Last updated on 12/23/99

News from Evangelist Larry Stephens in Africa.
		JESUS calls US to be members of His church
The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide.

Larry Stephens
e-mail LStephens@MAF.Org
(Forwarding Agents -- )

Date sent: Thu, 23 Dec 1999
From: LStephens@maf.org (lstephens)
Subject: Seasons Greetings

We hope that you have a happy holiday season, that you can be with some of the important people in your life at this time and that your relationship with the Lord is growing. This has certainly been a whirlwind year for our family. It was full of lots of happy times, and several sad ones.

But through it all we have definitely felt the guiding of God's Holy Spirit and cannot imagine how non-Christians survive without His Presence. We started out the New Year on the top of Mt. Elgon in northwestern Kenya. We had gone there to visit some missionary friends who were living there for a year and so Larry could teach a course on "How to Study the Bible."

Matthew welcomed in the New Year in Mbale, Uganda where he had gone to visit Noah Tyler, another MK, and his family. He had quite an adventure just getting to Mbale, which I know he would be glad to share with you any time you have time to listen. On the way home we stopped for a couple of nights in the Kakamega Rain Forest. Any time we can squeeze in several days of bird watching, that's a relaxing respite.

The next three months were spent doing regular responsibilities around Nairobi. Larry taught a class on Homiletics at the Nairobi Great Commission School. We both continued our work with the Komarock church.

Larry spent quite a bit of time with Dennis Okoth, getting him ready to go to the States for one year to work on a Master's Degree. The church hired Anthony Waithaka as a full-time evangelist so Larry spent time with him weekly, mentoring and teaching him. We worked with the Boys' Club at Komarock on Saturday afternoons.

At the end of April I flew to the States by myself, to attend a wedding shower for Laura and Rusty at the Livonia church, then to go on to her college graduation, and to help her with last-minute wedding plans. Larry and Matthew joined me a month later. They had to remain in Nairobi for Matthew to finish his last month of school.

Laura and Rusty Campbell were married in a beautiful wedding ceremony in Portland, Oregon on May 29. Larry performed the ceremony and did a wonderful job. It's easier to marry off your daughter when you know she's marrying a fine Christian man.

Laura and Rusty are now living in Mito, Japan where they're vocational missionaries. They both teach English in junior highs there and help the church meeting in Mito.

While in Portland, Julie brought her boyfriend to meet us. He stayed in Portland for 2 weeks, living with us most of that time. His name is Joshua Marcum and his parents are missionaries in Quito, Ecuador. They met at York College. Julie spent the summer in Quito on a mission trip and meeting Josh's family. Before the summer was over, they were engaged. They are planning a June 9, 2000 wedding. The month that Larry and I were apart, though, brought some amazing plans to light.

The Livonia church asked Larry to return to the States and be their pulpit minister. It was hard to be considering such a major change in our lives when we were 10,000 miles apart. But we spent the time in prayer and Bible study and emailed each other.

By the time we were together we had worked through a number of things and had basically arrived at the same place. So after the wedding when we stopped in Michigan for a couple of weeks, we met with the elders of the church and agreed to that major move. The church very graciously has allowed us this last year in Kenya, both for Matthew's sake to finish one whole school year and for us to wrap things up here in Nairobi.

With Dennis Okoth gone this year, Larry felt very strongly that our presence was needed this year. We are excited and nervous at the same time. We feel the Lord's guidance in this decision and are thankful that the Lord still has work for us to do.

Matthew is in seventh grade this year. He was not very excited about our decision initially, but has been very mature and is trying to look at the positive side of things. This will be a major adjustment for him since he was born here and Nairobi is the only home he has known. But it will also be a major adjustment for us as parents as all of our parenting has been done in Africa. Matthew climbed Mt. Kenya in August -- that's over 16,000 feet in altitude. He says it was the hardest thing he's ever done. He is now several inches taller than I am. He got braces put on back in April and hopefully those will come off before we leave Kenya.

His favorite teachers this year are his Science and Math teachers. He was on the track team earlier this year in sixth grade and plans to join it again this spring. He wants to learn to play the drums when we get to the States. He's been continuing his piano lessons with me, but drums will be something different.

We have been very blessed this holiday season that both the girls and their husband/fiancee were able to come for Christmas. This will be our family's last Christmas in Kenya, so in some ways it's bittersweet. All are here right now and I am on cloud nine with everyone under one roof.

Our address in the States will be c/o Livonia Church of Christ, 15431 Merriman Rd., Livonia, MI 48154 so that's where you can communicate with us after May 28, 2000. God's blessings on you and your family this new year. May you walk with Him and honor Him in all your activities. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through some major changes this next year. Love, Larry, Diane and Matthew Stephens

Date sent: Mon, 30 Aug 1999
Subject: The Stephens Nairobi Report #23

Summer is over now that school has begun. Of course it has been our "winter" here, such as it is. But we know it is summer because of the number of visitors we have had. This has been true not just of ourselves but almost all the missionaries in Nairobi. At one point we had ten extra people staying with us in our three bedroom house. We survived and had fun doing it. But it is always nice to settle back into more of a routine.

Besides hosting a lot of people the last couple of months and working at Koma Rock I have been doing something I haven't done in quite a while, teach regularly in Swahili. We first went to Eldoret where I taught a two day course on how to study the Bible in Swahili. The past ten years I have not had much opportunity to use my language since we work almost entirely in English in Nairobi. While it is more work and more tiring to work in Swahili it was still good to use it again.

I have also started working with some small rural churches just outside of Nairobi. Most of these groups have been started through World Bible School. Charles Coulston has been the missionary organizing the follow-up work for WBS and has done a great job. Having done it myself in the past I know how much work it is. Still with several new groups started this year help was needed to do some teaching in these groups. So I am giving one day a week to travel, visit, and teach. This work is very similar to what I did in Kisumu working with rural churches. However, most of these churches are made up of migrant workers who work in tea and coffee estates outside of Nairobi.

Work at Koma Rock continues to go well. We do miss our brother Dennis but Anthony Waithaka is continuing to grow in his role as a full time minister in the church. We share the preaching responsibilities but I am teaching the adult Bible class Sunday afternoon. This past weekend Anthony initiated and planned a visitation program aimed at parents of children who attend our Bible school program. I was especially pleased that I wasn't involved too much in the planning and that Anthony took the lead and did it on his own. We had a good response from the parents that we visited. Our Bible hour teachers who participated also grew. A number found that visiting people wasn't as hard as they thought it would be. It is good to see Anthony growing in his ministry.

On a more personal note, Matthew got to climb Mt. Kenya just before school started. He made it to the 16,500 ft. peak that most people climb to. So all three of our kids have climbed Mt. Kenya. As far as Diane and I are concerned, we are happy to be the cheering section.

That is a brief summary of some of the things we have been doing the past couple of months. We continue to pray about our move back to the States though we are trying not to focus on it too much until after the New Year. It looks like both our daughters will be with us for Christmas along with one husband and one fiancee. So we are looking forward to our last Christmas in Kenya. Thank you for your prayers and concern for what God is doing here. God bless. Larry

Date sent: Sun, 4 Jul 1999
Subject: The Stephens' Nairobi Report #22

Dear Friends, -- We have been back in Kenya about a week and a half now after spending about a month in the States. We had a wonderful time and Laura and Rusty's wedding went very well.

Matthew and I arrived less than a week before the wedding but we were over our jet lag by the time it happened. I did the ceremony which was a lot of fun. We were able to keep things fairly light so no one cried too much. Several people have asked if it was hard to marry off our first daughter, no it was not. It isn't hard when you feel like she is marrying a fine person who loves her. They have been married just over a month now and are preparing to move to Japan to teaching English through a program organized by Oklahoma Christian. We are excited for them. There is talk that they may visit us at Christmas time in Kenya. We would love that of course.

The two weeks in Oregon were eventful as far as our second daughter Julie is concerned. She brought her boyfriend, Josh Markum, to meet us. Again, we were very impressed with him. Just today they called from Ecuador to tell us they are offically engaged. No date is set as yet. Julie is with Josh in Ecuador this summer for a mission trip. Josh's parents are missionaries there.

While the wedding was wonderful some other things were also taking place in our lives. Just after Diane left for the States the elders at Livonia requested that we consider coming to Livonia church in Livonia, MI to fill the pulpit for the church there. The Livonia church has been our sending and overseeing church and, for many of the 23 years, our only supporting church.

I believe this proposal grew out of the fact that I preached for the church for about two months last year after Bill Bunting resigned and left for a new ministry in Texas. The proposal surprised both Diane and me and it was a bit frustrating because we weren't together to talk about it.

We had not been looking to return to the States for several more years and yet we wondered if this was the Lord calling us to a new ministry. Over the years people have asked me how long I would stay in Africa. The answer I have developed is that we will stay until the Lord calls us to something else. There were many factors that we tried to weigh and yet in the end we both came to the conclusion that the Lord did appear to be leading us to accept.

The elders graciously said they would support us in whatever decision we made, whether stay in Kenya or return to the States. We met with the elders and after some discussion it was decided that we will be returning to the States in June 2000 to work with the Livonia church.

It was not an easy decision to leave Kenya. But, we do have a sense of peace about the decision and there have been several things that have confirmed to us that we have made the right choice. While there is always more that can be done we feel very good about what we have accomplished in the 23 years we have served here. This last year will give us a time of closure and to hopefully finish up on a few things with the Koma Rock church.

I am excited about the work that awaits us at Livonia. I will be serving under five godly elders whom I have known for many years. The two other ministers at the church, Jim McKenzie and Mark Phelps, will be great coworkers in the Kingdom. And most of the members seem very excited about our coming also.

We have been sharing this news with people here. Many of my coworkers were surprised, we have been pretty much a fixture here in Kenya. Our Kenyan coworkers are sad that we are leaving. As Hayward Burton said, "Something would be wrong if they weren't sad." Still, we do feel that the Koma Rock church is at a point where leaving is not necessarily a bad thing. The church will stand and go forward under African leadership. We have laid a foundation that others will build upon.

So that is our news. I hope you will lift us up in prayer as this year progresses. I hate moving and this will be a move like no other. It will be hard to say good by to the many wonderful people and friends that we work with here. Still, we know that the Lord is calling us to another area of service in His kingdom. We look forward to the challenges that await us in the States. I am thankful that He still finds a use for us. God bless. Larry

Date sent: Fri, 21 May 1999
Subject: The Stephens' Nairobi Report #21

This past month has been an eventful one for our family and the work at Koma Rock. Matthew and I leave tomorrow for the States and our daughter Laura's wedding on May 29th in Portland, Oregon. Diane left about a month ago so Matt and I have been "bachelors" for the month. We have survived but will be very glad to have our family back whole again.

Diane has been busy in the States helping Laura get ready for the wedding. She first went to Livonia, Michigan where our supporting and sponsoring church is. The church held a large wedding shower for Laura and Rusty. After spending about a week there, Diane went out to Oregon where the wedding will be held. Laura's graduation from college took place May 1st so we were glad Diane could be there for that. There have been other showers and activities that have kept her busy. Julie arrived after finishing the semester at York College. She will be going to Ecuador for a summer mission internship. I don't know too much of what she will be doing since I haven't had a chance to talk with her but it should be a great experience. Diane has also been helping her get ready to go on that trip.

With Diane gone I have been held a lot closer to home, especially helping Matthew finish up his work for the 6th grade. He has been working hard and has done well this past month, though he probably would have done better with his mother helping him. It has certainly curtailed any evenings I would have gone out to Koma Rock. There has also been the work of food purchase and preparation, laundry, taking and picking children up from school, etc. etc. which every man ought to have to do for a month just to appreciate more what his partner does and how important it is.

Thankfully the work at Koma Rock does not depend on me. It has been a month of transition for the church as Dennis has been preparing to leave for the States to begin work on a masters degree in education. Anthony Waithaka, who became a full time minister at Koma Rock last January, has continued to grow in that role. I think Anthony is a bit nervous about being on his own with both Dennis and me gone for the next month but he will do well. As I told him, "The Lord isn't leaving and he is the important one." I have been making arrangements for help in the preaching and teaching that will be going on while I am away. Several of our members will be helping along with several other missionaries who will be coming to preach.

I will only be gone five Sundays so it hasn't been too difficult. I have been very thankful that Bob and Michelle Bentley, who moved to Nairobi last January, have decided to worship at Koma Rock. Bob worked in Mwanza, Tanzania for the past eight years and moved to Nairobi for educational reasons as his two children are now both in middle school. Bob is continuing to go back to Mwanza to do leadership training with church leaders there but also wants to be involved in church ministry here in Nairobi. Their presence at Koma Rock is a great blessing.

Last Sunday was a wonderful day at Koma Rock as we had a day of blessing for Dennis. He left for St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday. We had a great worship where Dennis preached and then had a fellowship meal after worship. Our women organized it and fixed two huge containers of stew and rice which provided food for about 150 people. A group of students came from Nairobi Great Commission School to say good-bye to Dennis and they sang for the group as well as a couple of other singing groups in the church. There were several testimonials from different people thanking Dennis for all that he had done for them over the past seven years. Thankfully, Dennis will only be gone for about a year or year and a half and then he will be back working with the church even if it is not in a full time capacity. It was a great day for the church.

Tuesday evening about twenty of us took Dennis to the airport to see him off. I think Dennis was nervous about traveling internationally by himself but the trip went well. I received an email yesterday saying he had arrived without any problem. The send off was memorable and another blessing for Dennis and the church. While I believe people were sad to see Dennis go there does not seem to be a sense of panic. We have tried to develop a leadership pattern that is not dependent on one person. While we do not have elders yet we do have a number of men who are growing in that direction.

Not being able to get out as much this past month I have been working closer to home. I had papers to grade and grades to compute for my class last term. Good News Productions International (GNPI) has approached me about developing a video lesson series on church leadership which I have been working on. GNPI is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to producing media materials for Restoration churches in the third world. The Africa branch of this organization was built here in Nairobi several years ago and is run by some missionary coworkers who did a church planting work in Kitale, Kenya for a number of years.

On a sad note, Salome, one of our members at Koma Rock died of AIDS this past month. She left a husband and two young daughters. In past reports I have asked you to pray for her. This terrible disease continues to touch the lives of nearly everyone in Africa. A recent report I read in the newspaper here indicated that there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in the whole of Africa by the year 2010.

Another former member at Koma Rock, a man named Patrick, was recently taken to his up country home where he will probably die in the next few months of AIDS. It is difficult to imagine the impact this disease is having on this continent.

Sorry to close on such a sad note. I know that we will get to see some of you while we are in the States. Unfortunately a month is not enough time to travel very much. We will be only in Oregon and Michigan. This is not a furlough so most of our time will be spent with family. I will be preaching at the Livonia church on June 13th.

Dennis will also be there so I am excited about him finally being able to meet the church after all these years. This should be a great month for our family. Please keep us in your prayers (as you always do) as we travel and have this special time in our family's life. God bless. Larry

Date sent: Sat, 10 Apr 1999
Subject: The Stephens' Nairobi Report #20

It has been a while since my last report. Our phone was out for about three weeks and that makes it difficult to do email reports. It has been a busy month for us.

While this first part isn't work related I feel I have to tell you about our fishing trip on Mt. Kenya. The trip to where we camped takes about five hours from Nairobi with the last 12 miles or so taking about two hours of that because of the road conditions. We had a beautiful camp site right at the tree line. We even saw an elephant when we entered Mt. Kenya National Park, about a kilometer from where we camped.

There were four families and 16 of us in all so we had a great time of fellowship. The lake where we fished was about an hour hike further up the mountain and is stocked with Rainbow Trout. The first day we fished, Ken Bolden, who arrived an hour after everyone else, caught the first fish fifteen minutes after he arrived, a beautiful nine-pound trout. This was the record among Church of Christ missionaries in Kenya. Ken, needless to say, was quite proud of himself. However, two hours later, Shawn Brown, a novice fisherman, caught a 13 and a half pound trout.

That evening we baked the trout on the fire and everyone ate all the trout we wanted and still had leftovers. The second day Mark Nicholas caught an eight-pound Rainbow. So we "only" caught three fish, but what fish!

The week after we returned from our fishing trip the long rains started and have been going on since then. This is always a pleasant time of year that we are glad to see because if the rains are late then many people suffer as a result.

This past month has been a month of visitors for us. After the fishing trip we saw Ken Bolden off to Moshi, Tanzania after hosting him for about two weeks. The a couple of weeks later, my cousin, Jeff Cash and his wife Cheryl and daughter Kinley arrived with Jeff's brother Mike. Jeff and Cheryl work with the Toro people in western Uganda. Jeff and Mike went on down to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro while Cheryl and Kinley stayed with us. We had the privilege of helping Kinley celebrate her first birthday which was a lot of fun. Jeff and Mike had a successful climb and we put them all on the plane back to Uganda about ten days later.

The next evening we picked up Ryan and Linda Hammitt and their four children at the airport. The Hammitts are a new family to Africa and will be working with Ken Bolden in Moshi Tanzania. They have stayed with us for about ten days while their car is being repaired. It has been fun having them with us and introducing them to Africa. They will do well, we believe.

Work at Koma Rock continues to go well. We had a great service Easter Sunday and celebrated a great victory when a young woman, Irene, was baptized. Sometime back I asked you to pray for Irene. She is about 17 years old and had an abortion about a year and a half ago. She then became pregnant again and safely gave birth about two months ago. She has decided to give the child up for adoption which we had been  counseling her to do. She then, after a lot of talking with Diane and others, made the decision to give her life to Christ.

I finished up my teaching at Nairobi Great Commission School for this term and Diane has finished teaching piano up at Rosslyn Academy, where Matthew attends school. Diane leaves for the States in less than two weeks to attend our daughter Laura's graduation and then to help her prepare for her wedding the end of May. Matthew and I will leave a month after Diane.

As I write this I just discovered our phone is out again! :( So I am not sure when you will receive this report. Thank you for your prayers and interest in our work here. God continues to bless our lives and work and I pray his richest blessings for you in His service. Larry

Wed, 3 Mar 1999 ~ Nairobi Report #19

Dear Friends, The past couple of weeks have been busy for me with an unplanned trip to Tanzania after our men's retreat in Kakamega.

We left Saturday morning the February 20th and drove about six hours out to western Kenya for our annual men's retreat at the Rondo Retreat Centre (that is not a misspelling but how it is spelled here). Rondo is located in the Kakamega forest which is the only true rain forest in Kenya. It is a fascinating place with its huge trees and a stunning variety of plants, birds, butterflies, and several different primates. It is an extremely quiet and peaceful place and their facilities are just about right for the 30 or so men who came from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. By staying for three nights it allows people to unwind and to extend and build relationships with other men.

In many ways these three days are some of the most important in my year because it is the only time I will get to spend with many of these men. This year was a bit different since I was the "mzee" (old man) of the retreat with 22 years in Kenya. There are several others who are usually at the retreat that have more years than I do like Fielden Allison (27 years) or Howard Crowl (over 40, most of those in Zaire). I'm not sure how I feel about the honor. :)

Our retreats have changed over the years. We use to have more time spent on "shop" talk with reports and talks on missions strategies and methods. There is still a lot of talk about such things in just the informal discussions that take place. But we discovered that what we enjoy and long for is to worship and pray together, to confess our sins and struggles to each other. That is what we remember and what truly refreshes our spirits.

This year the retreat was organized by the mission team in Jinja, Uganda and was centered on the Mighty Acts of God. We spent extended periods of time in the morning, afternoon, and evening in worship where we "simply" read long passages of scripture about the work of God beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. The readings were interspersed with singing and prayer. The worship was blessed with God's presence and leading. I believe everyone left refreshed and challenged to continue God's work in East Africa.

Just before we left for the retreat Ken Bolden arrived from the States. I have know Ken for over 20 years since he arrived in Kenya about a year after we came. He went with us to the retreat even though he arrived from the States suffering from some kind of flu.

Ken is moving to Moshi, Tanzania, a city at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Ken received his work permit while we were at the retreat and so needed to go to Dar Es Salaam to collect two vehicles that will be used in the mission at Moshi. I volunteered to help him get the two cars to Moshi, about a 350 mile trip.

I had never been to Tanzania so this was a new experience for me.   Ken initially wanted to take a bus down to Dar Es Salaam which is about a 600 mile trip but I suggested we check out how much it would be to fly. The cost was reasonable so that's what we decided to do.

We found out later that going by bus is a two-day affair since buses are forbidden to travel at night in Tanzania. We were glad we flew and took two hours instead of two days. As it was we took about a day to collect the cars and some things that Ken had bought. We then took a day to drive to Moshi.

The drive was fun because the road is one of the best I have driven on in Africa. I enjoyed seeing the coastal plain with its palm and cashew nut trees. We then drove through an arid region with a range of mountains on one side of us and desert on the other. As we neared Moshi the terrain changed to fertile farm land with coffee and a number of other crops. Mt. Kilimanjaro was spectacular. It is the highest mountain in Africa, over 20,000 feet, and is covered with glaciers and snow. This is the end of the dry season so there was a lot less snow on the mountain than when we saw it in August. but it was still a beautiful sight.

Ken had rented a furnished house so after one night in a hotel we were able to move his few things into the house and then spent the rest of the day doing various things that need to be done in order to settle into a new town. The house is very nice with piped water from a nearby spring and electricity. The people Ken is renting from are warm and friendly and will be good neighbors as well as landlords.

The fourth day we drove back to Nairobi by driving around the mountain. The good road ended at Arusha, a larger city about an hours drive from Moshi. We reached Nairobi about 3 PM, tired but feeling like we had accomplished quite a bit in getting Ken settled and preparing the way for new families to move into the area.

Needless to say, I am tired of traveling. However, we are leaving tomorrow for a fishing trip up on the slopes of Mt. Kenya with three other families and Ken. Matthew has a couple of days break from school and so we are taking advantage of that. It is important to go when it is dry or you can't make it to the camp sitr, let alone the lake, which is an hour's hike beyond the end of the road. We are looking forward to the trip if not the drive.

It has been a different couple of weeks. Not a lot of church work but still doing things for the kingdom. May you continue to live lives pleasing to Him. God bless. Larry

Subject: The Stephens' Nairobi Report # 18-B
Date sent: Mon, 15 Feb 1999

Dear Friends, This is going to be one of those good news, bad news letters. The bad news is that while we were at church Sunday morning someone broke into our house and stole about $600 in Kenya shillings that we had in a locked drawer. We usually have a day time guard that watches the house on Sunday morning but he has gone on his annual leave and we had not replaced him for the month. The bars over the windows are fairly wide (Matthew has been able to squeeze through them though I am not sure that is still the case. He has grown a lot the past few months.). Evidently one of the thieves was small enough to squeeze through, found our locked drawer, broke it open and took off with the money. They tried to steal Matthew's CD player but it wouldn't fit through the bars and they did not find any of the keys to the doors. They also stole $500 in travelers checks and some Ugandan cash from our guest, Ed Brokaw.

I know some of you have had similar experiences in the States, so you know how we feel. Still it could have been a lot worse. Our passports were in the drawer with the cash and those were left, along with our American cash for some reason. There were a number of smaller items like cameras and binoculars that were left as well as a VCR that probably could have fit through the bars. So while we are sick about the loss of the cash (including some we were holding for some friends on furlough) we are very thankful for what was not taken.

Some may wonder why we had so much cash at home. America has basically developed into a cashless society, at least for many. In Kenya we pay cash for almost everything and so it is not unusual for most people to have large amounts of cash on hand. I am thankful that I had paid my rent last Friday and that cash was not in the drawer. I paid it in spite of the fact that it took me about an hour and a half to do because of the lines at the bank. I'm glad I was patient that day. :) Anyway, that is why we had so much cash in the drawer, I'm glad it wasn't more.

The good news is the wonderful day we had yesterday, Sunday, at worship. We had a guest speaker, Ed Brokaw, an elder at the Minter Lane congregation in Abilene Texas. This is the congregation that supports and oversees Carladean Thompson who works with us at Koma Rock. Ed teaches at Abilene Christian University and is currently teaching a semester at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Along with Ed we had a number of visitors which is always fun and the singing was especially good as Dennis and several others led in that.

One of the young men we have been working with in boy's club decided to be baptized and that was exciting.

Even though the theft took place in the morning we didn't discover it until the evening when we came back from teaching our afternoon Bible class. The class went very well. We are studying how to build good relationships and it is provoking a lot of discussion. I am afraid I might not have done such a good job if I had known about the break-in at that point. We had an excellent day at Koma Rock but a not so good one personally.

So we ask for your prayers. It is not so much that loss of the cash, though that is bad, but the loss of the sense of security (even though it was a false sense) we had in this house. I will talk to the landlord about increasing the security on the windows on the downstairs. Our Sunday daytime guard is gone one more Sunday so we will get someone else or someone will have to stay home from church next Sunday. I will be gone for three nights next weekend for our annual men's retreat so I am especially concerned about Diane while I am away.

Thank you for your care and concern about our work. May God bless you richly in this new week. Larry