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NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE ISEMINGER FAMILY SERVING AMERICA'S SMALL AND STRUGGLING CHURCHES SENT BY & SERVING THROUGH: Lincoln Ave. Baptist Church, Ionia Michigan, Darren M. Tharp, Pastor
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| December 2004 |
Phone: 814-777-4231 |
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Dear Praying Friends,
It is amazing to me that this is the last prayer letter of 2004. It is amazing to me that another year has past, and we are preparing to start our 10th year in full time service, The first decade has truly flown by.
By the time you receive this we should be in Georgia preparing to head to Florida for the end of the year. As always we are amazed with what the Lord has done and have much to report on.
End of Year Review
Since our last letter we have added support from one new church: Freedom Baptist in Kathleen, GA. And we seem to have lost support from some folks as well, one church I know is having problems, as for the others? The world may never know…
2005 Breaks down this way:
In January we had 15 committed financial Supporters. During the course of the year we lost 3 and in December we have 23. So we had a net gain of 8 supporters and our monthly support increased 60% from January to December.
In January we were traveling in our Grand Caravan pulling the cargo trailer and had no place to call home. In December we are living in our 2004 40’ Fifth Wheel and pulling it down the Highway with our 1989 Ford F-350. The trailer is wonderful and has been a huge help to us and to the churches we serve. The truck is without a doubt the ugliest truck on the highway but it is paid for and it gets us down the Highway.
To sum it all up. While it was a long busy year and we are all exhausted at this point, God did some tremendous things, kept us safe through one serious accident and several breakdowns, and we are starting 2005 in much better shape than we started 2004.
News From the Road
In September through November we were in 14 churches in 9 states including 8 revivals.
We saw some great things happen and the meetings seemed to be especially good at First Baptist in Perth Amboy, NJ Emmanuel Baptist in Claysburg, PA and Bedford Baptist Church in Bedford, OH. All of the meetings were good and we are not meaning to leave anyone out. But these are the three that stick out in my mind as I write this.
Another good time came when we were in our home church for their veteran’s day service. We had a good time being around for several days and report to our church as to what God has done. They had without a doubt the nicest veteran’s day service I have ever seen and God gave us a good day together.
We were able to make some new friends and see some old ones although with the busy schedule we didn’t have much time to spend with anyone.
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Family News
We are all alive and kicking, though some of us are not kicking quite as high as we once were.
In October, Emilee rolled out of her bunk in the trailer and broke her right arm. This came only 11 months after she broke her left arm. She is in a cast which should be coming off in the next day or so.
Dylan was given a trumpet and is making some progress in learning to play it. Thankfully he can often leave the trailer and go into the church where we are parked to practice.
Lena continues to grow up and mature at an alarming rate (at least to us) but seems to be adjusting well to teenage Dom. All three of the kids will be starting a new year of school the beginning of January which will put them in 8th, 6th and 4th grades.
Carmen is still hanging in there howbeit barely on some days. We are trying to get it worked out to get her back to Dr. Rogers in Mexico in early 2005. Please pray about this and we will give you more details as they are available.
I said hello to 37, got to play a little golf and almost preached myself out of a voice a few times in the fall but it held up, praise the Lord.
Seeing how many churches are busy in December with Christmas programs & Banquets we generally have a slow December, which usually could not come at a better time. We are looking forward to spending a calm and quiet Christmas season in a warm location so that we can have a little R&R and prepare ourselves for whatever God has in store for 2005.
Christmas time is always tight financially, and quite often it is the above and beyond kindness of our friends and supporters that allow us to have a Christmas for the kids and help get us through the down time. Please pray with us that God will once again meet our needs this year.
New Things
The three booklets that I had written and carried on our table are now out of print. The Halloween book is on our website and the other two will be up soon (if they are not already up by the time you get this) I have decided now that we have the web site that I can make them available to more people and they will hopefully be able to be more of a help to folks.
We are also going to be putting one audio message a month up on the website that you can download and listen to, or burn and distribute or whatever. Check the website periodically for message availability.
One of the things that has drawn the most comments over the last several years is the fact that we have Georgia plates on our vehicles, a Pennsylvania mailing address and church membership in Michigan. We are now in the beginning stages of trying to un-complicate this part of our lives. We have recently transferred our trailer plates to Michigan. The next time we are there we will transfer our truck and driver’s licenses and we hope before too terribly long we will have everything based in Michigan. We believe that this will simplify at least a few things in our lives. |
Our Itinerary
Click here for our current schedule. I have already mentioned that there is not much going on in December. We are presently working on our 2005 schedule. It should be up on the website in early January and included in our first 2005 prayer letter.
Prayer Requests
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
As always we have many things that you can pray about as you pray for us. Some of the more important ones can be found below:
God’s Power, Wisdom and Grace in the Meetings
Our family’s health and wellbeing
Safety as we travel
Our 2005 Schedule
God’s wisdom & Provision for an updated truck when needed
The Sale of our Van (financially we need this van to sell as soon as possible)
Wisdom in scheduling church helps
Carmen’s health
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