I can get six-year-old Gwen to tread water for a whole minute: I start her counting and she happily counts as she paddles. Weird, I know, but perhaps you’ll extend me some grace for the numbers we’ve all been enjoying lately.

God raised up four people to be baptized, aged 8 (our Matti!) up to 89. Another four have already stepped forward asking to join them in two weeks. Shifting from spiritual to physical new life, four ladies in the church are carrying the next generation due to arrive in spring. Two weddings are on the docket, one couple in their 20’s and the other in their 70’s and beyond.

If those aren’t big enough numbers, all 20 folks in the Radical Mentorship program (RM, a year-long discipleship program) made it to our monthly meeting despite the COVID quarantines meandering through the congregation. And from our church of about 160, 25 folks attended a Saturday Share Your Faith evangelism training day with Rich, spread throughout the sanctuary, of course. Lastly, our girls helped pack 45 boxes of Thanksgiving dinner fixin’s that the church delivered to folks in need.

But clearly numbers don’t tell the whole story. A less calculable but no less adamant praise results from God moving folks to willingly give their Friday afternoons to preview the Sunday sermons and give suggestions for improvement. And from the many people who step up to serve in a variety of ways, helping another local church feed the needy, teaching our children, leading small groups and myriad little tasks that happen almost without notice. It is a true blessing to be where 80% of the people do the work! Clearly God is active here – and was long before we arrived.

Nevertheless, we covet your continued prayer for wisdom as we counsel many couples in marriage, disciple this amazing RM group and tread the narrow line between drawing people to fellowship while encouraging them to consider each other’s need for masks and other COVID measures. Let us know, too, how we might stand beside you before the Almighty, who was and is and is to come: to come and take us, His bride, into His wedding feast (Rich’s sermon last Sunday on Revelation 19 – who would have thought we were in the middle of a giant Jewish wedding?)

As we look forward to celebrating Jesus first coming, let us also reflect on the glorious coming that is to come!


Amazing skies, morning and evening (though the Wind River Mountains hide the sunsets).

A couple of Donna’s projects…