordy and Bear have been serving with the E Free Church as coordinators for YouthBuilders Now the focus of the ministry is changing. The E.Free Church has decided to close down YouthBuilders. Gordy Will be working from a home office with the new CONNECT division. One of the roles Gordy will be playing, in terms of helping, is to handle Logistics for short-term missions teams and other CONNECT events. He's also leading the Training team in the CONNECT division.

http://www.efca.org/international/connect/shortterm/index.html

Prayer request from Gordy click here
Answer to prayer request click here
June Prayer letter Click here

One way EFCA CONNECT does this is by helping to coordinate short-term mission opportunities. We come along side of churches to assist and resource them to effectively send out short-term personnel for strategic ministry.

EFCA CONNECT seeks to network churches internationally and offer both individuals and teams meaningful "hands-on" participation in ministries linked with church planting efforts.

EFCA CONNECT provides high quality pre-field training for teams and team leaders, special resource materials, and coaching to help churches in long-term participation in ministry partnerships. For example: Click here to read about the Team Leader Training event that is offered regularly throughout the year.

Dear Praying Partners – Praise the Lord with us! We have a new pastor! It’s been so exciting to watch the last couple of weeks as the Lord has worked in His perfect timing to bring just the right man to our church. Gordy will be finishing up preaching a sermon series on Ezra, and once more become “elder-in-absentia’’ as we head to Peru for the summer. Pray with us: as Pastor Steve searches for employment in our area (he is starting out in a bi-vocational position)that his wife, Alice, may be able to smoothly transfer from the University of WI in Milwaukee to finish her master’s here in Menomoniefor a quick sale of their house, and just the right one to buy herefor their transition as a family (they have a 13 old son), from city, to small-town life A couple more praises: We had a wonderful week in New Orleans with the TouchGlobal crew. It was spring break week, so we spent many hours supervising high schoolers on several work projects. For Gordy, that was pure heaven. We’re looking forward to Peru.We were in St. Louis, MO, last weekend, for a Team Leader Training. Good mix of experienced and inexperienced team leaders, who will be taking teams to over half a dozen different countries this summer. Bear got to spend a lot of individual time with a young, apprehensive, first-time leader, who will be leading a group to help out in New Orleans in July. And our big prayer request for next week: Tuesday afternoon, May 6, is Bear’s long-awaited surgery. Dr. Coetzee goes in, cuts out some bone, takes out some hardware, puts some more in, realigns her ankle bones, sews her up… and sends us off home! Pretty amazing what they can do at the Quick Stop! But why spend a week in bed at a hospital, if you can spend a week in your own bed at home? Pray the Lord’s blessing on us and the doc. Thanks for praying with us!Gordy & Bear

May 8 2008

Hi again! Thank you so much for praying! Bear’s ankle surgery went very well. The doc removed the compression bolt that the first doc used to put Humpty Dumpty together. This doc believed it was affecting the motion of her ankle. He “scoped” the ankle joint and discovered a bone spur, which he removed. Then he manipulated her ankle every which way, while looking at the alignment of bones and clearance, etc. and he was satisfied with what he saw. So he did not re-break/realign her fibula, or remove any bone graft, as he initially planned. He said he “saw some arthritis in there,” but that’s to be expected considering the degree of damage she did in the fall and 15 years. Time will tell, but he’s confident that she’ll see significant reduction in pain, and it will heal more quickly than if he’d done the bone work. She has a follow-up visit on the 22^nd to remove stitches and check on her healing, and another on June 19 to check progress. Please pray that:1. Bear will be “good” and stay in bed with her leg elevated for the next week. (I may have to take her crutches away!)2. The results will allow her to ditch her brace (AFO) and cane.3. She will be able to build strength and endurance in that ankle.4. In the long run she’ll be smart and not abuse her ankle because it doesn’t hurt as much. She’s a worker and it’s easy for her to over-do. Thanks again for praying! Blessings, Gordy

June

Dear Praying Partners,

Only a few days left to pack and finish wrapping up everything before we leave for Peru. We head for the airport in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. It’s been a busy month. We trained two teams going to Congo and one that will be coming to work with us in Chincha. Continue praying with us about housing. We don’t have a place to live in Peru yet, although we may have a lead on an apartment, and will be going to look at it as soon as we arrive. We’ll have a few days in Lima to get oriented and buy some things to set up housekeeping etc. before we move to Chincha. Pray for us as we settle in, as we try to remember our Spanish, and for the teams, both American and Peruvian who’ll be ministering with us. Also pray that many churches from the States will send teams. The earthquake relief efforts are being paired with church planting plans by the Peruvian churches, and there will be a variety of outreach possibilities beyond construction: medical/dental clinics, VBS and other children’s ministries, family ministries, teaching English, and probably more as we understand the needs better. We expect to be in Peru off and on for up to two years, pretty much whenever there are teams to be coordinated. Christmas, J-term, spring break, and summer vacation are all feasible times for teams to come. We’d love to see you and a team from your church in Chincha! The weather is very nice in December through March or April! J We had another visit with the surgeon yesterday. Bear was getting a little discouraged with how slowly her ankle was healing, but he assured her that it’s going to be a very slow process and it will probably continue to be pretty painful for the next two or three months. So the cane goes along to Peru. No running shoes yet. Bear’s family has had a pretty rough month. Her mom’s brother, and her sister’s husband both developed pretty aggressive, fast-moving forms of cancer, and both passed away two weeks ago today. So we spent much of last week in MN. The good news is that both men came to a relationship with Jesus before they died. Bear’s sister has not been walking with the Lord. Pray that this will bring her close to Jesus.

Thanks for praying!Gordy and Bear

You can contact the Grovers at gordy.grover(at)efca.org (please note that in order to avoid email being added to spam lists, we've listed the Grover's email addresses above with the spelling of the @ sign; therefore when you email them, replace (at) with @) or you can contact them by mail at 914 29th Avenue NE #1, Menomonie, WI 54751, (715)688-9985(H+W)