Fall 2020

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Source of Light, 

Our crop of canola was a great success this year! This was the first year that we could not host any fundraisers like our annual Singspiration. Though this was a disappointment and worry for us, God showed us a unique fundraising solution: we could pursue a willing farmer to donate a harvest to our ministry! God worked out everything. This past spring, we were permitted to use 60 acres of land and planted canola on it. We will pay for the seed out of the harvest profits and were able to raise the funds to pay for the fertilizer. It was harvested in September. Originally, the farmer estimated that we could expect fifty bushels an acre and a price of $10.00 a bushel. God multiplied the results! The harvest was fifty-five bushels an acre, which sold for $11.20 a bushel! Praise God for his abundant blessings on our ministry! The total amount raised for our ministry was over $30,000.00 

The lessons mailed back to us for this quarter have been rising significantly. In the month of September alone, we graded 277 lessons and mailed out 313 lessons and there were 4 salvations! God has been really blessing our ministry through this rough year. He is in total control of everything we do here in Canada. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!! 

In His service

Joe and Penny 

Summer 2020

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Source of Light 

Things are finally getting back to normal. Our lessons have been increasing during this time of lock down. Praise God!! We have had 8 salvations this year so far. Our finances have been coming in steady, and that has been a great blessing. 

We would like for you to pray for our new fundraiser project. We had 60 acres of canola planted. Everything is paid for by donations from faithful supporters. Here are some photos of what has been going on so far. 

In His service,

Joe and Penny 

Spring 2020

Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from Canada, 

Praise God for great blessings! We have been in lockdown since the end of March, but for us, our lives have not changed much, except for not being able to go to church and Bible study. We are very involved in Awana, and sadly that ministry was shut down very early in the pandemic. I also drive a school bus to help supplement our income. Thankfully the school system is still paying me even though the schools are shut down. Praise God!! One encouraging surprise was that, since schools are shut down, more lessons have been completed recently. 

Since everything is shut down, we were unable to host our annual fundraiser in April. Each month the support that we need to operate is about $600. Pray with us as we rethink ways to raise money for our ministry. We recently sent an email requesting that if our supporters would like to help, they can send us a check or e-transfer. Any one in the U.S. can give by sending funds to us through Source of Light Ministries, 1011 Mission Road, Madison, GA 30650. anyone in Canada can send money to us by e-transfer to canada@slmin.org or by sending a check to our mission at P.O. Box 487, Hepburn, SK S0K 1Z0. Those who give will, of course, get a tax receipt. 

We have a new fundraiser planned for this year. God brought to our minds a unique fundraiser from farmland: planting and selling a crop to help raise support for our mission. I know nothing about this process, but after talking to one of our board members who is a farmer, he told me about some land that he knows of that would work. Within a couple of weeks after talking to him, God worked out all the details of getting the crop planted, harvested, and sold for this fall. So, starting this spring our mission is going to have 60 acres of canola. I will post pictures of what is happening with this throughout the summer on our Facebook pages and www.slmcanada.com. Because this is going to depend on the weather, we are relying on God for His blessings. According to His Word, we know that what God has started He will finish. Praise God!! 

In His service 

Joe and Penny 

Winter 2020

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25

Dear Praying Partners, 

It’s hard to believe that it is already February! This year is flying by! We had a great Christmas in Florida. We got to stay with Penny’s folks in Orange Park. It had been three years since Joe was able to visit them. Penny’s dad has Parkinson’s Disease, so it was important for us to go spend time with her mom and dad. Our middle son David and his family came down from Pennsylvania to spend time with us while we were there. It was great to see our grandson Levi. Oh yes, and David and his wife Rachel too. 

While we were there, one of our supporting churches had a mission conference from December 29-31. So, as always when we travel to the States, we try to visit as many of our supporting churches as we can. Joe sang every night and preached and presented our ministry. It was a great blessing and privilege to share with them. 

We have had the privilege to minister three weeks in a row in 2020. On January 23rd, Joe preached in a Filipino church in Saskatoon. They are one of our supporting churches up here. Their church rents the building of the church we attend, and meet on Sunday afternoons. They are a growing church that has an Awana club. Joe preached the service then helped them work on their wooden Awana grand prix cars for the fun race coming up. Then the next two Sunday’s Joe preached in Middle Lake, Saskatchewan. This is a small country church that we have ministered in for years. The pastor and his family were gone on vacation, so Joe preached the first Sunday and sang a 35 minute concert the following Sunday. Joe sang eight songs and Penny read scripture between each song. It was a real blessing to minister to this special church. 

Our Mailbox club is going well. When we came back from our time away, Penny had lots of lessons to get caught up on. It took the first two weeks back to get it all caught up, since more lessons were coming each day. It’s always hard to get back in the groove when coming back from a vacation, but it was extra hard this time because we both caught the flu! Thankfully, we have since recovered and are doing fine. 

The cost of stamps has increased again this year. Our lowest stamp is .92 now and the others have gone up too. Postage is the biggest of our mission expenses. On April 17th we are hosting a concert fundraiser in Saskatoon, at Fairhaven Bible Chapel at 7:00 p.m. The Gospel Echoes Canada West Men’s Quartet will be singing. Pray that we have a great turnout and great offering to further the mission. 

Thank you again for praying for us and for God’s ministry here in Saskatchewan Canada! 

Sincerely, 

Joe & Penny 

2019 Christmas Letter

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 

Merry Christmas from the Homontowskis, 

This year has brought many changes. We are all settled into our new house and office. In February of this year it was -30 degrees most of the month. In fact, Joe hardly drove the school bus all month because it was -40 degrees for at least half of the month. We found out very quickly that the heater that was in our office was not keeping up. 

This summer our Board voted to install a new floor to cover up the cement floor. When installing the floor, we also looked at the attic of the office and found out that it was very poorly insulated. In November, we were able to blow in some more insulation. So far this has been helping. 

Joe had to rely a lot on Penny’s help this year, because in July he had hip replacement surgery. This kept him from many outside duties like mowing grass and keeping up with the yard work. In October, he had knee replacement surgery. After a couple months of recovery, everything is working great and healing. The plan was to have the other knee replaced in January, but after talking to the Doctor, we are going to delay it for a year to allow more time to heal. 

Our mission has been going well. In the last month, the number of lessons arriving in our mailbox has increased, forcing us to consider adding some volunteers to help grade them in the near future. In a surprising development, some students from Belize started mailing in lessons. Source of Light International does not have a branch established there, so we decided to correspond with them ourselves. Currently we have six students from Belize! 

We had two fundraisers this year that brought in around $5,000.00. We were involved in a missions conference that raises support for local missions. Our mission was given $4,500.00. Praise God for His continued support! God has been so good to us this year that we can’t believe it. Our office is such a great blessing, and our house is a house we always wanted. 

Praises

  • New insulation in our office. 
  • Student number increasing 
  • Joe’s hip and knee healing well. 

Prayer requests

  • New financial support for our mission. 
  • New financial support for us personally. 
  • The price of stamps is increasing by 2 cents this coming year bringing the cost of a regular stamp to 92 cents each. 

Thank your for your faithful prayer and financial support. God is truly blessing us every day. We pray that you have a blessed Christmas and a God-honoring New Year. 

Joe and Penny Homontowski 

Source of Light Missionaries to Canada 

Spring 2019

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.  Brethren, pray for us.” 

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Dear Prayer Partners, 

We’re praising the Lord for the wonderful spring and beginning of summer in Canada. Thank you for your prayers and financial support each month. 

Please pray for Joe as he will be having hip replacement surgery on July 2nd at 11:30 a.m. Mountain Daylight Savings Time in Saskatoon City Hospital. We appreciate your prayers! 

Our two Singspirations in March and April went very well and everyone had a great time of praise and singing. The donations totaled to a little over $5,000. We are praising the Lord for His care for this ministry. 

We are excited about a new opportunity to raise funds to help with expenses. The Canadian Filipino Baptist Church has a car detailing shop on Avenue N north in Saskatoon and have offered to do a fund raiser for SLM Canada. You can get your car detailed (full detailing takes 4 hours) and $60 of your cost will go to Source of Light Ministries Canada. 

Below you will find two pictures taken in Saskatchewan in May. Thank you once again for supporting us both in prayer and financially. 

Joe & Penny 

SLM Canada

Winter 2019

“Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 

1Thessalonians 5:24-25

Hello from the cold north!    

It was -40 this morning with a wind chill of -55!  We’ve had 4 days so far this year that have been over 0 F.  The new heater in our office is working okay in this extreme cold weather. We have our office all organized, and it is great for our mission to be all in one building.

The new data program to keep track of our students is almost ready to use. Tim has been working hard to get it setup for us, and it is much appreciated. There are a couple of things that have to get done to be able to use it.

We had a large amount of lessons in our stock that we were not sure what to do with. Praise God we have found someone to buy them from us. What a blessing! There were over 20,000 lessons. God is good.

Please keep praying for our mission. The price of mailing our lessons has gone up again this year. The cheapest stamp is now 90 cents and they go up to $3.12 to mail to the bigger families. We have some fundraisers coming up in March and April, where the money donated will be used for postage and expenses that we have for our new office. It cost $4000.00 to put heat and shelves in the office building. We are praying that we can take care of these extra expenses this year.

Joe & Penny Homontowski

2018 Christmas Letter

Dear Faithful Supporters and friends 

This has been a very eventful year. Penny and I were in the States for 3 weeks this summer. While we were gone our house in Saskatoon sold. We have gone through the process of buying a new house in Hepburn, SK. God opened the doors wide for us to get this house. It is almost twice the size of our last house and has a garage that has been fixed up to be an office. We now have room to have our mission office in that out building. There has been new expenses in doing this, we had to put heat in the office and build shelves to hold all the lessons. God is good, we have done all of this and are nice and warm in our new office. 

I have joined with Gospel Echoes Prison Ministry to sing in their men’s trio in prisons, so that I can expand our ministry into prisons. While we were in the States this summer, we recorded a CD called “Walking with Jesus.” This has been a great blessing. The CDs just came out in October.

Merry Christmas from Joe and Penny

P.S. our new address is: 
P.O. Box 487 
Hepburn, SK S0K 1Z0

October-December 2018

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.” 

Dear Praying Friends, 

We are praising the Lord for how He has worked in the sale of our Saskatoon house and in buying the new property in Hepburn, Saskatchewan! As you know from the last letter, our house in the city had been on the market for three weeks ahead of our trip to the U.S. There were eight showings, and no potential buyers had been overly excited about it. We began our drive to the U.S. on Friday, June 29th. While we were traveling that weekend, there were a couple more showings, and by Monday we had an offer! Trying to juggle all the emails, and documents that needed to be signed was a challenge while we were on the road and while Joe was with the Gospel Echoes Trio recording a CD! Praise the Lord, by His grace we were able to get all the paperwork completed for the closing. The house was sold and we still had a week left of our trip to relax with family. We are so grateful that God worked it out that we had access to the office equipment we needed for those days before heading to that week of family vacation.

We also praise God for our church family and all the helpers He sent our way on moving day, August 25, 2018! We began loading boxes on the U-Haul at 8 a.m., drove 40 minutes up to Hepburn and had more help to unload. Because of all the help, it only took seven hours to get it all packed in the truck and unloaded at the new house! We are now in the new place and have the Source of Light Ministries, Inc. and the Mailbox Club back up and running smoothly. Because of the move, Joe’s Saskatoon school bus route had to be reassigned to another driver. Before the move, Joe had applied to the Hepburn school district and was told he would have to start as a substitute driver, which wouldn’t be nearly enough pay for what we needed. As the two-day school bus training was going on (a week before school started), God opened a door for Joe to get a school bus route right here in Hepburn! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! 

This has been quite a summer for us! We could tell that many of you were praying. Thank you all so much for your prayers. 

Serving God in Canada, 

Joe & Penny

Our new house – October 2018

July-September 2018

 1Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

July-Sept 2018 

Dear Praying Friends, 

Our second annual Singspiration on April 20th went very well. The singing glorified God and each group was a blessing to the many people who were able to attend. All donations taken in that night went to the Mailbox Club! There was $3,500 donated that night and in subsequent days following! 

We are writing the newsletter a little earlier this quarter, because we are headed off to the States on June 29th, and we wanted to get the news out to you before we left. Please pray for us as we travel until July 24th. We will be visiting two of our supporting churches the first weekend. Following those visits, Joe and the Gospel Echoes Trio will be working on recording a CD for several days. During the second week away, we will check in at Source of Light headquarters in Madison, GA and visit another supporting church while there. During the third week, we will spend time with extended family at a Homontowski family reunion and have an opportunity to spend a couple days at the Creation Museum and the Ark with two of our sons and their families! Thanks to our friends who helped us out with tickets! We appreciate it so much! 

Please pray about an opportunity to buy a house north of the city of Saskatoon with a building to house the Source of Light Ministries office. Our current house has been on the market since June 7th and the realtors have shown it 8 times so far this month. Please join us as we are praying for the sale of our house. If it sells then we know God wants us to move into the new house, otherwise we will be content to stay here inside the city. 

Please keep praying for our Mailbox Club students as they do lessons each week. In the months of April through June this far we have graded 660 lessons, 113 of those were emailed answers. There were 41 certificates sent to those who finished courses. There were 48 new students added to the club in the last three months and two students made a profession of faith in the month of May. Praise the Lord! 

Thank you again for your prayers. 

Serving God in Canada, 

Joe & Penny 

Eagle flying free in the Saskatchewan sky above Cowan Lake May 2018