I wanted to let you know what the Lord has been doing and the doors that He is opening. Like Paul said, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries****” 1 Cor 16:9 It’s been just over a year since the Lord has brought us back to the states. This last year our family has been going through a time of breaking, of really pressing in and seeking the Lord for His heart, and a time of drawing close to Him like never before. It has intensified somewhat in the last three to five months. As you know, when the Lord takes you through these times with Him, it can be overwhelming. There’s been a lot of tears, a lot of tears, but also times of rejoicing and praise, with much needed comfort mixed in. ...

Thank you all for your prayers. God has blessed us with a really nice house. It was very difficult to find a house to rent when we got here and the options were very limited, yet The Lord blessed us with a home that is over and above what we could have wished for. We live on the out skirts of Victorville in a quiet neighborhood. Since we live in the desert, there is no grass to mow. That’s a blessing in and of itself in my eyes. ...

Since we announced we were returning to the states, it has been nothing but a whirlwind for us. It has been all we could do just to hang on. So many people have emailed us to ask us how we are doing and how they could pray for us, but honestly, we have been so overwhelmed with things that need to be done, we just haven’t had the time to respond. So, I want to let you know, in a word, we’re doing…“fine.” ...

That was us 14 years ago, shortly after we arrived in Hungary. Looking back we can clearly see God’s faithfulness to our family as well as His hand on the ministry He has entrusted to us. God allowed us to pour into the life of many of the Bible college students while we were serving at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe. We’re still in contact with many of them. ...

I just wanted to write a brief update to bring you up to speed with what has been going on here. It has been 5 months since my last update. The good news is that God is still good. He is still at work in our lives and the lives of those He has given us to serve. He continues to supply for our needs, pour out His mercy and grace upon us and He continues to bless. ...

I don’t know about you, but this past year has seemed to fly by for us. This has been our busiest year since moving to Germany. It seems like there just isn’t enough time to get to all the things placing demands on us. It has also been our most challenging year. It has been a very fruitful year, but it has been mixed with difficulties. First of all, thank you for your prayers for Tina. She had her surgery and her wrist is healing well. She has no noticeable limitations as a result of breaking her wrist/arm. She was told that she would have to have the plate in her wrist removed sometime in February, but we’ll see. The doctors gave that recommendation because the plate was too big for her and they thought it would give her problems, but she is doing just fine. Again, thank you for your prayers. ...

To everyone, we want to wish you a belated, yet none the less heart felt, Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year! That’s how long it’s been since we have written an update, and it’s a sign of just how busy we have been. We have praises to share with you and prayer requests for you, trusting you will stand with us in prayer. We had a great Christmas even though it was the first Christmas we have had without Ashley. We had a couple of our German friends over for Christmas dinner and we enjoyed a wonderful meal and great fellowship. ...

It’s amazing how fast time can slip away from you. There has been so much go on since I last wrote an update, I don’t really know what to share with you. I guess I’ll just stick to the basics and not let so much time pass till I write again. First, Tina and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. September 1st marked the milestone for us. God was so gracious to allow us to get away and spend time together in Rome. We took five days to just get away and refresh. It went by all too fast. We walked all around the city and saw as much as we could. We got to go into the Vatican museum and the Colosseum. We walk around the Roman Forum and Circus Maximus. We went into the Pantheon, saw the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain (under restoration) as well as visiting as many churches as possible. It’s really amazing to go into churches that are not well known and see the art that is in them. Best of all, we got to share Christ with a few people. It was an amazing time that we will never forget. ...

It’s been some time since our last update and many have asked us where we are in the process of moving to England. It was January 2013 when it all started. That is when the subject came up that we should pray about being part of the work there. Tina and I spent a lot of time in prayer about it, and we visited with the pastor in Exeter in May 2013. He extended an invitation to us to come and we felt that the Lord was really knitting our hearts together in a sweet way. Tina and I felt very strongly that the Lord was in it and would be moving us to England. We were very excited. Last November we took a step of faith and went to the states to share the direction we felt the Lord was leading us in. There is a saying that you hear often around Calvary Chapel. It’s “Where God guides, God provides.” We believe it’s true. Since we shared what we thought God was doing, we asked people to pray and ask the Lord to provide the support necessary to live in England. Even though we had friends and family join us in supporting us in the work of the ministry, we did not see our monthly support increase. ...

I thought I’d take a brief minute to share a little about what’s been going on here. A son of a friend on ours in California sent us “Flat Stanley.” He wrote and told us that he was going to do a presentation in his second grade class and wanted to share about what missionaries around the world were doing for the gospels sake. He asked us to cut “Flat Stanley” out and show him around our area. We invited Flat Stanley to our home fellowship and took a picture of him before the Bible Study. That’s him between Tina and I. We have been studying through the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ in Chronologicalorder on Sunday Mornings. We’re about 4 years into that study now. On Wednesday nights we have our prayer meeting and then follow that with our Wednesday night Bible study in Exodus. ...