August
2002
Dear praying friends,
We send you greetings from Minnetonka Christian Camp in
Clayton Oklahoma. This week is the annual missionary retreat
held at
Minnetonka
. We have been privileged to meet new
missionary friends and catch up with friends from years gone by.
Our thanks to all those who went above and beyond to minister to
the needs of us all this week, particularly to our friends who
came all the way from Dumas, Texas.
When
last I wrote to you, I was waiting to be treated for the
vasovagal syncope that was diagnosed while we were in
Wales
; however, since coming back to the States my
light-headed spells have disappeared, but in the process of
having a physical examination back in
Texas
certain abnormalities appeared. Since May I
have been, poked, prodded, scanned, and examined to the
satisfaction of all my doctors, and they have decided that the
gall bladder will come out before it causes any further p
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was chatting online to a
young lady that I baptized in our work in
Wales
last September. She had been having a lot of personal family
trials, and our family and others had been praying for her.
Anyway, she was so excited to tell me that her mother had
trusted Christ the day before during a personal visit from the
missionary couple that is watching our work. Sometimes the great
waves must come crashing down all around us before we cry out
for help; the death of Emma’s grandfather and the impending
divorce of her parents were the storms that turned her m
Our
calendar is beginning to fill. Certainly it will not be possible
to visit all our supporting churches in the next few months.
Pastor, if I am in your area, but am not able to schedule to be
in a service with you, I’ll try to swing by and at least say
hello. Perhaps some of you we’ll see at the fellowship
meetings in
Grand Prairie
and
Jacksonville
that are quickly sneaking up on us.
We
appreciate your continued support for our ministry over the
years. Alone, we will never accomplish what the Lord has for us
to do; together, and with His blessing, we cannot fail.
Your servants for Christ’s sake,
Tom & Patti Wheeler
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April
2002
Dear
brethren,
It is so good to be back in the
U.
S. of A.
Before
I proceed any further, I want to thank all of you for praying for
us. We had about resigned ourselves to having to stay in
South
Wales
for
another year, when the Lord answered and provided a missionary from
North
Wales
who
would be able to come and watch our work for a year before returning
Stateside for his furlough. Now that we are back, we are quickly
adjusting to the American way of doing things (even though we’ve
driven on the wrong side of the road this week, we haven’t run
over anybody – Ha! Ha!).
When
last I wrote to you, we were still waiting on the appointment at the
syncope clinic in
Cardiff
.
I finally got in to see the specialist in February, and they
determined that I have vasovagal syncope; however, since my
light-headed spells are much more infrequent, and the fact that we
were headed to the U.S. in the near future, the doctors in Wales
decided that they would hold off on the medication and let the
doctors in Texas make the decision about how to proceed.
We are already receiving e-mails from some of our people in
Wales
.
We’ve only been gone one Sunday, but some of the folks
(particularly the ones we saw saved and baptized last year) are
already jumping in to get things done. Attendance was down, which is
to be expected when one missionary goes on furlough and the fill in
doesn’t arrive for a couple of weeks. Human nature is the same
everywhere, even in
Wales
.
We thank God for those who mean business for the Lord!
This
past week we took Ian by
Arlington
Baptist
College
to
let him look around the campus, sit in on a couple of classes, and
meet some of the folks there. One of his concerns about coming home
was feeling like a foreigner in his native land – he’s only
spent one year in the States since he was nine years old. Everybody
– faculty, staff, students – were friendly and made Ian feel at
home. Please remember to pray for him and his transition.
In
the very near future we will probably be contacting your church
about the possibility of coming by to present what the Lord has done
and is doing in
Wales
and
the
U.K.
Those
of you who have already scheduled us to come by, we want to thank
you again. We look forward to seeing you in the next few months.
We
appreciate the love and support you have given the Wheeler family
and our ministry over the years. We are indeed a blessed people.
Your servants for Christ’s sake,
The Wheelers to
Wales
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