Jannuary 2009 Update

A New Year with . . .

New Tidings of Joy!

Greetings Family and Friends,

Praise the Lord for those churches and individuals who have not only faithfully prayed and financially supported us throughout 2008, but also responded to our financial, end-of-the-year request that will aid in future ministry endeavors as well as help fund the upcoming baby Kona delivery/recovery. Thank you all and may the Lord bless your hands and generous hearts especially in light of the various economic changes/challenges.

We truly bring tidings of joy as my Jenny now carries a precious little one in her womb ~ BABY KONA !!! She is in fact beginning her fourth month (2^nd trimester), feeling much better, and expecting little Kona sometime mid-late July. How we rejoice in our Masterful Creator and Gracious Father, praying you would all join us in rejoicing! We also seek your prayers in these specific requests:

• Health for child and mother. We have pursued the necessary healthcare here, having an Albanian doctor contact in Tirana, but we pray the American doctor will deliver Baby Kona as health permits travel.
• Traveling mercies as Jenny will leave before me when it is safer for her to travel in mid-May. Please pray for her Albanian sister in Christ to receive permission from the American Embassy to assist her in travel, visiting the US for several weeks before returning. There is a 2-3 month waiting time after the baby’s birth to receive a birth certificate and then a passport, thus she will delight in a long stay and your visits, calls, etc.
• My plans are to join my Jenny in America along with my parents, arriving later in mid-July but hoping to travel back altogether following WRPCA’s mission conference October 2-4. This will be an opportune time at our 2^nd year mark to visit supporting churches and make new contacts. Pray for the Lord to provide pulpit supply, specifically a seminary student intern for at least part of this time.

We are delighted in the possibility of making visits to all our supporting churches/individuals come August and September. If you would like to go ahead and schedule a specific weekend/Sunday or Wednesday, maybe in correlation with your missions’ conference, we would be most honored by your email response to give you priority. This might even make our scheduling and visitations easier and more profitable. We welcome you to our missions’ conference held October 2-4 at Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church (details found at www.woodruffroad.com). This will most likely conclude our visit in America, so we would love an opportunity to hug your neck and say a big thank you in person – Lord willing, also introducing you to little baby Kona!

A Christmas Update ~

Our Christmas 2008 was a delightful celebration here in Albania with family and friends. We are thankful for all the pictures and Christmas cards/updates we received, showcasing them throughout our home as well as the goodies from WRPCA and other dear family and friends. This made our being away and local hospitality much easier.

• December 18^th, 20-21^st speaking engagements with the Christian Medical Student Organization of Tirana were quite profitable in many ways. About 30 students (most of them Christians)  attended the Thursday evangelistic meeting and around 20 students attended the weekend retreat. I was greatly blessed by such responsive interest with numerous questions following each session, some still requesting material to this day. Please pray for their continued hunger for God’s truth. After they joined us in Sunday Morning worship, I finished the last session and gifted them with some sermons on CD and a book for spiritual growth and edification, all a blessing from your support.

• Charity and Children on December 20^th ~ Several ladies did join Jenny that Saturday morning to joyfully wrap gifts for the nursing home Christian community, and they were delivered with love on Christmas Eve! Sorry, we forgot to bring the camera with us. They were ever so grateful. The few children of our bodied gathered as well in our home for a yummy celebration, hearing the Christmas story following a coloring activity and then decorating a gingerbread house. You should have seen their eyes, hands, faces, etc. !

• The second annual Christmas Eve “Lessons and Carols” service and dinner with the church body and guests was a true blessing. Several men helped read the lessons and the songs were joyfully sung, being a little more familiar this year. No photos for this activity either. We did so bad with taking pictures this year.

We praise the Lord in our faithful Lord’s Day worship and meeting together both on Sundays and Thursdays. I continue preaching through the “Sermon on the Mount” and our number remains the same. Please pray for continued endurance, diligence, faithfulness, boldness, and clarity in all these endeavors. Also, pray for wisdom regarding summer 2009 activities. Very Important!!!

John Calvin: 500 Years in Retrospect, A 21st Century Assessment

Loved, hated, misrepresented, misunderstood, blindly-followed by some, rejected out-of-hand by others, but nevertheless relevant even in the modern world, John Calvin is in a singular class of men. The year 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is offering a remarkable conference to honor our Triune God for having blessed the Church with the Genevan Reformer. As an original sponsor of CALVIN 500, an international event honoring Calvin, GPTS is in many ways beginning the celebration on U.S. soil with our Spring Theology Conference. Be sure to sign up HERE for this popular annual conference before registration closes at 5pm on March 5th. Take advantage of the early bird savings by registering on or before January 30, 2009. The topics that will be covered and the speakers are:

John Calvin: Theologian of Head, Heart, and Hands – Dr. James McGoldrick
John Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries – Dr. George Knight
Brevity and Clarity: John Calvin the Theologian – Dr. Carl Trueman
Calvin the Preacher – Dr. Joey Pipa, Jr.
Calvin’s Principles of Government in the Venues of Church and State – Dr. David Hall
Calvin’s Legacy in Economic Policy – Dr. Timothy Terrell
Calvin the Liturgist – Dr. Terry Johnson
Of Doorposts and Hinges: Calvin on Union with Christ – Dr. Mark Garcia
“John Calvin: ‘The Theologian of the Holy Spirit’”  Dr. Joel Beeke
Calvin the Sacramentalist – Pastor Ian Hamilton
“Christian Philosophy” in John Calvin – Dr. Paul Helm