isemingerfamily@juno.com

Phone:  616-755-3289

The last three months have been eventful and I hope you will take a few moments and read what we have been up to and also see what you can pray with us about.

2009 Year in Review

I always like to review a little of the year that is passing as I get ready to jump into the next.  This year was an interesting year for us as we tended to spend longer in an area and tackled several smaller projects.

¨ We were able to preach in churches in 12 different states.

¨ We ended the year with 5 supporters who were not with us at the beginning of the year

¨ After traversing the entire eastern half of the US for 9 months we ended the year 19 miles down the road from where we started the year (More about that later)

¨ We spent 6 weeks in Maine helping a pastor who was having some health problems

¨ We spent 3 months in Southern Indiana helping a pastorless church (though we are no longer on site, we are still helping them with several things related to their pastor search)

¨ In early November we started another long term church help rebuilding project (more on that later as well)

¨ All in all, though we spent 40 weeks (far better than 40 years) feeling like we were wandering in the wilderness, waiting for God to reveal our next move, 2009 wound up being a solid productive year.

In our last letter we were working with Grace Baptist Church in French Lick, IN and staying at the prophet’s chamber at Bethel Baptist Church in Linton, IN.  We knew from the beginning that we could stay in the prophet’s chamber through mid October.  When that time came we had to head down the road.  It seemed like the French Lick Church was close to calling a pastor & there are two men in the church who can and do preach, so when October came we decided the thing to do was continue to help the church with their pastor search (which we can do from anywhere) and give up the responsibility of preaching every week in French Lick.  Please pray that God will work this situation out and reveal His will regarding a new pastor for Grace Baptist Church.

About mid October we heard that one of our supporting churches, Needmore Independent Baptist Church in Charlotte, MI might be in need of help.  This is a church that we have some history with.  When I preached here for the first time in 1997, they were a Bible Church.  Several years later we were able to help them some when they were between pastors and to help rework their Constitution and see them become an Independent Baptist Church.  I have also preached a couple of revivals here and several Sundays through the years.

In mid October their pastor of two years resigned to take another church and left a need here,  They asked us to step in and help and we agreed.  We were able to be here the Wednesday after Pastor Wardlow’s last Sunday so the church had a pretty seamless transition. 

We are busy settling in and getting to work.  Presently the church attendance is in the low teens for most services, so clearly there is much work to be done.  Please pray that God will show us how to proceed and bless the efforts as we attempt to get this church back on solid footing.  We will certainly keep you posted as to progress on this project.

 
Family Update
 

As of this writing the family is all doing well, although we did have a bit of a situation in October.  As we were wrapping up our time in Southern Indiana it became clear that we were going to have about two weeks before we would be heading to Michigan.  We made some tentative plans to visit some friends and family on the east coast and check in with a few of our supporters, since we knew what we were headed into and unsure when our next east coast swing would be.  Interestingly enough just a few days before we headed out, both Emilee and David II came down with the swine flu.  This nixed our plans to visit people and left us unsure what to do.  Thankfully Emanuel Baptist Church in Claysburg, PA opened a vacant parsonage to us and allowed us to come and give the kids time to recover.  This was a huge help and answer to prayer, we are grateful to Pastor Lingenfelter and the people at Emmanuel for their willingness to help us out.

Carmen and I didn’t get sick and the kids are now back to normal.  We are pretty well settling into a routine in Charlotte and everyone is enjoying access to their musical instruments and exercise equipment that has been in storage for what seems like forever. 

A young man in the church here has been taking David II deer hunting and as I write this he hasn’t gotten a shot at one yet but they have seen several and he is enjoying himself.

Carmen continues a down hill slide health wise, with this numbness problem that is spreading.  I am working

on getting her into a doctor and we hope that during our time here we can get to the bottom of some of her issues.

Lena is doing well at school.  By the time you get this she will have spent a week at home for thanksgiving and will be coming home for Christmas on December 17th.

Special Thanks

I am constantly reminded that it takes so much more that the five of us to keep this thing moving.  I hope  I don’t leave anyone out but there are several folks deserving of special thanks as we close this year out:

¨ Aaron Miller, a member at our home church who has been faithfully handling our mail forwarding all year.  He is getting some time off while we are back in Michigan but we are grateful for his faithful help in this area.

¨ Jerry Snyder, Missionary to Haiti (also a member at Lincoln Ave.) who loaned us the cargo trailer that we pulled behind us all year as we traversed the country.

¨ Wendell Yeager, a deacon at Lincoln Avenue, who gave us a spot to park the 5th wheel since we pulled out of Virginia in January 2008.  We are certainly grateful for the parking spot.

¨ Pastor Castle and the folks at Bethel Baptist in Linton, IN for the extended use of their prophet’s chamber

¨ Pastor Lingenfelter and the folks at Emmanuel Baptist in Claysburg, PA for the use of their parsonage as the kids recovered from the swine flu and we prepared to head back to Michigan.

Thanks again for praying and holding the ropes for us as we press forward for the Lord.  We look forward to updating you again soon with all that God has done.

   Because of His Coming,

    The Iseminger Family

David & Carmen

Lena, David II and Emilee

Romans 10:13-15

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother,  and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their

treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense,  and myrrh.

Our families prayer for each of you this  holiday season, is that you will each take time to worship.  Worship the Savior that  came to this earth to be born, live 33 years, die a horrible death all so we could ask Him to forgive our sins and save us.   All this to open up an eternity in heaven to walk and talk and worship our King in person. 

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you!