Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Not surprisingly, December was one of our slowest months. Because Christmas and New Year landed on Sundays, we only had two meetings this month. One in Amarillo and the other in Burleson. We enjoyed catching up with some old friends in Amarillo and were grateful for the meetings we had during one of the busiest times of the year. We cannot believe we are within a MONTH of leaving for Brazil!

 With the extra time “off,” we decided to take a break from our travels…to travel to Kansas. We visited Joneia’s Grandmother, Elaine Hawkins, who served as a missionary for over 50 years in Manaus, Brazil. She is 92 and currently lives with Joneia’s Aunt in Kansas. We enjoyed spending a couple of days with her listening to her stories about Brazil and filling her in on our deputation adventures. On our way back to Texas, we took a brief detour to visit other close friends in Iowa. We were grateful for driving a 4x4 truck when it started snowing. We made it back safely without any sliding or close calls.

Then the packing began. The advantage to living in an RV is that you already don’t have many things. We have managed to pack all of our stuff into five trunks, two large suitcases, two carry-on suitcases, and a backpack (and a partridge in a pear tree). All of our endeavors, however, have been met with some annoying opposition. Certain things in the RV began falling apart and breaking. The truck started acting up for the first time all year. Sickness crept its way into our lives in time for Christmas. And numerous minor physical injuries of different varieties began happening. There has been nothing major, but it feels like a lot of little things all simultaneously. Pray steadfastly for us as we feel the pressure mounting as we draw closer to our departure.

As I write this, we are only 22 days away from the end of our deputation. For our next blog, I will be writing it in Brazil! Thank you all for your prayers for us on our deputation, and we will see you on the field!