Thank you for visiting our prayer page. As itinerating missionaries, Joy and I quickly discovered that although finances and raising support are important in the life of a missionary, nothing is more important than prayer. God has provided for us during the itineration process in ways we could never have imagined, but the issues we have faced in the last 18 months could never have been resolved through offerings and faith promises.

What I am about to write is a little bit lengthy so don’t feel bad if you don’t have time to read through it. Just skip to the bottom and review the short list of specific things we would like you to pray with us about.

Many people have asked us about the last year of our lives and wanted to know how to pray for us. Rather than try to put all the details in a brief newsletter, we decided to respond here on our prayer page. The information on this page will only be here until the first of the year, so check back later for additional updates to our prayer needs.

In mid-2007 our family was plunged into a struggle that has deeply impacted us all and continues to do so to this day. It is not appropriate to share the details because of the other people involved, but suffice it to say that this struggle alone has triggered for us what Saint John of the Cross called “The Dark Night of the Soul.” It has been a long and difficult journey and we pray for resolution to come soon. At one of the darkest places in that valley this past summer, we attended a missions conference in which the theme was “Weeping Endures for the Night, but Joy Comes in the Morning.” That message was placed on a plaque given to all missionaries in attendance and our copy hangs prominently in our home as our statement of faith that God WILL bring victory.

While struggling with our family situation, the enemy came in for a second attack. The second week of January 2008, I came down with the flu. Three weeks later, I was still sick and extremely weak, hardly able to function. Finally, on February 3, I went to an urgent care facility because I was so weak I could hardly stand up. By that time, I was losing what appeared to be significant amounts of blood. By that evening I was in the ER at our local hospital. After blood tests, the doctor decided that the “numbers” were good and it was not that serious so he was sending me home. The only problem being that I was too weak to walk to the car. The doctor finally agreed to put me in observation for the night. By midnight that “observation” room was filled with doctors and trauma personnel trying to keep me alive. I spent most of the following week in ICU having blood transfusions while the doctors ran tests trying to figure out what was wrong. To this day, they have never come to a conclusive reason for the bleeding.

Out of that trauma, a number of health issues developed that kept me in the hospital, doctor’s offices, and laboratories for months of tests and studies. Some of those tests included a colonoscopy (after a routine one only a few months earlier), an endoscopy, nerve conduction studies, EMG, heart catheterization and many more. One of my doctors, who is a retired Air Force colonel, is convinced that some of the issues are related to Agent Orange exposure from my time in Viet Nam.

While going through all that, we went on a missions-related trip that included Missouri and Louisiana in the same week. While in Missouri, Joy and I spent a couple of days with our son and his family. While bike riding with my son (old-guys exercise), I took a head-over-heels flight and broke my arm when I hit the ground. It was healing nicely a month later when a lady pulled out in front of my car on an open highway and in the accident re-broke the arm in the same place. How crazy is that?

The short of it is, after almost a year, I am feeling much better most days and am pretty much back in the swing of things. There are many permanent life changes (Type II Diabetes was one of the things that came out of the hospitalization) that I am having to make, but we are adjusting and doing much, much better.

We have a lot of work to do in the next few months to finish our itineration, and thankfully, I seem to have much more energy to do it with than I have had in many months. God is good and I am convinced that He is going to see us through to the end of this journey! So many incredibly GOOD things have happened in the last two years that I cannot help but believe that He is right in the middle of all of this and will continue to be until we are finished with itineration and find ourselves working full-time at the school.

• Pray for our family. We need a miracle, and Joy and I are not going to give up until we see God come through in the situation.
  
  
• Pray for our continued work in itineration. We need to be finished by the end of April. We need pastors to be receptive and open to scheduling services with us for the next few months.
  
  
• Pray for us as we travel that God will not only protect us, but help us with the tight schedules sometimes involved in getting from church to church.
  
  
• We currently need about 50 to 60 individuals to make monthly faith promise commitments so we can complete our budget. Pray for God to open doors and speak to hearts to make that happen.
  
  
• Continue to pray for our physical health. Joy and I both need God to touch us and continue to strengthen us for the task ahead.