December Update

Dear Friends and family, we are continually thankful to God for your prayers for us. They are much appreciated and vital to the work here.

Last month we had a 2-day Youth Seminar at the village of Songambele, planning meetings for upcoming events, a 3-day Seminar and Conference at the village of Nkungwe, a special day of prayer for the young people at the town church, and I did some preaching. Then at the beginning of December we had a celebration for the Gungu church Youth Group to thank God for the 3 years that we've been meeting. 

However, it's not the busy schedule that counts, or the events and activities that we do, but rather our heart attitude and the spiritual benefits that come from what we do. It seems that in all the busyness we can lose sight of the real reason we're doing these things, and become somewhat distant in our relationship with the Master like Martha. It takes a conscious effort to be like Mary and choose what's better, and that is to spend time listening to the Savior. Please continue to pray for us that we would be firm in our devotion to Christ and not become overwhelmed or discouraged with the work and the small problems and difficulties of daily life that seem to add up really fast. 

As we look ahead we have a sailing trip planned for this weekend. It's our first real trip (3 nights) for the boat. Then maybe sometime in January we will make a trip down south to visit two new churches and bring teaching and encouragement to them. We also just bought a new stock of Bibles which we hope to sell at a reduced cost to the believers in the churches that we visit.

As a family, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with the fellow American missionaries who live in town. We even managed to get a turkey! Then last Saturday we celebrated Esther's 5th birthday at the beach along with a Danish missionary family that has 3 girls who are good friends with Esther. Unfortunately, for Gina's birthday and our 6th anniversary I (Luke) will be away on this boat trip, but we hope to do something special when I return.

We hope you all can look back on this year and see all that God has been doing in and through you. May you have a blessed Christmas remembering God's saving act of sending His Son into the world, and may we all press on to know our God more fully next year.

In His loving care,

Luke, Gina, Esther & Emily Johnson

Praise items:

- An encouraging Seminar & Conference at Nkungwe.

- Thankful for a good youth celebration.

Prayer Items:

- Safety for sailing up the lake this weekend.

- That we would not get discouraged.

- Luke preaching on Christmas day.

- Upcoming ministry travels.

- Distribution of Bibles & hunger for God's Word.