FELLOWSHIP NEWS
January 2008

TBMF Comings and Goings

The Goings… some of the folks who have recently left or will be travelling include
Jen Bonte has finished up her work in Thailand and has returned to Australia . Bless you, Jen, as you move into the next phase of life.
Lee and Lyn Morris have travelled to Australia and will return to Chiang Mai on February 6.
James and Andrene Hayton will be returning to the UK . We wish them well and God's blessing in their next endeavors.


The Comings…

Returning from Home Assignment and Other Travels

Kim Brown will return to Thailand on January 12.
Ingvar and Ewa Skeppstedt were welcomed back after a short trip to Sweden which included successful surgery for Ewa.
Anna Cheng is now back in Thailand . Thank you for the many prayers and words of support for her father and family.
Marcia and Duane Binkley will be making a short trip to Thailand later this month to attend CBF team meetings in Chiang Mai.
Margaret Gibbs, new BMS Asia Representative, will be in country at the end of January.
Lyndal and LukGade Brunner will return to Chiang Rai on January 24.
Jit and Jan Yawan arrived back in Thailand on November 27.
LaMon Brown returned from bottle and diaper duty on January 3.
Pat Brown will reluctantly give up rocking the babies to return to Chiang Mai on January 25, along with her two sisters.

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Congratulations!!!

To Pat and LaMon Brown on the birth of twin grandchildren –
Alex and Bella born to Jason and Lori Brown (and little brother, Nico) on November 26

To Lyn and Lee Morris in the marriage of two sons -
Ben and Amee – January 12
Caleb and Shareen – February 3

To the New Life Center in the recent celebration of their 20 th Anniversary
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Other Announcements:
The Baw Gaew House has been given over to the KBC by IM. Any inquiries regarding staying at the house (rates, reservations and details) should be made to the KBC office.
Taize Style Worship is led by LaMon Brown every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM in the Hamlin Chapel at McGilvary Seminary

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Love and Appreciation

It is with great sadness but also joy that we reluctantly bid farewell to Bi Clark as TBMF's Office Manager. Bi has faithfully served TBMF for many years. She has been the cheerful “face” of TBMF for many of us, offering invaluable help, knowledge (her brain holds a lot of information!) and support. What will we possibly do without her?
As much as we hate to see Bi leave us, we are so thankful to God for the blessing of little Baby Clark . We pray that God will continue to strengthen both baby and mother and bless Bill and Bi as they move into a wonderful, new and exciting life.

God bless you. We love you!
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Upcoming Events/Meetings

TAT Meeting – January 28

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Are you looking for the Volunteer Handbook, the new Guidelines for Helping Volunteers, the latest TBMF Directory, or the current copy of the Rules & By-laws? Check Out the TBMF Website for these and many other documents
www.tbmf.org
User ID: baptist
Password: godislove
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Prayer Requests:

• Please continue to pray for Alex Rodgers and his godmother.
• Please continue to pray for Marcia Binkley that she will remain cancer free .
• Please pray for Vicki Rees as she recovers from pneumonia.
• Continue to pray for Annie Dieselberg as she recovers from a recent illness. Thankfully, her symptoms are much improved.
• Please continue to pray for “Baby Clark” that he/she will grow healthy and strong and that Bi will also have good health.

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Got something to share?
Send any news items, events, prayer requests, “comings and goings” to Ellen Burnette for the next Fellowship News ( communications@tbmf.org ).

The following is a Christmas Greeting from the Ernviks in Sweden :

The 1:st of Advent

The 1:st of Advent. Darkness – and light. Actually a ray of sunshine too. The red berrys in our wintergreen bush in the garden are shining bright. One evening I participated in an ”inspirational” in one of the flowershops in town. Candles, Christmas music, and wonderful flower arrangements. I made the decision that I love the green Christmas! But the woman in the flowershop told us that this year the Christmas should be black! A black Christmas – what an horror!

It's no news that time is passing by, but it's a sort of strange anyway. In June Anika and Timothy will graduate, and we need to get used to the thought of a house not so crowded any more. But before that happens, we hope that we will be able to do some kind of family experience together, we'll see how God leads us.

Those of you that know us know that in this family we are project oriented. Josua is building and playing war with his Star Wars. Lydia and her friends are producing a video about a foreign girl coming to Sweden . Judit has a project constantly going on that she calls ”clean the room”. Now she has decided that she will develop it until a ”paint the room” project, but since I told her that the first project needs to be done first, nothing more has happened. In between her projects she is playing volleyball. Timothy and Anika are training for their driving licences, but are also working with projects in school – Anika about paint therapy, and Timothy about what it is to be adopted. Exciting! Myself I am working on some kind of ”conclusion” projects. In October I organized and talked on a conference for adult Missionary Kids who grew up in Congo , as I did. It was really exciting to being gathered! I am also trying to write down what I've learned so far about the relations between parents and children. Otto is the one keeping the family going on, but he has also started to carve himself a knife! Well, as you see, the projects are a little bit different, depending on which stage of the life we are in.

Last summer Josua found out that he had travelled from the south to the north of Sweden . On Easter we were hiking in the far south, and in August we were hiking in the area of the highest mountains of Sweden , in the far north. In June we drove our car to the Netherlands for a bicycle vacation, so all together our Wolksvagen van made some thousands kilometers that summer. Otherwise it is just waiting in the garage, except for some short trips with Timothy and Anika practising.

So, what does this Christmas want to tell us? When we sang our Hosanna today, our pastor asked us if we knew what we just had done. While singing Hosanna, we are asking God to help us! Maybe this Christmas wants to remind us about that God is here, that he came to us, and that he wants to help us! It is a overwhelming thought that God cares about me, and it is a overwhelming thought that I can depend on him! Maybe the wishlist of this year can be a prayerlist: God, help me! And maybe the gift of this year is that you can be the answer of someones prayer!

We wish you a green Christmas
and a year filled of answers to your prayers!

Otto, Ulrika, Anika, Timothy, Judit , Lydia , Josua
Ernvik
Ekliden 19, 542 43 Mariestad, Otto.Ulrika@hem.utfors.se