December brought much activity to Pearl River
Mennonite as the youth hosted a lock-in for the first time since our arrival. Heather's goal was to have a few different churches represented in attempts to start bringing some unity in and amongst the churches in the Gulf States Mennonite Conference, as well as the other churches in the Philadelphia, MS area. There were about 20 youths/young adults there who represented 7 different churches! It was a great time of games, X-box, karaoke, movies, and pizza! Our next one is scheduled for February 12th. Please pray for Duane and Heather. These weekends are exhausting!!!Christmas at Pearl River was a memorable one. One of the women in the church read the Christmas story, a Choctaw version, while members of the church dressed in traditional
Choctaw clothing represented the characters in the story. It was beautiful! We are truly blessed to get to experience this culture first-hand.Brittany and her husband Matt joined us for Christmas, which was a fu
n time. Brittany was already looking quite obviously pregnant, which was a bit strange for us to see! She and Matt met Heather's boyfriend Zach for the first time, and also enjoyed new experiences at some of the local stores (if you can call them that... maybe more like daily garage sales???) and going to a basketball game at Mississippi State, thanks to Duane's boss who gave them some free tickets. It was fun to spend some time with them, and we are looking forward to seeing them again in May when their baby girl arrives!And then it was 2010. My goodness! It's so hard to keep up with everything that's going on. Our lives are as crazy as ever, and yet, we see God at work everyday. Heather started her second semester at Mississippi State University in the first week of January. She is taking 3 online classes and two classes on campus, which allow her to work a full 40 hour week in her "spare time". Ha! The second week of January she said goodbye to Zach, who moved back to Ohio to find work, and has thus spend
ALL of her free time doing homework, getting youth lessons and worship sets around for church, and making fliers for upcoming events in the Gulf States Mennonite Conference. To say she is busy is quite an understatement, but she feels confident that she is growing spiritually, in leadership, and in maturity with each passing day. Her favorite quote right now: "If I can make it through this semester, I can do anything!" She will be leading worship for the upcoming youth rally in March, and is looking forward to her cousins Cory and Crystal coming down from Indiana for their spring break!Duane is enjoying his work at ELS and has begun to learn how to train individuals at schools that are using the teacher planning software. Unfortunately, the transmission went out on his car this past week, which presents a problem considering he works 50 minutes away from home! Just the week before Heather had finally gotten her car back, after having it fixed for over a month. Looks like carpooling is inevitable in our family!
Laurie resigned from her position after much prayer and seeking guidance on the situation. Working nights was not a healthy thing for their marriage, their family, or their ministry. She is now looking for a day job.
Please be keeping us in your prayers as we are teaching the youth about Spiritual Warfare. Our family is under attack big time... especially in regards to our vehicles. Please pray for a hedge of protection over us and our belongings as we teach on this important subject. Also, please keep our home in Indiana in your prayers as well. It has still not sold, and we are praying about whether to change realtors since our 6 month contract with the first ones is up.
May you be blessed as you dig deeper into the fullness of God's grace and into this new year of blessings!
