Greetings everyone!

We reached America and hit the ground running.

After struggling to get out of Uganda due to the war with Iran, we got to America later than anticipated and had to pretty much get to our house, drop our stuff off, repack, and then head off to our first missions conference. After that, it was steady conferences and meetings for six weeks. It was a great blessing to see our friends and churches again, but it was rather busy.

Then we had a graduation to get to. It is tremendous after all these years to have all our children (for the moment) finished with college. Elizabeth survived the arduous process to graduate from PCC’s nursing program, and has since become a registered nurse in the state of Florida. Gaelin completed the Pastoral program, and has been accepted into PCC’s graduate program to pursue his Master of Divinity. He intends to become a military chaplain. We are very proud of them for achieving such a notable milestone in their lives.

We also had a wedding to plan. Anna and Elizabeth and our daughter-in-law Jules had been working on this since last November, but as all of you know who have had children marry, getting a wedding pulled together is still work and requires a lot of logistics to achieve successfully. Everybody pulled together and we got it done. It was a beautiful ceremony. The weather in Florida was gorgeous. I have gained a son-in-law. Joseph Rosnik is a fine young man. It was my great honor to marry Elizabeth and Joe.

You have no doubt heard of the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. Ebola is endemic in Africa. That means, no matter what they do, it crops up from time to time. Due to the highly lethal nature of the disease, it tends to burn itself out very quickly, but not spread very far. Uganda has handled the crisis well. They have so far controlled their border and prevented an outbreak within their borders. Pray for Congo. Pray for the aid workers and healthcare professionals who have to deal with the sick at great personal risk. Pray it will resolve itself soon.

Pray that the war in Iran will soon reach its conclusion. The spike in oil prices has catastrophic consequences for the third world, where they tend not to have any cushion to ride out fluctuations in fuel prices. I am hearing that they have been suffering from fuel shortages like they have not seen since the 90s.

Pray for our churches. Our deacons are managing well in our absence, but it is always a challenge when the Pastor is away. The construction on our Sangano church facilities is completed. It looks great. I am looking forward to our return so I can do a proper building dedication and invite the community in to hear the gospel.

We have a lot of traveling coming up in the Fall. Pray for our health, that our car will continue to function well, and that I will succeed in raising more support. We are very close to where I need us to be. If I can get about 4 more supporting churches, we will finally be back to where we were in 2014 before we lost 40% of our support. It was a hard time there for awhile, but we persevered and God has blessed the ministry greatly. We are very grateful.

God bless and keep you!

Greetings!

We are in full blown “getting prepared to go on furlough” mode. We have a remarkable lot of work to be done to get ready to leave our house for several months. Anna and I both have our lists, and you just keep doing the next thing until you reach the end, climb on a plane, and begin the long flight back to the States.

We have several key life events taking place this year. Elizabeth and Gaelin are graduating college. Right after that, Elizabeth will be marrying our soon to be son-in-law Joseph Rosnick. Plus, our new grandson will be having his first birthday this year.

This furlough will get us back on track since COVID messed everything up. Pray for us in the months ahead as we travel hither and yon, for safety and for good health, both for ourselves and for our aged Honda Pilot.

Our year is pretty well fully booked with meetings in the Spring and Fall. If you have other times you’d like us to come, let me know and I’ll see what we can work out.

The construction of our Sangano Independent Baptist Church facilities is proceeding rapidly. The school buildings are all complete. They are making good progress on the sanctuary and baptistry. Pray that the work will proceed well, and for the safety of our workers.

Pretty soon, all construction projects will, for the moment, be complete. That is a big answer to prayer and a long time coming.

Pray for Sangano Independent Baptist Church. I discovered that one of our deacons, a good friend, and the headmaster of our school, was leading a sinful double life. He had been drinking, sometimes coming to work drunk, and had been seen visiting prostitutes. Plus, he was abusing his place as headmaster, and it seems, misusing funds. As of right now, he is unrepentant. He is now no longer a deacon, or a headmaster, or a member of this church.

I also chose to close the school for the foreseeable future. I always said that if the school ever became a problem for the church, I would close the school, and because of this man, it had become a problem. So, the school is now closed. We still have the fully restored buildings which will continue to serve as a library, and extra Sunday School classes.

Pray for Sangano IBC as they work through the fallout of this recent challenge. It is never pleasant to have to discipline people, but when they give you no options, you have to take action. You cannot cover sin.

The Sangano church people have risen to the challenges given them. They have redoubled their soul-winning and visitation, and are serving faithfully in the church. They have planted crops in the field connected to the church property. God will build His church. Please pray for His people not to be discouraged.

God bless you!