Dear Friends,
We have much to be thankful for. The Lord has just about taken us through 2008. We've had trials, sickness and joys. We thank and praise the Lord for the money that came in for Pastor Ashely to finish building his church. The Lord bless each one of you that gave, your reward will be great in heaven. Now he has a finished church to have church services in. All of his people enjoyed working together on the building and he sends a big THANK YOU to everyone. He had taken pictures and he will be sending them soon and we'll be able to put them in the next prayer letter. Each one of you can thank the Lord for the churches that you have in America. Ephesians 5:20 is a good verse, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." We all have much to be thankful for and we do as we keep going with His strength as we get older and continue to do His work.
Christmas time is a wonderful time that Jesus came to be born from the virgin Mary. He came to not only heal people, but He being the Son of God, went to the cross to die for all of our sins. Each one of us needs to believe in Him as our personal Savior. The angel said to Joseph in Matt. 1:21, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." We trust and pray you will all have a Merry and Blessed Christmas. It is so wonderful to think of baby Jesus being the Son of God and coming to earth to save us from our sins. Also His Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, John 3:16. That's why Jesus told us to go into the world to preach the Gospel to every nation and He would be with us alway, even unto the end of the world. Matt. 18-20. We had the joy of doing this and still do now through email in Swahili. We are like the Apostle Paul who wrote to his churches from and distance and we thank the Lord that we can, only faster than he could.
The New Year of 2009 is coming and we do not know what it will bring, but we know that everything is in God's control. We look for the Lord's coming at any time and it tells about it in 1 Thess. 4:1 3-1 8. It tells us to comfort one another with these wonderful words. Then in 1 Cor. 1 5:51-58 it tell us further about the Lord's coming in the twinkling of an eye, and that's pretty fast. Let us take heed to the last verse in this chapter 15 and apply it to our lives in obedience to the Lord, and He will strengthen us and give us great joy and victory in putting Him first in our lives and serving Jesus Christ. Verse 58 says, "Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." What a tremendous promise this is for all of us. We can always count on the Lord since HE DOES NOT LIE.
Praise His mighty and wonderful Name. We trust all will have a Happy and Blessed New Year in 2009.
We thank and praise the Lord for each one of you churches, and people and how your prayers and gifts have kept us going so that we can keep serving our Lord. We give all the praise and glory to the Lord for all He has done and is doing for us.
Your Missionaries, looking for His coming,
Bob and Jean Williams
