Dear Praying and Giving Friends;
We hope and pray that this letter finds you and yours healthy, satisfied, and in the will of God. Let me summarize the year by month to let you know what we've been up to and what our family and church life has been like in 2008.
January - We set out this year expecting God to do something great. Little did we know what that would look like. The church spent this month making visits and getting ready for spring.
February - Christie and I traveled to Florida to finally complete settlement on an auto accident that she was in back in 2003. Praise the Lord that we put that behind us. Christie also began to have pains that would lead to...
March - Christie had major surgery. Christie had a colectomy. They removed her colon because of a birth defect that finally needed direct intervention. The surgery went well and Christie was healing great until a few days later when she spiked a fever and I was called to Syracuse because they were preparing her for emergency surgery. The second surgery went well, but this time, the doctor gave her a temporary colostomy. The five day hospital stay stretched to sixteen days.
April - She spent about ten days home until something happened and her digestive tract stopped. We took her back to the hospital, where she spent the next twelve days waiting for her digestive system to start moving again. Even in this, we saw the Lord working, as both Christie and I were able to witness to people in the hospital. One night, one of her nurses was looking over a tract that Christie gave her and asked us what the difference between a Baptist and a Catholic was. That was an example of the open doors that we had in the hospital. Christie's dad was also able to lead a man to the Lord.
May - By now, Christie was determined to be well enough to work in VBS in July. If it seems like Iﾒve lost track of what is happening with the church, I really did. Don't get me wrong, I was preaching and by May we were gearing up for VBS. We ordered curriculum and began having teachers meetings, but most of my time was centered on work and family.
June - School's out! We put the boys in a small Christian school and they finished the school year there. Christie spent this month healing still and we began to get information out about VBS. We also were planning our involvement in the annual Cortland Celtic Festival.
July - VBS month!!! Among the folks at church, we distributed 2,500 tracts and postcards, inviting people to our VBS. We had a good turnout with over 30 students one evening. I even taught an adult class. We had some interesting discussions about the origins of the Bible and taking God at His word. Sometimes it's refreshing to talk to a skeptic and have healthy debate. We continue to pray for that lady.
August - This was the month for the Cortland Celtic Festival. At the last minute, the event organizers called us and asked if we could handle children's activities this year. This was a huge blessing because the entry fee went up considerably and they let us into the festival free for helping them with the children. We spent the day making Celtic themed crafts, talking to parents and children about the Lord, and generally enjoying a beautiful Central New York summer day. We also had the blessing of a young lady coming to Christ. She had been attending with us for quite some time, but realized that she never really had come to faith until now. Praise God!
September - This was a long month. Christie went back to the hospital to have her colostomy reversed. This was another surgery that was supposed to be easy and a short recovery time. I'm beginning to think that doctors just guess at this recovery time thing. While Christie was in the hospital, we had a group of pastors from around NYS visit with us and spent a few hours knocking on doors and talking to people about the Lord. This meeting has been a great encouragement to me over the last several years. I just wish I had been able to be there. Between two hospital stays, Christie spent half of the month in Syracuse. One day, while driving back to Cortland for my civilian job, my stepmother called me, asking me to come to Bath. My dad had been fighting cancer since last Christmas and I thought things were going better than they were. When I got to the hospital, dad told me that he was done with the treatments. Over the next few weeks, the boys and I made several visits home to help.
October - This was a tough month. The church hosted a free photo booth at our Great Cortland Pumpkinfest. We had over 200 people line up for free pictures (and allow us to get our foot in the door for later contact). This was also the month that my dad went to Jesus. He had told me before that he had put his faith in Christ. I also, found a simple gospel tract displayed on his calculator when we went to clean his desk at work and this gave me additional reason to rejoice. I canﾒt tell you what I felt as I stood in the pulpit of a Catholic church to preach his funeral. I am grateful to God for the chance to preach the gospel there. The church also lost one of our sweet ladies. One night, she went to sleep and awoke in the presence of her Lord. What a month.
November - This was a great time to have Thanksgiving. We realize just how blessed we are, The church has been working to continue to reach those people we touched at the Pumpkinfest. I spent more time with the boys this month, I coached their flag, football team.
December - The snow begins to fly and Christmas is coming. We are spending this month rejoicing remembering our Savior. I am looking forward to the beginning of a new year with its challenges and victories.
I know that this has been a long letter and I appreciate your patience in reading our summarized year. Through all of the struggles and heartaches, we can truly say that God has been good to us, He is being good to us, and He will be good to us.
May the Lord richly bless you as you seek to serve Him.
Patrick Wraight
Church Planting Pastor, 7 Valleys Baptist Church
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