1Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you once again for praying for our ministry here in Canada. We realize we could not do our work here on the field without faithful prayers and financial support from all of you! We are amazed at how God works through many different people and churches to carry out His work in many different countries all around the world through people just like you and me! Through you a missionary can do his/her work in any country around the globe. Thank you again.

This year, we are sending our Mailbox Club students’ families a letter letting them know about an email address where they can send their answers, which will help them save some postage. We will send the lessons to them as usual and they can send their answers by email. At this point we have gotten lesson answers by email from 13 students. We are praising the Lord how we are able to get more lessons in this way. Please keep praying for our students in the Mailbox Club. We praise the Lord for 314 lessons graded in the Mailbox Club this past couple of months! Praise the Lord for 3 salvations in the Mailbox Club the last two months!

Please continue to pray for Joe as he works on the Registered Charity Status. It will take some time but it is coming along well so far. Thank you for praying . Also please keep praying for our sons and their families and for our health.

March and April are exciting months to look forward to the different things God will bring to our ministry here in Canada. Joe is helping with an Easter Recital that our church children are doing in 4 different homes for the elderly on March 29th, April 5th and April 12th. On April 17-18 is the annual Discerning the Times Conference in Saskatoon. Thank you for praying for these upcoming ministry opportunities!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

1Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you for praying for our trip to Florida for Christmas! We had a great time and Joe’s heart behaved itself most of the time. It only went into AFib twice the three weeks we were down there and both times only lasted three hours each. We appreciate all the prayers so much. Joe preached three times at a missions conference in South Middleburg Baptist Church and he also preached at Harvest Baptist Church in Palatka while we were in Florida and two more times since we got home. He sang four solos and a duet with Darren at the Mission Conference and a solo in Palatka too! He then sang a solo once more after we got back home in Canada.

The Western Tract Mission Mailbox Club went smoothly while we were gone. We praise the Lord for the helpers working so hard! We appreciate your prayers for the Mailbox students. We are going to try something new! This year, we are sending each family a letter letting them know about an email address that they can send their answers to, which will help them save some postage. We will send the lessons to them as usual and they can send their answers by email. Some of the students don’t have email or access to a computer but most of them do.

Prayer requests:

• The Mailbox Club Students!
• Our health
• Please keep praying for our sons and their families.
• Pray for us as we pursue a registered charity status for SLM Canada, that all will go smoothly.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for a great Christmas break in Florida.
• Praise the Lord for Joe’s good health on the whole trip.
• Praise the Lord for travel safety for Darren and the grandkids and for David and Rachel surprising us by driving down on New Years Eve.
• Praise the Lord for Daniel & Kascha and baby Lily having a good Christmas together in VA.

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you so much for your prayers for Joe! He is doing much better and getting stronger each week. He went to the cardiologist on the 16th of October and his Afib is still too fast so they changed one of the heart pills he is taking.

Thank you also for praying for Penny! The x-rays showed that she has 3 vertebrae in her neck that have lost cartilage and that she has scoliosis. The doctor at Spine Pathway seems to think that the scoliosis is probably causing the muscle to be stretched and then periodically will spasm. She thinks that the only thing that can be done is possibly a cortisone shot in the muscle.

Please keep us in prayer for our trip to Florida in the month of December. We will be visiting Penny’s parents and brothers while there. We have 3 meetings set up for two Sundays and a Wednesday. Please pray that the meetings will go well.

There were 713 lessons graded in the months of September and October in the Western Tract Mission Mailbox Club. There were 27 certificates earned by students finishing their courses in October. We gave out 87 books so far this year because of the contest for students ages 16 and younger. That means that at least 435 new lessons went out this year so far! Pray that we will get many of those back as new students in the club!

Prayer requests

• The Mailbox Club Students, and more ideas to help the club to grow. Our incoming lessons have dropped very much with the rise in postage rates.
• Our health
• Please keep praying for our sons and their families.
• For a safe trip to Florida in December for Christmas.
• Pray for us as we pursue a registered charity status for SLM Canada, that all will go smoothly.

Praises

• Praise the Lord for all of the students in the Mailbox Club!
• Praise the Lord for visitors from Source of Light Ministries Headquarters in Madison, GA in September.
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!
• Praise the Lord that we were able to drive down to Wisconsin to Penny’s aunts’ funeral.

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

1 Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

These past two months have come with several health issues! At the end of July, Penny had eight x-rays on her back to see what is causing the spasms. God has allowed us to find a Doctor that is willing to check out Penny’s back and finding the cause instead of just treating the symptoms which have been happening periodically for the last 33 years. We haven’t had a chance to get the results of the x-rays yet.

On Saturday night, August 23rd, Joe wasn’t able to fall asleep, because he felt as if his heart was racing. At 5:30 a.m. he thought he’d better go to the ER. We spent most of the day Sunday in ER, and the doctors found that his Atrial Fibrillation was in the very high range. They sent him home after getting it down to between 70-90 beats per minute. He felt bad all day Monday the 25th, and then at 11:00 p.m. he felt sharp pains in his left chest area and nausea, so we went back to ER. By 8:00 a.m. they admitted him to the hospital. After they performed an Echo Cardiogram they found a clot inside of his heart. He stayed in the hospital until Sunday, August 31, and was discharged at 1:15. Then on Friday he had numbness in his leg which woke him up around 2:00 a.m., and we went back to ER when the numbness had also begun to affect his face. He spent most of the day there undergoing tests, but not finding anything the doctors sent him home. Joe is doing better, the medications they have prescribed are controlling the A-Fib and his INR (the thinning of his blood) is up between 2 and 3 so that the clot will disintegrate. The INR needs to stay between 2-3 to be thin enough so the A-Fib can’t cause clots and so that the one he has will fizzle away instead of move somewhere more dangerous. We still don’t know what the numbness in his face is but they are sure it’s not related to his heart problems.

We are looking forward to this week when we will have two ladies from Source of Light Ministries in our home. It will be great to see them again and to show them where we live and work.

Prayer requests

• The Mailbox Club Students
• Our health

Praises

• Praise the Lord for all of the students in the Mailbox
  Club!
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

1Thessalonians 5:24-25 “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.”

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you again for praying for us! May and June were interesting months. Happiness, sadness, pain, excitement and blessings are words that come to mind when thinking about these last two months.

Happiness, because our son David and his wife were able to come up for a few days. It was so good to see them again and to show them where we live and work. Rachel had never been here before, and it had been almost 8 years since David had been up here. It was a whirlwind of a few days trying to show them all the neat places to go and fun things to do in and near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Sadness, because the whole time they were here it was rainy, cloudy, and cold. Also, Penny began to have muscle spasms in her back when we had planned to fish and stay at Poplar Point near Big River for a couple of days. Joe was still able to go back and fish with them, but he had to bring Penny home first.

Pain, because those spasms are NO fun! The pain is intense and has often lasted up to a week. This time they lasted a week and a half! She had to miss two Wednesdays, the biggest days at the office, but praise the Lord one of the ladies was able to fill in for her so she wasn’t so far behind on Friday June 27th when she was finally able to return to work. She stayed all afternoon, which was probably too much and had spasms again on Saturday morning.

Excitement, because through this sadness God has allowed us to find a Doctor that is willing to check out Penny’s back and really find the cause instead of just treating the symptoms which have been happening periodically for the last 33 years.

Blessings, because The Mailbox Club had 371 graded lessons this past month and 37 new students were added to the club! Also a big blessing is that Joe was able to preach 3 times this past month; June 1 at a church in Saskatoon, June 22 at our church, and again on the 29th in Middle Lake, Saskatchewan, filling the pulpit for a pastor friend.

AWANA camp is coming up in July! Don’t forget to pray for the campers grades 3 through 12 as they attend 7 days of great preaching and studying God’s Word. Pray that each of them will go back home a different person, having grown closer to God and wanting to please only HIM!

Prayer:

• Please keep our family in prayer.
• Pray also for the many campers who come to AWANA camp July 13-20.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for all of the students in the Mailbox Club!
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

1 Thessalonians 5:24, 25 Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you so much for your prayers during the months of March and April! We had a great trip down to Chicago to visit with Daniel, his wife Kascha, and our little granddaughter Lily! It was fun to spend time with them again and to spoil our little Lily! It was good to visit and see where they are living and enjoy the sites around Chicago again. We were able to go to the Awana Headquarters and visit with a long time friend and his family for a little bit. It was great to be there again and see our son David’s name and others from our church in Florida on the Citation award wall! We had a great two-week’s vacation, except for experiencing a bout with the flu the last few days of our visit. But otherwise it was fun.

In April, we set up our table at the Prophecy Conference all day Friday and Saturday, the 11th and 12th. There were a lot of people visiting our table those two days, and we had a great time and enjoyed many great speakers diving into the Word of God! Joe led the singing again this year and his voice was much better then last year when he had a bit of a cold. Praise the Lord it all went very well. Hopefully most of those who took lessons will do them and send them in to be graded.

Notes from our students:

(Many prisoners from Gospel Echoes Prison Ministry are now our students, using our materials once they finished the Gospel Echoes lessons.)

“Can you send me more lessons at a time? It’s hard to wait so long in between!” A prisoner in Manitoba.

“Please send me another lesson. It must have gotten lost in the mail, I have been waiting for 2 months.” A prisoner in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Prayer:

• Pray for our sons and their families.
• Pray for our new students to keep sending their lessons.
• Pray that the people who took lessons at the conference will do them!

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for a great weekend at the Discerning the Times Prophecy Conference.
• Pray that many will begin to use the Mailbox Lessons that they took home.
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

1 Thessalonians 5:24, 25 Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us.

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Please keep us in your prayers as we drive March 8th to North Dakota and then as Joe preaches on the 9th in a supporting church that morning. Keep us in your prayers as we travel the next day as well all the way to Chicago to our son Daniel and his family’s new home at the Naval base. We will be visiting with them for a couple weeks and then traveling back on the 22nd and the 23rd.

Please pray that all will go smoothly for the graders at the Mission as they work without Penny for a couple of weeks.

In April, we will be attending a Prophecy Conference all day Friday and Saturday, the 11th and 12th. We will have our table set up once again letting people know about the Mailbox Club. We appreciate your prayers so much.

Notes from our students:

(Many prisoners from Gospel Echoes Prison Ministry are now our students, using our materials once they finished the Gospel Echoes lessons.)

“Please send me a lesson, they look very interesting.” A prisoner in British Columbia

“I have enjoyed working through these lessons. Please send me some to pass on to my fellow inmates.” A prisoner in Saskatoon.

Prayer:

• Pray for our sons and their families.
• Pray for our new students to keep sending their lessons.
• Pray for our safety and good weather as we drive to Chicago.
• Pray for the annual Prophecy Conference in April.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord that Joe was able to be a part of the Bible study and lead singing in the prison here in Saskatoon working with Gospel Echoes Prison Ministry on Feb. 16th. They have asked him to go back each month.
• Praise the Lord for a great weekend at the homeschool conference. Many families will begin to use Mailbox Lessons for their Bible curriculum in the fall!
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

Titus 3:5a “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Happy New Year!

We had over 180 lessons waiting for us when we got back to work the first full week of January after a 2 week Christmas break. It took a few hours, but we were able to catch up and get every one of those lessons graded and back out to the students! We always send a Christmas card to each of those who complete and return a lesson in the month of December. It is always so exciting to hear from the students and see what they have been doing on their Christmas break. We even get homemade Christmas cards from some of them!

Please pray for us Sunday, January 19th as we drive to Middle Lake, where Joe will be filling the pulpit for a Pastor friend. Pray for safety and good weather. On February 16 Joe will be going into one of the prisons here in Saskatoon to sing and help another group who’ve been cleared to enter the prison. We will be setting up our table at the annual homeschool convention again this year on Friday and Saturday Feb. 21 and 22. Thank you again for your prayers!

Notes from our students:

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! And Thank you for the beautiful card.” Abigail age 13 from Ontario

Prayer:

• Pray for our sons and their families.
• Pray for our new students to keep sending their lessons.
• Pray for our health and safety on the winter roads.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for each of our 1042 active students in the Mailbox Club!
• Praise the Lord for the churches in Canada using the Mailbox Club lessons as an outreach.
• Praise the Lord Joe was cleared to go into a prison on Feb. 16.
• Praise the Lord for our three year old furnace keeping the house warm in below zero weather and only costing $114 the coldest month! (December).
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

Titus 3:5a “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  This year was very busy for the Mailbox Club! It was a blessing to see the influx of lessons to be graded each month as it grew to 568 lessons for a couple of months this past year.  Many more certificates were given out than the other years also.  This was due to the contest this year, where we gave out a Sugar Creek Gang book to any of our younger students (ages 16 and under) who gave us 5 names/addresses of friends or relatives who would like to join the Mailbox Club!  We gave out over 600 books so that means there were over 3000 new lessons sent to many homes in 2013! Many of those recipients sent in their first lesson and joined those who love to learn of God’s Word through the Mailbox Club lessons!  Thank you again for your prayers!

Notes from our students:

“Thank you for the book, it is very interesting!” Lisa age 12 from Ontario

Prayer:

• Pray for our son Daniel, his wife Kascha, and baby Lily Marie.
• Pray for our new students to keep sending their lessons.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for a wonderful 2013!
• Praise the Lord for 568 lessons graded in the Mailbox Club during the months of July and October.
• Praise the Lord for 50 new students in the month of October.
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!
• Praise the Lord for our new website! slmcanada.com

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

“For we are laborers together with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:9

Dear Praying Partners,

Thank you so much for all of your prayers this past month. We really appreciate the prayers of our friends, for our ministry. It sure helps to know that many of you are praying as we minister each week, loving and serving our students in the Mailbox Club and the churches that have started using the mailbox lessons for their own ministries. The picture on the newsletter this month was drawn by a student in Alberta. Each student is encouraged to draw a picture or write a poem for the Good News Express, a 4-page paper sent 4 times a year to each student ages 16 and under. We also send beautifully printed animal pictures with scripture verses printed on them for the students half way through a course and with their certificate at the end of the course. Thank you again for your prayers!

Notes from our students:

“I have good news! I gave my heart to the Lord at Powerhouse on May 7, 2013. I am so glad to be a part of the mailbox club!” ~Alex age 10 from Newfoundland

“Please send one of these lessons to my sister in law in Winnipeg. Thanks! “ ~Suzanne an adult from Saskatchewan

Prayer:

• Pray for each of our students as they continue to do their lessons. Pray especially for Paul an adult from Ontario. He has many questions on every lesson but still doesn’t seem to understand salvation.

Praises:

• Praise the Lord for 450 lessons graded in the Mailbox Club during the month of September.
• Praise the Lord the trip to Moosomin, SK went well. Thank you for praying.
• Praise the Lord for each of you who pray for us!

Serving God in Canada,

Joe & Penny

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”