Hear the Latest from Chipper Fyfe

Greetings from GoServ Global

And so it begins, both this newsletter and my adventure in full time mission work! On April 27th we packed the last of my belongings and drove them down to Albert City, IA to the apartment waiting for my arrival. I had the wonderful help of my parents to get everything moved in and somewhat organized, and then I was home. After that I had the month long process of unpacking and organizing, but finally, the apartment is organized! Now I just need to learn how to keep it clean, but you know, bachelor life.

A Look at Our Projects

I’ve hit the ground running. We’ve had lots of projects to work on and our to do list keeps getting longer. I am now the third staff member with GoServ Global Domestic which means our capabilities and production potential has tripled at least in the past year. Now, we are not only ready to respond to a natural disaster but we’re beginning to have opportunities to bless our community, neighbors who are in need, and other ministries by helping with work projects that they have. I’ve been put in charge of many construction projects that come to us, being the one with the most construction experience which has given me a new experience in the process of building projects. So far, I’ve only been the guy who shows up and does the work, but now I am learning the planning and ordering part of construction jobs. I have also been put in charge of a lot of the administrative duties, like filing paperwork, creating forms, things like that. We created an office space for ourselves, did quite a lot of organizing of our resources, did a couple of projects for the local fire department, and this past week worked on renovating a house for a ministry in North Omaha. Looking ahead, we have a siding job for a local farmer, and are planning to spend a week in Ames helping another ministry by siding a house for them.

But the best project of these past couple months was the Saturday we got to help clean up a lady’s backyard. Some storms had come through the area and it seemed as though the storm just picked her backyard to tear up because she had several big branches broken off her trees, but her neighbors were virtually untouched. A church in the town actually heard about her need and contacted us to see if we could bring our skid loader. So on Saturday morning we showed up with the machine and the church showed up with ten guys and their chainsaws and it was all cleaned up in a matter of three hours. What a great sight it was to see the church doing gospel ministry, being the helping hands of Jesus to their neighbor, reaching out to her, even though she was not a part of their church.

A Personal Look Within

However, as wonderful as it has been to be here doing this work, it has been a tough time for me personally. As part of the GoServ Global policy, I’ve gone through a couple of assessment programs to learn my strengths and weaknesses and areas for growth. What I learned from them is that I carry with me a good deal of stress and anxiety and guilt, worrying about if I’m doing everything right at every moment of the day, acutely aware of the hundreds of tiny mistakes I make every day. And because of that constant awareness I’ve learned to live under a cloud of low level depression, being constantly aware that I am doing something wrong, or at least could be doing better. And I’ve also realized that I can get overwhelmed easily when there’s too much going on, and I’ve definitely had too much going on recently with all the changes involved with moving and learning a new job and job skills, not to mention the myriad number of tasks I take on, without realizing that I am overloading myself. And that’s also been compounded by thinking about and reading about all the division and chaos happening in the world today.

So all of that has been to say this; although I have not been doing well, God is faithful. He has been very faithfully caring for me in big and small ways. Just this morning, I bumped into some friends from home who told me they had been wanting to help me financially in this ministry. I hadn’t asked them for that although I had thought about talking to them, and God beat me to it. And He has surrounded me with people to care for me, even though in those down times I feel unworthy of love. And I’m not telling you this to get sympathy, I’m wanting to be honest, to not sugarcoat life and make it seem better than it is. I want to serve you by being real and reminding you that God isn’t scared away by our flaws and mistakes, He is a God who is near to the brokenhearted and a very present help in times of trouble. He has given me six kids in the apartment complex to play with and have as friends.

Prayer Requests

While I’m not asking for pity, I am asking for your prayers. Even though it has been a difficult time for me, I still have responsibilities to take care of. And your prayers can be the difference between being able to minister and help people and being incapacitated by worry and fear. Please pray with me:

● That I would find my rest and joy in Jesus alone instead of my performance and the things of this world that are passing away

● That I would repent from sin when I see it in my life and heart

● That I would grow in my prayer life, living dependently on God and his power

● That I would be able to have the conversations I need to have in order to grow and leave behind the things that cause me anxiety and worry and fear, to be able to trust my heavenly Father’s love for me more and more

● That I would be able find balance between work and rest and find good constructive ways of resting and recreating

● For unity between Dayton, Dennis, and I as we seek to serve Jesus by serving those around us, to be effective ministers through our labor, that God’s kingdom would be built by our labor

Thank you all for reading this and for your love and support. I often can’t believe I actually get to do what I get to do, and it is thanks to God providing through you and your prayers. Thank you so much!

In His Love,

Chipper Fyfe

GoServ Global Domestic/Promotions

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