UPDATE FROM 10-31-09

Dear Friends and Family, We are now into our 4th block of the semester. We just finished up Family Relationships, Romans, and 1 & 2 Peter. Romans had been going since the beginning of the school year and is now over. It was very informative and explains very well the inheritance that belongs to Christians. Family Relationships was also really good. It dealt more with being "others centered". Whether as a single or a married, with kids or without, with fellow believers or with the unsaved. 1 & 2 Peter went smoothly as well, but Peter throws a lot of theological things in there, so more independent study will prove beneficial. New classes are Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit), Angels/Demons/Satan, and Soteriology (study of Salvation). They have been going really well for the first few days now and we are excited to learn God's plan for His Church more each day. The kids have been falling like domino's to colds. The Academy that Alexis, Alyssa, and Aiden attend actually shut down for 3 days because more that 75% of the school was out due to illness. Delilah and I have had mild head colds but nothing major and little Alton has had the worst of it. All the kids took turns getting a high fever. Alton was second to the last to get it and then he was healthy for about 5 days (or so it seemed) and now he has a very high fever again and croup. So with all that going on Delilah has had quite a bit of time out of the classroom. Prayer requests: Health and perseverance; That God will use these circumstances (although mild) to build our faith and dependence on Him; Even though it is about 2 and 1/2 years early please continue to be in prayer about our support raising. Love in Christ, The Spears

september 09

Hello Friends and Family,


Well summer for Delilah and I has come and gone and we are now back in school for our second and final year here at NTBI Jackson. The kids are still out of school as they don't go back until the day after Labor Day.

Summer turned out to be good for work and money for school bills. I had a chance to see many of you and give more detailed updates on how life is here. For the ones that I did not get a chance to see, maybe next time we can get together.

Delilah and I cannot say thank you enough to those of you who support us with your prayers and/or money. God is an awesome and faithful provider, whether that is through family or friends or even strangers sometimes, when out of the blue you receive a note of encouragement and prayer.

Our hearts are being constantly broken for the vast amount of work that needs to be done around the world in bringing the "Good News" of Jesus to a lost and dying people. As you can imagine there are numerous stories that go around of work that is being done, people that are getting saved, people that are rejecting the message, etc. One of the more recent ones involved a man in a tribe in New Guinea that received Christ as his Savior (praise) but along with his great joy of finding Christ he was immediately reminded of the generations of family members before him that went to a Christless eternity. The tribesman reflected for several minutes by saying "...my brother is in hell, my father is in hell, his father before him is in hell, his father before him is in hell...etc."

Delilah use to have a saying on her Facebook page that said "Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart". That has almost become our families motto. Whether at home or abroad we pray that it will continue to be, or become your motto as well.

Love,

The Spears family