End of the Year

Ministry Update

Evangelism has often been described as “feast or famine.” Spring and fall are traditionally the feasting times and winter, Christmas in particular, tend to be the famine times. This Christmas season, the Lord has allowed us to minister weekly in a church in Spencer NC where I have preached and will continue to preach nearly every Sunday for several weeks in a row. While we are grateful for this opportunity to minister, we still pray for God to open doors in revival meetings. Spring is coming, complete with its busy schedule of revival meetings. Please partner with us in praying that God will send us the meetings that we need in churches where they need our specific ministry.

Family Update

One of the ways that God has provided for our family during the time of no revival meetings is by giving us deer meat. Paul got two this year himself and others gave him three more, leaving us with a total of five deer in the freezer right now, less what we have already eaten. Just this week, we tried our first jerky recipe and were quite pleased at the result, considering it was the first effort. We hope to only get better from here. We received a meat grinder for Christmas that is quite handy for processing the meat and that also opens the door for us to begin making sausage, salami, and other mouth-watering treats.

The holiday season has engendered much excitement on the part of the children, and much busyness on the part of the parents. Josiah and Abigail took part in two Christmas programs (one in our church, and one in another church two weeks later). Josiah always manages to steal the show somehow. This year, his part in the program was to quote a simple verse. He had practiced it for weeks, and knew it inside out. However, in all the excitement of the actual performance, he forgot. He stood in front of the microphone and wrinkled up his nose, rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, and tried to remember. Finally, he gave up and whispered, “I don’t remember!” This brought a much needed “mouthed” cue from the director, but since Josiah was looking at the ceiling, it did him no good. Finally, unable to stand the suspense any longer, I blurted out the first two words of the verse, and Josiah took it from there. He proceeded to give me a very long and detailed explanation after church of why he forgot, but I didn’t understand. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t stage fright.

The other program was a narrated version of the Christmas story, and had, thankfully, no speaking parts. Josiah was a shepherd and Abigail was an angel. Go figure. I wondered at the wisdom of giving five and six-year-old boys five foot long sticks in a crowd, but everyone survived. I must say that I never saw a cuter angel than Abigail.

It is a good thing for Esther that there really isn’t a Santa Claus, because she would have been on his “Naughty” list. In the two weeks before Christmas, she evidently decided to make up for the goodness of the first eight months of her life, and get into as much trouble as possible. She climbed on the bed, fell off, and gave herself a black eye. The same afternoon, she climbed up on a chair, fell off, and landed on a baby doll car seat, giving herself another bruise on the cheek beneath the black eye. She helped decorate the tree, and then undecorated it by herself. She unfolded laundry (a favorite pastime), unwrapped presents that did not belong to her, screeched, fussed, hit, bit, and spit, emptied the salt shaker on the table, chairs, and carpet, took up interior decorating and colored on the walls, floor, and bedspreads. In short, she caused a whole heap of extra work, but we decided to keep her anyway. Life is more interesting with her around.

We learned a most interesting fact today while eavesdropping on our son’s conversation with his sister. (Question: is it technically eavesdropping when the person in question is speaking at the top of their lungs?) Anyway, we overheard that the fastest, meanest fish in the world is the “caribuddha.” We sniggered at the thought of a caribou with fat lips and protruding gut, sitting “Indian style” while pondering the greater things of life on the tundra. For the time being, we have allowed the misnomer for our own amusement. By the way, this fearsome fish is allegedly “blue with black stripes.” Doubtless, they are racing stripes or, perhaps, black flames on a blue background. I think it may be distantly related to the barracuda. Getting things mixed up seems to be a trademark for Josiah, bless his heart. I will never forget the time we were talking and he mentioned something about someone named George. My mind scrambled for a moment, but I failed to think of any of our acquaintance by the name of George. “George who?” I asked. Josiah almost looked offended as he replied, “Why, George Carrius!” For those of you who are not “into” children’s literature, this is the beloved friend of the Man with the Yellow Hat. In the months since that time, the name has been modified to Carrius George, and he still remains one of the favorites. Oh, the funny things kids say!

As we come to the end of the year, I like to look back and recount some outstanding blessings. We had the tremendous privilege of seeing Josiah trust Christ as his Savior in April of this year. Since then, we have seen evidence of the Holy Spirit working in his tender little heart. What a blessing to see the first of our children accept Christ! We have also gone a full year without having to admit him to either the hospital or the emergency room! Praise the Lord! He still has rough days, but they are fewer and farther between, and on the grand scale, he is so much improved. We know this is a direct result of your prayers with us. The Lord has kept us safe over thousands of miles on the roads, and we have seen several people saved this year through our ministry. What a blessing to serve our Lord! We have also had the opportunity to see some who have accepted Christ and surrendered to the ministry go on to have ministries of their own. This is such an encouragement to us. Please continue to pray for our family as we close this year and enter a new one. We would like to have twenty-five or more week-long revival meetings this year. We long to see the Lord’s hand at work in our life and ministry, and we thank you for your faithful prayers. May God bless you richly in the coming year.