December 2007

Dear Pastor and Church,

We would like to thank all of those who took time to visit our website and send notes to us. We appreciate the words of encouragement. News from a far country is a drink of cool water to us. We also are grateful for all of the anniversary cards that were sent. Andrea and I remember back when we thought people who had been married for 21 years were old!

We are really enjoying our new location. It does seem to have given us more credibility in the community. It is seldom that we speak with someone that does not know where the Guide Hall is. The Girl Guide organization has been very welcoming to us and we look forward to a long relationship with them. We have had a number of visitors since we moved to the Guide and a few of them even stuck. We know have a piano player. Those of you who have been in a church without music will know what a blessing it is to have someone playing and covering up the singing.

We went to Youth Camp in August and Bro Kent preached each evening. We were blessed to see several young people saved at camp. He also did a bit of "cooking" before each service. It is truly amazing what teenagers will eat!

We have expanded our tract and church distribution to the villages that surround Liskeard. We had no idea just how many houses there are in these small villages until you get into them on foot.

We also have been gearing up for our annual candy cane handout this Christmas but had not been able to find candy canes in any of the stores. We usually start buying in October when the Christmas things are put out and we usually buy every box we find every week. This year we were into the second week in November and nothing. Yesterday we found out why. Our local store is having a buy one, get one free sale on Christmas candy including candy canes. It might not seem like a big deal but we are praising God. This sale will save us about $200-$300. God is good!

The family is growing up and doing well. Austin is in his last year of school with us. He is taking IT courses at the local school, taking Karate and working part time. We seldom see him but he always manages to come by the house and eat. Ben has started taking guitar lessons and Chris is the gym pull-up champion. Davis is still Davis and Deidra had joined the Rainbows. Think Brownies-lite.

We are always grateful for your prayers and support. We have several big situation we are praying about presently and would covet your prayers as well.

God Bless
The Gossmeyers

August 2007

We wish to thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf. They do make a difference.

Have you ever been working on your computer, running the same programs you always run and suddenly the computer locks up? The only thing you can do is reboot or restart the computer. That is how we describe our efforts here this past Spring. We were cruising along, doing all the same things and suddenly it all locked up. People wandered off and it was just the family again. We discussed the situation with our Pastor and decided to "reboot". As you know, we have been seeking a permanent place to hold services outside our home. This had proved fruitless for 4 1/2 years and then in the midst of the reboot, a building became available and it met our needs perfectly. Isn't God good!!!!!! We decided to renew all our literature and hit every door in town the week before our first service in the new building. God provided two young ladies from the States on a mission trip to help us with this endeavor. God even gave us a week of dry weather to get it done!! We set up a website (www.liskeardbaptist.co.uk) issued a press release, invited everyone to come visit and prayed. The local paper actually printed our press release and the following week, the article was on the front page of the weekly free paper that goes to every home in the area.

On Sunday, June 17th, we had our first service in the new building and we had 15. Since then we have fluctuated between 10 and 15 and several new people have been coming faithfully. We also set up a booth at Liskeard Town Show this past month and handed out hundreds of pieces of literature. There are pictures of the show on the website. Thinking back, we are not sure that we were doing it all wrong or if we would have done anything differently but maybe God just wanted to shake us up a bit. We have a number of things planned for the fall and are excited about what God has in store for the ministry here in England.

Bro Kent and Family