Our September Prayer Letter

Kasalehlia! This has been one of the busiest yet most productive summers we have ever had! We have much to update you all on.

Of course one of the highlights of our summer ministries is always youth camp. This year we did a combined camp with all the Baptist churches on the island. We had a great week and saw many decisions. One young man who had visited our church the Sunday before camp was then able to attend the camp. The following Sunday I had the exciting privilege of leading him to Christ after the morning service. That evening as the youth all gave testimonies of the decisions they made during the week, this young man, Eldon, also stood and gave a testimony! The following Sunday he brought a close friend who then accepted Christ as his Savior after the service! Eldon has since been faithful to all services, youth meetings, helping out with VBS, and bringing other friends to church!

Another one of our summer highlights is Vacation Bible School. The youth group did an excellent job of making this a great week. We had as many as 60 or more children throughout the week and saw some salvation decisions. One young girl by the name of Rjenny accepted the Lord and has continued to come faithfully. What a blessing it is to see these young people come to Christ and then grow in Him.

We were privileged to have Susan’s parents come to the island for three weeks. We enjoyed showing off our new little one, Kaylinn, of course, and all the kids sure enjoyed getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa. Susan’s Dad, Pastor Stevens preached many of the services while he was here and was such a blessing to our people. Kestra was baptized while the Stevens were here, and we also had the privilege of Susan’s dad conducting the dedication service for our little Kaylinn. Pastor Stevens has been able to do the baby dedication for all five of our children now! Susan had surgery while her parents were here – one of the reasons they came at this time, to help with the kids during her hospital stay and recovery. She is now nearly fully recovered and doing well. The doctor said she can fully return to normal activities within the next month.

I mentioned in my last letter that we were seeing low attendance in the services. I am thankful to be able to say that attendance has been back up throughout the summer! We even had one Sunday morning service with 115 in attendance! We are averaging around 95-100 most Sundays. The Lord is really blessing and we are definitely in need of a new building! Our biggest thrill of the summer has been the salvation decisions. We had salvation decisions from youth camp, VBS, and our regular visitation. One of our teen girls accepted Christ while Susan’s parents were here, and then the Sunday after they left, a man visited our church and contacted me that afternoon that it was very urgent that he meet with me. To make a long story short, he was wondrously saved by our Lord and Savior and has been faithful to church ever since!

We started our homeschool year September 6th and so far it has been a great year! Kaleo is in 6th grade this year, Kestra in 1st, and Kyler in K5. Katrianne spends most of her days doing her best to distract them. Kaylinn is growing and by far our biggest baby! She weighed in at 22 lbs. at her 6 month checkup!

We thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. Please continue to pray for us and our ministry here on Pohnpei. May God bless you.

Because of Calvary,

Rickson, Susan,
Kaleo, Kestra, Kyler,

Katrianne, & Kaylinn

Our Cutie Pie!

"Why are there frogs all over the floor?"

"You got anything else to eat?"

"Why do they always strap me in this thing when we go places?

I want to look out the window!"

A Day At the Beach

"Hey, you're an interesting looking puppy!"

The girls meet Bacon! (seriously, that's the pig's name!)

"Hey, get this thing away from me!"

"I like this one better!"

Update

We had a great weekend! God has really been working and the spirit at church yesterday was so good! We had great crowds both morning and evening and Rickson preached two really good messages. Lots of people at the altar. So good to see the Lord working in our people.

Please pray for Rickson and the youth this week as they all leave for camp this afternoon. It looks like there are aroun 70 teenagers or more going to the camp. The theme for the week is "Overcoming Temptation".

Next week we will be having our VBS. The theme for that week is SeaQuest: Diving for God's Treasure. We're looking forward to two great weeks of ministry with the camp and VBS. Please keep these outreaches in your prayers.

The week after next, my Dad and Mom will be coming. We're really excited about having them!

I'm posting some new pictures of the kids here. Kaylinn had her first cereal this weekend so including a picture of that as well!

Have a great week!

Kestra's Graduation

Our Little Princess

The Flag Bearer - Kyler practiced his "Salute Pledge" all day but still forgot and had to ask me "what am I supposed to say again?" during the ceremony. Too cute!

Kaleo played "Pomp & Circumstance" on the violin

Church Van!

Many of you know we have had the need for a new truck or church van for quite some time. Rickson really has wanted to get a nice van for picking up people for services, but that just didn't look like a possibility for anytime soon due to current finances. We've had a truck/van account for some time that we have added to every month but we expected something like this to cost so much we would be saving for several years still. Well, the Lord had an unexpected surprise for us!!! Rickson noticed a beautiful Ford 15-passenger van in town with a 'For Sale' sign on it so he contacted the owner and found they were willing to sell it to us for only $3500! After having several mechanics check it out, test driving it, and praying about it, Rickson came home this afternoon with a new van! It is a 2003 Ford with only 18,000 miles and we are so thankful for the Lord's provision!

A couple of pics I took this morning...