Maybe. If we have your physical address correct, then you do!
If not, we thought perhaps you’d like to know what we wrote about anyway, so here’s an online copy.
Spoiler alert: We have pictures of the Glad Tidings Bible Camp kitchen, newly upgraded and ready for use. And, you’ll read on page two that we have been invited to serve with a Bible camp in France later this summer! Please pray with us about this opportunity.
And, if you didn’t get mail from us and wish you had, let us know on the Keep in Touch page!
A few years ago, our pellet-fed smoker on the back deck malfunctioned. During the malfunction, the wind took off with some hot pellets, and blew them out of the smoker on to our porch. There a small fire started. Some neighbors (we never found out exactly who) were playing at the playground near our house and saw the fire. They called the fire department, then walked over to our yard, and used our hose to put the fire out before the fire department arrived. By the time we got home, the only remaining evidence of the fire was the burn hole in the deck.
The burn hole in the deck.
We covered the hole with a piece of plywood, and went on with life.
The past weekend, Chester tackled the project of removing the burnt boards and replacing them.
Several supporting boards also had to be replaced.Replacing the supporting boards required removing a large portion of the surface deck boards.The faithful helpers, removing charred supports.The hero of the day is almost finished with the new deck floor section.All put back together!
And the deck is almost as good as new! The only tiny remaining evidence of the fire (and our neighbors kindness) is that some boards are obviously new, and there’s still some melted/charred scars on the rail.
This may be my favorite thing about social isolation – so many at-home projects getting done!
We’re staying close to home, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not busy. Church, prayer meetings, Bible studies, home school co-op classes and socialization have all adapted to online formats. Chester is making great progress on projects both related to ministry and on our home, and we’re all driving each other just a little bit crazy. So when some nearby friends called asking if we would help with a little work on their farm, we jumped at the chance.
We had a great time knocking down a building! We took down a mostly dead blue spruce tree. Riding the four-wheeler afterwards was a real treat!
This time at home has proven a unique time for ministry. We’ve been praying that God would provide opportunities to share His goodness, and have been blessed with opportunities to share about Jesus’ offer of eternal life, to be a friend, and to pray with and for people.
Please continue to pray that we would be faithful to act on the opportunities God gives us – whether or not they include riding a four-wheeler!
We’re sure the threat from this virus has disrupted your lives too. Here’s how the virus is affecting us at the moment:
The trip to Mexico is cancelled (or at least postponed a few months). Your donations toward this trip are safe with Sabre missions, and will be used for whenever this trip happens, whether or not our family takes part. Please pray for the four families that are waiting for houses we had intended to build.
Everything else in the short term is cancelled too, as you know.
Some Praises
We already work from home and home-school, so the extent to which our lives are altered by this virus is less than many. Before the virus was found in our area, we already had the respiratory flu, so had already been keeping to ourselves. We are so grateful to live in a digital age where so much is available online! We’ve enjoyed holding our own worship services at home, with songs requested by the kids, an online sermon, and discussion. (We even had communion with crackers and Emergen-C). We’re grateful for the help of several others at Glad Tidings Bible Camp, at a work party to get the kitchen and dish room back to ready for use! The kitchen now includes stainless countertops, a steam-table serving line and standardized dishes! The dish room also include stainless countertops, a commercial dishwasher and sanitizer and a revamped workflow.
Thanks for keeping us in prayer as we do our best to support and encourage missionaries and ministries in this challenging time!
Thank you for praying for us through the family health challenges of January! Our extended family seems to have returned to healthy, and we are greatly encouraged to know that so many of you were and are praying!
Please continue to pray for us. We’ve put together a prayer calendar of upcoming requests for the month of February – it includes a little of everything (from Chester having surgery on Monday, February 10th, to a little bit of travel and a project at Glad Tidings Bible Camp). Please join us in prayer though the month!
One additional request (not yet on the calendar) is for wisdom in our summer/fall plans. We’re applying to volunteer at a camp in France!
Thank you so much for serving with us through your prayers and support!
Download a printable prayer calendar here, or view and subscribe online here.
Thank you so much for praying for and with us and our family these first few weeks of January. Everyone is back home from the hospital and recovering nicely! Peggy is back to her normal, spunky self, Merlin has returned to the care center in Ashland (where Peggy visits him daily), and baby Martin was discharged yesterday and is doing terrific!
It’s humbling to us that so many of you prayed, and let us know that you were praying. Our sincere thanks. God answered your prayers!
Baby Martin is home and feeling much, much better!
Thank you so much for lifting us up in prayer over the past couple of weeks. Chester’s parents are much better, but we have another hospital related prayer request to share.
We have a new nephew, Martin Davis, born December 28th, who is in the Children’s Hospital in Omaha with both RSV and a bacterial infection. Either one is life-threatening, so both is especially scary. His mother is staying with him, while his father (Chester’s brother) is caring for their 2 year old daughter. (Both parents and big sister are also currently sick!) Please pray for little Martin’s healing, and for the doctors to have wisdom, and for the family to be comforted as they wait and hope for this little child!
Chester’s parents are doing much better. Peggy was released from the hospital on Friday, is tired but glad to be home, and is continuing to recover. Merlin is scheduled for release on Monday afternoon. Both are expected to have additional procedures in the coming weeks (or maybe months), but are much healthier. We’re grateful for your prayers and for the care they received at the hospital!
Tuesday morning, both of Chester’s parents, Merlin and Peggy Davis were admitted to the hospital with sepsis and other complications. Both have had initial procedures to reduce the complications while they heal, and seem to be mostly stable now. We are joining other family members in rotation to be with them around the clock, and would appreciate your prayers.
