Sometimes you pray for us, but today you should PRAISE with us!

I decided that today is a day for Praise Reports. This past month we felt like we have walked through a dark valley and even though I am not sure that the sun is shining and the sky is clear, there are some significant reasons to praise the Lord. All day long I have been reminded of God’s goodness in the midst of our difficult circumstances. And the Spirit of God has taken me back to his Word.

“Be joyful always, Pray continually, Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” I Thessalonians 5:16-18

I praise God today for;

1. My speedy recovery from this surgery. I feel great today! No longer am I fighting with abdominal cramps! My body is well once again. The doctors did a wonderful job. So many times I said that I would never have surgery in the D.R. if I had a choice. Well I certainly didn’t have a choice and in the end I see that the same God that guides the doctors in the USA is at work here as well. I thank God that he led us to some GREAT doctors. The doctor who found my problem was a Christian and he didn’t even charge us for the visit. The day of my surgery he called several times making sure that I was well taken care of by the clinics that did testing and the surgeons. These are details that I never really expressed and I feel like today is a good day to thank the Lord for Dr. Pimentel.
2. Marcus arm is perfectly normal. It has taken awhile but now he is fully extending his arm and except for two small scars on his arm, you cannot tell that he even had such severe accident. We had to put in his “back to normal” picture!
3. His protection. On Monday there was a strange odor that permeated the air in the west part of Santo Domingo. The boys went to school but after only a couple of hours they sent the kids home because of the odor. That odor ended up being a toxic gas that sent hundreds of people, mostly children to the hospital. It was a scary thing. Evidently the tropical storm winds blew the odor into the city while tanks were being cleaned. Normally the winds take the gas out to sea. My boys felt a little light headed but the Lord had his hand on them and they seem as wild and crazy as ever! Thank you Jesus for wild and crazy boys!
4. Speaking of the storm… with all the storms that have passed this season we have been blessed to not be in the middle of any of them. The alpha storm did leave 20,000 people homeless and we would certainly appreciate your prayers on their behalf. Yet with all the storms so far none of our family in central Florida or the Panhandle have been affected. PRAISE GOD!!!

The list could go on forever, but these are just a few that stand out to me today. For those of you who pray for us, well today I want to ask you to PRAISE with us!

¡Gracias Señor! ¡Eres siempre fiel! Thank you Lord! You are always faithful!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!

We are so grateful to you who stand with us in prayer as needs arise. We are coming to you today with some major pressings needs. We would really appreciate your prayers as we clearly discern an attack of the enemy.

1. Please pray for Rennae’s health as she is in recovery after emergency
surgery this past Monday evening. She had a large cyst and fallopian
tube removed. We are grateful to the Lord that we were finally able
to find the problem that had been causing severe abdominal pains for
a week.
2. Pray for our staff as just yesterday upon returning from the
hospital, we received a letter of resignation from one of our key
staff members. Some of you pastors understand the difficulty of this.
It is hard blow, but we are confident that God is in all of this and
He will provide new leadership for such a time as this.
3. Pray for our finances. We are sinking rapidly due to the economic
crisis (60% inflation and devaluation of dollar resulting in 40%
increase in cost of living) in this country that began over a year
ago. We are in desperate need for God to provide $30,000 over the
next 10 months to make it until our time of deputation next summer to
raise a new budget. This economic situation is unrelated to our
current CIMA project for which we are also raising the remaining
funds to pay it off.

It is hard to write this letter as it sounds so discouraging. There are so many wonderful testimonies in the midst of this. We are so grateful to you for being a part of expanding the Kingdom of God with us in the Dominican Republic. That is why we refuse to let the kingdom of darkness take any ground. Please battle in prayer with us. We are perfectly aware that our enemy is roaming about with strategies of discouragement and defeat but together we know that we stand victorious over Satan in the mighty name of Jesus.

Thanks so much for your prayers!