15 January 2004

Dear fellow-labourers in the Gospel,

Our Lord sure knows how to encourage us when we need it. Late last year Patti lost both her mother and her stepbrother. She has a sister that has both emotional and spiritual needs, and Patti would like to be in Nebraska to try and minister to her if she could. Because of faithful, giving folks in the States, she was able to fly back for a week to attend her mother’s funeral. She and Ian drove from And what a blessing from the Lord to begin the New Year with a young soul coming to trust Christ as personal Saviour on the first Sunday! It has been months since we have seen anyone coming to faith in Christ on a Sunday (as far as we know, anyway), but then, again, any day is great day to be born again.

Morgan (good Welsh name) is a lad who started coming to our youth meetings back in the summer. He didn’t get to make camp with some of his friends due to family commitments, but hung in there and eventually began coming to AWANAs. He has been an enthusiastic clubber for about three months and has been one who asks good questions. A couple of months ago he began coming to our services on Sunday mornings, and the Junior Worship lesson the first Sunday of the year was on “Rejecting God” based upon I Kings 16:29ff. Apparently it had great impact on Morgan, and we are encouraged by his immediate concern for others in his family, that they also may come to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord of all. His sister Karis has started coming to our youth meetings, and she brought her friend Rachel with her, so

Tonight I am having a meeting with some of our key people, and one of the items we are going to talk about is putting disabled friendly toilets in our building. This is not a third-world mission field we are serving on, and the government has passed new regulations that will come into effect in October requiring handicapped-friendly facilities to be in buildings that are used by the public-at-large. As this is not something that violates Biblical commands or principles, we feel compelled to comply with the requirements. We are submitting plans to the local council for approval, and don’t expect any trouble from them, but they have been awkward before. If they reject planning approval, then they are the ones liable for our failure to comply with the regulations, as we cannot move without their

We would like to thank those of you who have offered to come over at your own expense to work on a building project for us, but it really isn’t feasible. There are so many building code regulations that only professional builders are aware of, and so many inspections that have to be made that slow building projects down, that simply prohibit us bringing in free labour from stateside. Such is the reality that we have to deal with.

Again, Patti and I want to say “Thank you” to all of you who make it possible for us to minister here on this needy field. We appreciate you and so does our Lord.

Yours for souls this side of the pond,

Tom and Patti Wheeler