Greetings! We had a weekend off due to a rescheduling (a good reschedule – it got us into a missions conference in the same church in Februrary). Our meeting in South Campbell Ave. Baptist Church went well. Turns out their Pastor, Joe Decker, has heard of BBTI (Baptist Bible Translators International), the school we'll be attending in Fall of 2007. He would like to attend also, but his duties as Pastor preclude this. However, his heart is in bringing accurate Bible translations to groups who lack them, as are our hearts. We are of one heart on this matter.

We'll be heading to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lebanon, MO with Pastor Don Ball on Saturday afternoon for their missions conference. Pray for the conference that God will be involved, and we'll be used of Him to be a blessing, and an encouragement to the church, particularly as it pertains to His children answering the call to preach or to missions. Pray for our travelling. The weather has been unseasonably warm so far (good thing), but we do have a trip up to Sioux City, IA in February to make, so pray for our safety in travelling. We have a pretty full schedule ahead of us (also a good thing), but I still need to schedule some more meetings in July and August, so pray I'll be able to line those out, meaning, God lines them out.

Pray for my friend, Kyle Guimon. He and his wife, Debbie, are the two-term missionaries in Uganda we'll be working with. The Guimons are home in America to get some badly needed rest, and, as it turns out, one of the reasons he's been so exhausted is that he has some serious blockages in his heart. A routine checkup revealed significant blockage in three major arteries, and a mitral valve prolapse. He will be in surgery in Jonesboro, AR on Monday to remove the blockages, as well as to replace the malfunctioning valve. It's open heart surgery, so be in prayer for him and his family during the surgery, and the fairly lengthy recovery time in which he'll be involved. He is still planning on being in some conferences with us in March, so apparently if he takes it easy, the risk must not be great enough to forbid travel. Pray for him and his health. He wasn't planning on being here for the long-term, but evidently, God had other plans. We love Kyle and Debbie, and we'd like his health to do well.

Greetings! We had a great meeting in Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, KS with Pastor Scott Hanks. They put us up in this great prophet's apartment, so we got good rest, and were able to get to church in the morning in seconds. Sunday school went well. I taught the Teen Boys (9th – 12th grade), from Acts 17 and Paul on Mars Hill, and we talked about strategies for reaching the unchurched in an increasingly pagan culture. The services went well, and our presentation was well received. Pray for Heritage Baptist Church. They're trying to expand their main building, but some obstinate (translation: crooked) county inspectors are making them engage in all manner of bureaucratic gymnastics, and, every time they think they've achieved compliance, they move the finish line. So, be in prayer that God will move the heart of the king to stop this foolishness and let them build. They also have a growing printing ministry, and a bunch of books printed that need to be sold, so pray that those will sell.

Our Christmas break has begun, so no more meetings 'til 2006. Good thing, too, because a big snowstorm moved in on our heels in Topeka, KS, and has made its way to St. Louis today, so the snow is falling here and the kids are loving it. We've decorated for Christmas and are busy enjoying the holidays. The kids are learning their Christmas parts for Sunday and our church's Christmas program. We've started some of our Christmas shopping, and have already lined out the presents we'll be giving the kids. Everything is going great. Pray for next year that the schedule will fill, that Pastors will be willing to have us in for meetings, and that I'll be able to get in touch with them (not their answering machines – a useless device, since no one responds to its messages, and not their secretaries) in a relatively timely manner. Pray that our support will come up in the new year. It's trending that way at the moment, but pray that the trend will continue and we'll have the support we need to, you know, live and all. Pray that I'll be able to get a laptop soon, and that the money will be there to start buying the language tutorials I need to be prepared for when we get to the field. I need to get some Sign Language materials from Silent Word ministries, a French language tutorial from Rosetta Stone, and a host of Hebrew and Greek tools and books to help me polish my skill with those languages to prepare for language training at BBTI in Fall, 2007. The laptop is for running these, and so I can work on them on the road. Thanks for all your prayers!