A Week of Deputation

  Hello to my friends and family! I know it has been a long while since I (Hannah) have written. Part of it is because I really don't know what to write sometimes. I do share little tidbits of where we are on our travels on our Facebook page, and ya'll are welcome to friend us (me) Joshua-Hannah Corner. For the most part, we do a lot of the same things all the time that really is not interesting to read about. So when I finally have time to sit down to post something...I get stuck. Over the last several months, I had an idea for a post. But as you'll see in minute, I haven't had a free minute to think it out, much less write about it.

  I want to share a bit about what goes on in the Corner family's life on deputation. I know that every missionary family does things differently. We travel, school, and minister differently. So what I write about is how it is for US. I also want to say, that as I share this with you, I am in no way complaining! We are so thrilled to be on this journey and in God's will for our lives. We have met some absolutely amazing people, had awesome adventures and experiences, and are learning so much. So if you are interested in what actually happens on deputation and how we spend our time, keep reading! I am going to keep it real. :)

  Every day is different. Every week is different. We change our schedule, and then it changes the next day. The word that God has given me for deputation is flexibility. Our goal on deputation, is to share the gospel with people along the way...at the store, restaurant, park, or wherever. Our goal is to minister and be a blessing to each church, that we either stay with in their mission home or have a scheduled meeting with. Our goal is to spend time getting to know the people in those churches...that's my very favorite part. I keep saying this, but I am so grateful for the people that God has put in our lives!

  While we do all of these things, we still have daily things that need to be done. I won't go into a whole lot of detail on what my husband does, since this is coming from me, and I know I will forget some things. First, the boys and I can find him spending time in prayer and the Scriptures every morning. He also studies for the teaching, preaching, and presenting that he does at churches. He has phone calls to make, emails to write, records to keep, and vehicle and other maintenance. He teaches our 2 high schoolers Math as well.

  Homeschool is something that HAS to be done. With 4 boys, grades 6,7,9, and 10, it is quite challenging to get regular, consistent time in our books. Their education is important to us for sure, but so is allowing our boys to learn many other things they have the opportunity to learn on deputation. The Lord is helping us with this and the boys are doing well!

  A typical, busier week would go something like this:
    Joshua is usually up before the rest of us. He has his quiet time with the Lord while the rest of us start to get up and start our day. This day is a travel day. We are going to leave one area and mission home and head for another. We get our breakfast, me starting with coffee while I try and read my Bible before the craziness starts. We pack our things, which have now spread ALL over the place since we are living out of our suitcases and vans. We don't like to leave a mission home a mess so we strip beds, put dirty linens in piles, if can't wash them and put them away, wipe down kitchens and bathrooms, and put things back in order. While the boys and I try to clean up, my husband tries to make phone calls and gets our info ready for our upcoming travels. Gps, contact info, time we need to get there, etc.  Joshua packs our vans up and it's time to drive away.

    We drive 4-6 hours depending (our family tries to break up the trips for many different reasons), and usually take a couple more hours than that with stops for meals and bathroom breaks. As well as taking advantage of stores and time to shop for necessities along the way. We have to get that in when we can. Joshua drives one van, with Seth sometimes driving so that Joshua can do some work. And I drive the other with 2 or 3 of the other boys. We use walkie talkies to communicate stops and whatnot. Some days we are able to do school, but some we are not. A book got packed up and we can't get to it. Or they need to be taught something new and we are both driving. So we do what we can.

  We arrive at our new place for the night or few nights depending on how long we are scheduled to be there. It's time to unload the vans. We get everything inside, figure out who's sleeping where, and then it's time to think about food. I pull up a grocery store on gps and usually the boys and I will head out to get groceries. We do travel with a small cooler that we keep a few condiments in, so we don't have to rebuy them each time, but not much else. We get our shopping done and head back. Cooking does not happen on a travel day, so we either pick up something or we eat something easy like sandwiches or a tv dinner. In the evenings, we are doing as many things that need to be done as we can. I do laundry, write thank you notes, add contacts to our data base, and practice piano and singing with the boys. Joshua works on a lot of things that I mentioned earlier. Then we sleep and repeat.

  Maybe it's a travel day with a meeting. I prepare the church clothes the night before, and we either try not to get wrinkled or messed up on travel day, or bring the clothes with us and try to change right before church starts. We try to limit our stops to get to our destination on time. Sometimes a church will have dinner for us before services, but mostly not. So we'll go straight in and set up our table and meet people. We LOVE this part! We've been with most of you in meetings, so you know what we do at church. Joshua sometimes teaches and preaches. He also shows our video and gives a presentation. I sometimes teach or speak, and our family sometimes sings. After church, we stick around until we are usually the last people to leave so that we can talk with people and get to know them. Sometimes, the church will take us out for dinner and sometimes not. Either way, we usually are eating dinner on those nights at 9pm...or much later. We so enjoy our time with new friends!

  If we are able to stay in one area long enough, we try to be a help to each church in whatever way we can. Whether it's visitation or whatever. We also get to spend more time with families when we are stationary for a bit. The boys and I especially have enjoyed outings and fellowship with friends along the way, when my Honey is working. We do try to do regular school in the mornings on those longer stays as well.

  I covered pretty much what happens all of the time, but there are also many other things that makes our family us...devotion times, learning some Spanish, researching our future mission field, play times, reading times, and such. BUT, things are always switched around. Different circumstances, lodging, and times. It's never the same from one place to the next.

  So that's what we do! God has been good! He is faithful and provides for our needs as well as gives us the strength we need to keep going. I just thought it might be fun to read about what happens behind the scenes of the family you see at mission meetings. And I have the memory of these days written down for later, when we are serving the Lord in the Dominican Republic!

  Thank you friends and family for praying for us! We have an extra special prayer request. We are in need of a vehicle that we can finish out deputation with as well as bring over to the DR when we go. Our 2 minivans that we caravan in right now are on their last leg, and we are spending more trying to keep them running than what we want to. And neither of them qualify for us to keep and bring into the DR. We would be so grateful if you would help us pray about this! We appreciate your encouragement...every message, phone call, and email.

2017 Deputation Report and Extra from Joshua

Here are the blessings that God has granted to the Corner family and our deputation status as an end-of-year report. Lord willing, the next newsletter will report on January-February 2018.

a) Praise God in upstate NY! The Lord used one meeting we had on a Sunday evening to speak to the heart of a young girl. One of our friends reported how she listened very intently at the end of the message; and, then looked up said that she NEEDED to get saved. At home that very evening, this child got saved. Glory to God in the highest—whosoever believeth has eternal life! 

b) Praise God in Snowshoe, WV. God blessed the Corner family with a family Christmas celebration together in the snow-covered mountains of West Virginia. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time—praise the Lord. God gave me a vision during this week for a great American evangelistic opportunity—a “white as snow” ministry! As I traveled up and down the lifts on the mountain-side I had many, many witnessing opportunities—in the midst of the glory of God’s creation—and right in the middle of the Christmas season! God could not have set this up any better! Often I would be sitting next to 2 or 3 individuals for 3-5 minutes each time and there was no way to walk away. There weren’t any cellphone interruptions, dogs to discourage, TVs to distract, “no soliciting signs”, or any other worldly influence. Praise God for opening the door for me to speak with Alex, Kyler, Carson, Jeff, Lisa, Max, and many more! Please pray for Alex who is a catholic and he received a gospel witness and tract. Pray that Kyler receives God’s Son as well—he received a gospel witness and tract (he is trusting in his baptism not Christ). Pray for Carson who believes in good works and needs Jesus—praise God, he too received a gospel witness. Jeff and Lisa gave testimony of their own salvation—what a blessing. Rejoice with me—both this husband and wife received Jesus in their 40s and have been living for Jesus ever since (10+ yrs ago) and aren’t ashamed. Glory to God. Pray for Max—another Catholic. He also received a gospel tract. Yes, there were some who didn’t want to hear the good news, but I give glory to God for the amazing open door he gave me to sow the Seed this December! What a great way to share the gospel.    

Thanks,
Joshua

October-November 2017 Newsletter and Extra from Joshua

a) Praise God in Glennallen, Alaska. One dad wanted to bring his son to church to hear the missionary because he isn't following the Lord. Glory to God I was able to witness to this young man and ask if he wanted to pray to receive the Lord. He said not now--continue praying for this young man that he does answer God's call in his life to salvation. Thank God for dads who desire to bring their children to the Lord. 

b) Praise God for the Mini-Missionary services we had at a recent conference in Palmer, Alaska. Every evening the children heard from a missionary. They learned about the countries, God’s heart for missions, and the truth of God’s word. What a blessing to show these young kids what God is doing in missions and in our lives. The kids, the parents, and the missionaries alike all enjoyed this unique aspect of missions conference. Glory to God many kids' hearts were tender to the Lord as they humbled themselves before the mighty throne of God each night.

c) God led me to speak with Warren outside Alyeska tire (wouldn't have happened if the power steering fluid wasn't leaking, and the appointment wasn't rescheduled so that I would be there on the 19th of Oct. in the morning to meet Warren). It wouldn't have happened were it not for the Spirit's nudging. Praise God for His Holy Ghost to lead, guide and direct us. Glory to God. So, Warren was beholding the beauty of the Alaska mountains that clear crisp (20 deg F) morning. He and I were waiting on our vehicle maintenance. Warren heard the gospel presentation. He knew that he broke God's commands (wasn't quite sure if he was guilty though). And hoped he wouldn't be in purgatory too long. Warren didn't want to pray with me that morning—he said he kept those things more private. He did admit to being a Catholic and knowing about Jesus. But that day he heard the truth. Praise God Warren received a gospel witness and then he took home a gospel tract. Please pray for Warren. 

d) Our children have been blessed, blessed, blessed! Praise God. Since we’ve started deputation they have all received and enjoyed the following: many sermons on missions, the gospel, and testimonies from older saints in the faith encouraging them, friends from all over the east coast and from all over Alaska, tickets to multiple theme parks (Kings Island, Dollywood, Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska, etc.), bundles of monies showered upon them multiple times, shooting guns (all kinds), riding/driving 6 wheelers and 4 wheelers, cutting, splitting, and stacking wood, playing all-day paintball in the West Virginia mountains, snowboarding on Snowshoe’s 40 trails down the mountain, playing an 8 player, 3 day rugged outdoor air-soft game, watching moose on the side of the road, hiking up Mount Flattop in Anchorage, Alaska, mountain biking down Mount Flattop, and experiencing 2 Christmas’—once in September and another in December. God is good to us. Our boys have been living through these many blessings and we are especially thankful for God thinking about our children during this exciting time of deputation. Hallelujah!   

Thanks,
  Joshua

Alaska and Praises

                                                 🍂 Happy Fall Ya'll!🍂 
  This is my absolute favorite time of year! The smells, the colored leaves🍁, the baked yummies, the coffee...I love it all. I sure can't believe it's already the end of November though! We've now been on the road for 7 months. It sure has flown!

                                                    View from our airplane just before arriving in Anchorage,AK!
                                                           
     I posted the following on my Facebook page in summary of our time in Alaska: "We had an absolutely amazing time at our 9 meetings, all the outdoor activities, fellowship, sweet friendships, and viewing God's amazing creation! We are so thankful and so blessed!" There really isn't any way I could put into words just how much we will treasure our time spent in Alaska. Here are just a few highlights from our trip!

    

   We arrived back in the states November 7th, and it's been a whirlwind of meetings, traveling, and the dreaded stomach bug. I have to thank the Lord...He's been with us through it all. Taking care of us and guiding us every step of the way. So far in November, we've traveled to Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and we are now in central NY for the next couple of weeks. 

  🍁 Thanksgiving was very different for us. We weren't able to be with any of mine or Joshua's family, but we still had a great time eating, baking and decorating cookies, listening to Christmas music, and taking walks in the beautiful Virginia mountains. I pray that you all had a blessed Thanksgiving! 🍁

   There is a blessing I want to share with you. I blogged last month that my laptop had been stolen, well praise the Lord, we were fully reimbursed by the airline! And I have a new PINK laptop.😁 God is SO good to me!
   Look for our newsletter update by the end of this week...God is blessing our deputation and I can't wait to share what God is doing! 

                                                                     

Aug-Sept 2017 Newsletter & Extra from Joshua

Aug-Sept 2017 Newsletter is above, and an Extra that Joshua has added a little more information on our goings on below.


a) Praise the Lord for the missions home in West Virginia--God gave us a blessed respite in the West Virginia mountains, time and space to organize for homeschooling on the road, and much encouragement from God's people.

b) A second hurricane did impact the northern side of the Dominican Republic --so please pray for our missionary friends, Chad Papes and his family as they minister to those who suffered loss from the hurricane.

c) We were reminded in September of the joy of missions at our deputation home. God introduced us to a missionary family from Togo, Africa. Brother Emmanuel met the Lord when a missionary knocked on his door and loved him and invited him to Christ. Emmanuel and his wife, both, were the very first ones in their family to be saved out of voodoo worship and God called them to His service. Because of Christ, I can pray with Emmanuel as my brother even though he grew up 5,500 miles away. What a joy for our families to be able to fellowship together around the joy of Jesus Christ and how much He has done for us! Praise the Lord for Emmanuel's wife who spent many hours teaching my wife to cook some amazing African meals. God is good. Oh the joy of missions--and what a blessing to see God using Emmanuel himself as a missionary to his own people. Hallelujah.

d) Seth and Nathan were able to help load resources (120 32 pks. of water) and prepare the vehicles to transport those items to Texas. Praise God for our boys ministering to those in need.

e) While waiting on Honda to troubleshoot an electrical problem, God allowed me to meet a certain technician in Savannah, Georgia. Pray for Austin--he knows Jesus, but hasn't been in church for 6 years. God used a testimony of Jesus to encourage him in the Lord and challenge him to faithfully serve God.

f) Keep praying for our vans to keep running until early 2018. We are ready to start finding the specifications for the next vehicle we'll use on deputation and bring with us to the field--Lord willing.

Thanks,
Joshua

Change in plans

Hello from Alaska!!!
  September has been amazing! God has been so good to us and I just can't praise Him enough!
What a blessing to be a part of what God is doing to reach people with the gospel and encourage believers to serve the Lord with their ALL! I am also so thankful for the churches that have welcomed us and just blessed our socks off! It means the world to Joshua and I as well as our boys!
September found us on the Georgia/Alabama border and then Quitman, Valdosta, and Lakeland area. We were also very excited to be with our Mission support church for their mission conference! God blessed our time with the church family and with the other missionaries. It was such a sweet time.


This will be a short update as I'm attempting to type it on my phone. On the way to Anchorage,AK, we had a little adventure with our luggage...long story short, the airline made us check our carry on bags at the gate right before getting on the plane. We were in a rush and somehow the attendants put someone else's name and destination on my computer bag; which because of said rush I neglected to take my laptop out of. It ended up in California and was finally delivered to us in the middle of the night a couple days later....minus my laptop and cord. We've had an interesting week trying to secure passwords and such and talking with the airline and police all while preparing and ministering at the mission conference we were a part of...not to mention adjusting to the 4hr. time change.

  I look forward to blogging about our time here in Alaska next month, Lord willing. Thank you so much for your prayer and support! Please pray for us as we travel and that God will have His will and way in our meetings and work in hearts.

August on the road

I want to start out by saying "THANK YOU!" to those that pray for us, who follow where we are and what's going on, and for those that try to help out when we are in need! God has blessed us with some amazing family and friends. I am humbled. You just do not know how much your text, message, or phone call means to us.

August found us in West Virginia. We met some wonderful people at the churches we attended and had meetings at. It is wonderful to meet brothers and sisters in Christ in every state we go to! And oh! How beautiful WV is! The mountains and the lakes...wow! We loved spending time there...God's creation is an awesome thing.

We started our new school year on August 1, and it has been....well, it's going. I knew it was going to be a challenge while traveling around and visiting with churches and friends, but it has surpassed even what I thought. Haha! We get it done when we can and the boys are learning.

We traveled over to Tennessee next, and stayed with some friends in their beautiful home. We so enjoyed spending time in fellowship with them and they spoiled us all while we were there! Again, I was in awe of our Creator while in TN. Couldn't get enough of drinking in the sight of those mountains. God blessed us with a great church to worship in and an unexpected meeting while there too!

We took a short trip back to Xenia, OH for a meeting, and had a wonderful time with friends for dinner when we got there. I'm so thankful for the people that God puts in our lives! We had a blessed meeting and just praise the Lord for what He's doing!

We had our longest travel day yet, when we left Xenia, OH, went back to TN where we picked up one of our vans that we had left for the weekend, and then drove over down to McDonough, GA. We were blessed with a mission home to stay in for a couple weeks. It was such a needed time of respite for our family, and a time to catch up on some things. We also celebrated our youngest son's (Jared) 11th birthday! And we had a good time trying to see the eclipse in our cereal boxes. We actually DID see it in the boxes, but didn't know it until later when I saw peoples' pictures on what it looked
like. 😂  We did get this really cool picture of a whole bunch of mini eclipses in the trees' shadows...but again, didn't know that's what it was until later. Elijah just thought it looked funny and I snapped a picture.

I was so super excited to visit with Victory Baptist Church in Loganville, GA. This is where my family went to church way back when I was in 8th grade. This is also the church that I was in when God saved me!!! My youth pastor from back then is now the pastor there and it was wonderful to see him and his family, as well as a few others that I remember. What a blessing to see them all faithfully serving the Lord!

Next, we traveled up to South Carolina, where we were in a 2 day mission conference. It was a church where, when you leave, you feel as if you are leaving family. We just had the best time getting to know the church family there, as well as other missionaries that were there!

So our next day was an adventure. We left South Carolina and was headed to our deputation home in Roanoke, AL. We stopped for some lunch, got back on the road, and was right in the middle of Augusta and Atlanta. I was driving along Interstate 20, when the van started decelerating. I had had it on cruise, so I canceled out and pressed the accelerator just to have it slow down even more. I told Joshua what was going on and we were able to get over to the side of the road. The van quit at that point and wouldn't start. It was a total of 5 or more hours before the tow truck finally got there, and we were able to get the van off the side of the interstate. No rental car agency, UBER, or LYFT would come to us, so we were stuck.

2 local pastors came and picked up me and 3 of the boys and brought us to the church. WHAT A BLESSING! Joshua and Elijah stayed with the van the remaining 1.5 hours until the truck came, and then got dropped off where the rest of us were. Another pastor drove 45 miles to pick up our family and some luggage and drive us to Decatur, GA where our vans (yep, plural...the other one was in the shop while we were in SC) were. And we were connected with him through a missionary friend in the D.R.! God is so good!!! The whole time we were on the side of the interstate, we had multiple friends trying to help us out and praying for us. It was incredible and encouraging to be lifted up by all of our loved ones! We spent a couple nights in Decatur, waiting on our van to be fixed up and then we were able to get to Roanoke. Through that whole day, it was amazing the peace that we had. And we realized how much worse it really could have been...God took care of us completely! And He answered prayer!

Please pray for Gene, a man we met in Decatur, GA. I believe he's homeless and He needs the Lord! Pray that his heart softens to the gospel and that God will send someone else to water the seeds that were planted.