Welcome, Ottos!
Dear SC District church family,
Greetings to our new South Carolina District church family! We are the Otto family and will be one of your new missionary families being sent to plant a movement of churches in the Low Country beginning with the Charleston area. We are so happy to become a part of the Wesleyan Church family in the South Carolina District and to get to know all of you in the years ahead.
To help you get better acquainted with us, I would like to share a little about our story. Amy and I have been married for twenty years and have three children, Erin (17), Zachary (16) and Micah (14). Erin is a freshman at Indiana Wesleyan University and is majoring in Social Work and Psychology. Zachary is a junior in High School and loves to play basketball and any type of guitar. Micah is a freshman in High School and loves to play the drums and listen to groups like Haste The Day and Chariot. The boys are very excited about making the move into a new school and seeing what God has in store for them. Erin is a little nervous about being 12 hours away from her family and having to say goodbye to the home she grew up in for the past eight years.
My wife, Amy is an awesome partner in ministry and is a sanguine through and through. She loves children and enjoys bonfires, camping and being with her family and friends. She has an Elementary Education degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and has used her gifts and skills by serving on staff at each of our church plants in the capacity of Children’s Ministry Director and in our most recent church as the Worship Director. Amy loves playing the piano, bass guitar, singing and writing songs. She almost always has a song in her heart.
I have an undergraduate and graduate degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and have been in the ministry since 1992. I love hanging out with my kids, preaching, planting churches, hunting, fishing, sports and taking my wife on a weekly date. We have been privileged to serve our Savior Jesus Christ and have been blessed to plant and pastor six churches. The longest we have been at one of our church plants was eight years and the shortest time was one year, before turning it over to another pastor. We are leaving our current church plant having pastored here for six years.
As we embark on this new journey that God has called us to, we welcome your prayers. The journey that God has had us on has been remarkable and one marked with a clear call to go to the Low Country to proclaim the message of Christ. One of the remarkable scriptures that God laid on Amy’s heart can be found in Psalm 107 where the words in the New Living Translation declare, “I will gather you from the North, South East and West…and will make a straight path to the city where you will settle.” I can honestly say that we have witnessed the mighty hand of God making a straight path to the city where we should settle. We put our house up for sale and within two weeks had two offers! On October 24 we closed on the sale of our house. That’s a time-frame that is unheard of here in mid-Michigan. We have leased a house in Summerville and are leaving on Monday, October 31st for the 16-hour drive to the city where God has led us to settle.
In the months to come we will be getting jobs, settling into our home and getting acquainted with the community. We will also begin speaking at the District churches to find prayer partners and to encourage churches to partner with us by sending mission teams to canvass, run backyard Bible clubs, sports camps and other evangelistic endeavors. We will also be looking for partner churches that would consider taking up an initial love offering for the church plant and considering putting the church plant in their monthly missions or outreach budget.
With the Spirit’s outpouring and the partnership of all the churches in the South Carolina District, we will hopefully be launching official worship services by the end of 2012. If you would like to have us come to your church to speak, please contact us by email at ottothechurchplanter@yahoo.com
Serving Christ Together,
The Otto Family
Rev. Wayne Otto and Amy, along with their three children, will be moving during the first week of November to prepare for a launch of a new congregation in the Charleston area during the Fall of 2012. The Ottos are proven church planters, having planted six congregations during their ministry, and Wayne is a certified church planting coach. He has also worked with the North Michigan District as an assistant to the DS with responsibilities of church health and multiplication. He is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and is widely respected in The Wesleyan Church as a leader in the church multiplication movement.
In March 2011, the DBA called the district to prayer . . .prayer for a prevailing strategy to be initiated in order to:
- Recruit/mobilize high‐capacity planters, leaders and teams
- Identify highly receptive cities and contexts as strategic sites
- Empower robust Resources of Prayer, Revival, and Finances!
We truly believe that the fact that God has led the Otto family to South Carolina is a direct result of the prayers of our district family. God has confirmed this action in remarkable ways during the past four months when this process began.
You will be hearing about opportunities to support this ministry through your prayers, work teams, finances, and even potential involvement in the launch team by moving to the area! You will be asked to help connect the Ottos with those you may know who are already in the area. Continue to pray for a harvest of souls in the Low Country!
Pastor Buddy
DS Haiti Trip
- At October 28, 2011
- By pastormatt
- In announcement, Missions
1
Dear Friends,
A 
trip to the health department to get our shots on Tuesday afternoon was a reminder that our trip to Haiti is getting closer . . . a trip that may be news to some of you. Joan and I are scheduled to arrive in Haiti on December 2 for 10 days of work and ministry. This will be the first trip for each of us to this nation which has become increasingly dear to our hearts as a result of our relationship with our two Haitian congregations, the career and short-term missionaries that have served and are serving from our district, and an increased awareness of the incredible needs represented there.
Our ministry focus in Haiti will be the missionaries and the Haitian pastors. Joan has been asked to lead a weekend retreat for the missionary wives and Buddy has been asked to share in the area of teaching/resourcing for pastors. We have made ourselves available to be “used as needed” and we are packing some work clothes (believing it doesn’t really count as a missions trip unless you do some real labor, does it?)
The purpose of this letter is two-fold. First, we truly need your prayers for all facets of our trip. We ask that you pray that the Holy Spirit will prepare hearts–both ours and theirs– so that the time spent together will be of eternal significance. Please pray also for the tangible preparations of schedules, logistics, and materials; and, especially for Buddy, a successful, no-motion-sickness trek across the water!
We are so grateful that God has enabled us to cover all of the preparation expenses thus far: airfare, renewal of passports and immunizations. However, it is also our desire to bless the missionaries, pastors and churches in Haiti in a tangible way. In light of this, we are asking you to consider assisting with the financial cost of items that we hope to take and leave with them . . . food favorites, clothing, books, and other gifts that will serve to remind them of the support they have here in South Carolina. Extra luggage will be used (and left with them) for this purpose. Any additional funds will be used for on-the-field expenses that may occur.
I’m sure you understand that Joan and I are not in a position to work through a local congregational team, utilizing the usual fundraisers, etc. When we first spoke about this trip, we received a check the very next week from the Anderson Haitian congregation. That has prompted us to make others aware of this opportunity. Checks may be made payable to SC District of The Wesleyan Church and sent to Mark Payne, 114 W. N. First Street, Seneca, SC 29678. We are more than a little excited about this opportunity and have a sense that this trip may be a means through which God will impact our lives both now and as we look toward the “next steps” He may have for us.
In Christ,
Pastor Buddy and Joan
Reminder: Ride for the Rock – Tomorrow!
