February Newsletter '11

Greetings,

2011 has been a roller coaster already and we're only 1 month in. This prayerletter edition sees us finishing up our US travel with supporting churches and friends, and spending a week attending the Cedarville University Missions Conference.

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Cedarville Missions Conference

We love getting to go back to Cedarville and see friends and professors. The Missions Conference was fantastic, and as a missionary you get a totally different perspective from when you were a student. I must confess that as a student the conference was very much taken for granted, but now as missionaries it's a chance to reconnect with the missionary "heart" and listen and interact with some amazing servants working all over the globe.

Along with our booth and the conference itself, we loved spending time with Aunt Kari, who loved spending time with Nephew Micah! And the list is very long of other individuals we were able to reconnect with; how thankful we are that the Lord has given us such a wonderful opportunity for reunion!

To read more about the CU Missions Conference click HERE

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Friends and Family

The holiday season where we get to spend extended time back home is filled with airports and travel. Over the course of our time we slept under no less than 10 different roofs! However, along with all the road trips and luggage living we are blessed to receive the hospitality and love of many many friends.

Our most recent visit was traveling back to Dallas and Frisco to visit our sending church. We are so fortunate to have such love and support from our friends back in Texas, and each time we visit we remember again the difficulty of saying "goodbye" and leaving our coveted Christian community.

We had college friends drive up from San Antonio to see us, we had friends pay for our lunch spontaneously, and we had our choice in accommodations to watch the NFC Champions Green Bay Packers beat the Bears! Again, the list is too long to mention everyone, and we once again enjoy the blessing of serving as missionaries sent by those, as the Apostle Peter describes in beginning of his epistle, who are scattered. What joy it is to reconnect with them in our hearts!

Click HERE to see pictures of many of our friends and family from our trip home

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Update

We are pressing on in our ministry in Eleuthera, gearing up for a solid Spring semester. February will kick off our survey classes in James Cistern and then at the end of the month and into March we'll finish our last class in Rock Sound to graduate our 1st set of students from the south (look for updates in next month's prayerletter). Micah has a new Thomas the Train set, which he loves, and he has learned many new skills and words from all the play time with his Pfeister cousins. Emily is enamored with the upcoming Valentines Day, she even carries around candy hearts in her purse - which Micah adorably calls "Happy Hearts," and for all those who are planning ahead, her birthday is this the 26th of this month. No doubt February will be another full month.

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Prayers and Praises

Praise for safe travel everywhere, and I do mean everywhere
We praise the Lord and are extremely thankful for His servants who encourage and love us, many of our relationships have taken a new dimension where we only see one another a few times a year, yet we are blessed more than most to have the privilege of continuing these relationships
Praise God for His promises and the joy of growing our faith in Him

Please pray for our students and the ministry of discipleship as we set the tone for this year
Please pray that the Lord would provide the funds we need to continue our monthly support and cover some unseen expenses
Pray for us as we continue to grow in our adventure as parents and in our understanding of what it means to serve God where we do
And pray the Packers win the Superowl :-)

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Thank you for all your love and support; we are truly "thankful" to our great God who has given us such a wonderful support structure. Blessings to you and your family in this upcoming month. To find out more about support CLICK HERE.

- Ryan Emily and Micah Flunker