As a church we are entering our 35^th Anniversary year very excited. The two things we want to do during this year are to get truly close to the Lord and win more souls to Him.

The first special event that is planned is our annual Preaching Conference. Here many of God's choice servants come from across the country, coast to coast, border to border, and beyond our boundaries to be challenged, refreshed, and have great fellowship with like-believers. It has become a truly special spiritual time for many.

Our guest preachers include Bob Kelley, who is loved by our people; Don Green, who truly stirred our hearts last year; R. B. Ouellette, who has been coming to this conference longer than any other; and Tom Corkish from Utah, who is a special friend and always a blessing. Please call our office for further information. Most of our people open their homes to guests, and we have also gotten good rates at area motels.

Our congregation's highlight of the year, I'm sure, will be the 23-day revival meeting in July. We just want to get closer to God and be more real. I am preaching on the need for personal revival more than ever. The world is so wicked, and Christians are getting so weak that they are losing their children and everything else important to the devil. We have simply asked all of our people to set these 23 days aside for God, making their job the only other major thing they do during this time. We will not have the choir sing and only have one simple special number before the message. We will have testimonies as the meetings progress and door-knocking at the end; but most of all, we are praying that God will be seen in results of the preaching. Please pray for us that we will see revival.

The actual time that we will celebrate our anniversary is September 25^th, with our long-time friend Dr. Phil Shuler preaching. We want to honor our Lord, especially at this time, with souls saved. As we have done so many times in the past, a big tent will be erected, and we will have "Old-fashioned Day." We always have a simple salvation sermon for the four Sundays of September and are thrilled and amazed by the people who accept Christ as their Saviour. We also want to set a new record for the number of people riding our Sunday School buses in the year 2005.

Our two major building projects are still moving along. The first, the education building, is many months past the scheduled completion date, but the exterior should be finished by the time you are reading this. Our men are in the second year of a scheduled four-year plan to completely renovate the interior. The huge new multi-purpose building is moving along at a much quicker pace. I am hopeful that we will be in the library next fall some time, and that the building will be complete in a year from now. This is the last major building we have planned, and its 58,000 square feet will greatly enhance our ministries. Everything is so tight now that every space is used for Sunday School and Junior Church. When all is complete, we will have 11 new classrooms, a new, larger lunchroom, a college chapel, and much expanded gymnasium facilities that will also be used for all of our ministries. We are very excited.

In November one of our deacons, Greg Gaus, and I visited some of our missionaries in Cambodia. John Kenderdine started the Victory Baptist Church two years ago in Siem Reap. Since that time God has built a truly amazing ministry not only in the average of 230 that they are running, but also in the tremendous growth of the people who have been saved.

They are already in their second building program that will enable the church to accommodate 850 people. Two single men, Ra Yoeum and Joe Bishop are helping now while our other graduates, Eli Schrock and his wife Mari-lyn, are on deputation. When Eli goes back to Cambodia, Ra and Joe will start deputation. Eventually the Schrocks plan to start another church.

If you want to support an outstanding work, you can imagine the added expense that comes with this explosive growth. John or Eli can be contacted through our church office. It was a wonderful experience for Greg and me to see a work with God's hand so evidently upon it-souls being saved weekly, many growing quickly, and young men called to the ministry.