Remembering Joanne Felan
February 18, 1948 – February 4, 2025
We would like to acknowledge the passing of Joanne Felan, longtime member of New Hope Baptist Church and supporter of BFM. If you ever attended the annual BFM Thanksgiving Conference at New Hope Baptist Church in Michigan, you most likely experienced a warm welcome from Joanne, her husband Paul, and her sister Myrna.
Joanne’s sweet smile, generous hospitality, cheerful demeanor, and kind listening ear will be remembered fondly. She blessed many of us with her gift of music, playing the piano and singing in the choir. She and her husband Paul also frequently traveled to other BFM Conferences, encouraging our missionaries and other believers with their presence. It was evident that her love for the Lord fueled her love for missions and all things BFM.
May we all seek to serve the Lord with the same attitude as Joanne, radiating His love and encouraging others along the way! Pray that the Lord would wrap His arms of comfort around her family in their grief.
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Face to Face is Better than Facebook: How you can help connecting with your missionaries while on furlough
by John Mark Hatcher, missionary to France
We are grateful for the many conveniences available to us that facilitate communication worldwide. But, there is no better way to communicate than face to face.
Judy and I have lived and worked in France for 16 years. We are profoundly grateful for the faithful support that we receive from many people we have not met. But, we want to meet you. I think all the missionaries you support want to meet you personally. Why? New generations and new members in churches have a difficult time relating to missionaries they have never met. It is easier to understand the vision and passion of a missionary when you can personally talk to them and listen to them. The missionary better knows how to communicate with his supporters when he knows them personally. A missionary may be used by the Lord to help you reach out to folks in your community who need Christ. The missionary understands better how to pray for people he knows personally.
Making these personal contacts is not always easy because we can not be away from the work we are called to do for long periods of time. The longest amount of time Judy and I have spent in the United States since moving to France was 11 weeks. So, it is important that we make the best use of these short visits to the USA if we are to meet are supporters.
Here is what you can do to make this happen:
- When you see in our letters that we are going to be in the USA, contact us as soon as possible to set up a time to visit you or your church.
- Do not worry about not being able to give a big love offering. We know that churches are often strapped financially.
- If you know of a car that is available for us to use, let us know. It is expensive and difficult to purchase a car for a few weeks and then resell it. It is much less expensive to pay for insurance (and even monthly car payments) on a car loaned to us. So, if you have a car that is not being used (even temporarily) that you could loan to us when we are in the USA, contact us or David Parks.
You are important as an integral part of what God is doing.
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