This year has flown by and it is amazing to look back and see how the Lord has really blessed our efforts to be ready to begin the construction of our broadcast buildings and systems that will beam the message of His soon return around the world. This newsletter contains a summary of the highlights of the last two months and then a project status report that gives a holistic perspective of where we are on the project to date. It was exciting and inspiring to us to write this report and to see just how far the Lord has brought us. Thank you for joining with us in thanking the Lord for all that He has done so far. He truly “has done great things for us”! (Psalm 126:3, Luke 1:49)

May God bless you and grant you a very special holiday season and a happy new year!

Sincerely,
John and Sue Bartels

Continue reading ‘The Bartels’ Grenada Update - Oct/Nov 2007′

Quick Note:
For those of you who speak portuguese (or even Spanish), check out www.luzeiroamazonia.org
This website is designed by the local Brazilians that we are partnering with for this boat project. It gives current updates on the project.
Continue reading ‘Quick note on the Brazil Boat Project’

Through a quick turn of events, we are now back in the U.S. for 3-4 weeks. We did all that we could do for now (as far as paperwork in Brazil is concerned). Now we are waiting for the nonprofit organization in Brazil to finish their government paperwork so that they can help us get our volunteer visas. Their paperwork should be finished by the end of this month.
Continue reading ‘Brazil Medical Launch | Home for Christmas’

“What happened to the guy’s outhouse?” It was a question that seemed to be circulating around our campus rapidly. The heavy rains of one night eroded the toilet’s meager sand foundation with a result that only a picture can adequately describe. During the month of November, a sizable and well needed project was in the making. And although the project was large, the group to lead out was small, Melvin Brass, Haley Hamilton and her dad Louis were big in heart. Haley is a senior in high school and chose for one of her senior projects to help us improve our water sanitation at BMMC. Her project included helping to organize the project as well as raising the funds for all the materials. This project included building three septic tanks, connecting over a 1000 feet of PVC pipe, as well as installing toilets, sinks, and showers. Continue reading ‘Bethany Medical Missionary College | Just in Time’

Little Rovin has been with us at Bethany for the last week after his discharge from the hospital. We have seen great improvements during this week and he was even able to run while chasing our Abby across campus. We still notice some weakness, especially on the right side and his speech is still not very clear. But praise God he is alive and with us today! He has been enjoying the “physical therapy” (playing in the creek, rolling in the sand with Abby and Josh etc…), good food, and lots of love from all of us on campus. He will be traveling home in a few days and we will be sad to see him go. Thank you all for your prayers and for your concern over Rovin.


God bless,


Gilbert and Melissa Sissons
Bethany Medical Missionary College
Guyana, South America

Since I wrote last we have been walking around in a mud swamp at least half of the time because of all of the rain we have had. There has been two tropical storms that have come through the Philippines in the last couple of weeks and although we don’t get directly hit by them in Palawan we get a lot of rain. The week of Thanksgiving it rained the first three days and finally looked like it might be nice for Thanksgiving but it rained all that morning two. Continue reading ‘AMA Philippines update’

Amazing to look back over our last email and see how God has answered so many prayer requests.


After much discussion with the Receita Federal, the branch of government here that deals with import and exports, we finally got the steps of just how we go about importing the boat. The actual whole process will take about 5-6 months. During that time we will be living here in Manaus and doing the paperwork for the boat. Also, we will be working on the rented boats with the Proyecto Luzerio doing medical evangelism. The catamaran will spend that time harbored in Grenada waiting for us to come and get it. Continue reading ‘Brazil Medical Launch | God does it again….’