Since our last post long, long ago, much has transpired in our lives.  Here are the few things worth mentioning.

Praise - The night before my brother's pretrial, the victim suddenly confessed to his attorney that he ran a red light the night of the accident.  In turn, the prosector asked if we would could settle outside of court and agree to Michael being sentenced to the state mental health facility.  That is exactly what we had been praying for....so of course we said "yes"!  Praise God...He is so awesome!

Prayer - One of my best friends, Elizabeth Darr, has a mother, Lee, who is dying of cancer.  It is pretty much everywhere at this point.  This past week the family decided to send her home with hospice.  While I know we serve a God who heals (as I have personally experienced), I also know that sometimes the ultimate healing is for someone to be taken on with the Lord.  Whatever God's will is for Lee, I ask that you pray for peace overall.  Peace for Lee, peace for Elizabeth, peace for the rest of the family as well.  Elizabeth has already lost her dad, and now at 26 she may lose her mom too.  I pray that God fills every void of loneliness and hurt in her life right now.

Question Mark - Rick is in the middle of a two-week fill-in as pastor.  Ron and Anie are in Texas on vacation.  In one sense it has been great because Rick is getting some awesome training and real life experience in being a pastor and preaching.  But on the other hand, we are getting spiritually beat up in the midst of it.  I think that the enemy want to keep us down, so that we are hindered from seeing clearly that to be the pastor of a church one day is Rick's calling.

Other updates:  Caleb is crawling, pulling up, standing, and almost ready to walk.  Brennan is still not ready to potty train.  Abigail is 4 now and seem so big.  Rick turned 34.  Rick and I are working towards starting a new business (more on that later).

Love everyone,

Melissa Wood