Dear Friends & Family,
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us here in the beginning of 2008. We have a lot of things in store for us this year, including more focused ministry among new people groups in new regions!
This has been an extremely busy month for us with friends visiting, teams coming and going, and our own exploratory trip throughout a new region. Here are a few key things that have taken place:
– In my last update, I mentioned that we had some good friends visiting us at the time. Claud & Mary are missionaries in South Africa and were here visiting us as well as other friends that they have in other parts of the country. They left on January 4th and we will miss them a lot! They have two adopted children from Swaziland and our two kids had a blast playing with their two youngsters.
– We had a large short-term team come through our region in the middle of the month. We were in charge of organizing their time here and making sure that they were able to both learn about the region and share with as many people as possible. One great result of their trip that we hadn’t planned for was how much of an encouragement they would be to us. We had great fellowship and great times of prayer in this place, a place which is typically very lonely and oppressive.
– From January 18-26 we took a whirlwind exploratory trip a few days drive south of where we are currently living. Most of the trip ending up being marked by cold weather and snow-packed roads, but we were able to gather information and visit half a dozen towns and cities that we have never laid eyes on before. Many of these areas will be the focus of future evangelistic efforts. Please pray!
– One of the biggest praise reports coming out of our exploratory trip was the discovery we made that a remote people group previously thought of by many researchers to be 100% unreached, actually has a growing church of 20-30 members. It turns out that local Chinese Christians had crossed cultural boundaries to share with these lost people, and God blessed their efforts!
– The ground has been snow covered for weeks and we are in the middle of a deep freeze throughout this whole region. This morning when I woke up at 8 (it is just barely getting light at that hour here) the temperature was 6 below zero. Here are the daily highs and lows for the past week in a large city nearby, just so you can get an idea of what we are dealing with:
27th OBSERVED: Hi 5¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
28th OBSERVED: Hi 5¡ãF Lo -15¡ãF
29th OBSERVED: Hi 5¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
30th OBSERVED: Hi 10¡ãF Lo -18¡ãF
31st OBSERVED: Hi 12¡ãF Lo -15¡ãF
1st OBSERVED: Hi 16¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
2nd OBSERVED: Hi 19¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
28th OBSERVED: Hi 5¡ãF Lo -15¡ãF
29th OBSERVED: Hi 5¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
30th OBSERVED: Hi 10¡ãF Lo -18¡ãF
31st OBSERVED: Hi 12¡ãF Lo -15¡ãF
1st OBSERVED: Hi 16¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
2nd OBSERVED: Hi 19¡ãF Lo -13¡ãF
That just about brings us up to the current time. Please keep us in your prayers!
We really do thank all of you for taking the time to think of us!
Blessings in Him,
Eugene & family
PS. Please find time to check out www.WayoftheMasterRadio.com for a daily dose of encouragement and practical teaching on how to evangelize your world, wherever you may be.
