We thank the Lord upon every remembrance of you!

We thank the Lord upon every remembrance of you! What a blessing it was to spend the holidays with our children and grandchildren. It was the first time in many years that we were all together in one place.

Debra and I have been working to evangelize the North side of Springfield. We’ve been handing out newspapers, flyers, and invitations. Jeff is teaching the adult Sunday school class and preaching as the opportunity provides itself. Debra is busy working in the office. She helps with the receiving, documenting, and processing of over 200 checks per week. The ten mission works sponsored by Grace Baptist are the life blood of this ministry. The sun literally never sets on the work done by the men sent from this small church in Springfield, Missouri. Besides these ten sponsored missionaries, the church also provides monthly support to more than 25 like-minded missionaries all around the world. Even here, the laborers are few.

These reasons and more support our decision to stay here for now and do all that we can to help the Word of God prosper, and to spread the gospel where Jesus has not been named. We are more than grateful to the churches which have sent special offerings to help us get situated here. Please keep in mind that after 16 years on the foreign field, we have nothing of our own. No furniture, no beds, bedding, kitchen supplies, and so on. We must begin again entirely from scratch. We trust that the Lord will supply and is already supplying these needs.

Our children and grandchildren are truly a blessing to us.  Gina and her husband, Daniel and our oldest granddaughter, Lydia live in Kentucky. They are in the middle of moving, seeking the Lord for the place where he would have them serve. Gina has finished writing her second book with a spring release date. Donna and our other three grandchildren. Lilibeth, Eliana, and Elijah live here in Springfield, just minutes away, but we still do not get to see them as often as we would like. They are busy with work and school. Donna is doing some painting in the house that she rents – looks great.  James started his last semester of college. It is hard to believe he is almost finished. He has been able to keep his 4.0 GPA and remains on the president’s list. Graduation will be in May than the week afterwards James and Caitlyn will be married. Last but not least is David. He started his second semester of his freshman year. He made it to the dean’s list with a 3.8 GPA. He works for the restaurant in the small hotel on campus. He is now an official driver with a car of his own. This car will not join him at school until this spring.  We want him to focus on school than we will add the car and another job for extra money.