Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! One thing I’ve noticed here in Hawaii is the lack of Christmas spirit. Maybe it’s just me but aside from some houses being decorated, it doesn’t feel like Christmas. Joan does all the shopping so I don’t know if the malls have Christmas music playing or not. Our tree came from Oregon. We do have the Aloha spirit though so people are generally nice year around.

This has been a very busy year for our Jared. He got married in May to his classmate Linda. Want to starting a family soon, she will be delivering in March. Their sticking with family tradition of naming their girl with a name that starts with “Mar,” so Marissa. Jared just graduated with his engineering degree and will start working at the Pearl Harbor shipyard. You can imagine how proud his K-12 teacher (Joan) is of his accomplishment. And in a week he will be closing on his first home. He says he thinks he’ll take classes for nursing next!

Micah’s daughter Arianna (I call her Marianna behind her back)–her Doctor says she’s his tallest one year old. Our Mariko and hubby Elijah have no time for babies as they are busy sandboarding, finding hidden waterfalls and WWII bunkers. We spent two hours with them in a deserted underground communications center. Really cool tunnels!

Markie (Mieko) is ready to go to the mainland for an ultrasound course. Just waiting to get accepted somewhere. She had her heart set on a school in Indiana but that didn’t materialize so we are all disappointed but keep looking to the Lord. We’ll hate to see her leave when that does does come, though.

News from PNG as usual is always a mix of good and bad. One of the works we supplied just had their Bible translation completed. They had them printed out of plastic so they would be water-resistant, which in an area that gets 12-15 feet of rain a year is a great idea!

Thank you so much for your prayers and faithful giving over these many years. Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas!

Because He said “Go,”
Mark and Joan Reichman