Update on Lin's niece's husband

Some of you have heard, and some have not, that my niece's husband, Jeff, was in a serious accident last Friday. He and 3 of his coworkers (all in 1 vehicle on their way home from work) had stopped to help a stalled semi, who was blocking all lanes of traffic. Another semi came upon them and was unable to stop. The impact threw one of the other guys in the air and he came down on his head on the pavement, killing him. Jeff was hit by the front of the semi, wedged underneath, and dragged approx. 80 feet. He suffered some broken ribs, a broken arm, a broken femur, and some facial injuries. There may be more that I do not know of. There was no internal damage or injuries found! PTL! As of today, he is out of ICU, off the ventilator and various tubes, is alert, and can remember all of the details of the accident. I asked many of you to pray for him, and for financial provision. God has answered those prayers. A woman who heard of the accident came to the hospital and found my niece, Alex. She told her she had been praying for her all day and gave her an envelope. It contained $100. Their church took an offering for them and raised $500. Their landlord said the rent for next month is covered and not to worry about it! His job is as an independent contractor, so no workers comp coverage, etc. Please keep on praying for them and for God to continue to provide for them. We serve an awesome God who sometimes allows things to come into our lives that do not make sense to us! But, He is always there right beside us through those times. We simply need to trust and obey. I know it is easier said than done. Bless you all for your prayers. I know they appreciate them. They are the first to praise and glorify God, knowing it is all Him.

3rd week

We are getting more names with the right faces! Jim preached last Sunday. It went well, he received several positive comments. His topic was prayer. His time was cut short due to a special presentation. He had to rush through things and leave others out to finish on time.

This week has been full of long days and evening activities. The kids and I do not have much to occupy our time after school is done each day. Many evenings this week have been filled with church activities, bible studies, and home visits. We are getting to know more of people's hearts. There are so many possibilities for God to work in this church!

Jim had another meeting with Ralph. He even discovered some other Christians know Ralph, and are sharing Christ with him also. With more people sharing and praying, we are even more excited to see how God works in Ralph's life. He mentioned Jim to his other friends, he pays attention to what he hears, too.

Seminary continues to occupy much of Jim's time. It is tough! He only has 3 more weeks for his current class. Please pray for him to have the time management necessary, clarity of recall for tests, and wisdom in writing his paper.

Nathan and Alicia continue to assimilate. They have been heading up some small group discussions in the youth group. Nathan continues to amaze us with how he is learning to put himself out there more and speak up. Alicia sang with some other youth in a church music program last evening. They still need to find someone to hang out with.

The weather is crazy this week. Tuesday there was record setting temperatures, a high of 74 degrees. We loved it, spent the afternoon at the park. Today we woke up to it snowing and sticking! It has melted in the hours since. We have had warm sun, cloudy skies, rain, snow, hail, and wind this week! And we thought Oregon had mixed up weather!

Many of you have checked in this week, thanks for that, we appreciate it. Knowing you guys are behind us and supporting us in prayer means the world to us. We continue to pray for you, and invite you to share your requests with us. We miss you and love you. Have a wonderful week!

Week 2

Thanks for praying for Jim's meeting with Ralph. It went well. Jim got to share Christ with him. He thinks he will make it to heaven by being good. He doesn't go to church because they are full of hypocrites. They are meeting again next week, so keep praying!

On Monday, we met with a couple who are part owners with their son of a T-shirt printing business. We went out to lunch with them, then got a tour of the business. It was fascinating. They do embroidery and screen printing. We got to see both in progress. It takes quite a bit of time and man hours to do screen printing. The embroidery is all automated except for loading the machines, snipping extra threads, and trimming off extra "stiffening" fabric from the back.

Last night, we had our first home visit. We had a great time getting to know this family. They have property with a fantastic view of the city. It is the first of many such visits. This afternoon we are meeting with a man who worked with us on our house building project here last fall. Tonight, Jim and I will be helping with a youth event. It is the culmination of the "30 hour Famine", to promote awareness of world hunger. We are all participating and fasting today. Tomorrow, Jim has Association training in the morning, then we get to go tour the house we helped work on last fall at Ness Lake Bible Camp in the afternoon. Sunday, Jim is preaching and would appreciate your prayers for him. Monday evening, we have another home visit scheduled.

As you can tell, our schedule is picking up. Jim spends most of his days at church. Between church work and studying, he has more than enough to keep him busy. We are finding out lots about what kinds of things and events have been tried to get more young families involved at church. They have tried many creative things, but none have been successful. Please continue to pray that God will work in hearts and lives, and lead us to the ideas He is working on to bring more people to Himself and to Fort George.

We miss you all! You have been awesome about keeping in touch! Thanks for the prayers, support, and encouragement.

Ralph

Jim has made contact with Ralph. He is taking him out for coffee Thursday at 10 am. Please pray during this time for the Holy Spirit to soften Ralph's heart and for Him to lead Jim's speech.

First full week

This has been a week of learning. Too much information has been passed on! We only hope to remember the important stuff. Jim spent many hours at church, some on church work , the rest on studies. He had lots of "meetings". We did pretty well on names at church this morning! We are thinking of doing a board like they have at Salem E, taking pictures and labeling them with names to help us learn faster. We feel we have settled in, and are now scheduling visits. This week we will step it up, so to speak. We are scheduled to visit several couples/families this week. It will be good to get out of the trailer more. The walls are closing in fast! We did lots of walking to get out this week.

Jim had to get his SS equivalent here this week. They call it Social Insurance here, so you guessed it, he can his SIN card this week! He claims it is legal for him to "sin" in Canada (smile). We got lots of business paperwork completed this week to make it legal for Jim to work and get paid here. We even got "an offshore" bank account, (an account outside of the US). Now we can go back to using "the card" instead of cash. I did not like carrying around too much cash all the time.

On a more serious note, Jim met a man named Ralph while waiting in line at the Social Insurance office. He and his wife used to attend Fort George. She left him many years ago, because he was a "bad sinner". Jim invited him to come to church, but he declined saying he was too bad to attend church. Jim did get his phone number so he could contact him again. Please pray for Ralph, that Jim could show him the truth that we are all "bad sinners" yet God loves us anyway. We would love to show Ralph the way to Jesus.

Due to the walls closing in, I have been melancholy this week. Please pray for joy and excitement to build as we begin to minister. Also, please pray for Nathan and Alicia to find friends their age. They have both been involved at church, but they need people to hang out with. Nathan was asked last week if he would be willing to train on running the sound system. He did that last Sunday, and then was asked 2 times this week to run it. He did it for a funeral last week, and then for the service today. Alicia helped in Sunday School last week, and then helped lead worship today.

We all feel very prayed over. Keep them coming. Love to you all.

God is Good, All the Time!

God is so good! He is faithful to us in so many ways. We enjoyed a warm welcome, and a great Resurrection worship time yesterday. The people here are overjoyed to have us here. We are working on learning their names. We knew most of the core group previously. Now, to get to know the rest. We are working on how to go about visiting and making contact with the families we have been requested to visit. We are also establishing relationships with our landlords and neighboring RVers.

One more miracle happened to us yesterday. A couple from church pulled me aside after the service. They explained that they felt God leading them to pay the space rent on our RV spot for the months we are here. If that was not amazing enough, the check was for exactly to the dollar the space rent PLUS the cost of the part we needed to repair our truck on the way up!!!!! Should we be surprised? No! But we were blown away. We keep seeing God's hand in all that happens, and are confident that He is up to great things. We can't hardly wait each day to see how He continues to work. Thanks for all your prayers, we can definitely feel them.

God's amazing Provision

It is totally a God thing, but we have arrived in Prince George! Getting across the border was the first hurdle. We had to wait for an hour for paperwork to process, but they were helpful in giving documentation that will make it easier to cross in the future. We stopped for dinner about 6pm Tues. in a little town called Cache Creek. We pulled out of town, headed for our stopping point for the night. It was only 4o more miles or so. All of the sudden, the truck jerked to the left. Jim thought he had a flat tire. After some inspection, he thought maybe a brake was sticking. We tried to move again. We made it 1/4 mile. There was better place to stop. Nathan and Jim took off the tire. That is when he knew he lost the 4x4 hub on the left. We had no choice but to camp out right where we were. We assumed he would have to go into Kamloops to get a part, it was 50 miles away. But, God had other plans. After a cold night, with our furnace running all night it was still only 53 degrees in the trailer, Jim drove into Cache creek in the van. There was a part in stock at the local auto parts store!!!!! The name of the store was Lordco. Does anyone else think that is amazing?!? We took off yesterday morning, only 1 hour and a few miles behind schedule. We arrived and got all hooked up. We are at the church this morning figuring out where to start. Thanks for all you prayers! Only God got us here, we were told here without a Pastor's license, we should have been turned away at the border. God is good, and He must have something amazing in store.