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Summertime Update!

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.” – Russel Baker

There are many things we are attempting to do to prepare us for when we make the final move to the Caribbean… Eat more Caribbean food, try to speak more Spanish, and… teach ourselves to cope with the heat! This picture was taken while driving through Birmingham, AL in May. I tried to convince Lana that in order to fully prepare for our transition we should forgo using air conditioning for the rest of the summer… She didn’t go for it.

Support Update


Over the past couple months we’ve been in many different states and have added a couple more supporting churches! We now have 35 supporting churches and are steadily moving towards our goal of finishing by the end of 2012. July will be our slowest month with August falling right behind as a “slower” month. We’re planning on attending the Spiritual Leadership Conference at Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, CA next


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Merry Christmas from the Cretzmans! (Nov/Dec update)

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Luke 2:10

Christmas is always a special time of year for everyone. We just love listening to all the old Christmas carols; especially with a good cup of hot chocolate (and marshmallows!). I’m very thankful that the message of the birth of Christ was not limited to a few people but to all people. What a wonderful Savior!



(FOR A PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS PRAYER LETTER PLEASE CLICK HERE)


Ministry Update


We spent November out west and December out east. The Lord allowed us to present our ministry in nine different churches while having to cancel five due to sickness.. It is a very difficult thing for us to cancel meetings. Not only do we not have “sick days” but we miss out on meetings that sometimes have taken a year to schedule! So, thank you for your prayers because I’m sure those days I was sick could have been a lot worse!! But praise the Lord for six churches that we feel a strong possibility for support. We actually just had a church the other day call us completely out of the blue to inform us they’ll begin supporting us first thing in January. What an encouragement! We’re now at 62%!


62%


				

								

			

			

		
			

				
Sept/Oct 2011 Update

			
				










[For a printer friendly version of this prayer letter, click here.] 








Stuffed!


“And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.” Ex. 36:6


Adam Richman tackling the 10lb pizza challenge


Have you ever eaten so much food that you simply could not pack any more into your stomach? I have. In fact, I’m sure every man (a real man, that is) has done that one time or another. I remember one instance in particular. I was a fourteen year old boy at the time, and Pastor Homan (our school principal – whom I was very well acquainted with!) took our entire class out to have some pizza buffet at Pizza Hut. To make a long, funny story short, our pizza outing turned into a contest among us kids to see who could eat the most pizza slices! So, I somehow managed to pack twenty-three slices of pizza into my expanding, adolescent stomach… a new personal record! And yes, it was much to Pastor Homan’s (and every other adults’) chagrin! I didn’t get any demerits, but we also never went to Pizza Hut again.


I think that feeling was somewhat what was going on in Moses’ mind when the people were assisting in the building of the Tabernacle. They gave so much that the people were literally “restrained” from giving! They simply couldn’t fit any more in! Oh, that we would be so giving to others and to the cause of Christ that we would make others feel completely “stuffed!” What word would best describe your giving?




Deputation Update


October seems to be “missions month” in North America so we found ourselves very busy in missions conferences all across the US. We had some great missions conferences and meetings with Liberty Baptist 


				

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July/August Update

			
				
“Can you sign my Bible?”


I don’t think I will ever get used to that question. Since we’ve been traveling and presenting God’s call on our lives to go to Cuba I’ve been blessed with the privilege of scribbling my name down in someone’s Bible just next to some of the greatest men of God I’ve personally been blessed to know. Never have I felt adequate enough or worthy of such an honour. It is a true test on one’s humility for sure! 


And with that action comes the responsibility of leaving a verse. Perhaps something that has made an impact personally, something you think will aid someone else, or a life verse. I struggled with what to put down, usually just seceding to one of my default favorite verses – Philippians 3:13-14. As a teenager these verses kept me moving forward in my Christian walk, but somehow they just didn’t quite seem to fit anymore. Then one day as I was


				

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