Dear Friends,

   I remember thinking back in November:  "Here come the holidays  and they will be over before we know it... I am going to SLOW DOWN and enjoy each day as it comes..."

   Well, tomorrow is the first of February, and the past three months have slid by like hot cookies off a greased cookie sheet...out my office window I can see the last vestiges of snow hanging onto patches of grass here and there...I guess this has been our BIG snowstorm for the next 10 years. Funny how everything shuts down here in Chattanooga if more than 6 snowflakes fall...I remember the snowstorms we had in Kansas when I was a girl--deep drifts against the fences and buildings...sometimes up to the roof line!  And how FUN to go out in the fields and pastures with the dogs...where a sparkling, smooth, white blanket covered everything--a fresh canvas for us to mark any way we chose!

   The Lord has certainly been gracious to us during these weeks of "off time"--Doctor's appointments, dental visits, eye appointments, other annual "maintenance" check-ups have kept us hopping.  Add to that a visit at Thanksgiving to see all our Indianapolis clan...and all the normal entertaining of friends and relatives...the schedule has been full, even without ministry travel every week.

   Many times during these days at home I have received emails from ladies who need direction and/encouragement...I've also begun to disciple a young lady who was recently saved in our home church.  What a blessing she is!!  So hungry for His Word, and eager for God to change her...she is a blessing to our whole church family. 

   This spring we have meetings in several different states and look forward to what the Lord is going to do with, in, and through us.  We need your prayers as you think of us...there are some very challenging times ahead for us and we desire to meet them exactly as God would have us do.  We KNOW that His grace is sufficient, but our flesh is weak and our hearts deceitful...Pray that our focus will be on the Lord and that we will desire HIS will, not ours.

   Hope to see you somewhere along the trail!  Visit us on Facebook too!! 

Because He first loved us,         Ed and Mina