Dear Team Members,

How we thank the Lord for you as we journey through these difficult times. Your PRAYERS are a constant encouragement and help keep our heads above water 

We have a SPECIAL PRAYER request: Charlie’s brother Dave’s wife Susan has shingles on the right side of her face involving her eye, mouth, nose, and sinus. We have had a number of our retirees come down with shingles and we know it is serious. The doctor has put her on medicines, and we ask PRAYER that these meds will help, for the pain involved, and for a speedy recovery!!!!

Our New Tribes Mission retirement Center has around 137 retirees living here, not including our faithful caring staff. How thankful we are for our staff, who are always available to be part of our lives. There is an RV section of the property for our Royal Volunteers who come from all over the States and even Canada. Right now, with it being winter around the States and Canada, the RV section is choker block full. How thankful we are for their willingness to come and be involved in so many projects here from residing duplexes, grounds work, painting, and remodeling. The wives do mending and sewing, help to clean apartments when our residents need some help, among other jobs. Please PRAY for our STAFF and VOLUNTEERS who so faithfully serve the Lord they love in a multitude of areas 

Sad to say, our staff are sometimes poorly supported because many think they are not missionaries since they are not overseas  Some have come back from overseas for health reasons, unable to return to their field of service, but able to cope here and be a blessing. With their being part of caring for our retirees, the children of retirees, who are serving the Lord overseas, can continue serving overseas. What joy it is knowing their parents are lovingly being cared for. We are all Missionaries – no matter our age, or where we are located. We are all part of the team to reach the world with the Gospel!

With around 137 retirees here, many are able to reach out into the community. One area they reach out to is meeting weekly at a Juvenile Detention Center on Thursday evenings. Our friends Bill and Lesley Smith recently shared in their Christmas letter that “this ministry has been a good year in many ways with some trusting Christ, and some believers who needed some encouragement in what they are and have in Christ. We still have those nights where none of the kids want to come out for Bible Study, but God is working in the hearts of these young folk.” Please be PRAYING for this ministry!!! Lesley did her training in Australia, so we have known her for 34 years! She was on staff in Australia with us before she met and married Bill, whose wife, Carole, went home to be with the Lord while they were serving in Papua New Guinea. We were in Language School with Bill and Carole in the early 1970’s! So thankful to have been part of our lives for years!

Friday January 22nd, our son Ray was able to fly direct from Kansas to Sanford for the weekend and flew back on Monday afternoon, the 25th  We had hoped to get out to Kansas last year, for Thanksgiving or Christmas, to see Ray and Janelle and our married grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, but with dealing with this cancer, that was not possible. Having Ray here was like a dose of MEDICINE!

I had my third chemo treatment last Thursday the 28th. Each session produces different amounts of side effects  Have three more sessions to go (last one on March 31st ). Then I will have surgery, and then radiation. Looks like it will all last until around December of this year.

I was reminded in Mark chapter 2 of the man sick with the palsy that Jesus healed. The man was not able to come on his own as he was bed fast. So what happened – FOUR FRIENDS brought him on a stretcher, BUT with so many people around, they could not even come near to Jesus. SO they went up on the roof and made a hole in the roof and let down the bed on which the sick of the palsy lay. Jesus healed him. I believe it was because of the persistence of his friends who stood by him. WE BELIEVE it is because of GOD’S PROMISES and the PRAYERS of each of you that we have PEACE beyond understanding!

THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING OUR STRETCHER BEARERS 

All Because of His Love,

Charlie & Cherrie