This morning I headed off to North Middleton and came accross another vilage, of which I was unaware, on my way there. Temple is just a wee village that has history with the Knights Templar who had their headquarters there in the 12th century.

God gave me two divine appointments both with older men. The first man had lived in Watertown, Wisconsin (home of Maranatha Baptist Bible College) for several years as his children were growing up. Interestingly, I would have lived just 15 miles from him in Lake Mills at that time. We had a short but good chat.

The second opportunity was the best. This man was a bioligist (I assume retired) and his daughter and son in law attend a good evangelical church. His son in law is from Kansas. God gave me wisdom and guided us in a light hearted conversation discussing proofs of creation as well as briefly considering prophecy. I love sharing the Gospel with someone who has family members who are no doubt praying for them. The daughter and son in law arrived just as our conversation was concluding and I was able to briefly meet them.

I read on the town notice board that an evangelical church plant was starting in the town hall. Please pray for God to awaken that community.

Roslin takes three different outings to complete. I believe there is around a 1,000 mailslots there. I had two outings to Roslyn the end of December and had the last one this morning. It was 18 degrees this morning when I ran and it wasn't any warmer as I got started doing flyers. I had to laugh as I went past the golf course by our home and there were golfbags on the course. (I didn't see the golfers and hope no one had frozen to death.... reminds of the rough golf game joke - "Horible day golfing, Harry died on the course. Had to hit the ball and drag Harry.")

God gave me a fantastic opportunity to share the Gospel with a 15 year old paperboy. Please pray that this young man's eyes will be opened to eternal truth.

I'd appreciate your prayers that our faith would be strong in anticipation of what God is doing and what God will do this year. I heard a great message this morning by John Goetsch on Stephen, a man who was Full (faith, the Holy Spirit, power). It was great challenge on being empty of other things to be full of God's things. We appreciate your prayers very much.

It has been an eventful week at the Shore household. Two children went down with a flu type bug and mom got Tonsilitus! I'm sure that many of you had similar experiences over the holidays. Thankfully everybody from our family was in church today for the first time in a week and a half.

God gave us a good Sunday. In adult SS we watched a video by Ken Ham. In the morning service I preached a message from Psalm 19, What Do You Know? David gave 3 simple foundational truths regarding man's relationship with God. 

I'm looking forward to getting back into the routine of ministry this week. God gave us a good holiday despite the illnesses and we were also able to get some good work completed on the house. I'll put a picture of the freshly painted living room below. Thank you for your prayers for our ministry and family. God is good to answer your prayers!

I'm sorry for the radio silence. God gave us a great Christmas Carol Sing service. The attendance was good, about 30, and there was a great spirit. The kids did a fabulous job with their songs and their short recitation of Scripture. 

We had a wonderful family Christmas despite a bit of the sickness bug that seems to be a regular part of a family Christmas. (That is what I remember growing up.) We are mostly better. Mac has had it the worst. Katie stayed home with him this morning but hopes to take him this evening.

We have very windy weather here today. I'm not sure what the highest gusts have been, but I'll put a screenshot from my weather app below for your amusement. God gave us a great morning. I preached on Grace Giving from 2 Corinthians 8. Tonight we are showing the film, "Sheffey." Please pray that many will come out and here the Gospel through this film. Many have been invited. Thanks for your prayers and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We enjoyed a bit of a different set up for church this morning as we prepared for our Carol Sing Service tonight. We also enjoyed having a large Christmas tree up front. I preached this morning on the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ from Matthew 4. Jesus came to Galilee and those which sat in darkness and the region of death saw great Light. Praise God for the LIGHT! It's a shame that men are in darkness when they have the opportunity to be in the light. God gave us a good morning.

We appreciate your prayers for the evangelistic push this evening as we anticipate unsaved in attendance. God's good. We also want to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Shore Family. Thanks for following along this past year. We know that we have seen God's hand at work in answer to your prayers.

The slides are mostly ready, the 10 foot Christmas tree is up at our church location and we are getting excited about our Carol Sing Service on Christmas Eve. This service is probably my favorite service of the year. We turn off the lights and turn on the video projector to project the words of the carols. It is always well attended and there is a sweet spirit. I'm just now finishing my message for the night. I'm going to preach a short message entitled, "Your Saviour?" from "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."

Yesterday, rather than doing our normal routine, I offered to assist Don with a large house project. He and Chris are working to remodel their home. Benson and I helped yesterday to put down a plywood subfloor. Please pray for the Dillmans as they complete this lengthy project. They meet in their home for church and the remodel is going to make a very nice open space for their ministry.

Thank you for praying with us for our special services over the holidays.

Thank you for your prayers for our Sunday. God gave us mild weather which was good for an outdoor baptism. There was very good attendance today and good attention to the Word of God. I preached this morning on "Suffering by Identification with Jesus" from 1 Peter 3 and 4. We're getting more into the days where it costs you something to identify with Jesus. We're very thankful for the two that were willing to obey the Lord in believer's baptism.

Thank you for praying.

I've just realized that I have not updated much this week. It was a busy week as we get ready for some extra events and as some of those come to pass. On top of the normal schedule, we have a baptism at our home this week. That meant moving things around in our garage to accomodate the hot tub (baptistry), filling it and making sure it heated up. God gave a wonderful break in the weather yesterday as it warmed up enough to easily run a hose outside. It was frigid again today. Tomorrow for the baptism it is to be warm again. So, praise God for His goodness.

I also wrote an article which will be included in our county newspaper in February. The article is entitled, "Popular Christianity?" It is basically an argument against the common thought that Christianity should be mainstream and acceptable. I concluded with the idea of Biblical Christianity being to read the Bible, believe it, and prepare to be treated like Jesus was treated.

I also prepared the powerpoint slides for our Christmas Carol Sing service on Christmas eve. :) Tomorrow night we will set up our ten foot tall Christmas tree with a couple hundred lights and baubles and be ready for that service. Our highest ever attendance was last year at the carol sing service as we had 50 people total present including a couple who are friends in ministry, Dillmans.

Don and I had a great divine appointment on Wed. as we knocked on doors and invited people to come to our Carol service. Please pray for the 17 year old young man whose heart seemed tender. Please pray that God will take him from unbelief to faith.

I had two other separate very good divine appointments as we purchased things for our family for Christmas. Please pray for these men to come visit the church as they both are near our church location.

On top of everything, we collected our puppy Duchess today. She is a very sweet addition to our family. (I'll include a photo below. She is a Goldendoodle.) I would appreciate your prayers very much for my preaching ministry tomorrow. There will likely be several unbelievers present. We have a teen boy being baptized and a young woman in her 20's.

I thought twice about getting out this morning as it was another frigid day. I'm glad I did get out for a couple of hours. Please pray for the flyers that were distributed. Church planting is a slow process at times. I preached in SS on the "husbandman" farmer and his patience and labour. There are a lot of direct applications to ministry and so Paul used a very fitting illustration with his son in the faith, Timothy. Yesterday afternoon between services I went with the boys out in a farm field near our home and walked on water (see pic below.) The ice has frozen without any snow on it and it still looks like water. We had fun slipping and sliding around.

This morning feels like I'm back in Wisconsin. Our temperatures this morning were in the upper teens fahrenheit. That is very cold for here. Unfortunately (in my thinking) we don't have snow - only frost. 

God gave us a good morning. It was good to have the large family back who have been ill. Our regular attendees were present with one teen visitor who was over at a friend's house. 

I preached this morning on the coming of Christ which is so very relevant with what has taken place regarding Jerusalem. If only  unbelievers would read the Bible and realize that what God said is coming to pass before their very eyes. I preached on, Look Up, Jesus is Coming from Isaiah 11-12. God gave us a good morning and we're looking forward to our afternoon ministry at the Trust. I'm preaching on the first coming of Chirst in that service. 

Thank you for praying for our ministry. God's good and faithful. We appreciate your prayers.