Mike and Cindy Peckham

Mike May 16th, 2008

Who says you can’t get there from here?

Attempting to navigate using a toll booth map and your son’s compass, driving disoriented and getting turned around in unfamiliar surroundings, two little ones at the ends of their ropes in the back seat eager for lunch and a nap, knowing your frozen goods are all going to be mush soon in the 90+ degree heat of your car trunk, and trying to briefly field three incoming calls on your cell phone, and now we’re backing up in traffic, an accident scene ahead…It’s in moments like these I (Cindy) hear God’s Spirit gently reminding me of the chasm between where my own heart often is in the middle of my business each day and where it should be. Like the Israelites of old, who so often had just seen God do magnificent things, I too loose sight of God and begin to grumble about my present surroundings. I become overwhelmed and distracted, retreating in my soul to the old, familiar territory, rather than simply talking to God, and asking for His take on it all. After all, His perspective is the one that counts.

The truth that He is good, He is at work, He is in control, and He has our best at heart through it all, helps me regain much needed perspective… to see things in the correct light.

While the house may be a maze of boxes, we couldn’t find that much needed computer cord, our car only saw the inside of the garage once before it was edged out by a myriad of moving items, we aren’t sure what William will do this fall with kindergarten looming, and our youngest, Harrison, takes pride in shouting “BUG!” at every insect that finds it’s way into our place, still we are so thankful to be here and at such a time as this… Mike’s travel calendar for the Jesus Film already has three solid trips and another one in the works. Plus, as an education major, it’s exciting for me to see his training curriculum beginning to come together for the teams he will oversee.

Thank you for your continued prayers for patience and perspective as we look beyond our present surroundings toward the great things the Lord has called on us to do and be a part of. We know that apart from the Lord and your partnership and prayers with us, we could do none of this. We are so excited to see the adventures He has for us as they unfold.

Please Pray for:

• God to continue to bless, grow, and give grace to the student ministries on the college campuses we continue to coach and have connections with back in the Northeast.
• Continuing stamina and strength as we settle in and adjust to the new environment and the challenges it poses.
• All the details to come together for the upcoming trips and the curriculum for training of the various teams Mike will be responsible for.
• Balance with all our responsibilities and roles- to guard family time and the home atmosphere, while taking the initiative to share the blessing of hospitality with those the Lord puts in our lives. (Please let us know if you might be down in the Orlando area– we would love to open our place up to you).

So blessed to be serving Him with you,

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Mike March 26th, 2008

Please Pray for:

• Our student groups as we prepare them for evangelical outreach events and the necessary follow up and discipleship that will prayerfully result as their peers respond to the Good News of Christ.
• Both us and the kids as we have a full schedule as we begin to relocate:
• March 24th- Mike begins his drive down to FL;
  • March 25th– The truck arrives to be loaded with what we have packed;
  • March 26th– Cindy and the boys fly down to FL and reunite there with Mike and stay with friends;
  • March 27th-28th– prayerfully we can begin settling into our place a bit by the end of the day and then the truck arrives… ???
  • April– We begin our new roles with the ministry!

• Our family and friends we are saying good bye to in the Northeast, especially:
  • Fay, Cindy’s dad, is now out of the hospital and seemed to be happier and doing much better in his new nursing care center when we brought the kids to visit him last week;
  • Ashley, Mike’s father, who we have thoroughly enjoyed being with these months and will be dearly missed…

Serving Him with You,

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Mike March 12th, 2008

The perfect living sacrifice…

Two large temples dominate a remote, resistant community of 4,500 people in Asia. Sanathan was the priest of both temples. He led the people in the worship of Kali, the “goddess of death.” During festival times, he routinely sacrificed 100 goats each day for the sins of the people—a people who believed their idols actually drank the blood placed before them.

When a “JESUS” film team arrived, this priest attended one of the four showings. He was respected—even feared—as the “master of sacrifice” in the temples. But the blood of the goats he had killed left him with only a deep vacuum inside his soul.

As Sanathan watched Jesus being crucified, “lifted up from the earth,” and as he saw His innocent blood spilled, he understood that Jesus was God’s only sacrifice for sin. Sanathan was the first person to come forward at the invitation that night.
A year later, 300 believers attend the village church. And Sanathan actively evangelizes and disciples, and helps the “JESUS” film teams travel to unreached islands off the coast.

By reaching a person, by reaching a culture, we are reaching generations to come and we see God’s Kingdom grow unimaginably.
Thank you for partnering with us so we together can help take the Good News to those who have never heard…

Please Pray for:
Us as we coach and encourage our student leaders in preparing for spring outreach events uniquely created to reach the hearts of each campus community. May the Lord’s spirit prepare hearts to receive His message well.

The remaining details (housing, packing, the move, etc.) before we can relocate to FL to join our fellow team members with the Jesus Film. We are praying that the Lord would provide for us to be able to arrive by April 1st (though that’s April fool’s day, it’s no joke!)

Health and sustained strength of heart from the Lord as we continue to travel in the coming month and make ready for the big transition south.

Our parents and our children- Cindy’s dad has been in the hospital since December as they try to regulate his medicines to address his medical needs as well as the Alzheimer’s behavioral ones; Mike’s dad as we prepare to say goodbye and who will be missed terribly; William (almost 5) and Harrison (almost 20 months) as we ask them to move to their 5th home in just over a year and a half…

Serving Him with you,

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Mike January 25th, 2008

Masterpiece: a work of art that is considered extraordinary. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, are masterpieces; recognized globally as irreplaceable works admired for their beauty and elegance.

At the Boston Winter Conference, over 300 students from the Northeast were asked to consider what it means to be God’s masterpiece. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” Both “reassuring” (Katie, St. Joseph’s College) and “humbling” (Bing, University of Massachusetts, Boston), God has a role for each of us in His great plan.

Click here to read the rest of this prayer letter and see some great pictures.
(This is a .pdf so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it if you don’t already have it.)

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Mike January 14th, 2008

What is the average non-Christian college student thinking about the future, their life, or God? These are questions we ask and so do our students.

Each year Campus Crusade for Christ has Big Break, a Spring Break conference in Panama City Beach, Florida. If it’s good enough for MTV, it’s good enough for us. About 2,000 students from Campus Crusade groups on colleges throughout the U.S. descend for a week of fun, fellowship, teaching, and evangelism. While we were there, in 2006 we shot some videos that were used to help us know what the students on the beach were thinking.

So often we are scared to talk with people about God because we think people do not want to hear about Him, especially while partying at Spring Break. But you know what? They are interested. Check out this video and you will hear that they do not understand who God is or how to know Him, but they are interested in finding out, if only someone would…

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Mike December 18th, 2007

This is not the end… it is a new beginning!

Imagine in the darkness, the despair… the cries of mourning and regret echoing through the hot and dusty prison walls. Who will have compassion on people such as them? Who will bring a life giving message to those who have taken the lives of others?

The “JESUS” film did! One of our teams traveled to just such a prison which housed some of the most violent offenders in this African country. The team asked the warden for permission to show the film. Because he was devout in his own religion, he adamantly refused.

The team suggested that Jesus could bring peace to his prison—that showing “JESUS” would help change hearts. Their arguments must have been appealing because he changed his mind. They set up the projector and screen as the prisoners, mostly murderers, rapists and thieves, filed in. Most had never heard the gospel.

At the end of the film, many indicated a desire to trust Christ. The response was so strong that the team asked the warden if they could show “JESUS” again later. They also boldly asked if they could establish a New Life Training Center (NLTC) in the prison, so they could continue to help the new believers understand the Scripture. Over the years we have often used this same training with many of our college students.

A graduation ceremony for those who completed the NLTC training was held, with 1,000 inmates in attendance. With shackles around their wrists and ankles, the graduates went forward to receive their certificates. Each gave a testimony of how Jesus had radically changed his life. That night, 47 more prisoners surrendered their lives to the Lord.

One of the shackled men was to be executed five days later. On the day of his execution, a “JESUS” film team member who had helped him experience the power of the Word contained in the film came to encourage him.

As he climbed the steps to the gallows, this condemned man did not stop praising God and singing. He declared, “Outside I was a murderer; I killed three people and I would have killed again. But in this place I found Christ. And my whole family has now been saved.”

The inmates and prison guards were stunned by his calmness and joy. As the rope was placed over his head, and with a smile on his face, he told his executioner, “The moment you pull the lever, I will be with Christ!”

As part of the JESUS film, we often get to hear incredible stories of God’s life changing power when our teams report back. As we prepare to travel to some of these places ourselves, please keep them in prayer as we know He can do great things as we set aside our fears and step out boldly to share the Gospel. Thank you so much for partnering with us in all the Lord is doing!

So thankful to be serving Him with you,

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