December 2013

Dear Praying Friends,

                Merry Christmas from Zambia! Regardless of the hot, humid, and rainy weather, we are enjoying the Christmas season. Preetika and Elijah have worked on baking Christmas cookies and Elijah is learning about giving. He is currently figuring out which of his toys he can give as gifts to his friends. Preetika and I are thrilled to have had Elijah as part of our family these past 3 years. We are amazed, as surely all parents are, at the things he learns and picks up.  I was recently telling Elijah about the wise men who came to worship Jesus, when he confirmed that those wise men had built their house upon a rock. He had been hearing about the wise man and the foolish man (who built his house on the sand) much lately as it was the theme of our recent youth conference.

                Speaking of our youth conference, it was a great success in spite of the wet weather! Being the first ever conference hosted by our church, we were very pleased with how it all went. We had at least 100 youth with dozens of pastors and chaperones who camped with us. As you can see from the pictures, it was truly a Youth “Camp” – Zambian-style. Over the week, we had 5 young people trust Christ with many making decisions to serve the LORD with their lives. I cannot forget how a similar decision at a youth camp set my heart toward serving the LORD as well! My wife worked hard organizing the cooks and menu for the nearly 130 people we had to feed each meal. Have you ever tried cooking over an open fire in the rain? All in all everything worked together to make it a memorable week for the youth. Everybody went home encouraged, full of good food, wet, and blessed. A pretty great youth camp if you ask me!

                Please keep us and all of your missionaries in prayer during the holidays. These are often the most difficult days to be far from home. Also would you continue to pray for two areas of need in our ministry?

·         Our large church vehicle is broken down again- please pray that we can fix it or upgrade It with a more reliable one soon.

·          We are trusting the LORD to make it possible to continue on (and complete) our church building. The next stage is to put on the roofing sheets!

Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support throughout 2013. You may never know this side of heaven how much it means to us. Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours.