December 2009 Happy Thanksgiving! As we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we rejoice that 2000 years later we can still announce the same message of the angel to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy...today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). This Savior came into the world for the purpose of saving sinners, of taking away our sins, of destroying the devil’s work and to give us life more abundantly. We call Him “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” What a Savior we have! May our hearts be filled to overflowing this Christmas season and always. Praise from Uruguay - Last month Ricki Anne Zanella asked us to pray for the “Second Annual Children’s and Adolescent Camp.” Ricki Anne reported that 55 were in attendance. She was especially blessed to hear teens giving God glory for the way He is impacting their lives. Please pray for them as they take steps to obey God. Pray also that Aimee Johnson’s support will be raised so she can leave for Uruguay in February, the Lord willing. Pray for the Muthyalas - Please pray for Subash and Sandra Muthyala and their children, Austin and Sabrina, who will terminate their ministry in India with GMI at the end of the year due to the decision of the GMI Board to no longer send missionaries to that country. Subash and Sandra have a continued desire to serve the Lord in India and are looking for the Lord’s leading. Representatives from GMI will go to India in February to discuss with the national church leaders how we can help them in the work. News from Congo - PTL for the 27 students who graduated from the five-year degree program from Kindu Bible College on Nov. 19. Please pray for the evangelism team that is traveling through a Muslim area in December distributing gospel booklets in the schools and doing tract and DVD evangelism in the villages. Pray also for Fred Vinton as he studies at Fuller Seminary. He is learning how to balance school (especially writing research papers) and family life. Retreat in Bolivia - Praise the Lord for the great pastors’ and leaders’ retreat held in November with 140 in attendance. Jerry Olson asks that we pray for our national church leaders, Julian Chambi (president) and Santos Ortega (vice-president), and our national pastors that each would continue to demontrate biblical integrity and faithfulness to their calling. Northside Grace Church - Andy Hollier (Australia) asks us to pray for the first outreach meeting of the Northside Grace Church which will be held in December. Pray that new people will come to the church through this outreach. Home Assignment - Please be in prayer for Brook Seekins who arrived back in the States the end of November. She will be on home assignment for six months. Costa Rica - Please pray for the pastoral team as they prepare for a new church plant next year in Alajuela. PTL for the salesman who trusted the Lord Jesus through the testimony of one of the team members. Business as Missions - Praise the Lord for the vital ministry that Mike Caraway has in Tanzania of training and mentoring Christian businessmen and women. As a former businessman in Michigan, Mike is well qualified to focus on this desperate need in Africa. Please pray for Mike in this ministry as well as for the open door he has of distributing Scripture in public schools. Conference in Argentina - Please pray for Talo Vergara (Bolivia) as he is involved in a continent-wide missions conference to be held in Cordoba, Argentina, during the last two weeks of January 2010. Talo is excited about taking 22 youth from the grace churches in Bolivia who will be among 300 Bolivian young people attending the conference. The conference’s purposes are: to open the eyes of the youth for a different world and a different life; to challenge youth to completely devote themselves to God and grow in their relationship with Him; to offer the youth tools to discover and develop their gifts and talents in order to be prepared in their local churches and in the worldwide mission field. After the conference, many of the youth will be serving for six months as short-term missionaries in a variety of countries. Talo asks that we pray for our youth that they will catch a vision of how God can use them anywhere. News from Moyers - PTL that Carl and Joanne Moyer (Zambia) had the privilege to take part in the inauguration of the new church building at Tatanda, Tanzania, where they lived and worked for many years. Pray for spiritual growth in the lives of the church members.

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