The Peklenk Family

Carl and Debbie Peklenk have a heart for Russia. Over the past several years, their ministry has been to establish churches in Russia through teaching and fellowship, by training a new generation of church planters in the former Soviet Union. Carl has worked in a church that was
planted, discipling others to do the same. Debbie’s full time job includes managing their children's
schooling and personal needs. They have two precious children, Stevie and Julianne, who were adopted from Russia. They are presently back in the United States where Carl is working to recruit more future church planters.

BACK AND ADJUSTING

We have been back in the States since November 2008 and are still adjusting. It has not been easy to catch up with all the ways our home country has changed. The last we lived here without planning to soon return was 1992. Please do pray for us as we transition back – to this fast-paced life, finding bargain shopping, just getting day to day tasks done...

NEW MINISTRY INITIATIVE
We have officially been on Medical Leave since returning from Russia in November. I (Carl) am now moving into Recruitment for TEAM. There is a somewhat new approach to recruitment which lays stress on coaching and personal development. I am coming up to speed on what this
means and understanding where the younger generations are "at". My efforts are focused at
Columbia International University and surrounding regional churches.

ASK THE FATHER:

•Pray that God will connect us with those He’s calling to serve cross-culturally.
•Pray especially for a woman named Elizabeth, as she is seriously considering serving God in Russia.
•Pray for continued adjustment to life here in the U.S.
•Please join us in prayer for God’s complete provision of all our monthly financial support.

THANK THE FATHER:

•We are grateful for a recent weekend of encouragement and rest. God is so good.

We're Back

Thank you to all who prayed for us. We definitely needed it, and it was felt and experienced in all sorts of ways. I think the best thing to do is to just highlight a few things that happened on the trip:
- Chad, Dennis, Ed, and Kelly hosted the first ever VBS for kids only at the church in Nuevo Progresso (NP)
- We saw at least one person get saved Sunday night
- Carbonera, the town on the coast, was witness to some of the most generous men I have ever encountered (some of our men felt led to pay for an entire new lot of land for some locals there)
- We prayed for Quincy to be invisible at the border since he didn't have a passport, and after one harassing stop, they never bothered him again
- The local men worked long hours alongside us to get the work done (before we got there, they would not work on the church so that they could spend their days finding paying jobs)
- We handed out 30 Bibles to the locals that didn't have them
- We installed ridge vents for the church, insulation in the sanctuary and fellowship hall, installed 7 total attic fans to push the air out of the building, and an entire ceiling for the fellowship hall, painted the kitchen, sunday school rooms, fellowship hall, and bathrooms (with the help of our local friends), and supplied money for them to shore up the half of the building that was soon to fall down.

All in all, it was an amazing trip with a group of men who were willing to do whatever it took to show a great work ethic, amazing hearts for the Lord, and wonderful testimonies of an active God in all of our lives. A building was transformed, but nothing compares to what happened in all of the hearts of the people in NP, Elsa, and, possibly most of all, ours.

As Ed would say, the level of "jocularity was off da hook!" amongst us men who went. Perhaps one of the best quotes I heard from the entire group was when Ed was leaving to go home on Monday night when we got back: "Men, thank you for some of the most hearty laughter I've had in over 40 years." We laughed a lot, but were serious when we needed to be. I saw compassion and empathy from men, who were raised to think that crying was for sissies. God's Spirit was with us, going before us, and providing all that we could ever ask or imagine.

Dennis was sensitive to the Spirit when he prayed.
Quincy was an encourager beyond words.
Kelly was a hard-worker, whose laughter was contagious.
Chad was as courageous as I've ever seen anyone.
Jerit was willing to help, even sacrificing an extra day away from home.
Gary was the source of many jokes, and provided contruction knowledge, expertise, and motivation.
Ed was the memory maker, who made us all better men by sharing his life with us.

A trip that will never be forgotten, and without a doubt, will motivate many more to not just pray, not just send others, but to GO!

lance

Sunday's Summary from Quincy Hodge

The following blog is a summary of the events from Sunday:

God has truly accomplished more than we could ask or think! Sunday was a day for worship, fellowship and sharing. After a quick trip to the border to return our travel permits to Carboneras, we attended services at Pastor Freddy's church in Elsa. Quincy, Ed, Chad, Gary and Dennis shared a brief testimony and Lance shared some words of encouragement to all. What a great time of worship with Anthony, Pastor Freddy's grandson, leading the singing. Man has he got some "pipes"! After the service Frank took us to see the property where they are building a new sanctuary in Elsa. We took time to pray over the site where the foundation has been laid. Then we left for Progreso to attend the evening service at Ebenezer. More fellowship, worship and testimony. We gave flowers to the 4 ladies who fed us amazing meals while we were working on the church. Jerit entertained the kids with a backflip out of the swing set. We handed out 30 Biblios, many many bags of rice and beans and then during the service we heard back from 5 people of Ebenezer Church their appreciation for us being there to help them. Lance shared the message and we witnessed one lady accepting Christ and asking for healing and a one gentleman accepting Christ! Praise God! It was a full evening as we even engaged a man who had who wandered into the event. He stayed for the service and shared in the meal we all enyoyed afterwards. We shared the gospel and prayed over him as a group before he left. We said our final goodbyes and headed back to Camp Oasis. It's been great to see what God has done and to be a part of it! What's even more amazing is what He has done in each of us. And to top it off we have had a blast doing it!

A Blog Post from Quincy Hodge, one of our men serving across the border this week:


What a blessing to be here! We have accomplished so much since we started working on the Church Thursday afternoon. The 40 x 40 foot fellowship hall has been transformed from an oppressively hot room with exposed rafters to an insulated painted ceiling. Insulation was attached between the rafters first then we hung half-inch plywood for the ceiling. The coordination of measuring, sawing, and hoisting large boards to rafters 10 to 15 feet above the floor was a big task. We were thankful to the Lord that it all went off without a hitch. Ceiling ventilation with exhaust fans have been installed in the fellowship hall and the sanctuary. Ridge vents have been installed on the roof and roof repairs to 7 bare areas have been made. Today we painted out the fellowship hall ceiling and walls were in progress.

The young men of the church have joined us in the work and we have made new friends and coworkers in Christ.These same young men were making repairs to the walls and painting them out. Even younger children were helping out with a paint brush on the walls. It was a real sense of community.

At midday we traveled 3.5 hours down the coast to Carboneras to visit Enrique, Rose and their two boys AC and Favio, 8 and 7 years old. Pastor Freddie and Frank went with us. On the trip we heard Frank's amazing testimony of what God has done in his life and we listened to Pastor Freddie's heart for the lost and the unreached people of Mexico. When we arrived in Carboneras we took a quick tour around the tiny fishing village. It is so humbling to witness how people here have so little and yet have the joy of the Lord in their hearts. Enrique's family lives in a 400-500 square foot room. They have no running water and they share an outhouse with 4-5 other families. Their shower is a 3x3 foot shack and they use a bucket for the water. They buy their fresh water. But they are clean, happy and so hospitable. We saw the car the church bought for Enrique to take his fish to market. Rosa fixed dinner for us from one of Enrique's recent catches. We all agreed that it was the best meal we have had on the trip so far. After some great fellowship and lots of laughter, we prayed over the whole family before we returned to Progreso. What a sweet time! From Jared, Kelly, Ed, Gary, Lance, Dennis, and Chad, this is Quincy signing off, Glory to God!

Mexico, Day Dos

God continues to bless us here on our second day in Mexico. Today I am reminded of God's Fatherly love through twenty or so children we were able to speak with, something that's never been done before just for the kids. Ed, Lance, and Dennis spoke of God's love through our interpreters, Frank and Obett. Kelly and I blew up balloons to make hats for them (Kelly creates great ballon hats). I now know why the ballon guy at Pappasito's uses an air pump! The smiles on each face will always be etched in my mind. No matter where I have been, children are still the same--they want attention and love. It reminds me of God's unconditional love for all of us. I am floored every time I think of how much I love my family, and yet God's love for all of us is so much more. It is beyond my compehension. I also witnessed the longing and search for hope in a young man named Heriberto. He does nothing but walk around, clearly bored and looking for a place to belong. Every where you turn he's there just hanging out. Lance and Frank shared the gospel with him. We gave him a spanish Bible and encouraged him to read it, particularly the book of Mark. We expect him to attend services on Sunday, please pray that God will speak to him so that he may know there is hope through salvation in Christ. More to come. By the way, Ed wanted everyone to know that he cashed in "eleventy thousand" dollars in our poker game tonight. He's a closet card shark.