Dear Friends,                                                        12/13/1998

           Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Christmas season has arrived again and so we send our warm greetings to you. We pray that this finds you in good health, in body, soul and spirit.

We have some snow on the ground now, about six inches, so it will probably stay until spring.  We will have to pen up the chickens and the rabbits, which have been running loose, as they want to stay on, or near, the porch if they are free.  Not much we can do about our peacocks as they sleep high in the ponderosa pines and come and go where they please.

This year we began daily church service, in addition to our usual Sunday morning service, and found it to be a wonderful blessing to us.  Each evening, just before supper, we gather together in a room to pray, sing 16th century Anabaptist songs^[1] and read 17th century Hutterite sermons^[2].  The songs and sermons are strong spiritual food^[3] that we didn't realize that we were missing until we started being fed with them.  We believe that God calls people out of the world^[4], away from the system controlled by Satan^[5], to live in an environment^[6] where one can learn to become the kind of person^[7] who will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God^[8].  This requires, as we understand the Bible, a personal transformation^[9], a change in ourselves in which we go through a process of shedding our old nature and acquiring the nature of our Creator.  This process requires a daily crucifixion of our flesh^[10], a daily walking the narrow path^[11] to the Kingdom of God, which, the Lord said, few will reach^[12].  As we desire to be among those who do reach the Kingdom, and not be cast into the lake of fire^[13], we eagerly seek^[14] the discipline and guidance of the Lord, given through the Word that we hear preached daily to us, and from our brothers and sisters who struggle^[15] along side us on the Way of the Lord^[16].

Being admonished daily to live a holy life does have an effect, just as one would expect. We don't go into town much, do not have television, daily newspapers nor news magazines, so our focus is not diverted from the Lord but is directed to the Lord by the daily reading and preaching of His Word.  If we believe that if we are to live a Christian life, we must do so in all aspects, not just on Sunday morning; Christianity should be a full time occupation.

This year has been very eventful for us.  Our son Patrick, who helped found this community, moved to the James Valley Hutterite community in Manitoba last month.  We miss him very much but we know that he must be in God's will and doing God's work.

Bill and Pamela Lee and their three children, Matthew (7), Andrea (4), and Nathaniel (3), moved here last August from Michigan.  Pamela had an operation on December 3rd, they removed her gall bladder, and scraped off the scar tissue that resulted from her previous operation last spring (she has Crohn's disease).  She is recovering after a week in the hospital.

James Whitacre moved here in October from Alaska.  His wife died last January, his children are grown, so he came to find Christian community.  He recently returned from visiting his son in Colorado.

Peter Forde, from Manchester, England, flew over for a six week visit, arriving on 10/1/98.  He speaks with a funny accent but wants to learn about the Anabaptists.

Also in October, Michael Flynt and his Korean wife Hyeok flew out from their home in Oklahoma for a week's visit.  They are planning to come back for an extended visit later this month.  They have seven children (ages 2-15).  We pray that the Lord God will keep them here.

Mark Clement, a friend of Bill and Pamela Lee, came out for several weeks this summer.  He helped with the setting up a mobile home for the Lees on our property here.  We also set up another mobile home for the other new people.  We had help from our neighbors, Frank Darnell and Rick Schmidt, who moved the Lees home onto the pads with a tractor.  A couple of Hutterite men, Wally Walter and George Gross, also helped and even supplied some of the material. Our sons Patrick and Jim also helped with the work.  The work crew included Bill, James, Peter and John Washburn, a hired handyman who lives nearby.  We ran a water line from the spring (all underground) to the houses so they have good spring water with no pump involved but with enough water pressure to take showers and run the clothes washer.  That good, free water is a blessing from the Lord God!

We thank the Lord for the help He has given us with all the work involved in putting up the two new homes, it was no small undertaking.  We do not know what the future holds, if we are to continue living here or move to a more suitable location.  We have been looking at various properties, including a small girls boarding school located in a valley about eight miles north of Spokane (we are now about 26 miles north of Spokane).

On October 16th, fourteen Hutterite elders came down from Canada to see how we are doing.  They approved of our church services and of our desire that our people make a covenant (as is done among the Hutterites)  nevermore to sin against God, to accept brotherly punishment and admonition and also to apply the same to others in the community when it is needed, to consecrate, give and sacrifice ourselves with soul and body and all our possessions to the Lord in heaven, and to be obedient unto Christ and His church.