2022

God has answered more prayers this year than I can recount - but I will try to share a few highlights.

This time last year we were designing wedding invitations and praying that God would work a miracle and allow Keila's father (in Honduras) to approve of a wedding date set immediately after her graduation. Thankfully he agreed even though he wanted her to get a master's degree first!

Then in January, God answered prayers for my interactions with mom as I cared for her after her knee surgery. But while I was down there, Ginger was hospitalized with Covid, and although we prayed for healing, instead the Lord blessed David with many precious hours with his mom before she passed away. In the months that followed we looked back on her life and were challenged by her loving example. We continue to grieve her loss and also the loss of my own dad last year, but we have praised God for giving us the strength to not grow weary in doing good. He has provided friendship, support, motivation and energy to press on, and provided rest when we needed it.

Once the memorial service was over, we shifted back into wedding planning and all that entails. What a beautiful time it was and what a blessing and a treasure to add such a sweet person to our lives. I've never seen my son smile so much.

We've had a heart for celebrating milestones in children's lives and coming along side parents to provide support and resources, so with the help of several of you here, we were blessed this year to offer a pre-teen event called the Chrysalis Conference. The kids had 4 sessions to teach them and challenge them as they enter the teen years. Things like entering youth group with a ministry mindset, laying a good foundation in their faith with healthy habits both spiritually and physically, being teachable, seeking a mentor, truly confiding in your parents. There were games and activities so it was kind of like one last hurrah for our graduating 6th graders. We had almost 20 kids attend - so there was much answered prayer in all of that.

I praise God also for the young adult girls Bible study. There is nothing that challenges me more in my Bible study time, then teaching. I have been so blessed by the accountability of being in the Word and prepping for those lessons, and asking the hard questions and then distilling it down to useful nuggets that can encourage good discussion.

Another huge matter of prayer this year has been all about Abi. She spent a semester in Portugal studying language. It turned out to be a very difficult situation and so there was constant prayer before the Lord on her behalf. Time and time again, God would meet her needs. She truly wanted to build relationships and do ministry during her time there, but she ended up being the only student and couldn't connect with classmates, so she started going to the same bubble tea shop every day and made friends with the servers there. She was able to share the gospel with those who spoke English. She went to church each Sunday with Lucas who is the young man that she met in Bible school in Hungary. He is also an MK. She had hoped to connect with some of the women at his church and practice her Portuguese, and serve however she could, but it was a very small church, and no one seemed to have time for Abi. Then she ended her time there by spending her summer serving at the Word of Life surf camp in Lisbon. She came home completely spent, and truly has had to recover emotionally from her time there. But God has her here with us now, and she's happily waiting tables at Outback and sharing Jesus with her coworkers there. Lucas will fly in from Portugal in February to officially propose, then they will submit a fiancé visa application, and if all goes well, he will move here after he graduates, and then they hope to be married in September. So, we praise God for Lucas and how he has loved Abi and their heart for ministry. They hope to go to seminary and eventually become missionaries.

We have a very sweet new granddaughter who is 3 months old now. So, we are learning about being grandparents and getting photos every day. I thank the Lord that Christe and Nic are already such great parents and they have Charlotte in church and serve there in many ways.

Then in Nov. we took a trip to FL and were finally able to bury Ginger's ashes because it took that long for her headstone to be completed. Although it was difficult, we also had some down time and David and I spent time reading a book together about Christ in Us. It is a mind blowing miracle to really consider that Christ lives in us through faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a mystery that we know in our heads, but need to be continually reminded to live it out in our hearts day by day and moment by moment.

Prayer Requests for 2023

• For my worship of Christ to deepen
• Wisdom in leading others to walk with Christ
• For ministry partners to help: (that the Lord would raise up and reveal to us the right people to fulfill their passions and callings to meet the needs of the church)
• To serve however the Lord asks, and to have discernment to know which things He is (or is not) truly calling me to do.