Connie Mathias

A New Year, A New Continent

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Dear Loved Ones ~

Merry Christmas and happy New Year! We pray this note finds you well and celebrating God’s goodness from the year past. We are so thankful for His faithfulness, and it’s refreshing to start 2024 looking ahead to what He may do knowing that whatever this year holds, we are held by Him!

One exciting thing about the new year is Chuck’s trip to Peru! He leaves on Jan 8th, and returns Jan 31st. We would love you to pray for his travel (with a Tentmaker’s Bible Mission team), for safety, for the training program that Chuck and his co-worker Nathaniel have designed and written that will be used and tested on this trip, and for the video projects Chuck is overseeing. It will be a busy time! We pray it will be fruitful in the lives of pastors and lay leaders in the church in Tarapoto, as well as an encouragement to our missionary families on the field there!

In other news, we have been living in the new house for just about a year, now, and it is such a blessing. Thanks again to all who helped in various ways with this crazy building project. We are still working on finishing the basement bathroom, laundry room sink, and some outside trim and landscaping (when the weather’s warm again).

Chuck and Connie both taught a class at Frontier this Fall semester, and Chuck will have another missions class for the Spring semester. Connie is homeschooling Asha (16), Elijah (13), and Diya (13) this year and would appreciate continued prayers. Anjali (18) will begin her second year at Frontier School of the Bible in January. She looks forward to preparing for future work in Asia after having had an exciting vision trip this last Fall. Thanks again to all who supported her and are praying for her schooling and future ministry!

Please drop us a line to let us know how you are and how we can pray for you as well.

Love in Christ ~

Chuck & Connie Mathias

Highlights of 2019 and Exciting Plans for 2020

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Dear Ones ~

2019 is ending, and we’re glad to stop and look back over all God’s blessings through the year. We include you in that list! Thank you for your loving support over the last year! Here’s a quick update with some highlights as we look back, and some plans as we look ahead to 2020!

Looking back:

God provided a new property (two lots adjacent to our current lot) on which we can eventually build!

Chuck had lots of great speaking opportunities – visiting Bible colleges, being camp speaker, doing missions workshops at conferences, and filling the pulpit at our home church in LaGrange, and chapel services at Frontier School of the Bible! Whew!

Connie had opportunity to speak at a ladies’ retreat in the fall, started a choir and drama team at Frontier, continued to teach English at Frontier, and to homeschool the kids who are now in… believe it or not: Anjali in 9th grade, Asha in 6th, and Elijah and Diya in 3rd.

Looking ahead:

Chuck and Connie will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in March!

Quite a bit of traveling is already on the calendar for the coming year. Jan 1-5 we will be at a missions conference in MO. Chuck and Connie will both travel to Spain in September for the Tentmaker’s Bible Mission European field conference. Then, Chuck will likely travel to Indonesia in November to survey the field possibilities for future Tentmaker’s missionaries there.

The other major news for 2020 is that Chuck will officially be made executive director of Tentmaker’s Bible Mission! A celebration of the passing of this role from Ron Thompson to Chuck will take place in May!

Thanks for praying for us! We would love to hear from you, and as always would love to know how we can pray for you, too!

Love, and prayers, and wishing you all God’s best in 2020 ~ Chuck and Connie Mathias

July 2019 Update

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Hello loved ones!

Thanks for your prayers regarding the new property!! We closed on it last week, and we are so thankful for this provision. Two lots adjacent to our current property is a huge blessing! We will update as plans progress and we figure out a plan for this new place.

Also, thank you to all those who helped with expenses of sending ALL FOUR kids to camp this summer. It’s hard to believe the twins are “camp age.” They all had a great time at Pioneer Bible Camp.

We are currently busy prepping for the coming school year. Homeschool for our kiddos is always interesting. This year we venture into new territory… High School! Also, we’re always revamping/improving our material for our classes at Frontier School of the Bible. Chuck will teach OT Survey this semester, and I will be teaching English.

Another new endeavor at FSB is (possibly) leading a small group choir. Since the choir director moved away to pastor a church a few years ago, the school hasn’t had a music group to visit churches and share about FSB. I’ve been asked to head it up, providing we have student interest. I’m excited for the opportunity. It will be a challenge, but I look forward to working more closely with a small group of students, and giving them a place to use their gifts!

Chuck continues his weekly business meetings in Cheyenne, reaching out to many within that group. It has been a great venue for making connections and having great conversations. (Though it has left him with more website requests than he can take on!) There are others here in LaGrange we have a desire to minister to, and we’d love prayer for these “casual” friendships to blossom into solid relationships where God could really use us in the lives of others.

Chuck is busy at Tentmaker’s Bible Mission with his role as assistant director. He’s been helping to facilitate some short term missions trips for several who are exploring the mission field right now. The International Training Program is also still in the works. Please do pray for the development of this program to be completed as we foresee it being a great tool for TBM missionaries all over the world! He’s getting a better picture of what being executive director will look like including visiting churches that support TBM missionaries, and working with missionaries facing different challenges in their fields.

Finally, since reading, studying, and finding excellent resources is such a part of Chuck’s life and work… I thought it would be fun to add to our updates some recommended reading or resource that we have appreciated. It could be a classic, or something we’re currently using, or have recently discovered! This time we want to share the book…

By This Name, by John Cross.

This is an excellent Bible study tool that puts the big picture of Scripture into sharp focus. Excellent to use with someone with little/incomplete Bible knowledge who needs to see how it all points to Christ! You can download a free copy at: free.goodseed.com/btn

Thanks for the love and support. We are so blessed by your faithfulness and for the knowledge that we have you “in our corner.” God bless you as you enjoy the rest of your summer! 

 ~ Connie (for The Mathias Six)

Amazing answer to a specific prayer

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Hello Dear Ones ~

We wanted to send a quick note to update you on a recent development. As many of you know, we’ve been praying about long-term housing arrangements since the decision to stay in LaGrange. We fixed up and moved into a single-wide trailer home almost two years ago. Since that move, we’ve actually been praying about the possibility of acquiring the lot next door.

This week the owner spoke to us and quoted us a great price! We have been awed by this specific answer to prayer! It’s been amazing to see how God continues to provide!

As this is new territory (literally and figuratively) for us, we would love prayers for wisdom in all the decisions. Of course there are also financial needs involved, and we’re hoping / praying / dreaming that some of you who are skilled in various ways related to building a home might like to partner with us at some point, to visit the lovely LaGrange, and be part of the process!

We are hoping to move ahead and purchase this property that has a small, old house on it. We’ll have some decisions to make regarding whether to put a huge amount of work into renovating this old home, or possibly to tear it down and make use of just the basement to build on!

GOD IS SO GOOD!

March Update

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Hello all!

Just a quick update on Mathias life so far in 2019 and a look ahead at the next couple months. We’ve survived the crazy March blizzard! The roads are mostly cleared and open after three days with massive drifting and terrible conditions. We were able to wait it out at home in comfort!

Thankfully, the storm hit between road trips for us! We just returned from a brief trip to Frisco, CO where we visited Rocky Mountain Bible Church and celebrated our 19th (!) anniversary. Next week our family heads to Montana. In Helena, our oldest – Anjali – has a speech and debate competition. Then, we will spend a couple days in Bozeman visiting Montana Bible College. Chuck is going to speak in chapel, and share with the students about Tentmaker’s Bible Mission.

More on Tentmaker’s: TBM is part of the Association of North American Missions, so our family is traveling to the ANAM conference in New Mexico in April. Chuck will teach a class on “Media and Ministry.” Being in NM will allow us a chance to visit some family as well, so we’re definitely looking forward to the April trip.

Frontier School of the Bible graduation is early May, so Chuck is wrapping up his NT Survey class. Hard to believe we’re coming to an end of our fourth year teaching at FSB! This year, we’ve especially enjoyed a Wednesday Bible study with a group of students as well as quite a bit of one-on-one mentoring.

Thanks once again for your prayers and support. Chuck will update soon on the progress for the training program he’s developing for TBM missionaries. We’d appreciate your prayers for that work, as well as for all our travels in the coming weeks.

Mathias Summer Update

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Hello all ~

We want to thank you again for your prayers for us this summer! It has been a lot of driving back and forth from LaGrange to Utah / Idaho. After being able to put a new engine in our Suburban (thanks to some generous supporters), the car has been running well and we’re SO GLAD it has been getting us everywhere we’ve needed to go this summer.

We’ve been thankful for the opportunity to work in VBS, time to visit family, for the chance to say goodbye and be there for my Aunt Joy’s funeral, for the privilege of visiting our Utah and Idaho church families, and various other ministries. We’ve had visits from old friends, family camping adventures, our older girls each got to attend a week a Pioneer Bible camp, and we’ve entered the strange new world of orthodontics as our oldest (Anjali) had braces put on in July!

We’ve been encouraged as we visit with people who have a like-minded passion for the gospel and passion to see the transforming truth of the gospel reach into dark places. As Chuck moves into a new role with Tentmakers Bible Misison as Assistant Director, it’s been especially neat to start getting to know more TBM missionaries and become familiar with what they do. Chuck is still working on the International Training Program for TBM, and he plans to have the first section of the program ready for use in several different fields within a few months.

As we near the end of the summer, we’re gearing up for the new school year. We’ll have all four kids back to homeschooling this year – a great challenge and a great blessing! Our homeschool will kick off the same week as Frontier School of the Bible. Chuck and I will both be teaching again this fall semester. Please pray for Chuck’s Old Testament Survey class (Freshmen) and my English class (Juniors). Also pray for us as we have opportunities to mentor students as we host prayer groups, have them in our home, and as Chuck works with a number of students to oversee chapel music ministry.

We would love to hear from you about your summer. Let us know anything we can pray about for you and your family. Remember, too, to send our way any students (high school age and beyond) who might be interested in a Bible education. Our campus survey weekend called Frontier Focus is September 27-29.

Thank you for your ever-faithful love and support. We’re so grateful for all the opportunities God gives to serve Him, and so thankful to partner with you. What a great God! May he bless and keep you!

~ Connie (for Chuck, Anjali, Asha, Elijah, and Diya)

Prayer Requests:

– for Anjali who will have oral surgery in August for impacted canines – for comfort for her and for successful surgery and orthodontic treatment
– for Fall classes to get off to a great start
– for relationships with FSB students – opportunities to encourage and mentor singles and married students

Kindness and Truth

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It’s no accident that they are found together in Proverbs 3:3, “Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” I began to think of the profound wisdom of keeping these two qualities together and in balance. The need for each of them (and in right proportion) is seen in so many life issues and relationships.

The first area where I considered the need for kindness and truth is evangelism. I was reminded of the saying “People won’t care what you know till they know that you care.” But conversely, it won’t really matter how much you care if you don’t know what you’re talking about! If the actual truth of the gospel isn’t present in what I say and do, then any kindness on my part isn’t even real kindness.

In parenting, kindness and truth as a pair is crucial. Many a kind parent (i.e. gentle, loving, thoughtful, even sacrificial) has failed to convey truth or neglected to have their child seriously confront the truth claims of Scripture. One father recently told me he loved his kids too much to “force religion on them,” and that he wanted to give them the freedom to choose for themselves. This is puzzling in a way because you can’t “give” an autonomous person freedom to choose what to believe. God has already given every person that freedom; it just is. So, again, we see that kindness devoid of truth is no kindness at all.

Now, to consider an imbalance in the reverse as it applies to parenting: There are parents who have a grasp of truth, who are right in their knowledge and teaching, but who are not kind. Rather, they are harsh, demeaning, even abusive. Their unkindness will surely drive their children away from the very truth they wish to instill. None of us can impart truth to our children with perfectly measured kindness at all times. We fail. We see our own desperate need of grace. But this grievous imbalance is one factor contributing to children of my generation leaving the church in droves.

How does this package of kindness and truth impact the marriage relationship? I think for many of us it is most difficult to be kind to the people we’re closest to, especially our spouses. Even the servant-hearted, nicest-person-you-know woman at church may be essentially a shrew in private communication with her husband. Many husbands and wives have a dangerous preoccupation with being right. It stems, I believe, from an honest desire to be understood, to have our opinions and feelings validated, but it skews the balance of kindness and truth toward truth. Particularly tricky is that it’s often the individual’s own version of the truth he or she is clinging to, and an actual objective understanding of the situation eludes them.

What if, in the midst of marital conflict, I could remember this exhortation about kindness and truth? Then, I would not only be careful to understand and speak the truth, but I would choose words both kind and respectful, I would have a gentle and pleasant demeanor, I would offer the kindnesses of truly listening and readily forgiving.

One last consideration of the kindness and truth connection led me to think about God’s work in accomplishing our salvation. He has given us Truth in Scripture, we need to understand the ultimate concrete truth of His substitutionary work and payment for our sin, and He IS the Way, the TRUTH, and the life. But, recall Romans 2:4; it’s His KINDNESS that leads us to repentance. Thank God for His perfect example of the beautiful unity of kindness and truth!

Fall Ministry Overview

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We’re almost full swing into FALL!

Fall schedule for us kicks off with classes at Frontier School of the Bible. This semester, Chuck is teaching Old Testament Survey to all of the new Freshmen – about 45 new students! I teach English to about half of the Junior class – around 30 students.

It’s a great time to get to know students, have them in our home, and help them in any way we can. I have a student prayer group with four girls, and we have a married student prayer group with two couples. So fun to work with these young people who are studying God’s Word and preparing for future ministry!

We were so thankful to get to be a part of FSB’s 50 year anniversary celebration. God has given us a huge blessing by allowing us to be involved in the legacy of FSB. Pray that it will continue to be a Bible Institute that thrives, that uphold the Word, and that faithfully turns out missionaries and servants of Christ prepared to work and live for Him! AND, if you know of anyone who needs or wants the Bible training offered at FSB, remind them to come check it out – Frontier Focus is a preview weekend September 28-30. Send ’em our way!

The other big piece of our ministry puzzle for Fall is that Chuck, in his role at Tentmaker’s, will be traveling to Spain at the end of September, and then to Kenya in October! Please pray for him as he is preparing for these trips. Pray also for a fruitful time, particularly as he works with the TBM missionaries in Kenya on the development of Tentmaker’s International Bible Training program to be used there in Africa, and then adapted for use on other fields as well.

We’d appreciate your prayers on the home front during Chuck’s travels. I will be speaking at a ladies retreat in Colorado in October, and also keeping busy with a homeschool class for the LaGrange homeschool group, and substitute teaching in our district schools!

Thanks for remembering to uphold us! We certainly need His strength and wisdom for the major projects, but equally for day-to-day life and ministry details.

We love and appreciate you all! Please let us know how we can be praying for you! Enjoy the crisp and cooler weather! Oh, that reminds me… we better go check on winterizing our pipes, find coats and boots for the kids, get our snow shovel out of storage…

Yay for the change of seasons! Our God is so good!

All Things Bright and Beautiful

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We are enjoying sharing some of our family traditions with you! Another that has become an everyday part of our family life is our “Hymn of the Month.” When we lived in India, we realized that our kids weren’t very often getting to hear or sing the hymns that Chuck and I both grew up on. We didn’t want them to miss out on such a beautiful, powerful tradition, so we began choosing one hymn that we would sing with them each night before bed for a month. This has proven to be so much fun and educational for all of us as we have a whole month to focus on the meaning of words, phrases, and concepts from these great hymns of the faith! And by the end of the month, we usually have learned it fairly well. It is a special joy to hear our children sing together, and to know that they are learning things like:

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.
He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
How great is God almighty, who has made all things well!”

Home…Home in LaGrange

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Many of you are wondering about our progress regarding housing / property for our long-term arrangements here in LaGrange. We are excited about the prospect of buying a certain piece of land, but still have to finalize the details. We would aim to build on this land next spring/summer. In the meantime, it has a single-wide mobile home on the property that we can fix up and live in just for the coming year. This mobile home needs quite a bit of work, but we hope to be moved by the end of May.

Here are some pictures.

Please pray…

  • finalizing a price on the property / closing
  • time and finances for working on the mobile home