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Giving Tuesday 2024

Ankyrios International gives us a unique opportunity to provide encouragement, coaching, counseling, preaching and teaching, training, and an extra set of hands to missionaries, pastors, chaplains, as well as expats and other boaters. We are also able to share the Gospel and our lives with unbelievers around us.

Supporting Ankyrios International means you are also supporting: Church plants, Youth ministries, Prison ministry, Home churches/Bible studies/discipleship for new believers, Orphanages/abandoned children and transition homes, ESL classes and job training to provide opportunities to youth and young adults, Homeless ministry, Operation Christmas Child, Retreat centers, Summer camps, Building projects (schools, churches, homes), and Addiction recovery ministries.

In 5 continents! In places such as: Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Rwanda, and the United States.

The impact of your donations to Ankyrios International is felt around the world!

Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us this coming year? Financial support (one-time or monthly) can be given online through ankyrios.org/giving

For more information, check out our website, ankyrios.org, or our Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/share/g/74JbgWxAtNUv8BQ6/

2024 Highlights #7

The final highlight from 2024 encompasses the entire year. While we try to focus on in-person opportunities (it is so much better in our fast-paced, online world), we are thankful for technology. It allows us to maintain connections with those we visit. We also have “face to face” Zoom calls for coaching and counseling with people around the world. This year, I even had the opportunity to participate in a podcast from Poland ([https://www.emmy.foundation/…/podcast-going-into…/…](https://www.emmy.foundation/…/podcast-going-into…/…)), and we have another one coming up.

2024 Highlights #6

We frequently have opportunities to attend missions conferences at churches. It allows us to interact with church members, speaking to both large and small groups. We often share with the church ways they can better care for their missionaries. The kids sometimes get to speak to youth groups about their roles in our ministry. We share openly about some things that missionaries themselves won’t say. Like some of these, [https://davidjoannes.com/10-things-missionaries-wont…/](https://davidjoannes.com/10-things-missionaries-wont…/)

Conferences also allow us to interact with missionaries. Our kids make fast friends with other missionary kids – usually resulting in time at a park or out for a meal where we can all relax and share our stories. Other times, we have more intentional meetings for debriefings and providing resources.

Not nearly as often, we might attend a member care conference. In 2023, we were able to attend a week-long conference in North Carolina. We learned so much about our roles and how to improve the care we offer. We made many new friends, some of whom cared for us when we needed it, too!

2024 Highlights #5

Another aspect of our work involves coming alongside churches, pastors, lay leaders, and associations/organizations in their work. Churches are made up of imperfect people and led by imperfect people, therefore they struggle just like everyone else. In small churches, pastors are often overburdened by all the responsibilities. Larger churches may struggle with conflicting opinions, often with the pastor caught in the middle. We offer a listening ear to both the small and the large, and everything in between.

We also help churches provide the best care possible to their cross-cultural workers – prefield, on field, during home assignments, and when returning “home”. We’re available for coaching with missions ministers, small group workshops and large group seminars. Please reach out if you or your church would like to learn how to better care for your staff and cross-cultural workers.

2024 Highlights #4

The highlight of ministry for me this summer was our Adult TCK Retreat in August. This is something I have wanted to offer for a couple of years. We’ve prayed about it, asked around, and tried to devise a plan. Our Board of Directors made suggestions, and we came up with a plan together. We took a step of faith and reserved an AirBnb in the Dallas area that could accommodate 6-8 young adults, provided space for whole group, meals, play time, processing time, one on one time. We made an appeal for scholarships and received enough funds to provide the retreat at no cost to 5 young adults! The conversations were deep, emotions ran high, and healing began. The “kids” had fun, became fast friends, and connected over their shared experiences living in multiple places. One parent had this to say…

“Brandy,

Thank you for these resources. Also, I cannot thank you enough for your investment in —–’s life this weekend. Thank you for your sensitivity to the spirit as to when to plan this retreat as the timing could not have been any more perfect for what he has been dealing with. Thank you for the donors who allowed this to be underwritten. Thank you for your obedient heart, not only for my son, but for TCKs everywhere who are often overlooked and not fully cared for. Bless you as you continue to minister.

With gratitude,

———“

We’re already making plans for one, maybe two, Adult TCKS in 2025. Won’t you be a part of this?

2024 Highlights #3

Our Mexican tourist visas expired in May, and we returned to the US. We started serving at a few VBS events in a few different churches in June. The kids created a video for a summer camp in East Texas, and we presented at a career fair on missionary life (links to the videos in the comments).

Also, this summer we were honored to partner with Tributary Retreat Center in Arkansas to provide debriefings to multiple families. What is a debriefing, you might ask? It’s an opportunity to discuss past events in a safe environment, ask intentional questions (and games where kids are concerned), find those emotions and events that need processing (even those we didn’t even see ourselves), work through the hard things, find a healthy path forward, learn preventative care for ourselves and our families, to deal with crisis situations…there are so many facets to a good debriefing.

We traveled many hours and miles from our home base in Denton, Texas (where Hope is attending college) to meet with families at Tributary. We also provided a debriefing for a missionary family in Dallas, a much shorter drive. We’ve driven almost 10,000 miles since May to show these families that they are important. As our ’06 suburban with 260,000+ miles stranded us more frequently, we set up a campaign on Give, Send, Go to purchase a more reliable vehicle.

That campaign ends next week. Would you consider a donation so we can continue traveling to and serving those who need our care? https://givesendgo.com/GD9WA?utm_source=sharelink…

2024 Highlights #2

We are so thankful for those who have been called to cross borders to share God’s love, those who share His love from where they are, and those who are called to help financially and prayerfully support the first two.

In February and March, we traveled north from La Paz to Loreto and then across the Sea of Cortez to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. We also traveled by plane to Guadalajara to visit several other missionaries and celebrate another couple as they retired from 40 years of serving cross-culturally. We partnered with a local church to provide a bilingual Easter Sunrise service. We had over 70 in attendance!

We are especially thankful for those of you who support us through Ankyrios International. Traveling to meet with those we care for goes a long way to show their value. And that travel isn’t cheap. We also provide all our care and debriefings at NO COST to those we serve. Therefore, it is donations from those of you that keep this work going! Thank you!

Will you consider a financial gift to Ankyrios International so we can continue caring for pastors and cross-cultural workers and their families? ankyrios.org/giving

2024 Highlights #1

As we approach Giving Tuesday and the end of 2024 (oh my goodness!), we wanted to take a moment each day to share a few of this year’s highlights.

We began 2024 in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Over the last few years, we’ve developed sweet relationships with several missionaries there. We always look forward to our time in La Paz. We spent some time with a young family as they prepared to move back to the US and provided them with resources to help with the transition. Dennis met regularly with a pastor who asked Dennis to mentor him. We also spent time with other boaters, including a lovely woman who was a teenager in East Germany right after WWII. Her stories were incredible. We’re grateful for all the people we meet!

Meeting missionaries where they are…

A quick video update

***We just realized we left off a family of 7 that we debriefed back in June. That raises our kid count to 21!

March 2024: Heading to Guadalajara!

Watch the video on our facebook page.