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September 7, 2005

To our Friends and Family,

Thank you all for being such an important part of our life. You’re aware that this update didn’t arrive on its scheduled two week interval. Actually, we lost most of August. Mike’s appendix burst, and that left us in the hospital and out of commission for a long time. If you’re getting this email you’ll be getting another telling the whole story. This letter will be more positive. It’s about prayer and praise!

Praise God for:

• Life! A ruptured appendix is a big problem anywhere, but emergency surgery in Bohol brings its own dangers. We went through a very hard and difficult time, but God’s grace brought us through!
• Friends! Our Filipino friends took great care of us while Mike was in the hospital. Our American friends made sure we had whatever we needed. We can’t think of all the people in our lives without being amazed at who God has introduced us to. You, our friends, are truly treasures from the Lord.
• The Gospel! God continued to do great things through our ministry, even while we were out-of-commission. The Bible college students continued in their weekend outreach work even with us gone. One weekend when we were away they ministered to 247 non-Christians! It’s great to see things set in motion stay in motion.
• Opportunities! We’ve made friends with several foreign men married to Boholanas. We see an opportunity to minister to them; most of them don’t know Jesus. Most of these friendships came by chance encounters; we see God is up to something...
• Land! We’ve finished the purchase of a piece of land adjacent to what we already own for Village of Hope. We now have road access, and can begin moving in building supplies. We’d love to get the first house up by Christmas—we think it would make an awesome Christmas present for the kids.

Please join us in prayer for:

• Continued recovery! Mike is all but healed, and we’re thankful for that, but there’s still a bit of fatigue and some muscle use to be regained.
• More continued recovery! Jean’s nerves went through a lot with what happened. She still has some pretty intense emotion about the whole thing. Please pray that she’ll recover from Mike’s surgery. We understand that what happened is supposed to be life changing. We just want the bad things to go away.
• More tools! God has given us so many things to help us succeed in His ministry. We’re praying about a few more, as we get ready to break ground at Village of Hope: A cement mixer, a cement vibrator, a brick-maker, and a truck to move all of these things around! With 20 houses, a school, and a church to build we know these items will see their due share of work. We could rent the items, but with the work load ahead of us they seem to be a good investment.
• More souls! We are amazed at how well our Bible college students are doing in their outreach work. We want them to see a great harvest. We know early success will encourage them into a lifetime of faithful service.
• Growth survival! We’ve been told there are many more students wanting to sign up at MBC next semester. We don’t want to turn anyone away! But we’re short on living space, and more students would mean we’d need a larger budget for the school. God can deal with these problems; we’re praying that He show us what to do.
• Wisdom! When the first house at Village of Hope is built we’ll have space to take in four more children. As word spreads about what we are trying to do different government officials have told us about children in need in their areas. Helps us pray for discernment as we choose who to give a home to and who to turn away. This makes us also want to pray for speed in raising funds and the actual building of the second house! As we get closer to actually breaking ground we realize there’s a point of no return coming soon—we love the children and the part we get to have in their lives; yet sometimes the thought being responsible for ultimately 200 children can be a little intimidating. That’s only because we’ve never done it before! We appreciate your prayers.

Life is good. We want to thank you, again, for the part that you play in our lives. Your friendship and prayer is valuable to us.

Some people want to live within the sound of Church or chapel bell.
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.        —C.T. Studd
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