Northwest News!

We had a good night tonight with the Christmas Play on again.  We had 29 folks out with several grandparents and parents coming to watch their children in the play.  I preached on The Gift of God from Luke 1:26-56.  It was alot of fun.  Thanks again to everybody for your help.  God bless.

Dear praying Family of God. 
 Praise God that he continues to answer pray on behalf of our Son.  His surgery went though really well and the surgeon seems pleased with the results, although they said that time will tell.  I trust to get speaking with him personally this week.  The staff have informed us that Evan will not be able to put his foot to the floor for at least four to six weeks and then he  will need rehab.  Depending on how well he responds to that, will depend when he can get back to work. 
 

Praise God with us first of all for getting Jr, through the operation with no complications; secondly that initial results seem promising and also that Evan Jr’s spirits are high, despite the pain he is suffering at this time.  Pray with us that God will lift Evan Jr. up in His will and that his faith will hold strong through it all.  Also join with us in praying that he will be discharged soon so that we can get him home.

Thank you for all you prayers on his behalf and for us.  God give us a good trip home and we praise him to be able to be with our son at this crucial time.  God bless you all and may you have a good time amongst God’s people tomorrow. 

–
Yours in Him.

Evan and Carmen Williams
BIMI Missionaries to Honduras

I thought you all would be interested to hear how God is using Bro. Aaron who was with us for our missions conference in October.  You can read a report about what God doing by clicking here and here.

Bro. Aaron and his family are good friends of ours.   We will be going to see them and help them in their work in North Africa next year.  If you are interested in going with us, please let us know at 028 7132 9998.

I really enjoyed the day today.  The children did a very, very good job today acting in the play today, and I believe that God was glorified through the presentation.  Lawrence did a great job on the stable.  David did very well leading singing tonight.  The ladies did tremendous with the constumes and drama.  Thank you so much for your hard work.

We had 31 this morning in the service and 11 in the evening.  Pray for Nathan Smyth.  He fell and split his head tonight before the service and had to get a staple put in his head.

We are looking forward to a real good time tomorrow morning, as the children present the Christmas play that they have been working on for so long.  I am so proud of each one of the young people who is in the play and know that you all are going to do a job.  I am so grateful for our volunteers who have been such an incredible help with getting all of this together.

Teri and I had a real blessing on Thursday to have my parents and my aunt fly for a visit, so they will be there tomorrow to see the play.

Thanks for praying for Grant.  He had croup-like symptoms on Friday afternoon, so he spent the night in the hospital, but he is home and fine now.  Praise the Lord for that.

I hope that you are plannning to come tomorrow.  I am so excited about the service and about preaching on “What Jesus Wants for Christmas!”

We got the following update from the Williams family on their special prayer request for their family:

Just a quick one this time.  We are just off the phone with Evan Jr. and great news.  The Doctor has informed him that, providing they get no more emergency admittance, they plan to operate on him later on this morning.  Praise God.  Apparently they have been working into the late hours of the night and have been able to get the waiting list down. Please pray that Evan might get his surgery to today.

God added something else as a blessing.  The surgeon has confessed that he is a born again christian!!  Praise our Lord, we know that he does all things well but what a blessing to hear that one of His own children is going to be looking after his brother in Christ, we know his hands will be guided.  May God so fill the operating room that this Brother in Christ might have extra opportunities to testify of his Lord’s help.

We leave for Ireland today at 1:30 pm Eastern USA time.  We trust to be in Ireland, Dublin at 7 am local time.  We know you are all praying for us.  Thank you.

Here is an update on the Williams prayer request.

Dear all; 

I am not long off the phone with the surgeon that is looking after Evan Jr.  and this is the latest:

Evan Jr’s Injury to his arm is in the wrist area and is a clean break with no complications.  They have already set that in Plaster.  His leg injury is some what more complicated though.  His ankle has been shattered and needs extensive repair surgery and they will have to use pins to piece it together.  He said that the prognosis for full recovery is fair to good but that only time will tell how much mobility he will have when everything is set.  
 

As far as time scale for the surgery is concerned, he shared with me that the Hospital is geared to handle four trauma cases per day and just this weekend they had a unprecedented 30 cases admitted.  Cases are dealt with on the bases of first come first served, unless there is risk to life and Evan Jr. is number 15.  He also said that there is always a wait involved in cases that require open surgery, of this nature - as the skin needs to heal from the impact - before it is in good enough condition to be worked on in surgery.  In Evan’s favor is the fact that his skin has recovered remarkably well due to the fact that he neither drinks nor smokes and as such he is coming up the list.  The surgeons have also decided to come back in the evenings, to work extra hours in order to try and resolve this back log of patients.  I enquired how much it would cost to have him dealt with privately but the hospitals there do not provide this service for trauma cases. 
 

As you all know, Evan Jr. is an apprentice Carpenter and he will need full mobility in order to continue with his trade.  Will you all join us in prayer for this please.  We are amazed at how many replies we have received from you all confirming that you are praying for him.  Please continue to pray that God might continue the healing in his skin so that when his turn comes for surgery he will be ready.  Pray too that Evan Jr. will continue to give a good testimony of salvation while in the hospital ward.  Then pray that the healing process in his ankle might even amaze the surgeons when he returns to have the pins removed. 

All of this has over turned the planed holiday that our children were to have with us over Christmas, as airlines will not allow costumers to travel with a closed cast on their legs. We will have to contact his insurance and see if they will pay for his lost flight, also for Deborah as she will most probably want to wait for him.  Pray that she too might get her ticket reimbursed by her insurance, as they were traveling together on the same reservation..  As Evan Jr. will be off work for several months and Deborah will be off University until the end of January, they might get another chance to come over to us before we leave Fl in March.  Please pray about this also.

Finally pray for us.  As parents we feel we should be at his side and we thank all of you who have already offered support to help meet some of the cost, should we decide to do so but the expense of the flights is compounded by the fact that should we return to Ireland we would have to renew our medical insurance, as the type we have lapses once we would return home to Ireland and that would be a hefty expense also.  Pray for wisdom for us in this, that we would do what is right not only by our son but also by our supporters.  What a joy it is to be able to unburden our concerns with those of you who uphold us in prayer.  May God bless each and every one of you for being with us in this and we praise God for the advent of email which makes this communication possible. 
Yours in Him.

Evan and Carmen Williams
BIMI Missionaries to Honduras

I just got this prayer request from Evan and Carmen Williams, our missionaries to Honduras.  His son lives in the Belfast area, and we want to be in prayer for this situation.

We have just arrived in from our trip to Puerto Rico to receive a call from my mother letting Us know that our Son, Evan Jr., was hit by a Taxi and knocked off his motor bike on Saturday.  He has a broken leg and arm and is in hospital.  We have been able to speak with the nursing staff and with him.  He is keeping as well as possible, the only thing is that the hospital has a waiting list for the operating theater and as such they will not be able to operate on him until Thursday morning.  I have to ring again tomorrow morning at 4 am, here, in order to catch the Dr. when he visits the ward in the morning at 9 am there .  Please pray that he might get the treatment he needs sooner and that he will have a full recovery. 

Praise God with us that God spared his life.  The taxi hit him from the side breaking his leg and knocking him into the path of a an oncoming car which also hit him, breaking his arm.  He is in good spirits and thank God that he was wearing his full protective gear, so other than the mentioned injuries he is unmarked.  As you can imagine this has been a traumatic experience for him, not to mention us.  Pray with us that God will help us all with the legal steps that will need to be followed as the police are involved.  They have stated that the taxi driver was at fault for the accident but you all know how these things can be twisted. 

Thank you for being with us in this.

I cannot express how much I appreciate our church.  Today was a wonderful day together worshipping God.  We had a great time of fellowship after the evening service, and I praise God for how He has brought our church together.

Thank you for all your prayers, concern, and gifts for Teri and us at this time.  We feel so loved and appreciated and blessed to be your pastor, and we want you to know we love you and are proud to work with you all.

I am excited about all that God is going to do in the days ahead.  I can wait to see how He is going to use each one of You for His honour and glory.

God led Jonathon Powell to join us on 1 September and has been a blessing ever since.  He came from our home church in Carrollton, OH to help us for three months.  He joined us as very needy time in our ministry.  Since he came, we have seen the church grow alot.  Many men have stepped up to help us with the work that he was doing, but we will still greatly miss him.  We had a special tea for him tonight at the church, and there was not too many dry eyes as we said our goodbyes to him.  He will leave a big void in the work.    Please be in prayer for him as he travels back early tomorrow.