She's Here!

I know it's been a LONG time since I posted here but things have been a bit crazy around here. In January I went into early labor so really had to take it easy for awhile to keep the baby from coming too soon. I also started to have problems with my heart which got progressivly worse and finally I was admitted last week with the heart problem. The doctor then decided the best thing was to go ahead and take the baby c-section as the heart medication was also lowering her heart rate. So, Kaylinn Alora was born via c-section on Thursday, February 25th at 9:25 AM. Things have been up and down since then with recovery and all but Kaylinn is doing great and I am starting to feel much better now. My heart is also doing much better and hopefully I will be able to go off the medication soon. We came home from the hospital on Monday and are now adjusting to life with 5 kids.

Here are some pictures of our new little angel. Thank you all for praying. Please continue to pray as we are facing challenges from every angle. There has been a drought on the island and our water is being turned off often. We didn't have water at all for about 24 hours after getting home from the hospital so that makes life a little "extra interesting".

December, 2009 Prayer Letter

Merry Christmas! We are enjoying the holiday season here on Pohnpei and trust you are enjoying this blessed time of year as well. The holidays here bring heavy wind and rains and this year has seemed even more than usual. We are thankful for the somewhat cooler temperatures though.

MINISTRY NEWS

This year has been a good one for our family and ministry, and we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2010. I am including photos of the work done on our land here in preparation for our upcoming building project. It’s been exciting to see the progress and we are anxious to have our new church building completed. We are consistently running 90 to more than 100 on Sundays so we are especially eager to have more space for services.
Fall has been busy for us here. We started out the season with our annual missions conference. We are praising the Lord for the great response we had from our people and the largest Faith Promise budget we’ve had so far! We were able to take on a new missionary family for support, the Boylston family, who will be coming here to work with us in the ministry.

FAMILY NEWS

Our family is doing well. Susan is progressing in the pregnancy without any complications and we are thankful for that. Katrianne turned 3 in November and we sure are thankful for this little blessing in our family. She is a sweetheart. Kyler will be turning 5 just 2 days before Christmas. He’s been excited about his birthday for the past month and regularly “practices” blowing out candles, every time Susan has a scented candle lit.

CHRISTMAS!

With Christmas right around the corner, our young people have been working hard at preparing for our Christmas cantata. This year they performed Ron Hamilton’s cantata, “The Greatest Gift.” I translated the speaking parts into the Pohnpeian language and the young people did a fantastic job with the program. The church building was packed out for the performance with many having to stand! We pray that the seed was planted in the hearts of some of the unsaved that attended.
We pray that each one of you have a blessed holiday season and a wonderful New Year. We thank you for the blessing that you all are in our lives here and the part you have in our ministry here on Pohnpei.

Because of Calvary,
Rickson, Susan,
Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler, & Katrianne

PRAISES

• The large attendance we’ve seen lately in our services!
• The Faith Promise giving promised for this year.
• Growth in the ministry here on Pohnpei.
• Progress on the land project for our new church building.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• The Boylston’s to be able to raise their needed support quickly.
• Continued growth in the ministry here.
• Funds for the land project for the new building.
• Susan’s pregnancy.

Katrianne's 3rd Birthday Pics

Birthday Lunch at South Park

Gift from Aunty Car

The Birthday Cake!

Flowers from Grandma

Two Little Princesses

Latest Updates

I know it's been awhile since I've posted an update here! Things have been busy around here. The last couple of weeks have been pretty good and we are thanking the Lord for the huge crowds we have continued to have at church. Several Sundays now we have had over 100 in attendance! It gets pretty crowded and warm in the building and we are looking forward to being able to start the construction on our new building.

Yesterday was Katrianne's 3rd birthday! She had a great day and we are so thankful for this little sweetheart. Later this week I will try to post some pics of her day. But for now I want to give an earnest prayer request for a good friend of ours. Kendener Ezekias fell from the top of a very tall coconut tree last week (the very tree he fell from is pictured at the top of this post) and is facing a very difficult recovery. It is a miracle that he is even alive. The frustrating thing as always has been the local hospital here and their care. He has been in excruciating pain, mainly from the dislocated discs in his back. His left leg was completely shattered. It wasn't until a day or more later however that the hospital realized his right leg was also completely shattered (how they missed that, I'll never understand). Due to improper cleaning of his wounds and delayed setting of the broken bones, he is now badly infected and even at risk of possibly losing his leg. And to top it all of, the hospital has now run out of pain killer! They are trying to get him to Manila for better care as soon as possible but the typical government system here is delaying that process. The state will pay for Kendener's ticket but he needs someone to accompany him, who will have to pay their own fee. His father is planning on going and is in need of around $1200 for his ticket. Please pray that the Lord will provide this money as he is needing to purchase this ticket within the next day. They are hoping to get Kendener on Thursday's flight out of here. Meanwhile, he has to face the pain he is experiencing, WITHOUT any pain medication. Please keep him in your prayers.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we have much to be thankful for in our lives. We hope that you all have a great week!

New Update

Wow! What a weekend we have had! It was a bit different from our usual schedule as Friday was a holiday here on Pohnpei (UN Day) and a youth rally on Saturday. Since school was out Friday, the youth had a workday as they are continuing to raise money for a future missions trip. Music classes for Friday evening were cancelled as the young people were pretty wiped out, so this gave me and Rickson the chance to have a nice evening out! One of our neighbors stayed with the kids and we enjoyed uninterrupted conversation over Chinese food.

Saturday we had a youth rally at one of the other churches on island so again all afternoon and evening music classes were cancelled. This made for a busy day for Rickson but gave me a nice quiet afternoon and evening with the kids and a chance to get caught up on some things around the house.

Sunday was a great day. We had a good problem Sunday morning - we had to interrupt the welcome segment of the service in order to set up more chairs. We had over 100 in attendance! This included some unsaved visitors that we ask prayer for. Two girls visited our church for the first time and as they live on another part of the island, they spend the afternoon with us and then attended the evening service as well. Please pray for Lori and Clara that they would soon come to know the Lord as their Savior.

After the evening service, Rickson had to drive the visiting girls as well as several others back to town. I woke up around 11:00 and realized he still hadn't gotten home! It was still another hour or so before he arrived home and was able to explain what had happened. After dropping off the people he had taken, he and several others who had just gone along for the ride were heading home when the truck ran out of gas! Rickson didn't have any cash on him and gas stations around here do not take credit cards so he had thought he had enough gas to make it home. Unfortunately, not quite enough though. He and the guys were able to push it (uphill) to a parking lot and walk to the medical clinic to use their phone, where he called a neighbor of his sister's to wake them up and have her husband, Braden come meet him. When Braden arrived, he didn't have any cash either so they drove to the ATM machine, only to find it out of order. They ended up having to borrow $10 from another pastor there in town, then drive from gas station to gas station trying to find one open. The 3rd one they checked on was open so they filled some empty bottles they had with gas and started back to the truck, drove only a little ways, and Braden's car ran out of gas. What a night! Finally, both vehicles had enough gas in them to get home and everyone made it home safely. I think Rickson will probably not be making any more late night trips to town without cash with him!

The night continued to be a restless one for us all as there was stormy weather throughout the night and the power kept going on and off. Finally, around 4 or 5 the power went off and stayed off. It only just came back on a little while ago so we have had a very late school day! Meanwhile, Rickson and Kaleo are in town at Calvary Christian Academy this morning as Rickson is speaking in two of their chapel services today. He and Kaleo will also be singing a special. Speaking of Kaleo, he played a special on the piano last night for offeratory and did an excellent job. We're so proud of him for using his talents for the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers. God is working here on Pohnpei!

Have a great week!

New Pictures

Morning Coffee, anyone?

Kyler and "the new baby"

Kestra and "the new baby"

Katrianne's version of the Hair Dryer

Our new Fire Chief

Update

We've had a busy last week and weekend! Some of you probably heard about the tsunami warning that we had last week. Thankfully, there was no tsunami but we did end up having some very heavy rains and a bit of a mudslide behind our house. Again, thankfully there was no damage to our home and no one was injured.

Friday and Saturday were busy with music classes, a youth workday, and cantata practice. We are preparing to do the cantata "The Greatest Gift".

Sunday, we had wonderful services both morning and evening, with decisions made and good attendance. One of our young "preacher boys" preached in the evening service and that was a blessing.

On a family note, we are all healthy finally and I am doing much better now with the pregnancy. For awhile I was too sick to care about much of anything but am finally passing that stage. The baby is due sometime in early March.

The children got a new kitten a little over a week ago. I'll be posting some pictures of the kids with their new pet. Homeschool has been going well. In fact, the kids were up around 6 this morning ready to start their school work!

We hope that you all have a blessed week!