Faith Come by Hearing

To the Uttermost Parts

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

Bringing Hope to the Youth of

Micronesia

In the tropical heat, lack of air conditioning and water is especially burdensome. Typhoon Mawar thrashed the island of Guam in late May of this year knocking off utilities. The huge storm was predicted to hit the island with a more central eye passage than its actual northern approach, but even so effects were devastating, with months of power, water and internet outages. Much vegetation was loss and properties suffered damage.

In the wake of Typhoon Mawar, Bridges of Hope International (BHI) was happy to bring some encouragement and hope to the island’s youth. Bridges of Hope International’s Micronesian Director, Karyn Sorenson, has been ministering to the islands of Micronesia for years in various ways including through youth camps. This year she led a team ministering to the youth on the islands of Palau and Guam.

Before Mawar hit, Para Tech Ministries began working with Karyn to assist in some administrative tasks for the summer camps. This included logistics planning, volunteer recruitment, and selecting and documenting appropriate games that help break the ice and build relationships during the camp. A longstanding relationship with Karyn and decades of experience ministering on the island made PTMs partnership with BHI a natural one. The challenging circumstances necessitated much pivoting, something we are used to as missionaries and previous residents of the island.

Islanders have a great aptitude for music (imagine beautiful harmonies) and creativity, so it was no surprise which games were clear favorites.

Despite the state of the island in the aftermath of Mawar, the results were remarkable with a growing group of teens each day, upwards to 70!  Many of the island’s church folks were still busy dealing with storm recovery, so we were especially grateful to those who gave donations, provided a facility, and lent a hand to make the camp successful.

One participant’s enthusiastic summary says it all:

The camp was amazing! I enjoyed practically every second of it…the music and fellowship and of course the games! I can’t describe how positively it impacted my relationship with God and how wonderful it felt to be able to open up and not be scared of someone judging me.

What an honor to have participated in ministering to the youth of Micronesia!

Summer Projects

Two recent project accomplished by PTM include helping a local church troubleshoot issues with their microphones, as well as completing the first stage of helping a global mission agency with some IT/business workflow changes.

MegaVoice

We are thrilled to be working together with Megavoice ministry in the enhancement of some of their devices. They are a likeminded organization seeking to reach the less reached and the underserved with the gospel, primarily with customized audio bible devices. Read their BLOG with stories about how they are helping the less reached in oral cultures, the deaf, the elderly, the people of Ukraine and more.

MegaVoice serves the global Church with affordable, technologically advanced solar powered audio Bibles and digital accessories. 

Temporary Lab

A temporary lab was set up in Marietta for Doug’s work projects and served him well for the last few months. We are packing it up this week but the pieces will emerge again and be reassembled in our new home in Florida. The lab has allowed for radio prototype testing and equipment troubleshooting.

Projects in Progress

It has been so encouraging to meet with various mission groups to hear about their ministries and discuss whether we can collaborate in ministry. Partnerships are essential to success in ministry; we can not do it all on our own, nor should we. The Lord is pleased when believers work together to get His Word to those who need it.

As you might expect, mission agencies are typically short-handed and reliant on volunteers. We are in process of helping with several small projects to fill in these gaps, such as helping an organization to think through how they can streamline their business workflows, remain secure in their computing, and plan a virtual retreat until such time as they can come together in person again. Training begins this week to assist another agency which serves international missionaries on furlough. Additionally, Doug has started to troubleshoot a problem with a media device that presents the gospel for another mission.

It is our pleasure to be able to serve in this way in places where it is most needed.

New Para Tech Ministries (PTM) Project Fund

As you know we offer our technical assistance as part of our ministry service. But often there are related tools, equipment, travel or other costs. For this reason, we have added a new PTM fund in order to facilitate these services for those who are under resourced so as to not overburden them.  Visit: https://www.harvestallianceintl.org/para-tech-ministries.html if you would like to contribute to this fund.

Faith PCRC Church, Guam

Para Tech Ministries was happy to be able to spearhead the following projects for Faith Church, Guam during January and February of 2022:  

  • Telephone system upgrade
  • Installed a physical wired ethernet computer network and centralized data equipment rack
  • Enhance WIFI connectivity throughout the church allowing better service video streaming of live events
  • Increase internet quality with a guaranteed service level agreement
  • Removed a website that had become infected with malware and found volunteers to rebuild church’s website https://www.faithchurchguam.org
  • Enhanced security with an external camera monitoring system and security lighting
  • Repaired a fire alarm control system
  • Repaired a roof leak
  • Began research for the cost of a central Air Conditioning system replacement.

Many thanks to technoclete volunteers David Gregson, Phil Leppke, Ellis White, and Jimmy Chen for their assistance

Faith Presbyterian Christian Reformed Church of Guam heartily endorses Doug and Denise Gregson of Para Tech Ministries. Para Tech Ministries made it possible for us to not just make progress on a number of projects, but to complete them.

KTWG Christian Radio Station

KTWG (AM 800), originally a TWR owned and run station, has been broadcasting quality Christian programming and music to the island of Guam (and immediate surrounding islands) since 1974. Recently an FM broadcast has been added. Para Tech has come alongside the station with technical assistance (Jan-Feb 2022):

  • Fire control system repair
  • New firewall installation
  • Network security and configuration changes
  • Configuration of Radio Link between KTWG office and transmitter site