Greetings from Suriname. I think that both Liz and I have adjusted back pretty much to the heat. We certainly aren't cold any more as we were in the USA! We are still in the end of the dry season, the hottest time of the year - though some rains have started coming.

The churches have done well during our absence. The week we arrived, every bench was occupied at the main church, and I would estimate between 250-275 in attendance. The second week was nearly the same. We have had some visitors as well, though no profession in the services themselves. I have had the opportunity one week to see one profession, and the second to see 3 adults profess Christ at home. However, we are still waiting to see them come to church. But a number of fairly new Christians were in their places both weeks. During our time in the USA for three months, although the main church really did not have a senior pastor as such taking over, the team functioned well.

Bible Institutes began this week. I had expected a drop in the regular Bible Institute attendance, both from people having completed the course, and others who have school schedules in the evening when we have the course. However, I had not anticipated a drop of well over 50%, with only 7 students on Monday. A few forgot. However, I was pleased to see almost all the persons at the Advanced Bible Institute in attendance, and some new students as well. We should have about 25-26 students for the advanced classes Both classes went well.

I am making progress in learning how to set up DVD's for the Advanced Bible Institute classes. I still have a number of basic things to learn, and then hopefully will be able also to improve the lessons with better techniques as time goes on. The basic difference has been the ability to use a mac program called Keynote, which has permitted me to make adequate audio recordings of the presentation. When I had tried to do this directly in Powerpoint, the audio was always a problem. It looks like I will be able to make most of the presentations live - and then trim off the unnecessary parts and perhaps add an introduction and conclusion to the program in the future. However, there is still an additional program I need to learn in addition to Final Cut express - called iDVD. Then I think we will be pretty well set. It will still require a few weeks of learning for sure.

We had a very good meeting concerning the churches going independent last Saturday night. We were able to come to an agreement on some of the structural issues of the church leadership, and plan to present the entire program to the churches on December 6^th. Our goal is to allow time for study and ask for an approval in each of the four churches so that the government can receive the necessary paperwork early in the year 2010. It has been a long haul - over 3 years. Please pray for its completion.

As we move toward independence, we want all 4 churches to have national pastors and leadership. When we started the first church, I was the senior pastor. As we added additional churches, we had national pastors for them, but have not found a good candidate to take over the main church. Until now I have been functioning as the senior pastor of the main church, and we have been looking for a replacement without success for several years. Thus in addition to overall supervision of the churches, I have had responsibilities for directs "hands on" care of the main church. However, it is apparent now that the church has been able to manage well in my absence under the leadership of Kalow Palata. Kalow is limited by health issues, but has a successful team and things seem to have gone well. Thus I am requesting to step down as senior pastor, and focus on my role being able to advise and stimulate all the churches. If accepted, I would plan to preach and teach in all four churches in a rotating schedule. I would also concentrate on national training, especially in the Bible Institute, working with those in training for becoming pastors, and in encouraging outreach through the nationals themselves. It will be a definite step forward toward independence, and I have been sensing the Lord's leading to take this step for some time. The timing really seems to be correct as we move toward total independence of the churches.

We would also appreciate your prayers about a situation which has arisen concerning our housing. Our house is quite large, as it functions not only as a place where we live, but also as a guest house with three guest rooms, my office, a studio for radio/TV production, and storage area for printed materials, Bibles, etc. In the past, it also was where our bus stayed until it was sold, and the church office was also here until we closed it last year. It appears that we will be able to get another three year contract at a very good price, but it involves payment of some months in advance. The situation has arisen due to an impending divorce proceedings of the owner of the house, who lives in Holland. We have checked with a lawyer here, and we are proceeding with caution, but we certainly do not want to move from this location at this time.

We have had some requests concerning teaching missions as well as church mission conferences for our three months in the USA in 2010, and we would appreciate your prayers concerning them as well. Scheduling the requests is a challenge due to our time frame.

Prayer requests:

1. Health and strength for the work here in Suriname
2. Our spiritual growth and growth in understanding
3. Independence of the churches with national leadership
4. Modification of my role with the churches
5. Bible Institutes - growth
6. Housing situation
7. Further outreach with salvation of souls - particularly spearheaded by nationals