Deputation is in full swing and is keeping us busy! Since our last report, we have traveled around 8,500 miles and presented the work in 14 churches! We have been blessed to meet many wonderful Christians and see God use us in several churches through the ministry of my music and preaching.
God has answered prayer and provided us with the improved transportation and living accommodations that we were praying for! We are now traveling and staying in a 2002 27-foot travel trailer pulled by a 2004 Suburban. This blessing takes much of the strain out of finding a place each night as we travel and allows Betsy to get the rest she needs when she needs it.
Betsy definitely still needs your prayers. This pregnancy continues to be very hard on her, with severe nausea all day most days making it very hard for her to hydrate, and frequent horrible pain from the torn muscle in her abdomen whenever the baby presses against that spot. There have already been several times when her body tried to go into premature labor. Please pray that God will heal and strengthen her body and that she will be able to carry the baby until she is ready to thrive when she is born.
We appreciate your prayers for our safety while traveling. When we are on the road as much as we are, this presents a huge opportunity for the devil to create trouble in addition to all the usual hazards of sharing public roads with so many others. By God’s grace, all of our travels have been safe, but they have been far from incident; in the last two months, we have had one flat tire, one blown out tire, our trailer lights stop working, our power steering pump goes out, and our transmission dies. In the case of the blown-out tire, we had to wait just inches from trucks flying by on the interstate for 5 hours before AAA finally reached us with a tow truck! Thank God He always takes care of us, even in emergencies!
By His grace, the transmission went out just a few miles from our former home (the current one being the trailer we take with us), where we have a friend who is willing to loan us a vehicle for the short term and where we know a pastor who owns a transmission shop. The bad news, though, is that rebuilding or replacing the transmission will still be a very costly job. I expect that by the time most of you read this, God will have met that need too.
We are heading towards a slowdown in our schedule partly due to the holiday season bringing other priorities than missions to the front of many churches’ minds and partly because of the anticipated delivery of our little girl. As we get nearer that time, travel is harder on Betsy, and we are also less willing to be far away from where she should be delivered. We expect to winter the harshest part of the season with some family in Delaware and limit any meetings to the nearby area. Our schedule then picks back up at the end of February, with every Sunday in March already booked.
Please continue praying for our safety and Betsy’s health and for a safe and healthy birth for our newest girl. Please also pray that God would quickly provide for us to begin in Providence, even with necessary slowdowns and occasional missed meetings due to broken vehicles.