Dear Friends,
We want to wish you a joyful and blessed Christmas as well a wonderful new year!!
After a being sick much of November (bronchitis & 10 days of laryngitis – tough while doing “deputation”) I´m doing well again. My voice is back and the energy levels are back. On Dec. 7 I had my last chemotherapy in Seattle. Once again, I am having only mild side effects. PTL!!
From Dec. 10- 19 we were in western Illinois visiting churches and friends. On Sunday I delivered my last sermon for these 6 months in the USA, and we made a bunch of visits. (Brenda was still struggling a bit with bronchitis.) Then in the evening it was time to pack the suitcases again.
Yesterday we flew to Atlanta. I have two sisters who live north of the city with their families – i.e. 5 grown children with five grandchildren. We´ll be visiting these families until Friday. Then we fly onto Delaware, where my brother and his wife live. His 4 sons (including 3 wives and one granddaughter) will be gathering there. We´ll spend the Christmas holiday with all of them.
On 29. Dec. we´ll finally fly back to Vienna, Austria. As you might imagine after nearly seven months of travel and lots of meetings and visits in the USA we´re ready to settle down back home and get back to our Austrian friends and ministries!
Praise the Lord for the great time we had in North America visiting our supporting churches and supporters. We will arrive back in Austria on Dec. 30 in the evening. On December 31 we will need to pick up our license plates and start our car insurance again. Please pray that this will all be able to be taken care of before they close.
On January 5th Joe will be meeting with the men that have been carrying on the ministry in Klosterneuburg in order to catch up on what has taken place while we´ve been gone. Pray for a smooth transition back into the ministry. Joe will be delivering the first sermon in the New Year on January 8th.
We´ll again be attending and Joe will be leading the home studies along with Jonathan, our co-worker. The youngest study we started decided not to continue while we were gone, so we´ll be starting that group after a 6 month break again in January. Pray that they will again be excited about learning from God´s Word.
Joe will also be moving back into the ministries of BAO (Biblical Education on Location) and the EVAK (the Evangelical Academy).
After the last treatment in Seattle the oncologist was very pleased with the excellent reaction against the cancer in Joe´s body that the chemotherapy has had. His PSA has dropped from 4.00 to 1.7. Praise the Lord!
Joe & Brenda
