Dear Family and Friends In Christ,
\n Increasingly out of control and depraved national and world events point to our Lord\u2019s soon return and stir us more than ever to labor to our fullest in His harvest.
\n \u201cBe patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain\u201d (James 5:7).
\nThe earth may be filled with the violence of our reservations (Gen. 6:13), but our sovereign God will surely give the increase for faithfully sowing and watering His gospel seed.
\n Your prayers for ongoing ministries \u2018midst reconstruction from last Fall\u2019s breathtaking downburst and subsequent sandstorms were as appreciated and fruitful as your almost unbelievable gifts. BLESS the Lord and each of you for sufficient physical progress on our building, parking, and vehicles to know the great blessing of spiritual fruit through our Nov. 3-6, 2015 Native revival.
\n Alexis, Daren, Edward, Ezequiel, Ricky, Toni, and Valerie were touched enough by the revival to help with days of fruit picking and endless church ministries. Many other Cocopah and Quechan natives heard the gospel through Christmas and New Year\u2019s services and the personal distribution of fruit bags or gifts and treats to almost every Cocopah home.
\n To God be the glory for significant spiritual inroads into the lives of Ashley, Karen, Lorie, Lydia S., Tillie, and Tyrus as well as for renewed contacts with Alyetha, Arturo, George, Laura, Sarah, Wanda, and the many others exposed to the Living Water over Christmas.
\n PRAY for these and the many who recently moved or disappeared into foster care and society at large. Chauncey, Darnell, Gabriel. Joe, Matthew, Ralph, Raul, and both Andrews are professing Christians we can rarely contact. James is growing in prison as are Shirley, Daren, and young people from the 50 mile North and West Reservation circuit.
\n Huge Godsends toward vehicle needs miraculously caught up repairs sufficiently to pick up all three reservations simultaneously. This brings in more children without increasing the \u201cannoyance time\u201d of their long rides with adults. How grateful we are for the Hastrichs\u2019 age- tailored King\u2019s Kids ministries to young people from all three reservations.
\n Lydia\u2019s work with these and other children in Sunday School nurtures them further while opening heart windows to unimaginable needs. Personal conversations on the bus with literally abandoned, abused, or horribly neglected children have turned hopeless, atheistic, unloved, or suicidal thoughts in Cocopah as young as eight into renewed trust in our loving Savior.
\n PRAY His light will shine through our church\/\u201corphanage\u201d ministries and \u201cpull brands\u201d of all ages from the humanly hopeless fires of despair. (Jude 23) PLEAD for our Lord\u2019s deliverance from the wake of death and destruction normally accompanying this month\u2019s annual casino profit sharing checks. Pray for His convicting, saving power on our Jan. 30 church-wide Bible study\/craft day and February\/March revivals at Heritage and Maranatha Baptist churches.
\n Endless miles\u2019 mission driving on remote unlined or mud-covered county roads make your prayers for strength and safety that much more critical and precious. These in turn stir us and give grace to pray for the scattered homes we pass and the unprovoked opposition or hatred we often encounter.
\n We began house and property repairs from September\u2019s storm last month at the expense of heartfelt Thank Yous for your staggering Christmas gifts and kindnesses. We owe you more than gratitude for your additional prayers for each of these blessings and petitions:
\n BLESSINGS:
\n\u00b7 Return of some Thomas, Twist, Hayes, and Stevens family members to church.
\n\u00b7 James B.\u2019s growth in prison.
\n\u00b7 Edward, Eric, Toni, and Ricky\u2019s adult Bible studies and help with physical work.
\n\u00b7 Enormous special gifts for church building and vehicle repairs.
\nPETITIONS:
\n\u00b7 Lydia\u2019s February 9, 2016 eye surgery after cancellation of her 12\/29\/15 date due to chronic bronchitis.
\n\u00b7 Dawn\u2019s evaluation of cardiac irregularities.
\n\u00b7 Lori\u2019s spiritual and physical needs and the best custody of her 4 children.
\n\u00b7 Silas\u2019 church ministries \u2018midst full time work and university commitments.
\n\u00b7 Salvation of Oriah, Phoenix, Caesar, Jasmine, Lena, Marcus, Rosie, Sage and other children.
\n\u00b7 Summer Neighborhood Bible Time and camp preparations.
\n\u00b7 Resurrection Sunday Plans.
\n\u00b7 The Hastrichs, Dawn, Lydia, Silas, and Edward\u2019s long battle with the flu.
\n Gratefully Yours In Christ,
\nMichael, Dawn, Lydia, and Silas Veldhuis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Family and Friends In Christ, Increasingly out of control and depraved national and world events point to our Lord\u2019s soon return and stir us more than ever to labor to our fullest in His harvest. \u201cBe patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,7,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-53","category-missionary-letters","category-veldhuis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1344,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibimi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}