Chit Chat

I can't believe that it has been more than a month since I posted anything about Jimmie or our work. But after Ellen, the other full-time secretary at Truth for the World, fell and broke her arm on September 3rd my days got a tad more hectic. She just returned to the office on November 7th with limited work duty so she is recovering slowly and still needs lots of therapy.

Jimmie is feeling much better now that he is on thyroid replacement medication, but he still hits that wall every afternoon when his energy just evaporates suddenly. At least he now has some energy to loose. And he is sounding like his old self again, cracking jokes and singing. We are so thankful that the surgeon did not damage his vocal chords while removing his thyroid gland. The doctor told us last week that Jimmie is not cancer-free yet, but he is close. He also said that the soreness that Jimmie has in his throat will probably be with him until next spring.

Our Truth for the World Mission Forum was this past weekend. I am heavily involved with that, from typing the brochures to setting up the refreshments and many other duties in-between. This forum went very smoothly and I credit that to the fact that I received some wonderful help from some other ladies involved with TFTW - Kristen Underwood, Katrece Howard and Elisha Richardson. But one lady truly amazed me. I called a member at Duluth, Carol Lollar, for some decorating ideas because she always does an outstanding job on those at the Duluth congregational functions and Carol offered to handle the whole thing for me. She came up with something absolutely wonderful, then she and Glenda Sams took care of everything in the fellowship hall. These sisters certainly made my weekend duties easier and I was very grateful to all of them.

-Linda

November 2008 Report

Dear Christian Friend,

October was a bumpy month . . . literally. The construction next door really swung into high gear and the big machines were rattling a lot more than our studio microphones. The upstairs staff got the brunt of it, but there were days when even those of us in the basement wondered if we were having an earthquake. Naturally, this caused havoc with our studio recording schedules but the Gospel went out via radio and television just the same.

October was also a bumpy month for our online Bible Correspondence Course program. Our site went down on September 18th and October was not bringing any improvement with the Internet server we pay monthly to host this. The problem was in the computer language. Our courses were written in an old script so our server had us on some very old equipment that broke down repeatedly. But Alan Carlyle has saved the day for us. He is a member at the Duluth congregation and a volunteer extraordinaire. He spent many months rewriting the computer script into a new language that would make it portable. He completed this project in October so our online Bible Correspondence Courses have now been transferred to new equipment – at a new server company. We are happy to report that things are definitely looking up for our Internet outreach.

William Howard is organizing a campaign in early January 2009. You may recall that William began a few years ago to search for campaign mission spots that tend to be overlooked. He first targeted the Falkland Islands, but the costs to get there have skyrocketed. So William searched for another mission area, and found Iceland. Iceland is an island nation in the North Atlantic just below the Arctic Circle. It is a land of frozen glaciers, active volcanoes, and more than 300,000 souls who are mostly Lutheran. The language there is Icelandic (a variation of Old Norse) but English is widely spoken as a second language. There is one tiny congregation of the Lord’s church in the capital city of Reykjavik. William hopes to encourage these brethren and possibly get our Truth for the World radio or television programs on a local station. Please keep those on this campaign in your prayers.

We are grateful for your faithful support. Thank you.

Staff of Truth for the World