As Alan said previously, we are looking for a new pastor for Faith Baptist Church of Hamilton, ON. The reason for that is because the Lord has called him to be a missionary to Togo, West Africa. We have been at Faith since we were first married. That's 15 years!! We praise the Lord for giving us this wonderful congregation with whom to serve and grow. We feel like we grew up here! All four of our children were born here, and were in church since the first Sunday they were born. The church is growing and exciting things are happening! But God chose for us to leave. I am thankful that there were no problems that are pulling us away. I am so thankful for a group of people who want to serve the Saviour, and who takes care of their pastor. Although they are sad to be losing him as their pastor, they have been most encouraging and are excited to see what God is doing in this next chapter of our lives. We love you Faith, and we will miss you terribly! Thank you so much for allowing God to use you in such a great way in our lives, and for loving us so much! May the Lord richly bless you as you endeavor to serve our Lord, and look for a pastor to lead you.

We will miss Canada so much. The Lord is so good to give us this great land. We love it here!! However, God has placed another love in our hearts as well. You see, Alan went on a missions trip to West Africa 2 1/2 yrs. ago. He absolutely loved it, but at that time, he did not intend on ever leaving Canada. Fast forward to Spring of 2009. I did not know that the Lord had been "talking" to him about Africa. What I knew was that for some reason, there was such a longing for it. It seemed that that was all he could talk about. But he still never said anything to me about going, or even asked my opinion, or anything. When he first prayed about it, he basically said to the Lord, "If this is what you truly want, you will have to put a neon sign in front of me that says, Africa, this way! And would you put it in Ida's heart to where she will bring it up first." Well, in April, I had the privilege to fly to Lubbock, TX to see my parents get baptized (that will be another blog). (I am so happy for them and VERY proud of them. They are really growing in the Lord by leaps and bounds!!!) Anyway, while I was there, I had never planned on mentioning anything to them, but for some reason, I just started talking about Africa. I told them that I felt I had to prepare them about something. I said, "I don't really think it will be anytime in the near future, but for some reason, Alan seems to be longing to go to Africa. It seems he can't focus, and it doesn't matter what the situation at church is, he just seems to be talking more and more about it. He's not talking about going, he is just talking about IT." I said, "If he says that God is calling him to go, I will NOT discourage it, and the children and I will happily go and serve with him." I was told, "You know that Africa is a very dangerous place, but if that is where God wants you, then that is where you need to be! And He will take care of you and your needs." Just like that. This from a man that had at that time only been save for about 6 months!! My heart overflowed with joy at that satement!! I called Alan because I was soooo excited about what had just happened. He said, "Wow, George has really grown!!!" It wasn't until I got home that he realized that his prayer had been answered. When I recounted to him excatly what happened, he turned white, but he still did not say anything to me. It was a couple of weeks later, after many sleepless nights for him, that he started seeking counsel from other pastor friends. God still would not give him peace in his heart until he came right out and said, "I will go!!!" He has slept like a baby ever since!!! There is so much more that happened to get him to that point. He argued with the Lord many times, and thankfully, the Lord won.