January 2024

Health

Thank you for all of the prayers that have been given on my behalf. I waited to put out my last prayer letter until I had the results of my biopsy, which thankfully showed clean margins. When we arrived in northern Colorado, I had an appointment set up with an oncologist. The good news is that I was able to get the scans done on my chest/abdomen/pelvis and they showed no further tumors! The bad news is that I am supposed to get scanned every 4 months for a while before the scans are spaced out further and further. The protocol is that I will need scans for the next five years before I can be declared out-of-the-woods.

Christmas

We have had the blessing of being able to be with family this Christmas. Since we have churches scheduled in the Front Range (eastern side of the Rockies, especially in Colorado) for December and January we have been able to park the trailer at Grandma and Grandpa’s house (Lisa’s parents). Since time is limited for all of the family to get together, the opportunity was taken and Lisa’s brother’s family and Ashlyn’s family joined us in Colorado for an early Christmas. There were 12 of us (including 2 babies) and 3 dogs all in one house.

Deputation

When we picked up on the deputation trail, we started heading to Moab, UT for a Wednesday evening service. However, we started leaking coolant and when we stopped for gas in Albuquerque, NM made the decision that we should not go on since the leak was getting worse. However the Lord blessed, and the repair only took one day and came in $900 less than the estimated cost. When calling a church to see if we could get a ride into services the pastor not only let us have a car to use but allowed us to present at the church that evening and had us over for coffee after services. Thank you to the Hogues and RiversEdge Baptist Church! Then, despite not being able to make services the night before, we were still able to meet up with the Howes in Moab and have a meal with them and stay the night at Moab Baptist Church.

We next went to Grand Junction where we were not only able to present the ministry and preach all day, but Lisa was able to speak at a ladies meeting. That was a blessing since at most churches you do not have much time to be able to make a connection with people at the church and Lisa felt that she was able to do that through the Ladies meeting. However, on Sunday afternoon as we were resting before evening services we heard a boom and felt the trailer rock and heard water running. I immediately shut of the water and was not sure what happened but we were thankful that the next day we would get to Lisa’s parents and would not need the water before then. On the next warm (50’s) day I got into the trailer to see what broke and felt blessed to find that it was a plastic fitting and not a copper pipe or the hot water heater.

Finally, being back in northern Colorado was not just coming back to blood family, but we have been blessed to be able to be with our first church family. We were able to be with Windsor Baptist Church, where I was saved and we were trained for the ministry. We have also been able to be with Justin Garber’s church, which is a ministry of Windsor Baptist and good friends. It has been a blessing to be with so many that we love at this time of year!

Prayer Requests

* House to sell

* Pick up support

* Safety and reliability as we travel

* Souls saved of people that we meet

* People to surrender to missions

* Funds to get to Brno in May

* Funds to be able to pay for CAT scans and MRIs