Dear Friends,

Janice and I send New Year's greetings to you folks. Right now, I am sitting in our newly rented house listening to saws, planes, hammers and the local mosque all making a cacophony of sound that makes an interesting environment to write this letter.  Life is always interesting in Indonesia, and we do want you folks to be able to pray effectively for the ministry here in Indonesia.

Janice and I have done a good bit of traveling over the past couple of months. We started out traveling to Bandung to be with a group of our fellow Independent Baptist missionaries for Thanksgiving. We had a great time of fellowship and food!


Early in December, Janice and I traveled to Batam island to be with Pastor Andar and the folks of Kasih Karunia Baptist Church. We had good meetings there with over 20 people professing Christ. Most of the folks who professed Christ were parents of Sunday School children that Pastor Andar has been teaching for the last nine years. He started teaching the children when they were four and five years old, and now those children are bringing their parents to Christ. Good stuff. Also, take a look at their building – it is as sharp as it looks. It is a joy to have had a part in Pastor Andar's ministry over the years. Let's keep praying that God will continue to grow this church.

The last week of December, Janice and I spent in West Kalimantan (Borneo) visiting former students and preaching in their churches. We were able to be in several churches started by our former students. They are doing a good job.  Also, while we were there the pastors and several of their wives gathered for a seminar in Pontiank. They had me speak to them eight times over the three day seminar. I built the seminar sessions around the theme "Making Spiritual Decisions". We had a great time, and I trust that the pastors and their wives left as encouraged as Janice and me.

The first week of December was final week for the students in our Bible school here in Jakarta. Fifty students took my final exams. After final week, we had graduation week with two graduates. Farley is from Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), and he will be returning to help start a new church in Balikpapan. Indra is from Bali. He will return to Bali to work with Pastor Wayan in Singaraja, Bali. Indra will be taking his new wife with him back to Bali. Pray for these men that they will become good ministers of Jesus Christ.

I do want to give you some items to pray over and perhaps take a financial part in helping with these needs.

•  Pastor Andar still owes about 30 million ($3,300) on his building. I try to help him each month, matching what his folks do. He would like to get the debt finished off as he has been offered the land across the street that he really needs for parking. However, he needs the building debt cleared up before starting another project.

•  Pastor Arohati and his folks in Hilifalago on the island of Nias are well on their way to completing their new building. Lots of thanks to you folks that gave these folks a hand. Pray for the work that it will continue to grow.

• Last Sunday, Janice and I were with Pastor Sudarsono at his work in East Jakarta. Pastor Sudarsono is doing a good job with this work. The church has a building, but they were not able to use the building due to problems with their community. The church folks have worked hard in their community, and they can now use the building. However, a few months ago the building was severely damaged when a construction crew used heavy equipment right behind their building. The heavy equipment caused their building to settle, destroying the floor of the building and causing serious structural damage. Alas, it looks like there won't be any compensation from the construction business. If you could help these folks repair their building, it would be a blessing.

Personally, Janice and I are doing fine. I faithfully: eat my raw garlic, drink my young coconut juice, drink my kombocha tea, drink my turmeric tea, and take a large handful of supplements every day. You would be healthy if you were doing all of that also! Janice is hard at work trying to sort through all our worldly belongings.  Hopefully, we won't have to take them all to the new house to be stored away until our next move. We do appreciate your prayers as we make this move.

Here are a couple of fun pictures. The city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan sits right on the equator.  Janice and I were able to hold hands and yet be in opposite hemispheres of the world. On New Year's eve, Janice and I spent the day traveling in a speedboat up the Kapuas river in West Kalimantan to visit pastor Dino's church in Terentang.

For all your faithful prayers and financial support we are thankful.

 In Christ,

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