Kerney Update

Missionary at Refuge Ministries 

It is interesting to be on the other side of the missionary/host church equation. This time, we received the missionary instead of being the missionary. Nathan Schmidt visited Copperas Cove, Texas, and stayed in our home for a week in May. He and his wife, Amy, along with their three girls, are preparing to return to Bolivia. It was a great time to catch up with a Bolivia missionary coworker. He shared about their (Schmidt family) ministry in Bolivia in several of the Refuge Ministries campuses. It was a challenge for believers in the churches to understand the importance of being a part of missions through giving, praying, and/or taking trips.  

Topsey Refuge Ministries Church

We, David and Rachel, pastor Topsey Refuge Ministries Church. It is located about 10 miles from Copperas Cove. We have a fluctuation in attendance, but it is always encouraging to welcome local visitors. One of the unique features of this ministry includes a garden that is flourishing. It is exciting to have fresh garden produce to give away. Another feature is Topsey Trade Day, which is a community activity where people can come to buy or sell organic vegetables, handcrafted items, garage sale items, or other products. This is held the fourth Saturday of each month.  

Kerney Family

David keeps busy with ministry, gardening, construction projects, and learning about beekeeping. David’s biological father, David O. Kerney, recently moved from Illinois to Texas to live with us. He is at a point in his life where he needs some assistance, but he likes helping out with projects around the house. Rachel completed a course in phlebotomy and is presently looking for job openings. Leah came home to Texas (yes, you read correctly, our home is now in Texas) after finishing her freshmen year at Indian Wesleyan University. She is working as summer staff at Riverbend Retreat Center in Glen Rose, Texas. Micah is an intern at the University of North Dakota this summer. 

Prayer Items 

• Opportunities to encourage and promote international missions on Refuge Ministries campuses
• Missions trip to Sucre, Bolivia, that David is planning for October with some men from Copperas Cove

The medical trip to Peru was an amazing experience. We traveled to Ayacucho and visited the local hospital. I was able to help translate for a Pediatrician who was with us. She gave a course on effective post-natal care. After that we traveled to the village of Kana and held a two day clinic. I was in charge of triage taking vitals and assessing the medical need so I could assign them to the different specialists traveling with us. I learned so many good things that I know will contribute to my future medical education. I would definitely do it again.
Thank you for your prayers and support, Micah 

Fourteen Days in Bolivia

As the director of international missions for the Refuge Ministries campuses, David planned a trip to Bolivia in January with a Refuge Ministries pastor and a leader. Some hindrances prevented the Refuge Ministries leaders from going, but David was able to visit Bolivia January 27 - February 12.  

David traveled to Sucre in the Bolivian department of Chuquisaca (similar to our states). He went to visit the University Residence where Christian students live while they study at the university in Sucre. The residence is packed full of students to the extent that one young man partitioned off a space in the hallway as his bedroom. The University Residence is filling a real need in the lives of these students. The university academic program prepares them as a professional, but the University Residence provides security, Christian community, meals, and a good environment that encourages their walk with Christ. These students also have the opportunity to minister in several different churches in Sucre on the weekends.   

Along with Pastor Sergio, David traveled on a bus for seven hours to a small town in Chuquisaca called Molleni. It was exciting for David to be able preach and teach to this congregation, which is a new church. It is the only evangelical church in this town. David and Pastor Sergio had plans to minister to believers in other locations, but rumors of a nationwide roadblock by the truckers changed all of that. They were able to make it back to Sucre safely, even though the last 10 miles were like an obstacle course with a blend of walking and catching different buses.  

There were other opportunities in Santa Cruz to connect with national leadership and friends.  This trip was helpful in preparing and clarifying future trips with teams to Bolivia. 

It is hard to believe, but we are now Texans! We purchased a house in Copperas Cove, Texas. It was neglected and misused, but after three months of intense remodeling, we now have a beautiful, comfortable home. We have been pastoring a rural church, located in Topsey, that is one of the campuses of Refuge Ministries. God is working in and through this family of believers.  

Micah is doing well as as a junior at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. He is excited about a medical trip to Peru at the end of February. He has also asked for prayer as he plans to take the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) this spring and apply to medical schools. Leah is doing well at Indiana Wesleyan University as she has learned to navigate through college, a job, and snow!  

Rachel also has her nose stuck in a book (actually several books) as she takes a course in phlebotomy. She plans to finish in May and get a job in one of the nearby hospitals.  

We are so thankful to each of you who continue to pray and be involved in this ministry through giving. Even though we live in the USA and serve as pastors, we see that this is a multiplication of missions. We are able to visit the mission field and take teams, which helps others get a vision for ministry in other countries and from other cultures.  

Kerneys' Knewsletter

Our hearts are full of joy and satisfaction as we see what God did through our ministry during our recent two-year term in Bolivia. The University Residence in the city of Sucre has been built; and Pastor Sergio and his wife, Fanny, have moved in, along with 10 university students. Rachel used her creativity to teach elementary art at Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. David learned a lot while preparing to teach classes each semester at Berea Bible Seminary. He also gave brief seminars in rural area churches in the departments of Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca.  We served in administrative capacities as well as guesthouse supervision   and housing maintenance on the Bolivia Field. It is rewarding to know that our service in Bolivia had an impact in the lives of people in that country.  

We left Bolivia in June 2015 thinking we would return to Bolivia, yet believing that God was guiding us to a change in ministry.  Once we arrived in the USA, the opportunity opened for us to join Refuge Ministries in Copperas Cove, Texas.  This is a church ministry of Refuge, Renewal and Release, directed by Pastor Russ Cochran (David’s brother).  It is one church with six locations.  Each location has a pastor and David was offered the opportunity to be the pastor of one location. God has led David and me to accept this invitation and be a part of this team. We will also be the director of international missions for the Refuge Ministries.   

We have changed our status with WGM from career missionaries to AVN (Advanced Volunteer Network), effective October 31, 2015. This will allow us to continue to be connected with WGM, but it will be at a different level. We will still be involved in missions by promoting missions in the Refuge Ministries churches, making trips, taking teams, and supporting projects.   

Since our status with WGM is changing, we will no longer receive our monthly salary or benefits through WGM. We will continue to have an account at WGM for approved missions trips and projects.

If you feel God leading you to continue with us through giving, your gifts will be used to fund approved ministry activities through WGM. If you feel God leading your missions giving in another direction, we certainly understand. Either way, we are grateful for the partnership we have had in missions and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Changes bring mixed emotions, so in the excitement of the opportunities ahead of us and in the sadness of what we leave, we anchor our hope in God’s Word. “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this  treasure” (Isaiah 33:6 NIV).   

Serving Jesus with you, 

David and Rachel Kerney 

Life full of emotions

Our life has gone from walking, crowding onto microbuses, or hailing taxis to following GPS directions on seemingly endless miles of interstate. Yes, we arrived in the USA on June 3, and not only our mode of transportation, but also many other things are different. We are also experiencing all kinds of emotions. 

It was a joyful experience to attend the wedding of Andrew Mast and Julianna Keaton. The Mast family were co-workers in Argentina. We enjoyed seeing Micah, our son, at the wedding, too.  

The most urgent visit was with David’s parents, who are presently in Texas. They both are in stage 4 cancer. Please pray for David’s brother, Pastor Russ Cochran, as he and his family care for their parents. As many of you know from experience, this is a very sad and difficult season of life.  

Note:  Since this update was written David's mom, Tessie Jane Brooks Cochran, passed on to heaven.  This happened on July 12. David Kerney will not be traveling to Bolivia with David Harriman.  

The World Gospel Mission International Celebration of Missions was inspirational as well as exciting. We heard from missionaries and people with a heart for missions about how to demonstrate missions. God is using His people around the world who are creatively reaching out with the good news from God’s Word.  

It was a lot of fun to have a Winters reunion over the 4th of July holiday! Ila, Rachel’s sister, and her family have recently moved to the USA. Eric, Rachel’s brother, and his family drove from Kentucky. We all met at Charles and Keet Winters’ home in Mississippi. We have not been together this way since 2008. The grandkids who were elementary students in 2008 have graduated or are seniors in high school. Micah Kerney and Wesley Ordonez, who are both college students, could not be there because of distance and work obligations. We enjoyed laughing and reliving memories. It was great to sit at one big table for Bolivian food, Argentine flavors, and, yes, Mississippi fresh vegetables.  

Please pray for David as he joins David Harriman on a three-week evangelistic trip to Bolivia, July 13 - August 4.  

We appreciate your support and prayer for our family. It is so good that we all have this reassurance, “…God… comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” 

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV). 

David joins the doctors

This trip was full of adventure, if you like the kind with muddy roads and survival life. David joined a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team of 15 participants, led by Pedro Cayalo (son of Hermes Cayalo), in Lagunilla, near Camiri, Bolivia. At one point, a tire came off the pickup. (Thankfully, the pickup just sank into the soft dirt and no one was hurt.) They had to transport three heavy trunks with medical supplies every day as they traveled to different communities in this area. One time they used a donkey to pull a cart, but at other times they had to be the beasts of burden and load them on their backs.  

This was a medical and evangelical team. Part of the team did medical work and the other part presented evangelistic programs for kids. David was with the medical team and translated for the doctors. It was exciting that they were able to see about 300 patients. They attended to their medical concerns and addressed their spiritual needs as well. Thank God for the people who asked Christ into their lives and for those who rededicated their lives to Him. Please pray that the seeds of the Good News that were planted in lives will continue to grow.   

Exciting opportunities like this remind us of the impact that a team can make in people’s lives. What one individual can do is multiplied when done through teamwork. Thank you so much for joining our team through your prayers and financial gifts as we minister here in Bolivia. We see God multiply our combined efforts. We look forward to seeing many of you when we return to the USA in June for homeland ministry assignment.  

Kerneys' Knewletter for April

Walk in the park?  

Actually, it was a class in the park. Rachel’s youth class at the Cobija World Gospel Church is studying the book World Views of the Kingdom of God. The class is made up of high school and university students. For the chapter about the biblical view of creation, we went to a local park in Santa Cruz to do the lesson in an area that was surrounded by green and where a cool breeze was blowing.  

Update on ministries 

• University Residence—Pastor Sergio is working on the finishing details and the purchasing of the furnishings.  
• Guarani Communities—David is supporting Aleida and her husband in the rebuilding of the churches, both spiritually and physically, in this area.  
• Youth Group at Cobija World Gospel Church—Rachel is teaching the youth class and supporting the leaders of the Saturday night youth meetings. 
• Church History of Latin America—David’s class at the Berea Bible Seminary is a group of around 19 students. 
• Elementary Art Classes at SCCLC—Rachel teaches these classes. Students are finishing their Elements of Art book and getting it assembled. 

Two-year term in Bolivia

We came to Bolivia in August of 2013 for a two-year term. As this cycle nears completion, we are making plans to be in the USA for a year of homeland ministry assignment.  

We look forward to visiting with many of you and sharing with you what we have seen God do during our time in Bolivia.  

If you are interested in having us share about missions in your church, small group, or home, you can contact us by e-mail at david.kerney@wgm.org.