Dear Friends,                                                                                                      12/19/2000

            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 eight inches, so it will probably stay until spring.  We have penned up or sold 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.  We have no livestock now so things are a bit quiet around here.

This year we continue to have our daily evening 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 to pray, sing Anabaptist songs and read Hutterite sermons.  The songs and sermons are strong spiritual food.  We believe that God calls people out of the world to live in an environment where one can learn to become the kind of person who will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God.  This requires, as we understand the Bible, a personal transformation, 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 seems to require a daily crucifixion of our flesh, a daily walking the narrow path to the Kingdom of God, which, the Lord said, few will reach.  As we desire to be among those few who do reach the Kingdom, and not be cast into the lake of fire, we eagerly seek 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 along side us as we travel on the Way of the Lord.

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 again has been very eventful for us.  A wonderfully God-fearing family, Brian Pribis, his pregnant wife Danell, and their four small children, are here with us.  Brian was working as a tech support specialist for a software company so he fits right into our software business, a great blessing from God.  More important than that, Brian and Danell are seriously seeking the Kingdom of God and are worth listening to as they speak of spiritual matters.  Their small children are also a joy to us.

Shelly Brauer has been with us eight years now.  She was helping with the cooking and taking care for the chickens, rabbits and peacocks.  However, she is gone for a while, recovering from some personal problems.  We hope that she will be back soon.

Naomi Murphy has been out of her wheelchair most of the year but did have a bit of a problem with her medication.  She has a pet cockatiel named Dandy and a kitten named Sunshine that are a joy to her.  Naomi is a blessing to us with her cheerful nature.

Michi Murphy is very busy with cooking, canning and making a new song book for us.  Michi is blessed to have fellowship with Danell.   She is also blessed and encouraged by the Hutterites who always show us much love, she looks forward to visiting with them, as we all do.

Don Murphy is still struggling with a heart condition (arterial fibrillation) that keeps him humble and aware of the shortness of life.  He enjoys the small children that the Lord brought here.