PJ and Heather Garton

Two weeks ago, we were in Florida participating in a training with other caregivers as our organization prepares to launch family debriefs again. It was a wonderful week to learn more together as we prepare to better meet the needs of the families in our organization.

This week, we are preparing to open our home and take 2.5 days to come alongside a family who recently returned from the field and walk them through an MK debrief. In preparation, we have been not only preparing our home for guests, but more importantly preparing our hearts and minds to minister to this family.

August of 2021, Heather completed training for this specific type of debrief and has used it several times with families over the years. Last year, our MK Care team launched a new MK Debrief program called Acclimate with several facilitators to serve our families including our Location. This will be our first "official" debrief under that umbrella. We are so excited to see what God will do during these days ahead.

You might be asking what is a debrief? In the mission community, it can mean many different things, as well as to serve various purposes. Most personal debriefs offer the missionary time and space to share their stories and to process and integrate their experiences which is necessary as they move forward.

In our role, we will be coming alongside of a family for an MK Debrief. While our focus will be on the missionary kids (MKs), we will also come alongside of the family as they process together the joys and sorrows of their experiences, and help them with tools and resources as they "Acclimate" in a healthy way.

We believe that regular debriefs are a wonderful opportunity for missionaries to connect and normalize the experiences, emotions, and transitions as they serve where ever the Lord has them. We are excited to see what God will do during our time together this week.

Some things we would appreciate prayer for:
*for the family arriving- for safety in their journey and prepared hearts.
*for our hearts to be ready to minister this week
*for God to show up in mighty ways as we love on this family.

Thanks so much,
PJ and Heather

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Garton Gazette Winter 2024 "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9 We wouldn't normally share so much of our personal lives on our min...

Merry Christmas from the Garton's -

Merry Christmas from the Garton's

Since June 15 we have had a variety of opportunities to serve that has been out of the ordinary.
June 15th we shared about missions to a group of students at a camp in Lincoln,MO. On our way home we stopped at Sam’s club to buy food for the MK retreat. The first retreat was for high schoolers, and tomorrow will conclude the young adult retreat. Our role has been to cook the lunches for both groups and purchase food.

We have had fun serving these young people and seeing them encouraged.

Here are some pics.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C8J3_8UwNlCQQwUi-SB5f6HifzvaFjMo/view?usp=drivesdk

https://mailchi.mp/731f86fba1b6/garton-gazette-summer-2023

Garton Gazette Summer😀 2023

The spring semester is drawing to a close and summer is on its heels.
We get to kick off our summer with a wedding. Nate and Emma will be getting married June 3rd in SC. We look forward to celebrating with them on their special day.
Our family will be all together for the event.

We continue to care for our missionaries here at the Missouri campus. Recently Heather and I had the opportunity for some advanced mental health training through the American association of Christian Counselors and Light University. I plan to take additional training for marriage and family and Heather plans to specialize in trauma care. These tools are invaluable in providing support to our mission community.

After we get back from the wedding we will be helping the MK care team facilitate a retreat at our campus. I get to cook and we both will support in various roles.

This is a quick little update. We hope to get a proper newsletter out soon.

Thank you for your prayers and support that allows us to serve here.

PJ and Heather

Last Saturday we had the privilege of celebrating the graduation of 37 missionaries from the Ethnos360 Training Center. It was a beautiful time of worship as we recognized their hard work, and God's faithfulness.

Photo dump from some things that we have been up to in the last few months. Descriptions in the photo captions.

PA/NJ here we come! Yesterday we set off on another adventure- I mean long car ride😉. Sometimes I do wish for the ability to be in two places at once and this week is no exception.

One of the highlights of my year is the opportunity to gather with others from various mission organizations at the MK Caregivers Summit. This year the conference is being held in Texas, but we were already committed to participate in a missions conference in a supporting church in New Jersey the day after the summit ended. We are so thankful for a virtual option that allows me to still participate, but also be within driving distance for the missions conference in south Jersey.

We have a busy week ahead and are so excited to worship with our sending church in Montoursville, PA this Sunday. We have several different events that we are looking forward to over the next 10 days. Birthday parties, time with our family and ministry partners, worship with our sending church on March 12, and participating in a missions conference at Country Road Bible Church in Pittsgrove, NJ March 17-19.

Heather has spent the last 9 days in Idaho with Ally and David and the grandkids. She has had a blast, and made lots of memories. Tomorrow I pick her up in St Louis and I can’t wait!
2022 was a challenging year on many levels but God was faithful even when we felt desperate. He gave us orchestrated opportunities to develop resilience to keep pressing on.
On Monday the spring semester kicks off and I look forward to whatever He has for us in this new year. I love serving Him with my beautiful bride of almost 30 years.

What was on your to do list on the weeks leading up to Christmas? Perhaps finishing up those last minute gift shopping? Or maybe it was baking Christmas cookies, attending holiday parties, or cleaning your home to prepare for holiday visitors.

Well, all of that WAS on our list for this week, when God made us aware of other things that needed to take precedence on our time and attention. This story starts back at the start of November. We had just returned from a week of ministry training in Florida. Our elderly neighbors called to tell us that they were being taken to the hospital after the wife had suffered a stroke. The husband is disabled and requires full time care, so he too needed to go into a care home until she recovered.

Since the day that they moved next door more than 10 years ago, we have been helping to care for their property and assisting them with practical needs as they have no family and few local friends. They have now been in nursing home for the last 6 weeks. Since they have no one else, we have continued to help them by bringing things from home, securing their valuables, and helping them as you would if you had family in similar situation.
While they have spent the last 6 weeks trying to get home again, this week they finally acknowledged that they are no longer able to live in their home. This has been a hard time as we have navigated how to help them come to terms with such a sudden change of direction. Once they made the decision to move and got others involved, it was a race against the clock to get their personal things out of the house, before the movers came in to liquidate the estate.

One question that we have been asked repeatedly by those we bump into when we help them is "why". Why would we take our own time and money to help a neighbor in this way? The answer is simple- Jesus. We could say it was because of their need. That is true, they have no one else. We could say it was because we have been caring for them- which we have for the last 10 years. But the real reason is that Jesus commands us to love our neighbor. To serve them when we are tired. To set aside our own plans this week to gather their personal items and help them make a new home in the nursing home. To help them process through not only the loss of their independence, but also the sudden loss of their home and 45 years of personal belongings.

While this experience has been heartbreaking to watch, there are some elements of their experience that we can relate to as we care for missionaries. To leave behind home, family, and friends. To leave behind security and be dependent on the Lord to provide what they will need. Many that we have worked with over the last few years, have experienced sudden changes to the ministry that they thought that they would have, or the place that they had planned to serve. Several years ago, the Lord placed on our hearts a burden to help walk with those who are hurting and point them toward to their source of strength and peace which is the Lord. While our mission field might not be on some distant shore that we once imagined it would be- our goal is to make Jesus known as we daily follow Him.

This week we have been in Sanford, FL for a workshop. Our group represented multiple mission organizations and the learning environment was wonderful. We will leave here tomorrow better equipped to care for missionaries at our Missouri campus.
We would appreciate your prayers as we travel home tomorrow. We land in STL at 4:00.

Almost ready for our MK event!! School children tonight and preschool kids tomorrow morning. Heather will be talking with families about emotions using the characters from the inside out movie. This is such a fun time for families both those preparing to go overseas and those who serve here in the USA.

The carpenter has finished his projects for our niece’s wedding and we are on our way to PA to celebrate our sweet Emma!!! We are looking forward to some family time and time with our sending church. Hoping to make the 1,000 mile journey in one day, but we will see how far we get today.

We have already seen the Lord’s protection as we have traveled 🧳 through construction in Indianapolis and nearly got squashed when the truck in front of us slammed on his brakes. Quick maneuvering by the driver behind us kept us from a bad accident. 😮‍💨