August 24, 2006 Update

Dear Friends,

I have an exciting update for you. There have been several people that we have been praying for concerning their need for salvation. Back in February we had a family, the Malans, join our church. The Malans have two boys, Jacques 14 and Danie 20. Jacques has professed to be born again and Scripturally baptized. Danie on the other hand simply made no profession at all. His parents asked the church to pray for Danie. Danie would come to church occasionally on Sunday mornings, and when he was in church he was always quite attentive. In July we had special meetings with Evangelist Ken Lynch. Danie was there for most of the services if not all of them. It was during these special meetings that Danie raised his hand for the first time in church acknowledging his need for salvation. As a church we continued to pray for Danie. In our home as a family we were all calling out Danie's name before the Lord. Well, last night at church after the first song Brother Malan said I have an announcement to make, "Danie trusted Christ as his Savior on this week." Needless to say we had an exciting time at church. There were tears of joy as people were expressing thanks to the Lord. What an answer to prayer! Danie has already expressed his desire to be baptized.Do be in prayer concerning the baptism. It would be a good opportunity for Eamon MacDonnel to follow the Lord in this area as well. I am going to ask Eamon about it on Sunday. It will be a major step for him to take as his wife is really against this "silly phase" in his life.

This past Sunday was a busy but exciting day for me. I preached in the morning service. My co-worker Bro. Zemeski asked me to handle the Lord's Supper in the evening. I t was a great opportunity for me since it was the first time that I was completely in charge of the Lord's Supper. I was able to interweave several songs with Scripture reading from Isaiah 53 as well as testimonies from the church. Then I gave challenge to the church concerning the Lord's crucifixion in Matthew and the detail of the supper as recorded in I Corinthians. We had a great time of fellowship around the Lord's table.

Some in the church have asked me about getting a group together to sing on occasion in the services. Well, last Sunday I started a church choir with about nine of our folks. This will be an exciting venture as folks desire to serve the Lord in this way. There are not too many that have any experience in choral singing at all, but as I shared with the folks our aim is to simply do our best to convey a message in song to the church, and in doing so, our ultimate goal is in Psalm 100 "serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing." If anyone has any choir music that is not overly difficult that you may not need or want any more we would be glad to get a hold of it since there is very little available here. You could simply e-mail if you could be a help in this way, and we could then make some sort of arrangement.

Well, until next time....
May the Lord find us faithful,

Don Thatcher

August 19, 2006 Update

Dear Mission Friends,

With the woes of our last couple of weeks behind us I wanted to share with you about a visit that I had with a man on the doors this week. His name is Janny, and he is from Prague, Czech Republic. The first four doors we knocked on found no one at home. Door number five revealed a lady who appeared to be preparing dinner and became totally uninterested when we informed her of the nature of our visit. Door number six revealed Janny who immediately invited us in to sit down. This is something the very rarely happens. I began to ask him some questions from our survey, and this in turn opened the door for some interactive discussion concerning God, the Bible and salvation. Janny who is about 30 yrs. explained to me that he really had very little education throughout his life in the area of religion. I had the opportunity to explain to him that there is a God, that the Bible is Truth, mankind is in a desperate condition, and that there is a Savior who stands ready to rescue mankind from an eternity of everlasting torment. As I read Scripture to him and the Truth of the Word of God began to work you could tell his mind was taking it in and the Spirit of God was bringing conviction. I glanced up in the middle of reading from John 14 and we made eye contact. It was as if he had never heard these Words before which through his own admission, he had not. I felt the pressure of looking a lost man in the eyes who for the first time in his life began to recognize his real need. After an hour of discussion he had to leave to take his girlfriend to work. He said he would like to have a Bible and talk some more. My co-worker and his wife are possibly going to see them tonight. Please pray for Janny and his girlfriend as well that the Word of God and the Spirit of God would shine forth into the darkness of these folks lives. It was a most refreshing visit after being turned away time and time again. People are truly caught up with all that this world has to offer and have all kinds of reason to not even consider their eternity. I am preaching tomorrow out of I John 2:16-17 concerning what this world has to offer and what it's end will be. My thoughts have been focused on how slick Satan is at ensnaring mankind with what might be his greatest weapon--selfishness. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life really boil down to just that--selfishness!

I trust that you all have a great weekend as you gather together in your own local churches to serve the Lord this Lord's day.

May the Lord find us faithful,
Don Thatcher

August 10th, 2006 Update

Dear Friends,

We got the van back today! It is a great feeling to be "independent" again. The bearings finally came in from Japan and were the right ones. So, they have been installed and a couple of oil leaks fixed. The last thing to do is take it in next week for a four wheel alignment to make sure everything is running true. We thank the Lord for those that helped get us around and for Bro. and Mrs. Zemeski loaning us their car. The Zemeski's car came in quite handy for my wife to get groceries and such. We want to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for us over the past few weeks. It truly was a blessing to read the emails that many sent informing us of their prayers. As Kari pointed out when all this began to happen on the 16th of July that "we might not understand why things happen, but my Lord does, and He has His reasons", I have to admit that I really did not understand why everything seemed to come our way at once. Truly the Lord does know and He certainly has His reason. We are simply trusting Him to accomplish His good in and through us for His glory.

May the Lord find us faithful,
Don Thatcher

August 8, 2006 Update

Dear Mission Friends,

The day has finally come after a two and a half week wait for the van to make its way back to the shop to get its bearings put in. I found out the reason for the difficulty on finding bearings here in Ireland. Our van has an independent rear suspension which was only used on Japanese vehicles that were specced for use in Japan. This particular axle does not use your typical tapered roller bearings but uses a self contained pressed in unit type bearing. Therefore, there were none here in Ireland since there is no demand for them. Well, Lord willing we should get the van back tomorrow. It will then need to go in for a complete four wheel alignment to straighten up the back end.

With our van being down it was the perfect timing for our electric power shower to go out! This was the icing on the cake. With the warm summer weather and the extra walking with not having the van running, the family got a bit sweaty each day. Thank the Lord we still had the tub to get a bath. The shower was down for a week and a half. We do thank the Lord that it happened just after our visiting pastor and his wife left (maybe they broke it!! just kidding). Anyway the landlord finally got the shower man out to replace a heating element and thermostat in the shower unit. So, they shower is back up and running today! Praise the Lord. You just don't realize how many things that you take for granted each day until you are without them.

We made our way down to the city centre of Dublin last week to do our annual registration with immigration so that we can remain in Ireland for another year. We were so excited because normally it is jammed with people and can be several hours wait, and this time there were only five people in line ahead of us. But with the good there comes the bad--as we looked around we saw signs posted that declared it would now cost 100 Euro's per person per year to register. That was a great surprise to us since it has been free in the past until now. I guess Ireland is no longer a
FREE country! So far they do not require us to register the children, but that day may soon be approaching. Just the other day while out on the doors we talked to a man for about 40 minutes who was in his mind happy and content with his life without God. This man, Pat, was convinced that there is no God, the Bible is nothing more than a mere book with no benefit for man, and when a person dies then you simply cease to exist. He would not accept Scripture. He would not accept any literature nor a Bible. He was fine with us being out knocking on doors since according to him "it just makes you feel better about yourself" he informed us. As we walked away I felt disheartened as I thought about the day that will be coming soon when his eyes will focus on the Lord and his knee bow down and then confess with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. What a shocking day that will be for so many. Well, this seems to be a bit of a gloom and doom type update, but it is the way the past couple weeks have gone. We are not discouraged but are keeping our eyes on the Lord who meets our needs and sustains us each day. Do pray for the van that the job will get done and done right and for a fair price. Continue to pray for Eamon's growth and the salvation of his family. Also, pray that the Lord will give Lisa wisdom as she gets things in order for home schooling which will start very soon. We thank God for you and your continued prayers.

May the Lord find us faithful,

Don Thatcher

July 2006 Prayer Letter:

Dear Ministry friends,

I can’t believe that it is already the middle of July. As the days race by I am reminded of how little time there really is here on this earth. As I go out on the doors in the estates, I come across so many people that are content with not knowing God. People whose lives are busy chasing after the cares of this world while speedily headed toward an eternity without Christ. James 4:14 says, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Life is brief, time is short, and Jesus is soon to return! Consider the vapour of YOUR life. Are you accomplishing all that you can for God with it before it vanisheth away? It is hard to believe that on the 17th of June we celebrated two years of service to the Lord here in Ireland. In this third year we are seeking to do more for the Lord before the vapour of our lives vanisheth away.
Recent happenings:

On May 22 I was able to baptize five people three of which were my own daughters. Then two weeks later I baptized a Nigerian lady who was born again but had not been baptized. The end of May brought our semiannual seminary class. We had a great time in our study of Eschatology.

The 27th of June Lisa and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. We then took the last three days of June for a short family vacation to the southwest of Ireland. It was a great time to get away and have some fun. We just finished special meetings with Evangelist Ken Lynch. His wife Barbara was with him so our church hosted a ladies fellowship. This may have been a first here in Ireland among independent Baptist missionaries. We had twenty-one ladies attend. Half of which were ladies from our church.

Upcoming events:

Prayer requests:

• John/Romans mail out to Leixlip and Lucan
• Eamon MacDonald spiritual growth through discipleship/baptism
• Eamon’s wife Aileen to be saved.
• Our door to door work.
• Our spiritual life to be close to the Lord
  
  We will have a church picnic this coming Saturday to which we have invited some unsaved folks that we have met through contacts and door visits. In two weeks we will have a visit from a supporting pastor from Indiana, Tim Berlin and his wife with us for a few days. In August we will celebrate the first anniversary of River Valley Baptist Church. Then, November brings our second annual Faith Promise Missions Conference with Dr. John Halsey. Well,
  until next time…
  
  May the Lord find us Faithful,
  
  Don & Lisa Thatcher and Family
  
  Map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission.