MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 01-05-2008

Howdy folks, and welcome to 2008! I trust everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. We sure did. When last we wrote, we were finishing up our first semester at BBTI. That went well and Anna and I both got A's.

Some great news, the Monday night before we flew home, we were having our family Bible reading, which dealt with Jesus' coming crucifixion and resurrection and the short of it is this: Elizabeth got saved! I sat up and talked with her until I was sure she understood, and she prayed just as simple and true a prayer of faith to the LORD as I've ever heard. She was exuberant, and couldn't quit laughing. She ran into the bedroom where her brothers were getting ready for bed and went around hugging all of them, and laughing with them as she gave them the news. They had all been praying for her since they got saved, and were very relieved that she now was as well. It was beautiful.

We flew home to St. Louis, and our guys got their first ride on a plane. When it took off, they were whooping and hollering like it was a roller coaster, and all the adults sitting around got a real kick out of them.

It was great to be home for the past few weeks. Our church raised the funds all on their own to fly us home for the holidays, because we had been planning to just stay in Texas over Christmas break. We got to spend time with both our families, the kids got to be with their aunts and uncles and cousins, and it was tremendous fun. I got to preach in our home church, which was a blessing.

We flew back to Texas yesterday, and have a busy year in store for ourselves. On Monday we began a class in Language Learning, which deals with the practical application of what we covered last semester as it pertains to learning a foreign language, particularly if you are in a situation where you don't have any bi-lingual English speakers to help you. We're really looking forward to that. We have a full complement of meetings for 2008, which will pretty much keep us busy all year as we try to wrap up deputation in lieu of heading to Africa in 2009. Pray for us we finish up school, and do a lot of travelling. We will be going to both Hawaii (just Anna and I), and Alaska (all of us) next year, in addition to several meetings in Texas and Louisiana, and points East. God has given me good success in scheduling, so I don't really have much phone calling left to do, which is a blessing. It's going to be a great year, and we are excited about what the LORD is going to do.

God bless and keep you all, and thanks so much for your prayers and faithful support!