Joel and Joanie Troester, December 17, 2011

Merry Christmas! We cannot think of more wonderful time of the year to focus our attention on the great love of God to resolve man’s greatest need, that of his sin. Christ was born, to die in our place!

This is the reason and the motivation for us to take the “good news” to parts of the world like Mozambique where animism has dominated the hearts and minds of people for centuries. By God’s grace there are those who have responded to the working of God in their hearts and have come to know Him as their Savior. The number of participants in our neighborhood Bible study continues to
hold at around 18 people. Word has it that they are eagerly awaiting out return so that we can initiate the start of a new congregation. Please pray that God would already begin to prepare a place for us that would have room for us to expand and grow as needed.

The 2nd congregation in Mozambique has completed their move and is seeing growth as a result. The 1st congregation has asked us to consider taking up the leadership of their group with the Brazilian pastor helping us. Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we consider assuming the leadership of two congregations. The Brazilian pastor’s wife has a number of health issues making it difficult for her to totally involved. As you can see more laborers are needed, especially if we are to continue to expand in other needy areas. Please pray to this end.

We praise the Lord for our furlough time. After being on the road for over 2 months we have been able to “be at home” with our daughters, Kristin and Sharon and travel on weekends. We are so thankful for the opportunities that we have had to this point to share what God is doing in Mozambique and look forward to the rest of our visits. We will return to Mozambique in April. The in-between times have permitted study time which is much needed.

Time with Nathan and his new wife Anna over Thanksgiving was fun and we are looking forward to time at Christmas.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a spiritually prosperous New Year,
Joel and Joanie Troester