The Messer Family: Missionaries to Ivory Coast
November/December 2003
Dear You,
Ok, here is our wonderful, personal, Thanksgiving and Christmas prayer letter. Everyone is doing them you know. :) I personally am getting excited about all the festivities coming up. I have so many great memories of this season. My dad was always so excited and "jolly" and fun at this time of the year. I love the great food (don't want to enjoy it too much as I no longer climb trees and it seems to stay with me a bit longer than it used to), and especially the music. My plans this year are to do as many family crafts with the kids as possible. If you have any great ideas of stuff you can make and do together, just pass them on to me. We are decorating very lightly (all our stuff is in Africa and our house is not huge, so want to keep it nice and simple). I want an old fashioned, hearty, healthy Christmas full of family, love and good cheer. Am I dreaming? Maybe, but as much as I can, I'm going to make it happen for us. The kids are looking forward to visiting family and of course getting presents. We hope to keep this to a minimum as we will be leaving for Africa just 6 days after Christmas and do not have space to take anything large with us. :)
The kids are doing well. They have been in better health the past month or so (Praise the Lord). For long while they kept getting colds, but seem to be pulling out of it. There was a bit of nose running this week with the weather changes, but nothing that seems to bother anyone. We are doing better at the home schooling thing. Leah is doing well with first grade (reading short vowel sound words and doing addition up to 5). Today she counted up to 100 for me. David is doing Kindergarten and enjoys that. Nadia is just playing with paper and pens while we work and of course she thinks that is fun. Lexie is plum adorable (that is much cuter than plain adorable). She says several words (when she wants) and has a major personality. All of my kids are strong willed and independent. They have a hard time learning submission, but we keep working on it. We pray a lot for them and encourage you to pray for them as well. We are also quite a noisy lot, so if you worship your peace and quiet, I warn you to NOT invite us over. I know that if the noise bothers me (their loving mother) it must drive others absolutely nuts. We are all working on following James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." One thing I've "heard" from God and am trying to "do" is found in James 1:19-20 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." There are many times in dealing with my kids that I get "wrathful". I am learning that this does not help them to become righteous. In fact, it only gives them a good example of someone not being controlled by the Holy Spirit. I try to remind myself of these verses and speak softly to them (but I tell you, it is not easy when they are all yelling and can't hear me anyhow). So, how do you get a yelling child's attention without yelling louder than them? I guess that is where the "slow to speak" part comes in -- you wait for them to stop yelling and then you talk to them softly. TRUST ME, it is not easy!! BUT, God is helping me to obey His word.
Andy is staying very busy. He has been on the phone, on the computer and in the car for the better part of this past year. You see, we wanted a video projector (I don't say "needed" as I know we could live without it) to use on furlough and in Africa. About 3 weeks ago, Decatur Heights Baptist Church very generously GAVE us one!!! Is God awesome or what? So, Andy has worked very hard to get our presentation together on the computer and practice giving it with the video projector. I know it is kind of late in the game, but we still have several meetings this month. So sorry to all the churches that had to put up with us with no pictures. That whole thing was just a comedy of errors and has at least taught us patience. Anyhow, we are so thankful for the projector and Andy is still working out some final bugs that came up when he tried to show his presentation to his family this past weekend. It takes time! I'm so glad he is smart enough to figure it all out when he has never done it before and has no one here helping him. He really is quite a guy in my opinion. He has been busy working on house projects for his family, buying books and supplies to take back to Africa (thank you so much to all who have sent in extra money for this type of purchase), getting tickets and travel plans arranged, packing, helping with our own family, going to meetings and catching a Redskins game whenever possible. He did make time to take us all to a park for a lovely family picnic the other day when the weather was SO nice here. I do think I have a great guy. He puts up with all my mood swings (and pregnancy is about the shiftiest one there is) and whacky ideas. Hey at least his life is not boring.
The ministry is still going on in San Pedro. Three of our fellow missionary families have joined my sister and her husband, so things are really getting back to normal on the field. This makes us all the more eager to get back out there. We remember how hard it was to do the work with just the few of us, so we know they will be happy to get more help. Andy is very excited to work more with discipling and training the guys who have had this past year to prove themselves faithful. It has been a good testing ground for them. I am excited about getting back in touch with the ladies and working with the kids. Thank you to all who have helped with teaching material and craft items. We will enjoy putting them to use.
So, in closing, please pray for us as we are on the road this next month and then as we prepare to leave. We still have some rather large financial obstacles and we are praying much for the Lord to undertake for us. He has been doing things and we are confident that He will provide exactly what we need. These are the faith stretchers in life. I feel like a rubber band about now. I really like the other side of the Jordan best (you know, the "I've already crossed over and seen the Lord provide" side). But, you gotta step in before you can get there. So, on your marks, get set and GO-- we are jumping in again. Y'all pray for us!!!
Prayer Requests:
1. Wisdom in home schooling the kids.
2. Strength and good health for our family.
3. Safety as we complete our trips to our supporting churches.
4. Continued peace in Ivory Coast.
5. $10,000 for our vehicle in Africa.
6. $800 to complete the airline ticket price.
7. Additional grace as we prepare to leave for Africa.
Loads of Love and Christmas wishes,
The Messers
World Wide New Testament Baptist Missions
PO Box 725
Kings Mountain, NC 28086
World Wide New Testament Baptist Missions
Salem Baptist Church
Send E-Mail to: andrulius1@juno.com
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