January 2017 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and a great start to the new year. Early last month, we had another special baptism day. There were 3 individuals who followed the Lord in believers baptism. One man, who is father of a church member, had always declined to receive Christ as Savior, even when he was extremely sick. The national pastor whom we work with, Pastor Berner, was able to lead him to Christ about a week before he passed away. This was a big answer to prayer and encouragement to his family. There also was another young man who chose to publicly recommit his life to the Lord. Apart from the normal ministry of visits, preaching, and Sunday School, we also had a few special events. The first was a special kids Christmas, in which every child received a gift and got candy from the piñatas. The second event was a church sale, where people donated items to be sold to raise funds for the building fund. The third event was an end of the year dinner where many gave testimonies on the work of the Lord this last year. The Lord did a marvelous work in this church plant. Since last year, we have seen an increase in attendance, more involved in serving and visiting, the church began supporting the national pastor, they have begun supporting 2 missionaries monthly, and just last month took up a special offering to buy chairs for another church plant. We believe that God is honoring their faithfulness. In the last month, we received a few special offerings for the land fund that now brings us up to over $16,000. Praise the Lord!

Last month was extremely busy for our family. Last month, we moved from our old house to a new house in another local city. It was much more complicated than normal because we also had to purchase furniture and appliances and get them all delivered to the new house, which was not furnished. We are very blessed to now have our own furniture and appliances. Although many of our things were still in boxes, we celebrated Christmas Eve in Nicaraguan tradition with a family that we are friends with. It also was a blessing to enjoy a Christmas dinner at the house of another missionary couple, Burt and Cindy Durham. They made a wonderful dinner with some American favorites: Turkey, stuffing… even Nicaraguan squash “pumpkin pie!” Perhaps, the greatest Christmas blessing of all was to find out that God is giving us another baby! We are so excited, and our girls love to talk about whether it will be a boy or girl. The due date is August 24^th.

Last month, several of our churches sent us special Christmas offerings. Thank you so much and God bless you! Thank you for all of your prayers! This month, will you please pray for:

1. God to keep Michelle and the baby healthy throughout the duration of the pregnancy.

2. God to guide us as we make several important decisions on residency and other things.

3. God to continue providing the funds needed to buy land and construct a church building.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, and Ellowyn Blanz