This last month has been so busy… I'm having trouble remembering what happened! The second week of November, John and Neila Yelle left to take care of their parents in their failing health. The day that John arrived in Washington, his mother passed away into eternity. We were grateful that he arrived on time, and Joneia and I are also thankful that we get to watch over the property and ministry in their absence. Please pray for Joneia's family as we process and grieve. It has been a challenging month taking care of the property and continuing the ministry here while also in the final stages of renovating our house. The preaching load is shared between a couple of men in our church, and I have taught a lesson at one of the Teen meetings. Joneia is also preparing to teach the ladies' meeting this first Saturday of December. Our discipleship and translation have also been going very well. We thank God for His help and strength in a very challenging time.

Concerning our home renovation, the structure is complete! The glass for the windows was installed the last week of November! We are completely closed in with our windows and doors. We could technically move in! But we are going to take advantage of the next couple of weeks we still have in the Yelle's absence. We still have to finish installing the pipes to the septic field, painting the window frames and doors, and, eventually, the house's exterior. As any homeowner will say, some things just have to wait. Now that our home is enclosed, we can work on painting the interior with some touchup paint while blasting a dehumidifier! We could not paint anything if there was rain within four days because of humidity. Now, we don't have to worry about that problem inside, and we look forward to the final touchup and cleanup! Then, it's the fun part of decorating and moving into our beautiful new home. Thank you so much to all of the churches who gave such generous gifts and donations during our deputation to make our home renovations possible, and thank you also to all of our churches' continued support.

Our discipleship with Lucas and Fernanda has been excellent! We are seeing amazing spiritual growth already. They are asking the right questions, and we are pointing them to the right answer: the Bible. Joneia has done an excellent job of translating our discipleship material. Continue to pray for the discipleship process and our ministry here. As expected, my lack of Portuguese has been a challenge, and our time feels like it has been cut in half with double the work. Please pray for our continued endurance and strength. Also, pray for wisdom in our financial decisions. Our home renovations have left us with very little savings for our other projects. We are in desperate need of new stables for our horses. We hoped to have the finances to begin that project immediately, but it seems we need to wait and save right now. Please pray that the stables we currently have will last a little longer. Their “stables” are currently a retired pig pen that was built nearly a century ago. They structure is sinking, the roof is collapsing, and wood is rotting. They have served us well for the last twenty years, but it is past due time for a better structure. The Lord has given us these horses and they have served us well, and we trust that He will provide what we need to continue to care for them. When we make the new stables, we plan to build them on the other side of the property and use the current location to build a cafeteria and chapel for camp. There are many moving parts, and we need wisdom on how to proceed.

Thank you for your prayers, and may God bless you as we proceed into December.