Dear Friends,

We have been getting settled in our new location here in Alberta. Every week I go up to the Sunchild-O'Chiese Reserve and sometimes we have a group of young people from the Reserve stay with us here at Carstairs in the large house we are renting. We have three Sunchild youth here right now.

We continue to keep close contact with the folks at Ft. McPherson and Old Crow, getting calls most every day, sometimes early in the morning and late at night. Right now, both of these fields have no missionary. The field at Sunchild is very demanding since we are the only mission operating there among 2,000 people. We have been talking to some of the council members who want us to apply to get our mission property back. They will be having a tribal election in January so we will wait until after the election to work on this.

Karen was the featured speaker at a ladies gathering in Didsbury and it all went well. We had a missions convention for three days at Leslieville, here in Alberta, the first week in November, and it was very good also. These are special opportunities to make important contacts relating to the mission operation. Karen wrote a three-page article on a recent visit to the Reserve that is a special insight to what God has been doing. I'm putting it on our web site. It's titled 'The Day God Gave Me a Hug.' If you can't get our web site, and you request this article, I'll send it to you.

Most important of all I want to express how the Lord is working in the hearts of the people we are ministering to and how He is opening special doors for us. It is impossible in a short letter to relate much in the way of specific details, but we are thrilled when we set down and evaluate the depth of work that God is doing in hearts. Yesterday, Karen & I were at the school Christmas program at Sunchild and the entire time we were having emotional reunions with folks we haven't seen for a while. One older couple were thanking us for the VBS we held in August, telling us how their two granddaughters got saved and the change they could see in their lives. They have also been little missionaries working with their playmates.

We finally got a chance to get our airplane into a good maintenance facility in Red Deer where the Lord has given us a couple men sympathetic with our work to help out with the maintenance. It has been flown hard for several years without much TLC. Although I'm able to get this done at a fraction of the cost, I still have to raise at least $5,000 for the work necessary to pass the annual inspection before we can fly again.

I should mention also that I have been writing a book this summer. It has been a very unusual experience for me in that it is obvious it is a very special gift of God. In order to finish it I have to manage a block of special time so I can focus on it, but things have been too pressing the last couple months to do this. This is one of our main priorities right now.

It's a blessing to have the kids in Christian schools, but we have to find a way to meet this extra financial obligation also. Those of you who are receiving this in response to sending support can be assured that we are greatly thankful for helping us meet these challenges.

We trust you all have been having a blessed Christmas season. Sending beautiful cards is a luxury we couldn't do this year, but from our hearts we trust you will feel God's special presence in your lives.

In His Service, Rodger, Karen, Melody, Melany, and David