Saturday

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

It’s too early to get an update on Mrs. Faye Price. I’ll post something later.

Emily Panter: Emily continues to improve. She’s eating better and walking more. Keep praying.

Update on the Don and Diane Denton family:

Another amazing day in the Denton household today! Don arrived in Bolivar today at about 2pm.

It was a most beautiful sight to see. And to top it off, he did not get sick on the flight and on top of that was not sick at all today.

WE waited anxiously, Joshua jumping and squirming with joy. We actually saw the plane coming and the video started rolling. The pilot let us come out to the plane and we took many pictures of smiling faces and lots of tears. These are the most happy tears we have had in 2.5 months.

There was a time that we thought this day would not come. We were being told by the doctors that it would be a miracle if this day came for us. Back when Don was in ICU, one nurse asked me if I believed in God. He said that they would give Don all the tools to help his body to make it through this and then it was up to God. This nurse told me that I needed to pray and ask everyone to pray for Don. That was about 2 months ago. Many of these days where spent in a dark room waiting. As I have thought through this journey, it has been a journey of “waiting” Waiting for the headache to go away, waiting for Don to be able to talk again, waiting for test results, waiting for insurance decisions, waiting for housing, waiting for change, waiting for good news, waiting on God. Things we hope for, things we pour our heart out to God for sometimes don’t ever seem to come. There is great loss and grief. Loss of dreams, loss of time, loss of laughter and life together as we knew it. Waiting comes in many forms.

The other theme for me throughout this journey has been ” Believe”.

Believe that God is able. Believe even when the doctors are not hopeful. Believe in our God who says I will never leave you or forsake you. Even when there is no change. It is the waiting that is the hardest. It is in the waiting that darkness seems to overwhelm one. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is Believe when we can’t see. Even when our emotions are depleated and we are so discouraged, we can Believe, not in our ability but in God’s.

It is not an easy thing to wait. It is in that waiting that we need each other to hold onto. I have found in the waiting God’s people waiting too. WE pray and hope and wait. Thank you for waiting with us. Thank you for taking this journey with us. Thank you for your words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for your honesty and allowing me to be honest with my struggle.

And we continue to wait, waiting for further change of improvement, waiting and praying asking how are we going to get through this new phase of healing. WE will. That is the hope that we have not in us, but in Christ.

We are truly seeing a miracle today. The fact that Don is home and carries on conversations as if nothing ever happened is pretty amazing.

I felt compelled to share this with you all. I don’t know why.

I have more prayer requests.

* This one is for me. I have to confess that as happy as I am and I am elated at Don being home, I am exhausted as well. I have been a “single mom” for 2.5 months now. Please pray for me that I will have the wisdom and strength that I need and that I will be present with them both.
* Pray for Julia’s foot that she twisted.
* Pray that Don will continue improving.

Another thing I need to say is that in coming home and finding the nice surprises, I got so carried away in the emotion. Please know that during this very long journey, I have forgotten to say thank you to so many people who have reached out to us when we were in Springfield hospital for those 25 days. So please bear with me as my memory is not what it should be.

We have a very busy week this next week. I will keep you posted.

Visitation Times

I will post visitation days and times for those of you who would like to come and see Don. Once we get schedule for rehab. He would love see you.

Blessings to you our family and friends.

Diane

KOMpray
Kids on Mission Pray
Prayer requests

“Let the little children come to Me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” Luke 18:16b

TONS OF PRAYER

The Xhosa (pronounced KOH-sah) people live in South Africa. They’re very traditional, they dress in certain ways, believe certain things…very strongly…and their language is one of the hardest to learn. So their culture and people are really hard to reach. They believe in a Creator God but also count on “shamans” (medicine men/women). The Xhosa will go talk to the shaman when they are sick or think they have been cursed.

Missionaries Mike and Amy Boone work with about 40 Xhosa children and youth. Several kids have accepted Jesus, but their moms and dads just aren’t interested.

The Boone’s daughter told us about the Xhosa people and said, “I ask for prayer for my family and their ministry. My brother and I go to a school where things are not very Christian. My school needs tons of prayer…so please pray for us, our ministry, and that God can continue to reach the Xhosa people. Thank you.” GRACE, age 14, (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

MORE PRAYER REQUESTS FROM MISSIONARY KIDS

My culture is normal like a typical American’s culture. Please pray for the youth of South Africa SARAH, age 13, (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Please pray that I may have an opportunity to tell the Good News to the people that live in my neighborhood. ANNDREA, age 11 (Pacific Rim)

I pray that all would hunger and thirst for Jesus Christ. NATHANIEL, age 10, (Central Asia)

My family and I are in language school for Kiswahili. After language school we will move to work with an unreached people group. Please pray that my family will adjust to life in Africa.

LINDY, age 12 (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Dear God, please help my older sister in college in the U.S. Please help there be foreign children in my city that are my age. Please help my parents learn the language quickly. Please help the people in my city learn about God. Please help me in school. In Jesus’ name. Amen. HR, age 10 (East Asia)

I live in a very dirty place, with lots of people. Some may be nice and some may not be. Please pray for my Indian friend, Dove, who became a Christian when I told her. But she moved away. And please pray that my brothers and sisters will become Christians. TABI, age 9 (South Asia)

Please pray for: Open doors, wisdom in how to reach out, direction for me in choosing a college, good leadership for my class at Rift Valley Academy, unity for our class. MICAH, age 17 (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Pray I’ll have strength in my walk with Christ as I go to school in an environment that is really sinful and worldly. Pray that the Bible studies that we have will grow and continue to lead to Christ. KAYLA, age 15, (Central, Eastern and Southern Africa)

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
Day 7 – REAP North, Peru

Going into mountain and jungle villages, missionaries Larry and Nancy Jackson endure bumpy, unpaved roads and 10-hour boat rides to plant churches in Peru.

The Jacksons, from North Carolina, hold out hope that a Southern Baptist church will feel led to adopt each people group they research. Through REAP (Rapid Entry Advance Plan) North, the couple, in the International Mission Board’s Masters Program, helps churches connect with people groups in Peru and Bolivia. Masters missionaries are those 50 or older who commit to at least two or three years of overseas service.

Today more than 25 churches have promised to invest their efforts in approximately 15 areas with the Jacksons. Fanning out from the more evangelized city centers, Larry will continue researching and contacting people groups on the edges of darkness to connect Baptists with the lost of South America.

Because you give:
“You can see your money at work when you look at us because that’s how we’re funded,” Larry says. “When you give money, people’s lives are changed. If you want to come to Peru, I’ll show you.”

Calling an ‘Undeniable,
Irresistible’ Force
By Chris Watts

ROME (Baptist Press)

Calling, to me, is a funny thing.

In my experience, God’s call comes upon you with a furious intensity and drowns you in an incredible desire to do something huge and glorious, something that is completely beyond the measure of your own abilities.

It changes your path completely and thrusts you into a new and unknown world where utter reliance on the plan and providence of God is an absolute necessity. After a time, though, once the realities and routines of this new world have set in, some of that initial intensity fades a bit, and the calling evolves into the stabilizing foundation upon which every facet of your new life is built.

It never diminishes in its strength or importance, but rather than a sword with which to storm the walls of a lost world, calling becomes more of a compass for staying true to your path. I believe this evolution is necessitated by the fact that “the calling” serves two distinct roles.

People contentedly strolling along in an easy and comfortable life often need something violent and fierce to move them powerfully and awaken them to the harsh realities of a lost and dying world. Our Baptist cocoon often insulates us from the pain and hopelessness of a world without Christ.

Some of us, me included, need to be slapped pretty hard to see things clearly and hear the voice of God. Often it seems that change never comes to those who can stand to live without it. This initial calling causes us to be dissatisfied with anything else. It is undeniable and irresistible.

However, once you start down that path, you are confronted on a daily basis with these hard realities. You no longer need to be awakened; you need to be sustained. This life is incredibly difficult. A missionary must make the conscious decision every day that this lifestyle is still worth it. “The calling,” always lurking in the background, often gives you the strength to keep trudging forward.

This doesn’t mean the passion diminishes. On the contrary, the passion for the work grows as you witness with your own eyes the incredible ways in which God is at work in the world, as you see lives being transformed and you sense the intense pain in the hearts of those around you. You begin to understand the power of the Gospel and you long to see people receive the love of Christ.

I am convinced that this job to which I have been called is the greatest, hardest and most worthwhile way in which I could spend my life. And until I am called, kicking and screaming, to something else, there is nothing that could make me quit.

(Chris Watts and his wife, Colleen, serve as Southern Baptist missionaries in Rome. Originally from Georgia, they were appointed in 2000 and have a 1-year-old-son named Cotton.)

Rosalie Ranatza Capdeboscq
(February 24, 1915 – December 5, 2008)
Died at 4:15AM on Friday, December 5, 2008 at Landmark Nursing Home in Hammond, LA. She was a native of Plaquemine Parish, LA and a lifelong resident of Husser, LA. Age 93 years. Visitation at St. Dominic Catholic Church, Husser, from 9 a.m. on Tuesday until religious services at 11 a.m .Tuesday. Services conducted by Fr. Chris Romain. Interment St. Dominic Mausoleum, Husser, LA. Survived by Daughter, Gloria Capdeboscq St. Pe’, Dallas, TX, 4 sons, Camille B. Capdeboscq, Jr., DDS, Tickfaw, Henry A. Capdeboscq, Sr., Husser, James J. Capdeboscq, Sr., Hammond, Richard J. Capdeboscq, Husser, 1 sister, Marie DiMicelli, new Orleans, 15 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Preceded in death by husband, Camille B. Capdeboscq, Sr., Sister, Camille Jennings. McKneely Funeral Home, Amite, in charge of arrangements.

Coming in 7 days: Lottie Moon Christmas Tea @ New Zion Baptist Church @ 2 P.M.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about Lottie Moon and the beginning of international missions focus in Southern Baptist Churches. It is also a time to teach our young girls and women more about missions while being entertained with young talent and enjoying special teas and Lottie’s special tea cakes. If you need more information, I can direct you to the proper people to talk with. The bottom line is: I hope you will attend!

Have a great weekend!
Anna Lee