As the year ends, we do some of the typical types of things: we close out our milages logs from a long year of travel and speaking and we ponder the year gone by. Last year was a special one with many blessings and not a few trials. I spent the first seven months of the year in Colombia and we were blessed with almost constant work crews and visitors. We dig a well at the camp expansion project and built the well house over it in a clean water project sponsored by IDES. We were so blessed to share with them in this important project. At the same time, the work crews made much progress on the dorm building as the walls are now up to the level of the tie in beam, which was also poured. We say the deaf church in Bogotá reach a point where they could support their own preacher.
At the very end of July, I returned to speak at Lake James School of MIssions. This is one of the premier schools of missions in our brother hood and I was honored to be the keynote speaker and equally honored to be able to attend and hear many other missionaries speak. Then in August, I took some time off and Jeanie and I took a vacation; something we do not often do. We took a leisurely drive to Maine to visit Brian and Susy in their new home up there. Then with the coming of September, I began to travel and speak, presenting the work the Lord is doing in Colombia, and of which we are privileged to be a part.
This fall is the first in quite some time where I have been able to be here in the States and dedicate myself to do some much needed travel and presentation of the work. Wanting to take full advantage of the time, I scheduled a church for every single weekend for the entire Fall, finishing up just this past Sunday, the very last Sunday of 2013. I did not take a single weekend off, but traveled extensively in what was an exhausting but encouraging time of sharing with supporting churches and quite a few new ones as well as we work to maintain our support and replace some churches whose own financial situation did not permit them to continue partnering with us.
During the Fall and early Winter I drove somewhere every weekend, speaking in more than thirty churches and traveling through 21 states in the process. I was blessed and encouraged by very dear brothers and sisters in each church, all of whom welcomed me with open arms and showered me with their rich hospitality and sent me on my way with their prayers for well being. It was a very good time and we are hopeful and encouraged that God will provide the support needed for the work in Colombia through these special times of sharing all that He is doing in that country.
Now I am getting ready to share the New Year’s day celebration with my family as we eat our German traditional sauerkraut, ribs, and dumpling meal. After that, I have one final project on my “honey do” list, then it will be packing my suitcases for the trip back to Colombia. In the coming year, I look forward to serving in may ways. The first half of the year will be spent working and sharing with the church in Colombia. We are expecting several work crews and visitors again this year. Then I will return to the States at the end of May. For the first time ever, I will be the missionary speaker for an entire summer of church camp at Round Lake Christian Assembly. For the fall I have again been invited to be the missions professor at Kentucky Christian University. It has been a blessed year and we are looking forward to God’s continual blessings in the year to come. We wish for you a year of prosperity, peace, and blessings as we share with God’s family.