January 3, 2008

Dear Family and Friends, 

                                                                                    Thank You

Thank you for all the Christmas cards and gifts. Your expressions of love are greatly appreciated. We hope

you had a Merry Christmas and pray you have a blessed New Year.

 

                                                                                                 Special Expressions of Love

For Christmas our two churches surprised us with their expressions of love. From our second church three

brothers and their families gave us a turkey for Christmas, and our first church presented us with a beautiful

plaque in commemoration of our service in the church. Both gifts were unexpected and brought much joy to our hearts.

 

                                                                                                      Second Church

We are seeing some maturing in the new church as the folks take more initiative in the ministry. Their involvement in planning for the church’s activities such as the anniversary and the Christmas program and their concern for the church’s advancement are good indications of the church’s direction toward stability.

 

In November, the second church received its first members when nine people were baptized. The following Sunday the church celebrated its first anniversary, and also began giving toward missions. Both churches held simultaneous missions emphasis months, and the second church committed over seventy dollars a month towards missions. It is a wonderful blessing to see a new church become committed to reaching the world for Christ

 

                                                                              Salvation Blessings

The year ended with the blessing of two ladies, Angelina and Guadalupe, receiving Christ as their Saviour on the last Sunday of 2007.

 

We enjoyed having Matthew home for three weeks.  He went back early for an interterm concentrated course. It will help to lighten his senior year load of courses. While he was here he helped with a special

Music Director Course.  Matthew was very helpful with his wealth of information from his public speaking classes at the college which enriched the eight men who attended the five hour seminar.

 

Jonathan completed his first semester of school with a superb effort before Matthew arrived in order to enjoy the holiday time with him.

 

                                                                                             Prayer for Land and Building

We are in the process of buying additional land beside the land we already bought for the first church. At the end of January we plan to start meeting (in the open) on the land. Hopefully in the near future we can put up some type of provisional covering. The Second church must level their land before it can be used for services. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide as we seek to build.

 

Grateful for your faithful support and prayers, 

  
Stephen, Charlotte, Matthew,& Jonathan 

Our email address is byrdscmj@gye.satnet.net    (sometimes it is a bit unreliable)