Happy New year friends. I guess it only comes natural to feel reflection on the past, each time we start to write the first newsletter of the new year. Various things go through our heads: desire to share particular ministry highlights; gratitude for another year of provision from faithful supporters like yourselves; gratitude for our teams and colleagues we partner with, including organizations who generously donate food and basic needs to distribute; hopes to rally continued interest, and wants of spreading awareness of the ongoing needs of the people we serve, to mention a few.

Of course our greatest hope is to give glory to God in all these things! Pointing to  Him is the overall highlight of our mission with VOB Worship and Compassion: 

“That all the people of the earth may know that The Lord is God,
and that there is none else.”  1 Kings 8:60

We just celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary, certainly another thing to give glory to God for! As we start 2024, we embark upon the 29th year of full time ministry— new chapter. Often it feels just like that, a chapter, as it really is the storybook of our lives in the Lord. All of us have one. Ours, just happens to be captured in our monthly newsletters, filed in a notebook that we can flip and reflect through, from these years. Experiences had, both good and bad. Lessons learned, both good and bad. What are some of the things you have learned in your life’s story book? Perhaps things haven’t turned out just like you thought they would. Whether they have or haven’t, reflecting on what we learned can really make a difference. 

The photo above is from our first over seas mission trip departure. A year prior to that photo, while still in Bible college where we met, we felt like maybe the Lord was having us respond to a need for ministry in and around Moscow, Russia.  Opportunities had opened up a couple of years in from the end of the cold war. The invitation was for missionaries to come and commit one year. Several of our college friends did so, and it seemed natural for us to sign up. We had just gotten married, and had not really considered how that may be a little challenging on our newly joined lives. The Lord very kindly pointed that out to us and though we were disappointed at the time, it made a lot of sense to set aside that plan.  Later, in His kindness, He made way for us to embark on a short term trip instead, to the beautiful country of Russia. We were able to visit and encourage our friends who did go, and met the many wonderful Russian believers they were working with. Thus, a wonderful memory and lesson learned in our early story. Forever on our hearts especially among current events there today. 

In closing we wanna share a miracle testimony, again Glory to God, and a lesson He showed in it. A couple months ago I (Wayne) was helping care for Carol’s horse SAINT. Carol was away on a ministry trip and I took on some of the responsibilities at the barn. Saint, always spunky, was particularly spunky this day, having not been exercised during Carol’s absence. He was running around bucking and rearing in a playful way, only I got too close to the “play” and took a horse shoed kick to the elbow. 

After the initial shock of being kicked by a thousand pound beast was over, the pain that set in was rather intense to say the least. Thankfully my elbow was not broken, as I could work it to some level. But for 2 days, I was unable to really use my arm. However, Sunday morning in church during worship my elbow popped, and all of a sudden I could straighten, bend, and raise my arm, something I hadn’t been able to do since the injury! The Lord healed it! I immediately had to go and give a testimony up front before the congregation when worship ended. Later, the Lord showed me these 3 things below about my healing: First, I wasn’t actually asking or expecting it, nor focusing on it, but instead, was choosing to focus on the Lord and worship Him because, “You Are Worthy Of It All” (the song we were singing at that moment). I had arrived late to church and was intentional about entering in to worship. Secondly, I found myself feeling like I had to now be careful not to “re-injure” the elbow. It was working so normal that I would forget that it had been injured and would cause me to question if I shouldn’t be careful in case I made it bad again, almost doubting or ‘testing’ the healing. And finally, as grateful as I was to have use of my elbow again, and no pain, I began to wonder and question the Lord as to why not just heal my whole body and all my chronic ailments, instead of just the one thing so instantly, (not that there is anything wrong with praying for other healing). I knew that the Lord was gently reminding me that there was something to learn from pain and something to learn from healing.  May these 3 lessons I learned, help you, as we all start a new year, focusing and honoring Him in our lives!  Happy New Year!

1) Focus on Him, 2) do not test His ways and 3) be patient in His timing!