October 2007 Prayer letter

Dear Ministry Friends,

Autumn is here and well under way in Ireland. The roads are extra busy during school drop off/pick up times, and our own children are well into their home schooling too. We have found a very good music teacher for Kevin to continue his classical guitar lessons, and Lisa is teaching each of our three girls to play the piano. Little Kaleb turned two in August. So there is no shortage of excitement in our house! We thank God for our children.

The work here in Waterford continues to press forward. I have been going through a series of discipleship studies on Sunday evenings. The have been a grand help to those who come. I have a man in his 60’s that is half way through an eighteen month prison term. He was coming to the services just before we came to Waterford. He got saved about this time last year. I have been able to keep him supplied with the same discipleship studies that we are going through as a church, and it has been a great help and blessing to him. I have been able to make the four hour round trip journey to visit him at the prison on two occasions so far. Please pray for Michael as he grows in the Lord and is looking forward with great delight to be back with us in July to serve the Lord in whatever way he can.

We have had a few good visits on the doors, and the response to my door knocking seems to get a better reception by making use of a survey that I had printed. The survey tends to “open the door” of communication with people. It somewhat breaks down the barrier of my foreign nationality as an outsider which immediately causes skepticism.

We will be having our first missionary with us for the weekend of November 18. I feel that as a church we are ready to begin a world wide mission’s outreach. The folks at church are looking forward to getting involved in this way. Our first missionary to come will be serving in Northern Ireland. We are hoping to have another missionary family serving in India with us in 2008. Please pray that our church, Anchor Baptist Church, will get a vision to reach around the world!

Well, things are not getting any better but have gotten worse for us as far as the exchange on the dollar to Euro conversion. It is getting rather difficult to make ends meet each month. But God seems to get us through. We had originally planned to take a short furlough this autumn, but with the move to Waterford it just did not work out. We are four months into our fourth year here in Ireland. The time has truly flown by. That being said, we are going to make plans for a furlough in 2008. It looks like the time frame will be September through December 2008. We need to reinforce our support due to the cost of living here and the losses we have experienced with the continual decline of the dollar.

If you would be interested in having us report at your church you can contact me for arrangements via email at thatchers@bimi.org or ring me directly at home at 01135351870939 (5 hours ahead of EST).

May the Lord find us faithful,

Don and Lisa Thatcher and family