2025
January-March
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Most of the time the above words we hear those arranged differently. They are spoken in the order of life and death situations. But with this update I would like to share some things concerning missions about death and life. If you have not heard by now, my dad took a sudden decline of health in December which was brought about by a cancer that had unknowingly progressed to the point that he was diagnosed on a Friday and 9 days later he died. Many of you that had gotten word of the situation were so kind in your many avenues of prayers, offers of kindness and condolences. God’s mercy and grace were on display in so many ways, especially in his kindness of allowing me the opportunity to get to be there for his diagnosis, decline and death. Kelly was not able to get to go because of her own health issues that thankfully seemed to be mostly cleared up at this time.
Here is a part of a missionary’s life that many may have not considered but hopefully may find a lodging place as you pray for those you support as they live where they serve. Part one, the choice and cost of living out Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Leaving Virginia there were cost that were incurred by our parents (we were not going to be there for them when it seemed or felt like we were wanted or needed) a cost incurred by others, (my sister and Kelly’s sisters had and have to bear the greatest portion of assistance as needed) We have the cost that comes with personal desire and the duty of a call. The birthdays that pass unattended of parents, kids, and grandkids, moments of crisis that a are met with a great desire to assist but can’t. We all want choices that come without consequences but there really is no such thing. At times in choosing to love God, follow God and stay where he is, it will feel to us, it may feel to others that we hate those we really love. That’s why he worded the text the way he did.
The call of God does not change because a situation changes, I have saw many times that this is when people mistakenly and tragically leave their post. They listen to the internal and external pressure that if they really love their family then they must return, but biblically for Kelly and I to really love our family we must stay. We are blessed with a great family that have so graciously accepted the cost that both comes to them and us. My last words to my dad were of how proud I was of the way he finished, his last words to me was that he was proud of me. A kind gift from the Lord that helped me once again leave not father and mother, this time just mother, and a sister that as she took me to the airport encouraged me to trust God and them to do their part. How blessed I am to have family that is so helpful, and you all as supporters (I believe the best there is) But I realize that not every missionary has the family nor supporters that I do so I hope this may help you thinks about a portion of their life that they may not feel comfortable talking to you about, the affects death can have on life.
With much love and gratitude Mike and Kelly
October- December
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Our October through December is a great mixture of opportunities as well as events. We just returned to Wyoming after 50 days and some 8000 miles on the road that allowed us to be in 38 services. Our opportunities consisted of 1 missions meeting, 1 marriage revival, 1 camp meeting, 3 church revivals, 5 visitations to supporting churches and a special day in Hilliard Florida as we got to celebrate their home coming and also the begging of their new pastor. It was a blessed and unique opportunity for my last Sunday there in June to mourn with them over the loss of their long time and great Pastor, then to get to celebrate the entrance of the new pastor was a special time for Kelly and me.
Now that we are home, we get to stay in service as we look forward to working at our home church as Kelly gets to speak at a ladies gathering and I get to speak for both Sunday services. We always look forward to our joint services for Thanksgiving at Arapahoe and then our big Thanksgiving gathering here on Thanksgiving Day. Lord willing, we are expecting 30 some this time around with some of usual folks traveling to other places. After Thanksgiving we head to Cheyenne on Saturday for a ceremony for one of our Church members and dear friends get shipped out for a year deployment to somewhere in the Mideast. Then we travel that night to Gillette to fill in for the day, that leads up to Lord willing my surgery on the 5th in Jackson Wyoming.
Now for some tidbits on a personal note, in September Kelly and had the opportunity to just get our for some personal time. We took about ten days to go places we had never been before and places where we knew no one. It was more beneficial than I would have imagined. It allowed us to hit the road much more refreshed than I had been in some time. Another blessing we received was that my sister and her husband came out our way for their anniversary and brought alone my parents to spend time with us. I never thought they would get to come back and see our house as well as the works we get to be involved with here. It was such a great time. A note of tragedy, while we were on the road we got word; some of you may remember Brother Fritz that started and pastored the work at Fort Washakie, his wife, his daughter and granddaughter were all died due to a faulty gas appliance from carbon monoxide poisoning. We were both stunned and saddened by the news and Mrs. Kristy will surely be missed.
As a closing note, we are excited about being here in Wyoming for the winter and we are also working on several things to get accomplished while we are here. We have also had a great uptick in folks interested in folks wanting to come visit, to come and learn, to come and work this winter. Most of the time folks don’t want to be near here this time of year. Thanks as always for all you do to make this ministry possible. Love Mike and Kelly
July-September
Dear friends and supporters is not just an empty phrase used to start our letter, with each passing year and opportunity to grow and work with year, I am reminded of Paul’s letters and how he used so many names in the as he wrote. Some of you I have barely or never met face to face, while others we have grown with over the years but each of you, we cherish that we know you were handpicked by God to be a part of our lives and ministry. We also have learned and mirror Paul’s desire to be with you in person. We are grateful for the financial support, but we know the greater gift is yourself.
One of the opportunities we had over the last quarter was a three-week opportunity to cancel our previously scheduled dates and head to Hilliard Florida at the request of one of our longtime friends and supporting pastors was there dying of cancer and requested we come and be there for him, his precious family and dear church while he passed. We will always cherish this rare and precious experience with Pastor Harrington, his family and the folks at Buford Grove. Never have we been given such a chance to watch and learn how to finish as we did with him. Thanks so much to his family and church for sharing this time with us and thanks to all of you who so kindly gave us the chance to do this by being willing to let us cancel our time with you, prayed for us and them during this time and again funded us to just go where the Lord sends us in our service. Please keep this church in your prayers as they seek God’s will for their next pastor.
After being gone so much on the road over the past couple of years is a welcomed time of getting to serve in and around home. We are grateful for all the places he sends but no place is our heart fixed than on our ministry in the west. Since our arrival back here we have gotte the opportunity to get back on some our work projects. We have picked by up a little on the remodeling work at Shoshoni, had a group in to finish the garage project at Lander and by the help of the Lord we are trying to get a few things in the done column here at our home and headquarters. The is also allowing us the chance to visit some of the works around us and by his grace pick a new one in Utah that we have not previously worked with. With each passing anniversary, as we began this work fulltime on July 1st, 2009, we are continually amazed at the sight that has been given to faith. In those days we had no given places to work, just the call to go. In those days we didn’t have a list of supporting churches and folks, just a few precious loaves and fishes. But the Lord is so good at what he does is we will just seek him first; you are proof of his promise to add all the rest. Thanks so much for your faithfulness to him, to us and to those we serve. Our desire over the next year or so is to visit as many of you as we can. Lord willing this fall we are going to try to get to a few of you, then our desire is around the 1st of the year to try to contact as many as we can to get by in April and May before we head back west for the summer season. As always is you have any questions or need anything please feel free to let us know.
March-June 2024
A belated happy New year to you all, after about a 3-day delay, we made it back to Wyoming on March 7th. We can both say that it is good to be home for a bite especially for Kelly who on our way out of Kiana came down with the flu and has been battling lingering problems with it since our arrival home. The Lord was kind that for our entire time of just over 3 moths neither of us were sick, so to have it at home is such a blessing. Our time in Kiana was such a blessing for both of us, as with you all life and ministry can bring many trials and it seemed prior to our departure in November they were piling up. In fact, much of last year that seemed to be our lot. But this past 3 month the Lord gave us a trip as he says in Psalm 23:2b “he leadeth me beside the still waters” I had preached on most all portions of the 23rd Psalm but had never really grasp this short portion. But there in Kiana he began to teach. Unlike the green pastures that is a resting place, a place of lying down. A time of doing nothing for the purpose of like Elijah of resting and feeding. But the still water scene is not a resting place, not a place of inactivity, “he leadeth me beside”, but a place of refreshing during activity. I am reminded of the many scenes I have seen played out in western movies, as the cowboy who is shot multiple times lies in the desert to the brink of perishing and along comes someone with a canteen of water. Amazingly, with just a few drops poured across the face along with a few sips in the mouth he is reinvigorated to go on to continue the journey or the fight. While our case might not be so dramatic, it was no less refreshing. We had work to do while we were there, 7 services a week, with 4 of them occurring on Sunday. Preaching at 11, Sunday school for those 4 to 12 at 2:30 then teen time at 4:30 then back again for night service at 6:30, Wed night regular service, Thursday night king’s kids and then R U on Friday night. Beyond that the duties of ministry and regular work of living in the Artic during the winter. However, during this time he let me drink from the fountain of his word to be far removed from all the issues that were going on in the lower 48 and just focus on the needs of the local folks in Kiana. What a joy to just feed and nourish them and minister as he gave opportunity, what a joy it was for David and Tammy Youngblood to share with us their home and ministry while they took care of needs that they had.
Also, while we there we able to complete a book project that began in St Mary’s which is now printed and available if desired. Letters from Papa “My journey to Wainwright” is intended to be a resource for younger folks as a project for homeschoolers or for a resource for Sunday schools who have a desire to learn about the missionary experience. We are doing this as a part of or mission work and not intended to make or raise money with, but just another desire to help other understand and be involved in missions. If you would like more information, please feel free to give me a call.
Finally, we had planned on taking some time off during the month of March for rest but that has not been the desire of the Lord as he is saw fit to have us serving somewhere each week till we hit the road around the middle of April for a couple of months. We are trying to get to as many of our supporting churches as we can that we have not been to in over 3 years, and if we don’t get to you this spring our hope is to get there next spring. Thanks, as always for all your prayers and support!
November 23 – February 2024
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Due to our Unique schedule this year we are still doing our updates a little different. We are getting ready to leave on the November 27th to head back to Alaska to serve in the Arctic Village of Kiana through the month of February. Lord willing our next update will come when we get back to the lower 48 in the month of March.
Our finish to the year has been much like the earlier part as we have continued to face various trials both physically and Spiritually. But also like the earlier part of the year we have been blessed to see the Lord save some and encourage others. In August we hosted our 1st ever mission rendezvous here at our home church in Lander. The Lord went way above and beyond our plans or expectations. He sent us about 50 or so of his servants from Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alabama, South Carolina and West Virginia. Thanks so much to Brother Gary Brooks, pastor of Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in Rapid City for the preaching, the Drehear Goodman family from South Carolina for providing the music, to our home church at Lander for allowing us to host it there and also Jimmy and Melissa Perkins our eastern division for all the help. Finally thank you all who help support such efforts in prayer and financially.
We also were blessed to host our largest group ever in late July and early August in our home. We all were a little nervous about how this was going to work out but safe to say the Lord again went above and beyond and we got share in some special services and create some long-lasting memories and hopefully friendships as well.
During the middle of these 2 events, we had another grandchild born here. Ember Lynn Greer was born early and healthy, we were so glad the Lord allowed this when we had a couple days to get to be there for the blessed event.
From the end of September though the 1st of November we on the road with opportunities to preach some meetings in some of our supporting churches as well some new ones for us as well. Currently we have been back in Wyoming for almost 3 weeks and just finished up our annual Thanksgiving celebration here at our home. We were expecting our numbers to be down a bit and with a winter storm coming we didn’t know how it would go. But glad to report we had the most folks ever with 49 and then got about 20 inches of snow to boot. What a blessing to see all the folks and here the laughter and fellowship throughout the house.
Now our efforts have turned into making final preparations for our next 3 months in Kiana. We are excited for the opportunity for the Youngbloods to get to spend Christmas with their family, also be praying as Mrs. Youngblood will be having eye surgery in January and for her recovery. This are special folk indeed and grateful for the opportunity, it has been almost 4 years since we were last in this village.
As the year comes to an end let us say thank you to all of you that have been so supportive and prayerful during this past year. We also sincerely desire your prayers continue as oppositions seem to be ever present these days. Please pray that we stay not just faithful in service but right hearted in everything he gives us to do. Merry Christmas, happy new year and we love you.
July-September 2023
What a year it has been since we last reported in. As most of you know since our last update in January, we finally got to make the trip to St Mary’s, Alaska, and were blessed to be there from the 1st of Feb. through the end of May. Our time there yielded way to much to try to share in a one page letter, so I am not going to try, but hope in days to come we will get the opportunity to come by and share much more with you in person. What I can say is that we have never seem to have more go wrong than we did this trip, but at the same time, we’ve never gotten to see and experience more Spiritual blessings than we did this trip. We are so thankful to Brother Israel Warren, his wife Rebekah, and his kids for letting us come and get to be a small part of the big work the Lord is doing up there. We’re also grateful for the many folks from there that the Lord allowed us to meet and share a little place in their lives and family. And to you who give and pray for us to be able to go the places we go and do the things we do. For those who have prayed, gave ,and asked about some of the medical things that occurred, the end of the finger that I cut off has miraculously grown back to the place you would never know it was gone. Kelly may have to have surgery on her shoulder that was injured during the snowmobile wreck we had, Lord willing we will find out more next month, but other wise we both have done well and look to return to Alaska at the end of November, to another village for 3 months.
Since returning from Alaska, the Lord has taken us back and forth across the country twice, to Utah and back twice and are currently in Wyoming getting ready to host our largest group that we have ever had come. Lord willing, Saturday we will have 28 from NC arrive to learn about missions in the West and also help with some building projects. After they depart, by the help of the Lord, we head back to Utah to do a family camp for a church. We also are really excited about next month. Lord willing, IMS will be hosting our 1st ever meeting starting on the 24th of August in hopes to be an encouragement to many that are serving on the field of Utah, and locally, here in Wyoming. We have a Pastor from Rapid City, SD, that will be preaching and the Goodman family from SC. will be providing the music. We are calling it the IMS Missionary Rendezvous and look forward to worship, prayer, singing, eating, and playing together for a few days, in hopes to help strengthen one another in the work we share. This will also be the 1st time we will have all of our IMS staff and trainees together. I don’t know why the Lord has given favor to be blessed the way we have, but we are grateful to Him who has called us and you He uses to help us. Please pray that we will have physical and Spiritual strength to serve. Love you all
October -December Update
Busyness does not equate Godliness; one can be so active that we disconnect with the God we are called to serve. So, when the headline says lot of news it is not to highlight the quantity of our activity but rather his. September began with a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation where brother Ken Trivvite and his wife have served faithfully for several years. It was great to be there, it was a great honor that we were invited to sing each night with their Lakota choir, and for most of the services we were blessed to transport back and forth a Choctaw who has been Pastoring in Oklahoma for many years. I relish any opportunity to learn and grow and this was a great opportunity to do both as he was so willing to teach. Lord willing, he has invited us to attend a meeting next year to meet many other native pastors.
Our month moved forward as we have had gentlemen from Louisiana visit and then returned for a second visit with his wife. They sense the Lord is calling to come and help in the Wyoming and Lord willing will be coming to our area for training and help us and then see what the Lord does from there. This is so exciting to see as the Lord adds this kind of help and opportunity to ims.
Next, Kelly had her surgery and was in the hospital for a couple of days, her recovery is said to be about 12 weeks, so she is not traveling with me this fall. I miss her, and those along the way do too. Our hope is for complete recovery before we head to Alaska at the end of January. So far, she has done great. Just adapting to a new way of life for now.
Upon her getting home, I headed out to a new door of opportunity in Utah, what a treat and blessing to meet these new folks and we are looking forward to seeing what the Lord does with this in days to come.
We were also dumb founded in September as we received a call from one of our supporting churches to not plan on driving east this fall but to fly instead. They let us know they had a new vehicle for us to use. It is undeserved, unmerited and unexpected but as with all we have committed to; the Lord has supplied far above and beyond anything we could have ask or thought. No way can we repay their kindness but hope the Lord uses it for his glory. Ps with all the grandkids the Lord has added this year, it will come in handy too. (Below you will see a photo)
As for what is ahead, the Lord has me on the road through the 2nd of November in Florida, Alabama, NC, and TN. Once I return to Wyoming to serve the rest of November. Lord willing in December we are going to try to take some time off to be with family. If the Lord sees fit we hope to have all our kids and grandkids together for the 1st time in I believe about 6 years at our home here in WY. And for you that pray and ask about our son Daniel, (thanks!) he is planning on being there too. There are some other new things in the works as well, but I will save them for January when I have a few more details. Thanks as always for your friendship and partnership in his work.
Itinerate Missionary Services July-Sept update
Special update: The Vision for The Next 13 Years
Hab 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Dear Supporters,
This is not our usual quarterly update on our recent and upcoming work and but rather a more comprehensive update as we reach a milestone in ministry. For 13 years I was blessed to start and pastor Faith Baptist church; now as of July 1st, 2022, I will have finished my 13th year in Itinerate missionary Services. That means now I have been doing this longer than any other thing in my life. When we stepped out in this direction I would have never in my wildest dreams imaged all the Lord would bring to pass in this time frame. So many blessings, of provision, people, places and events. Many hurts, heartaches and fears that we would have never chosen but in following we have been helped by him to not go around things but by his help go through things. When we set out it was surely by faith, but we praise him for so much that has now become sight. His word, his way accomplishing his will. Over this time, we have traveled some 700,000 plus miles by car and several by air and by his grace and mercy he has protected us from breakdowns or crashes along the way.
The Lord has also reminded me in recent days of something that he has given me to live by in Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. With that reminder came the understanding that if the Lord tarries and allows me to stay at it, at end of my next 13 years I will be 68 years old. It is because of this wisdom that comes with numbering my days that I write to you and update you as to where we are with the Lord now and if the Lord sees fit our plans for days to come. You all are such a treasured part of our lives that we want you to know as much as possible about the work he has called us to.
With that said, the purpose of this letter is to lay out for you as best we can what the Lord has given me for our calling for the next 13-year segment and some insight as to what lies beyond this next segment. The bible clearly states in Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. To be beneficial and successful we must be guided by God given words of instruction for our lives and so we share with you what we have so far.
1st Continue in the work the Lord has given unchanged in our call and purpose
During this past 13 years I have been asked a few times by some of the finest of folks to consider pastoring their church that was without a pastor but our call to this place in missions has remained firm. I have been asked on a couple of occasions to consider committing full time to evangelism, but the truth is the same, our call remains the same. When we set out there was much, we did not know but over these last 13 years he has taught us so much and clarified so much that it is our hope and desire to continue in those things. Lord willing, we will continue to fill in for missionaries, help with churches that are in a unique situation in a change in pastoring or without a pastor. We still look to continue to provide training for both supporters of missions as well as those looking to enter the mission field. Lastly as the Lord see fit, we hope to continue sharing by moments of evangelism to our supporting churches and those to whom he sends things he has taught us about himself.
2nd Expand the reach of IMS as the Lord provides opportunity & people
We were blessed in 2021 to have the Lord add our 2nd family working in the area of Itinerate Missionary Services. Jimmy and Mellissa Perkins from Liberty Ky came on board and have immediately gone to work helping in the area of mentoring a church that has been without a pastor for some time. Along the way we have met others that are interested in doing this kind of work and it is our hope that the Lord would add others to help fill a need that has increased as it seems there is s decrease in men with a call or heart for pastoring.
3rd Prepare for the future of My wife and I, as well as Itinerate Missionary Services
Growing up I was taught that a preacher never retires, they just refire. However, after doing what we do, I have learned that we as men of God may have a dream of dying in our strength; that may seem good but about the only way that will be accomplished is by dying young. I often see men unknowingly help destroy the work they have given their life building because of the same teaching I had gotten from men and not the Bible. Psalm 90:12 says, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. I don’t speak of retiring so much as I do of learning to live within the realm of God’s will all the way home. I understand that in my 70s and 80s if the Lord sees fit my natural decline will likely not allow me the miles and hours that I currently serve in. My plan at the end of the next 13 years when I am 68, is not to retire from service but to drop back the number of consecutive days we are active. Our hope is that as we do serve, we can be as fresh and wholly committed as possible. If it is still available, I plan on going on social security and notifying our supporting churches to decrease our support by a given percentage as we step into our last phase of life. I don’t believe I should take full support for doing less work. The reason that I am telling you all this now, is that the Lord has given me that I need to start preparing for this time financially during the current 13-year period. All our life we used outwardly all the Lord has given us physically and have never reserved anything for days ahead physically. My goal for the next 13 years is not to build a reserve to step out of the realm of faith but rather to put back money personally for the yearly expenses that are taken care of by way of offering from our travel verses the regular support we get in. Examples are such as insurance on vehicles and property, home and car maintenance, as well as taxes on property and such.
I also will be preparing, praying, watching and listening as to how the Lord wants Itinerate Missionary Services to finish. By that I mean, does it need to die with me? or does God have someone else that he raises to lead this work into the years ahead? I don’t have answers to those questions at this time but will surely try to follow the Lord in theses next 13 years to listen and see what he wants to do. If you have any questions or concerns about any of this please ask, I love you all and want you to be as informed as I can about what the Lord has given me in living out the number of my days as your missionary.
Finishing our 13th Year (April-June 2022)
Dear Friends and Supporters,
As our headline says, it is hard to believe that during this quarter we will finish up our 13th year of Itinerate Missionary Services. I pastored Faith Baptist Church for 13 years and so as we kick off our next 13 years we will be doing this longer than anything else we have done in our life. Psalm 90 verse 12 has been a guiding verse for me: So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our heart unto wisdom. With that it means, that if the Lord sees fit our next 13 years will take us to the so called golden years and the portion of life were things seem to decline. That means we must do all the Lord will allow in this next portion to carry out the work he has given us.
The Lord has been teaching me a lot over the past 6 months or so about finishing life and ministry the right way. It doesn’t seem to just happen accidently but like all the rest of the work of God it is to be done on purpose with purpose. So with that said we are currently underway seeking and planning for the next 13 years and hope to give you all a summary in our next news letter in late July of what the Lord has given.
One thing that is new, is that we have a newly designed website. Our old went obsolete in its programming, which at the time was not seen as a blessing. The older I get the more I like things to stay the same electronically, but as many things with the Lord it turned out to be a good thing. We now have a new site that not only looks better but after I learned the program actually works much better. Our site address is the same itineratemissionaryservices.net . If you get a chance check it out and we have a page now where we can share pictures and notes from our travels with also, (if it works) and opportunity for you to correspond on the page as well. In time I will be doing away with my facebook page and will solely use this platform for keeping folks updated beyond our regular newsletters.
Another new for us is our latest Grandson being born on March 16th. Henry Greer came into the world on a great Wyoming day (in the middle of a snow storm). I was preaching while he was being born and shortly after Kelly and I got to go stand in the falling snow and see him through the hospital window. We are excited as he is our 1st family member that has been born in the west.
Currently we are continuing our year he seems to have given of being on the road. We are presently in Rapid City SD for a missions meeting I am preaching, then we head home for a couple weeks and afterward Lord willing back on the road for the next month and half or so. We are also trying to get to as many of our supporting churches that we can that we haven’t visited in 3 plus years. So some of you we may call, some we may just drop by as the schedule allows. Thanks as always for all you do for us and those we serve.