Welcome to the year of the tiger! Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine's day. We heard the fireworks going off Saturday night, and saw the aftermath - red paper from pagaras (strings of firecrackers) as well as boxes of firecrackers shot into the air lying in front of the many Chinese stores the following morning.

Large bat killed in church service: The most unusual event this week was not the excellent church service and attendance at both the main church and Winti Wai in the morning. The evening church service was sparsely attended. There was a surprise birthday party for one of our faithful ladies. Those invited were told to come after the evening service, but that advice was ignored. However, we had a special "guest" toward the end of Kalow Palata's sermon... a large bat. If he had just stayed up around the ceiling and eaten some insects quietly, no problem. But he insisted on divebombing several of us in the church, including the choir leader, myself, and several persons in the audience. It was pretty hard to keep composure when he flew within a foot or two of you!

I did not realize that there are 1100 species of bats - 20% of the total number of mammals. Pretty impressive. We have a lot of small bats here; they love to go in the rafters, and their dung can drift down through the ceiling and make everything a bit black. Then I know that there are vampire bats that kill a lot of cattle here. And I read about fruit bats... This one was pretty impressive - must have had a wingspan over a foot wide. Several swatted at him without success. Then our intrepid maintenance man, Andre Galong, solved our problem. He got a rake (like raking leaves), and waited until the bat went to the corner of the ceiling to make his banking turn, and with one quick movement, down came the bat, who quickly went to "bat heaven." I think that the rake, with multiple small metal tines, may have messed up his echo system. At any rate, that ended the excitement for the service. I await enlightening remarks from our readers.

Property for Sunny Point church: We have been praying for property for Sunny Point for some time. A good location has been available, and the owner received numerous calls. We were able to find the necessary funds to purchase the property last week, and with the approval of Baptist World Mission, the funds were made available here in Suriname yesterday. At the notaris (the person you must go through for property), we found out that both we and the owner had some paperwork necessary before the purchase could be completed. We found out also that the transport (translate that taxes) costs were about twice as high as we had anticipated, and will add about $2000 to the purchase cost. However, these problems should be able to be solved in the next few weeks. So please make that a matter of prayer.

The next tasks then will be to actually start work on the building. This will involve preparing the land (clearing it, etc), having proper building plans created, and raising the necessary funds for the building materials. The church, though not large, has men who plan to do much of the building themselves.

Important step toward independence: This Sunday, we will present the statutes to each of the four churches for their official approval. We have given multiple opportunities for corrections, and no further suggestions have come, so I am anticipating that they will be approved. At the same time, we will recommend new leadership for each of the churches. In the case of the main church, this will also include the additional recommendation of Kalow Palata to take over my position as senior pastor. I will then continue overall supervision of the ministry, but will be in more of an advisory role, with the Surinamers taking the "hands on" ministry.

A personal request for total healing from the "flu" which has hung on for nearly a week. I have been functioning, but barely. Someone asked if this was the "swine flu" or not? So far, I have not been rooting on the floor, or feeling a compulsion to "oink".

Prayer requests:

1. Health and strength for the work
2. Continued spiritual growth and walk in the Spirit
3. Safety driving, etc.
4. Independence of the churches - especially this week's vote
5. Continued growth of outreach through Bible Institutes, radio & TV
6. Souls saved and discipled