January 2025

We are so thankful for God’s wonderful Gift of a Savior for mankind and for His call to share Him with others in every corner of the globe.  We are thankful that He has led us to Moncton, New Brunswick to minister to French speaking people from both Canada and a number of other francophone countries. 

We praise the Lord for the way He is blessing the French ministry. Before Christmas the ladies and girls spent an evening preparing cards and another afternoon and evening preparing Christmas goodies to share. Then we went out caroling with a small group from Espérance Vivante twice to around 15 homes (including some who are shut-in from the English ministry and two residents of a Catholic nursing home), taking handmade cards and homemade goodies to share. 

With the cancellation of the Christmas parade due to heavy rain and high winds, we encouraged people to give out the bilingual tracts individually.  Going door to door on our street, I invited a Chinese family to church that had just moved in a couple days before.  They began attending with their three children and are now in the new membership class. Another neighbor, B, has also come to several services. We have also been getting to know Ch., a recent arrival from Cameroon, who found our French ministry through the new church sign and has been attending our services faithfully for a few weeks now. Last Sunday, we had two more first time visitors to our French Bible study. 

Besides continuing the Bible studies with several ladies in our French group and discipleship with a couple young career women from the English church, Cherith has six piano students. We had our fourth Winter Music Recital on December 17 with 11 participants taking instrumental lessons from 3 teachers.  It is a joy to see the progress of the students from year to year and to see fruit as some of them begin to participate in music ministry through special music and accompanying.

The Lord brought our family through a bout with a bad cold/flu after Christmas — everyone but me came down with it. We continue to pray for the Lord to send help for this French ministry, if only so that there would be someone to take my place if I am sick. We asked for prayer that God would provide personnel to replace us during the months of May through July when we are back in the USA to connect with our support team.  We praise the Lord for two couples that we had contacted who are willing to help this summer.  

We want to ask for prayer for a Central African pastor and his family that we have known since before we had them as students in our Bambari, CAR Bible school.  They have served God faithfully in a local church in Kouango (where my Grandparents, parents and we have ministered) and are now continuing their theological education at the Seminary in Bangui.  Last year, when we learned of a financial need they had (medical issues and seminary costs), we were able to send financial help through a special gift we had received. The Lord answered prayer for their physical needs and they moved to Bangui to begin classes at the seminary in September.  Recently, I spoke with Pastor Denis and he told me that even with our help and the help of their church in Kouango, they still need the funds to complete the tuition costs of seminary as well as funds for a used computer.  They are to submit typed papers but without a computer, if unable to borrow one, he is writing out his papers by hand. We would appreciate your prayers for God’s care and provision for this dear family. 

God gave us the blessing of having our family of 5 all together for Christmas, though of course, it went by way too quickly. Adrianna arrived from Bob Jones University on December 20, giving us a few days with her before her almost fiancé, Brandon, arrived the night of December 25. We appreciated having a little time to meet and get to know Brandon before he and Adrianna flew to California on January 1 for time with his family. The next day, Adrianna shared with us the exciting news that she had accepted Brandon’s proposal for marriage. They both love the Lord, have sharp minds and both desire to use their gifts in missions.  We praise the Lord for what He has done and pray He will guide and bless them as they prepare for a wedding, following Adrianna’s graduation from BJU on May 9. 

Caleb arrived December 14 from Ambassador Baptist College and returned January 11.  While here he jumped into church life and ministry joining us for the Christmas cantata, singing and playing trumpet for special music at church, helping remodel the kids’ ministry room at church and more.  He and I gave out a stack of the bilingual Christmas tracts at the Saturday market in Dieppe. He also reconnected with several friends in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  Adrianna and Caleb sang a duet for special music in the English service.  

Josiah, who also sang in the Christmas cantata, enjoyed having his siblings here, especially with opportunities to play pond hockey and go ice skating while they were here. Both boys were glad for some time to get to know Brandon.  It’s always an adjustment for each of us when they leave, but God is good and we are thankful for His sufficient grace.