Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Lincoln, Nebraska! We arrived at our current project, Temple Baptist Church, the first of October. We praise the Lord for the safety He provided during all our days of travel this year. We have so much to be thankful for, because we have put over 15,000 miles on our vehicles as we traveled to report to our supporting churches and moved from Ohio to Michigan and then Nebraska. Thank you for praying for safety in our travels and praise the Lord with us!

Our job at Grace Baptist Church, in Canton, OH finished up the middle of September. The outcome of that building project is a long awaited Sanctuary that holds all the church members in one service rather than the 2 services that they have held for 10 years. Plus they have a new office suite and fellowship area, as well as a large area for the teens to use. We miss the friends we made while living there for 16 months!

As we traveled West, God again provided beautiful weather to travel and safety on the roads. This was the first big move for our new fifth wheel and although we scaled way back, we were still over the Manufactures recommended weight. Everything traveled very well, and we were once again very pleased with our new trailer. We enjoyed an overnight stop with our friends the Jones, and it was a blessing to attend the church service of our supporting church,  Harvest Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Iowa.

We covet your prayers for safety on this job here in Lincoln, Nebraska. We have begun the process of demolition in two parts of the building and starting to reassemble the new nursery and offices. More demolition was done in the fellowship hall and the process of giving it a face lift is in progress. This will be the pattern for this project. Nearly the entire 28,000 square foot building gets some sort of upgrade to it. There are a lot of stairs and heavy block walls to demolish and carry by hand out to dumpsters. Not only do we need people praying, but also teams planning to come help. Please pray about when you might take part in this project! We anticipate this large renovation to take us about a year!

As I previously mentioned in our last prayer letter, Brent and I have been planning for some time to take a much needed break from the strain of continual ministry. Unlike missionaries to foreign fields, US missionaries are typically reporting to churches and keeping up with the behind the scenes aspect of ministry right in the midst of fulfilling their daily mission. Although, it is a blessing in many ways to be able to minister in our supporting churches it is also challenging to do so in the midst of managing the large building projects that have been on Brent’s plate for the current and past 3 years. As we looked at the projects of 2020-2024 looming in our future, Brent and I began to discuss what we thought the future held for us in ministry. Brent commented frequently that he has been in construction for 30 years and that has taken its toll on him physically, but we both recognized that we didn’t feel like God was directing us elsewhere. We desire to continue to serve in the ChurchCare Construction ministry as long as God enables and allows us to do so. So, we began to make preparation for what we are calling a working sabbatical to take place after the job is complete here in Lincoln, Nebraska. During this sabbatical, we will be doing some small projects for BCP church plants, family, and friends, just at a much slower pace. We also intend to do some sightseeing, spiritual rejuvenation, and focus on our relationship. Our current plan, Lord willing is to travel south from Nebraska down to Texas then continue West all the way to California. From there we will go North up into Washington and we will fill in the other Western states moving back south and east. We have a lot of plans to work through in the next few months. We covet your prayers as we find the right balance of rest and restoration while keeping Brent busy enough to not go stir crazy. We welcome and plead for your input on your favorite places to visit in the great western US. We ask you to pray with us about the places God specifically wants us to minister and please let us know if your ministry would benefit from our service. Thank you for your prayers even now that we would have safety and God’s will would be accomplished during this sabbatical.

Praise the Lord for safety traveling to and enjoyment visiting with friends while updating our supporting churches.

Pray for safety on the jobsite during the many phases of demolition on this project.

Pray for travel to  Plainfield, WI. as we do a short window repair job at a new Spanish speaking BCP partner church.

Praise the Lord for safety during our move to Wayland, MI and Lincoln, NE as well as travel for a long awaited family trip to Woodland Park, Colorado for a hunting trip. We traveled with friends, Chris and Steve King, from NY.  We are thankful all hunters were successful in filling their Mule deer tag.