A Roof for Thanksgiving!
The last three weeks have been full of grueling labor in scorching sun and hellish heat, but it paid off when we had a roof over our heads for our Thanksgiving gathering! Let me just say that again – we have a roof! Well, minus the shingles, but it is waterproof shade!
God does work miracles! We are so very grateful for the precious friends and co-laborers who so willingly came to give us a helping hand for a few hours in this 90°+ heat. What an encouragement for us to be given a hand by people who are busy in their own work and chose to help us finish this toilsome project.
It was our honor to host Thanksgiving here at Petra Mission again this year for all of the surrounding missionary and expat community! We are so abundantly blessed by this community,
and it was our privilege to serve them all here yesterday. Seventy-five people came to worship and give
thanks to our Loving God together! We had baked turkey, fried turkey and smoked
turkey with all of the trimmings. It was an amazing feast for the jungle! These
missionaries sure can cook! The pool was an awesome blessing on such a hot day, and the men held an exciting horseshoe tournament! It was a wonderful time with our missionary family especially on a day when we all more acutely feel the absence of our relatives. 
Some of our friends blessed our house by writing God’s Word on our wall studs!
So, even with all of the praises, we do have some prayer requests for our health. At the cost of sounding like a broken record…
The constant and profuse sweating and dehydration that roofing in this environment demands has caused another passing of Vann’s kidney stones. He is in some extreme pain – the kind of pain that would put most people in the hospital, but by God’s grace he keeps working and blessing those around him. Please pray for God’s mercy, and that this stone passes soon.
God has given me supernatural strength and energy to work alongside of Vann to roof our house. I am amazed at how He has sustained me long enough to get the job done, but it will take some time to recover. I have some significant warning signs that I need to stop for a while. Please pray that my body will heal soon, so that I will be able to serve those around me.
We are planning on going on a short furlough next summer! Lord willing we will be Stateside during school break – from June to August. Our dates are not set because we don’t have our tickets yet. If you would like to give towards this need we would be very grateful! We are looking forward to visiting our churches and with many of you personally, so when we have firm dates we would love to start scheduling the summer of 2016!
All who are saved by Grace are called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we couldn’t be serving here in Peru without your support. Thank you so very much for your faithfulness in prayer and support for this ministry! We are eternally grateful!
"The real test of a saint is not one's willingness to preach the gospel, but one's willingness to do something like washing the disciples' feet - that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God."- Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest”
Laughter is the best medicine!