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| Christmas is now past and we are busy getting ready for
the startup of our 2008 deputation travels. We are still in
Amelia Court House, Virginia at this time, but will be leaving here on
December 31st heading for Loganville, Georgia. Until then, we
are looking forward to spending a little more time with our sending
church today, and I will also be preaching for the service on Sunday
morning. This past week we had the opportunity to spend some
time with both of our families (Melissa's and mine), and the photos
below are from those two visits.
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| Kirsten,
Melissa's sister, w/Melissa |
Aber,
Melissa's sister's dog |
Christmas
tree at Melissa's mom's house |
Addie
Grace helping in the kitchen, peeling shrimp |
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| Melissa's
mother and Addie Grace |
Aber |
Addie
Grace loves Aber |
Melissa's
sister, uncle and step-father |
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| Braden
is growing up |
James
Edelen |
Aber
enjoys his Christmas present |
August
waiting for presents |
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| Braden,
Aaron and Kirsten, waiting for presents |
Addie
Grace loves her nana |
Missy
and Kirsten |
August
has his present now! |
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| Addie
Grace and August |
Scuba
goggles make an interesting Christmas gift |
Melissa,
Kirsten and their mom |
Happy
Birthday, Jesus! |
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| Jonathan
(our nephew) and Don (Aaron's step-father) |
Jonathan
loves riding dirt bikes |
Jonathan
mid-air |
Braden
tries out the 4-wheeler |
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| Braden
tries out the 4-wheeler |
Braden
tries out the 4-wheeler |
Braden
tries out the 4-wheeler |
Suzette
(Aaron's sister), Arleta (his mom), James William (our nephew), August,
Aaron and Addie Grace |
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| Candy,
one of Aaron's mother's dogs |
Missy
and Suzette |
Aaron
tries the ice-cream punch! |
Braden,
Richard (our nephew) and Jamie (Suzette's husband) |
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| August
is eager to see what's under the tree |
James
William and Candy |
Suzette
and Aaron |
James
(Aaron's brother) and Richard |
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| Lindsey
(our niece) |
Katelyn
(another niece) |
Lindsey
tries out her new art set |
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| Last night we had the opportunity to spend time at our
sending church, Holly Hills Baptist Church in Powhatan,
Virginia. They began with their regular choir practice and then
dismissed into two different groups to go Christmas caroling.
The group the boys and I went with went door-to-door to some off the
church shut-ins in the local community. Melissa and Addie Grace
went with the other group, which went to a few older shut-ins that
live a lot further away, including some at an assisted living
facility. The photos below begin at the church and then continue
on to follow the group that Melissa went with (she had the
camera). In other news, we were notified today that Grace
Baptist Temple in Blackstone, Virginia will be voting next Wednesday
about taking our ministry on for support, and that we can count on
it! We were also informed that Oak Knoll Baptist Church in
Marion, Ohio also voted to begin supporting our ministry.
Together this brings our total support level up to 41.58%. We've
now officially surpassed our desired level of 40% and are already
steadily making progress towards our January goal of 50%.
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| Sharon
Shultz - church pianist |
Pastor
leading choir practice |
Braden,
August and Addie Grace read while they wait |
Dana
Cominsky and Lisa Blackwell |
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| Brenda
Wright and her two nieces |
Ashley
Cassidy |
Hedy
and Brandi Keller |
First
home Melissa's group visited |
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| Lisa
Blackwell, Dana Cominsky and Addie Grace |
Mike
Crist |
Ivy
Anderson |
Ruth
Stewart and Ivy Anderson |
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| Group
of ladies fellowshipping in the common area |
Mike
Crist at the assisted living facility |
Becky
and Jeremy Ross (background) and Ruth Stewart (foreground) |
Dana
and Connie Cominsky and Lisa Blackwell and a resident of the facility. |
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| Our
group spoke with the resident on the elevator ride |
Dana
and Jeremy knock on the door of Marla Barrington |
Lisa
Blackwell and Addie Grace knock on the door of Peggy Pulley |
Peggy
Pulley |
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| Dana
Cominsky, Peggy Pulley, Lisa Blackwell and Addie Grace |
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| We are back from our short trip to West Virginia and are
settled in here in Amelia Court House, Virginia. We are parked
in the front yard of my (Aaron's) mother's house and will be here
through the remainder of 2007. Our visit to West Virginia went
well, and we had the opportunity to visit with Melissa's family while
we were there. The photos below are of this visit, as well as a
couple of photos from our last couple of meetings down in Georgia
before we came up to Virginia. We are also pleased to report
another new supporting church. When we arrived back in Virginia
on Friday we were informed that People's Baptist Church in Mansfield,
Ohio voted to begin supporting our ministry as well. This brings
our support level to 39.44%. We are just inches from our goal of
40% by the end of the year. Please continue to pray with us that
this will be accomplished. God has certainly been blessing in
terms of support being raised, and we are very grateful for his
provision.
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| Our
last visit to New Life Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia. They are
one of our supporting churches and we visit them often when we are in that
area. |
Another
shot of NLBC. |
Agape
Baptist Church in Dalton, Georgia |
Braden
and Addie Grace waiting for service to begin |
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| Aaron
and Melvin Anderson, Melissa's grandfather |
All
of us with Melissa's grandmother |
Addie
Grace with Kim Medley, her great-aunt |
Melissa
with her aunt and grandmother |
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| Braden
and August opening Christmas presents |
Braden
trying out an Indian fife |
Robin
Anderson tries out another fife |
August
and Jess |
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| August
enjoying his Christmas presents |
Aaron
and Robin talking |
Addie
Grace playing with a rainbow twirler present |
Peppy
enjoys his Christmas present |
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| Addie
Grace opening Christmas presents |
Braden
is happy with what he got |
Nathan
Anderson, Melissa's brother |
Nathan
and Jess |
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| Aaron
and August playing with Christmas presents |
Braden
watching daddy play on the computer |
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| Greetings from the road....literally. As I type we
are driving down Interstate 64 in Virginia, heading towards Lewisburg,
WV and then on to Beckley, WV by the end of the day. We dropped
the "house" in Virginia yesterday and will be staying with
Melissa's family in WV for the next couple of days. We finished
up our 2007 deputation schedule this past weekend with a meeting in
Hickory, North Carolina. Everything went well with the meeting
and the church was a blessing to us during our stay with them.
Things continue to go well, and we have no problems to report at this
time. In fact, instead of problems we have a blessing. I
received an email just a minute ago letting us know that Oakside
Baptist Church in LaGrange, Georgia voted this weekend to join with us
in our ministry. With their support we are now at 38.49%
support. We're still praying for 40% by the end of the year and
at least 50% by the end of January. As you continue to pray with
us, and God continues to bless, we fully expect these things to come
to pass!
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| It's been a few days and I thought I would finally get
around to getting a few of the most recent photos up. Sorry for
the long delay. We are currently in Royston, Georgia, having
driven in yesterday from Greenville, South Carolina. We will
only be here through the weekend before heading towards Dalton,
Georgia on Monday. We are staying on the grounds at Bible
Baptist Church here in Royston and enjoying a relaxing Saturday for a
change! We are greatly looking forward to our Wednesday meeting
in Dalton, as we will have the opportunity to meet Pedro & Jolene
Lara and their family. The Lara's are a family from west of
Atlanta, Georgia who are planning to move to the Rio Grande Valley in
the spring of 2008. They are currently looking to live around
the McAllen/Mission area and work with Bro. Noe Mendoza. This is
the same area our language school is in, and is about an hour from Rio
Grande City, where we will be moving. The Lara's found our
website online and we look forward to getting to know them better and
seeing what opportunities there may be for us to work together in the
future as we seek to take the Gospel to the people of the Rio Grande
Valley! The photos below are an assortment. The first few
are of our conference at Oakside Baptist Church in LaGrange, Georgia
on October 30th/31st. Yes, I know that was a long time
ago! I'm a little slow at the moment. The next set are
from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina and the
last few are from here at Bible Baptist Church in Royston,
Georgia.
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| Mission
conference at Oakside Baptist Church in LaGrange, Georgia |
More
pictures from OBC in LaGrange |
The
back of the auditorium, showing the sound/video booth |
One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
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| One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
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| One
of the other missionary displays at the conference. |
Our
house parked in front of the Tabernacle Baptist Children's Home. We
literally slept on their sidewalk for a few days, as we had to back up on
the sidewalk, all the way to the building, to stay out of the road. |
Tabernacle
Baptist Church. |
The
front of their children's home buildings. |
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| The
front of their Bible College. |
The
front of their Christian Academy. |
Our
house parked in front of Bible Baptist Church in Royston. |
Addie
Grace enjoys helping Mom cook |
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| Our
Christmas tree is up! I don't think many presents are going to fit
under it though! |
All
of the Christmas decorations are up! I like decorating that only
takes 1-2 minutes to finish! |
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