Buzzard Bylines 1988

• Chris & Anne Matthies
  We've been in Spain a year and a half now and fast moving into the teaching role that God has called us to. This year I sent down and transcribed every word of a 20-hour video class of `PROGRESS' (36 single-spaced typewritten pages) by Mr. Hatch. At present, almost half of it is translated into Spanish. I'm teaching Progress of Redemption (La Unidad de la Biblia) on Mon. nights in a small town called Azuqueca, near Guadalajara, and again on Tues. nights in our own church in Arganda. Also I'm personally discipling 6 men. Anne is leading some women's Bible studies and helping teach the children of the church. Jay & Andy are doing well in Spanish school and fast becoming Spaniards. We also enjoy the benefit of working alongside other CBC'ers: Paul & Carol Thompson, Jim & Marilyn Reed, Scott & Kit (Anne's sister) Hill, Doug & Alleene Kracht, and Craig Cook. Looking forward to hearing from some of you.

• Tricia & Dan Miller
  We're busy into packing and getting visas/passports/physicals and tickets completed. The children are excitedly waiting our return to the Philippines. I've enjoyed this cooler weather and am not looking forward to the humidity. But Dan and I are so thankful as we reflect on the past two years over my progress and that it really seems feasible for us to return. I have several trips to Atlanta to fit in yet-where my second (spare) leg is being completed. I have been so thankful for an excellent therapist and prosthetist. We covet your prayers that my leg would function well with minimal maintenance needs (Dan will be responsible for my occasional `tune-ups'). This time leaving will be especially difficult as my father's health is poor. He is on 24-hour oxygen. We're thankful for all the special times we've had this past year and a half. I take this opportunity to say thanks to each of you who have prayed for our family these past years through our different crises. God has been faithful! Though we haven't liked the trials-God has provided peach that can only come from His Spirit. "Be still and KNOW that I am God." What a comfort to know that God is God-fully in control.

• Marlene & Paul Wenzel
  We're still here in the pastorate-starting our 10th year and thankful to the Lord for putting us here. The end of Jan. Paul will be meeting with the SAM as they consider him as a possible board member. We're looking forward to visiting the Strombergs. After that we're going to a conference in Orlando where Chuck Colson is speaking and we are very excited about being `ministered unto.' {And we're looking forward to warmth as it's snowing here!). Feb. 5 Paul will be speaking at a CBC chapel. They will be flying him down so he'll go alone-wish I could go! We recently saw Paul & Louella Tripp. They left a fruitful pastorate to join one of Jay Adams' Counseling Centers in the Phila. area. Paul now has his doctorate in counseling. As always it `s great to be near Bill & Marlita. So come visit and we can get together.

• Martha & Jorge Cuevas
  This has been one of the most exciting years of my life. The Lord worked it out to start a Precept upon Precept group here. Let me recommend it to you-it's like going to CBC again. JB and Andrew are growing. We are still homeschooling. We moved into a new house Jorge built on the land we bought. My sister has moved to NC and God is restoring the years that the locusts have eaten, but it is hard because she needs to come to a true place of repentance. Rhett Sanders became our stated supply to the church in Jan. He is still Program Director for Ridge Haven Conference Center so is a very busy man. But oh what a delight to have my father in the Lord as my pastor again.

• Pam & Fred Tuggy
  Pam went to PA for blood circulation testing and to Houston for hormone balance testing. She is presently on hormone medication but feeling about the same. Wendy's near the end of the long process of having a large plantar wart removed from the bottom of her foot, and Terry's compound arm fracture at the beginning of the school year is almost healed. The kids are now in grades 6,7, and 8 and are a great help around the house. We have changed to a church a half-hour from home so we can be more involved and make Sun. easier on Pam. Fred still works on lots of cars. There are more than 175 belonging to group members in Tucson and many have over 100,000 miles on them.

• Stephen & Debbie Fields
  I am now in Property Management with our resort here. The last year and a half I have been in charge of credit and collections. My new position offers new challenges and learning opportunities. Debbie & I are going to a small country church were I teach on Weds. evenings. I still have a Bible study at the office and one on early Sun. mornings for a group of sales people who work Sundays. Our youth rally this summer was a great success with 300 decisions of one sort or another. I was in charge of games for several hundred kids for 4 evenings.

• Doris & Neil Wolfe
  We relocated to Belem, a sprawling riverfront city with one million people, in July. Our family lives in a 2-bedroom apartment on the 4th floor of a complex near the city zoo and the MCEB language school where we are studying Portuguese each weekday morning. Andy & Elaina are doing very well academically and adjust to their new classmates, etc. at Amazon Valley Academy. We have many Brazilian neighbors and are glad for the opportunity to learn more Portuguese and Brazilian culture. We are walking distance from several churches, modern groceries, an open air market and many little stores. We depend on the city buses to get out to the Wycliffe Center, a distance of about 15 kilometers, and for the kids to get home from school in the afternoon. We would happily welcome visitors anytime.

• Ed & Margaret Maehlmann
  To keep his brain from atrophying, Ed enrolled at Wood Jr. College where he has taken algebra and finite math during the summers. Courses are taught on a schedule that doesn't interfere with his teaching. Margaret has been teaching 4-H club since Aug. It consists of 14 girls ages 8-15 meeting every other Tues. after school. Monika is in the group and has been learning to sew. Ed and Rick lengthened their long-distance bike rides when they road to Jackson and partway back on Oct. 25.

• Marlita & Bill Walker
  We are still at the Free Church outside Allentown, PA but the Lord allowed us to moved into our own home last Dec. and we have enjoyed it greatly. We run about 50 jr. & sr. high on Weds. nights but there is a core of 15 who are really committed. We recently put on "Hi Tops" a Maranatha musical for teens, which I directed. It was a wonderful experience and increased the unity among the teens. Melody started K this year and really loves it. The older 2 are in public school and it hasn't been quite as terrifying as we had imagined. Bill is doing some heavy praying and introspection trying to figure out if we need to move in another direction. We are at that mid-life where we look back and forward and wonder if we are accomplishing all that God has wanted. We're grateful that `He is Faithful' and not dependent on our strength.

• Deb & Paul Haken
  God has given us a contentment and peace this time in Cameroon. Our first two years were difficult, adjustment ones. The kids are doing well in school. We are thankful for a good one but it only goes through 9th grade. SIL is seriously planning to start its own high school in 1991. It'll need lots of work and prayer. Our baby Josiah is learning to talk and we're really enjoying him. Pray for Cameroon in these days of world economic crisis, that unity and peace will continue and that many will receive God's Word in their own language.

• Rhonda Hartell
  The International Linguistics Center at Dallas has grown considerably since I was last here. I share two offices. I am editing a book with John Bendor-Samuel on classification of Niger- Congo languages in Africa and have a desk in his office where I work afternoons. In the morning I work on the IBM computer in the IL Coordinator's office. I got the first draft of the book to the publisher Dec. 21 but there is so much left to do that I've decided to teach only one course-phonology-next semester. I think I've found a church I can settle in-an Episcopalian one near our Center. I need prayer for coping with the cold weather this winter-it is debilitating and depressing for someone with Africa in the blood.

• Armand & Jean LeBlanc
  The work here is progressing. We are lining up our Christmas whirl of guest and witnessing. We've got a film this Sat. and a few thousand other things to do. The Bible correspondence work has been good this past year. About 70 have applied to study this year. We had a good time at Thanksgiving with the folks from America here-turkey & cranberry sauce. Jean is a bit frazzled by me being gone (as field director for the mission I get to touch base with folks and help make decisions, etc.) and Christmas is being on her too.

• Al & Daisy Ortiz
  In March, Allen Thompson and I met with 6 national pastors and brought about (after 6 years of waiting) not only organizational reconciliation but also the start of a healthy interdependent relationship between mission and church. It was also the birth of the Center for Ministerial Training. In May, 12 churches from 5 regions gathered for worship and fellowship at an annual conference. It was another time in which old wounds were healed and fellowship restored among brethren. In the middle of July I spent a week in Puerto Rico with my mother who had rapidly advancing cancer. I was able to convince her to come live with us. Her death 3 weeks later was not an easy one, yet in the midst of the struggle we prayed together, read scripture, sang hymns and spiritual sons with reassurance that we will meet again soon. In Nov. Daisy and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. I gave her a wedding set to replace the one stolen 28 years ago. Our son Edwin needs to have the kidney operation that was diagnosed last Nov. Surgery will be done in Dec.

• Grady & Vicki Merritt
  The Lord provided us with an '84 GMC van four weeks after our old vehicle was rearended and totaled and has provided overtime work to meet the additional expense. I am fully recovered and our home school has gotten back on track. The boys keep busy with various church activities, homeschool outings and YMCA soccer begins next month. We are considering a trip to Iowa to see my 80 yr. old grandparents. We are very excited that Ben Lippen School is moving to Columbia and hope to send Ben there for 10th-12th grades. He just turned a teenager and we are enjoying it for the most part.