December 2012 . . . . almost over!

"My times are in thy hands .  .  .  . Psalm 31:15"
December 4-6 found us in Flat Rock, NC attending a Missionary Advanced Training (MAT) Retreat held by Gospel Fellowship Association Missions.  We were asked to attend to share with the younger deputees.

We found the sessions planned by Dr. Alan Patterson to be very helpful and beneficial.  Several topics addressed things we certainly could have been helped to learn in our earlier years.  We are thankful for the young missionaries preparing to go out with our board.  They are talented, well-trained and of high character. May God speed them to their respective fields.

The next week we had the joy of attending the senior recital of Esther Pherson, an MK we enjoyed watching grow up in South Africa.  It was wonderful to see her parents, our dear friends in ministry, Kit and Joy.

Kit and Tony served together in Africa Missions Prayer Band during our undergraduate days at BJU.  It was a blessing to labor together in South Africa from 1988 until the Lord moved the Phersons to Alaska in 2004.  This reunion was the first time we had seen one another in over 8 years!

The week before Christmas God provided for almost everyone in our family to be able to enjoy about a week together at a lovely chalet in SC.  (We were all disappointed that "Nurse Clare" couldn't join us.)

We all enjoyed the meals, games and fellowship shared around the table for 6 days.

Our oldest daughter, Amy, and her husband, Rob, and their children, Jake, Noelle and Isaiah, 

and our youngest daughter, Emily and her husband, Ethan, were with us.

On December 18, I enjoyed teaching the Ladies' Graceful Ladies's Sunday School Class at Victory Baptist Church in Roanoke Rapids, NC again.  We traveled to NC to take my mother to visit family and her home church.  While there I was able to meet Peggy's mother (on the left, below). I thank the Lord for this young believer in Asia whom God allowed me to meet and mentor this past summer.

I also got some hugs from some of my favorite little ladies.  Merry posed with me, below.  She and her sisters are special little friends whom I miss very much!

When we returned to SC, we had just a week to help Emily and Ethan with their preparations to leave for 7 months in Asia.  Ethan will prepare a gospel dvd in the Brao language while they stay with Ethan's parents.

They left on Christmas Day and are greatly missed here at our home where they stayed their last month!

The last Sunday of the year, we were able to spend time with Rachel van Besouw from South Africa and that evening we took Rachel to see her former missionary-pastor and wife, and our friends and co-workers, Gary and Denise Yoder.  The Yoders served the Lord in South Africa from 1993 - 2006.  We still miss them greatly.