Dear friends and family,

We hope this year has already been filled with many blessings from our Lord Jesus Christ! Ours sure has been and we are so thankful for God’s gracious hand, His satisfying presence, and meaningful purpose that He brings to our lives.

We received the best Christmas present EVER when Ryan and Summer came to Bratislava on January 16th for about 10 days and will return in mid February. They will fly back to China on March 3rd. We have so enjoyed getting to know our daughter-in-law better and seeing what a gift they are to each other…and to us!

We have had fun following Bret and the ETBU (East Texas Baptist University) Tigers Basketball team this season through many late nights. Many of their games are streamed through the internet, with weekday games starting at 2:30am and Saturday games starting at 10pm!  We are thankful for the many friends and family who have come to his games and supported him as well. ETBU is now rated 1st in the Division 3 American Southwest Conference with a 17-4 record!

We are excited about the many prospects that 2015 holds for us. Here are just a few of them…

Opportunities to help our colleagues in Central Europe develop 2015 ministry goals and encouragement to fulfill these goals
An invitation to meet and encourage new missionaries in their first year of ministry in Europe at the Emigrate conference in Germany – February 22-27
The ability to impact the next generation as we meet with college students to challenge and encourage them in their faith in Jesus Christ
Preparation and readiness (both personally and with those whom we supervise in Central Europe) to willingly accept the changes that our new IMB President, David Platt, will bring in the coming days
Visits with many friends and family while on stateside assignment in Marshall, Texas beginning at the end of October

Please use the above list to pray for us and ask that the Lord would use us for His good purposes and glory.

Ask that Ryan and Summer would continue to have a wonderful and relaxing time while in Europe, enjoy one another as newlyweds, and family! Pray that God would prepare them to return to China and they would have a safe trip back.

Pray for Bret as he has a very busy Spring semester filled with basketball games, 15 hours of classwork, work at the facilities department at ETBU, observation hours at the local junior high and high school, and his girlfriend, Dana. Ask that he would be very disciplined and balanced with his time and schedule.

His,
Trey and Elise