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.

I'm sorry for neglecting to update you on the Christmas party which went very well. Katie had 8 or 9 ladies in attendance and it was a lovely night. I'll put a picture below of the set up. It is a panoramic picture which distorts the room. However, you can see all the goodies prepared for the ladies. We had three ladies from the Trust as well as one lady from our new neighborhood. Thank you for praying for this special ministry night.

Also, thank you for the many birthday cards for Logan's birthday. After the business of life, we took Logan's birthday off to go on a field trip to the museum of transport in Glasgow. I'll put a picture from there as well.

Don Dillman and I got out in his area with flyers this morning. I had two short Gospel conversations along the way. Please pray for the Gospel flyers that went out. The rest of the week is to be very unsettled. Storm Caroline arrives tomorrow with 60-90 mph winds and possibly some snow later this week. In comparison, we had great weather this morning.

The man I was supposed to meet this week didn't come. Lord willing, that opportunity will come again. Thanks for praying.

I got out in a nearby village this morning and put flyers out for a couple of hours. I was challenged by the preaching of Pastor Doug Jackson. God's blessed him with the ability to put you in stitches and put you in tears. I fumbled with a couple mailslots because I had tears in my eyes as he preached on soul winning. I'm sure at other times people (if looking from inside their homes) wondered why I had such a big smile on my face. Please pray for God to keep our hearts hot for evangelism.

I had to take my ear buds out to speak with a lady about the Lord. She missed her bus which allowed us to have an extended conversation. She is a member at a local church that is liberal. She has a belief in God but it is empty because it has no foundation upon the Word of God. (ie. She believes some things the Bible says but not everything.) She is envious of my firm faith in God's Word. Please pray that she will see that she can have it for herself. I told her of some Christian neighbors that I know who live near her. Perhaps they will have a future opportunity with the cat lady. (She's taken up rescuing all the stray cats in her village.)

The ladies' are excited about the Christmas meeting tonight. Thanks for praying.

We had a good morning despite lower than normal attendance. Benson and I enjoyed reading Psalm 119 together in SS. I also enjoyed preaching this morning on Jeremiah 6, "Take Mercy and Not Judgment." Just as I finished the service I realized I had not recorded it. One of these days God will give me a person to run the "sound equipment" and make sure I don't do that. Until then....

The house is all decorated and ready for the ladies' meeting tomorrow night. A couple of ladies in our new area may be in attendance. Please pray for good attendance and for God to work in the hearts of those who attend.

I'm also meeting with a man this week to speak more fully about God. We had a good conversation last night and he wanted to speak again. So, please pray as I meet with him on Tuesday morning. Thank you for your prayers.

In secular news today - the Shore family is getting a puppy on 16 December. :) Obviously there is a bit of excitement in our home. We've been talking about getting a dog for over a year as we sought to purchase a home. The kids didn't really believe we would until three days ago when I bought some puppy supplies. Then they said, "Oh, we really are getting a dog because dad is buying a dog toy!" (The dog toy is going to be my "earnest of our inheritance" illustration for preaching I think.)

The other even more important news (sacred) is that God gave me a great divine appointment this morning despite the freezing temperatures outside. Please pray for this man's eyes to be opened and for a future chance to continue our conversation. I'm very thankful that God gave me a witnessing opportunity. Thank you for praying for divine appointments!

It was good to get out with Don Dillman today and do flyers in our area. We were able to get the flyer out to several hundred houses. It's a difficult time of year to have conversations with people outside as it is very cold. Please pray for divine appointments.

Now we are getting ready to head out to visit some missionary friends (Arvin and Marcia Devers) on the other side of the country (sounds a long ways away but it isn't too far - just about 2 hours). Marcia had a knee replacement surgery and it has been a difficult recovery. Please pray for God's great grace for them and for her new knee to heel up. It will be fun to catch up with them.

We're also going to see a possible new member of our family. We've been praying about getting a dog and are going to see a goldendoodle puppy. I'm sure we'll let you know if we end up getting her. She won't be ready to leave her mum for another few weeks. If you are wondering what breed is a golden doodle - the mother is a golden retriever and the dad is a standard poodle. We need extra wisdom in chosing a dog as we often have guests in our home and will need a dog who is managable for our furlough replacement. These seem to fit the bill. 

We got some of our Christmas decorations up yesterday. Please continue to pray for the ladies Christmas meeting on Monday. Thank you for your prayers.