It’s strange and wonderful how God providentially opens doors where you never expect them. It’s been just over 4 months now since we made the move back to the United States from Russia. Believe me, we’ve been busy with lots to do, but four months living outside of the Russian context begins to take its toll. Cristy and I have noted during this period of transition, our ministry filled with lots of phone calls, meetings, paperwork, translation, and problem solving, that we felt “on the sidelines” as it were. I don’t mind administrative work, and am thankful God has given me a way to still be involved in the ministry from a distance, but I’ll confess, sometimes I feel like a water boy. But for a few days in January here I was able to “get back in the game” as it were, and I jumped in with all of the enthusiasm as Rudy did in the movie by the same name.

It all began over the Christmas holidays when we were visiting with my family in Baton Rouge. My sister and brother-in-law informed me of a ministry in Hattiesburg, Mississippi that was connected with their church Temple Baptist. An organization called “Promise 139″ has been active in ministering to Orphans in Ukraine for some time now. For several years, they’ve been bringing over small groups of orphans from a particular orphanage to Mississippi for two weeks once a year. These are mostly older orphans who have been in orphanages for many years, and statistically most will never get adopted. The trips are a way to love them, let them experience loving family life for a short time, and ultimately show them the love of Christ. It took several phone calls, but I finally connected with the ministry and was able to volunteer to help with translation during their time here.

The group came over with two translators from Ukraine, but with 11 kids, and with one of the main goals being that the kids would interact with American families, more translators only helped. On January 2nd, the group came up to Jackson for the day and was hosted by Pinelake Baptist Church.

Immediately, the kids were very open, and a little taken back by this strange guy who spoke Russian with a funny accent. Families from Pinelake Baptist joined us for the day as we skated, bowled and finally introduced the whole group to catfish and fried dill pickles. At dinner that evening I ended up at a table with two buddies by the name of Kostia and Maxim, 10 and 11 respectively. Sitting at the table were two young couples from Pinelake. It was exciting to help them be able to talk to these two young boys and better communicate. Conversations ranged from favorite activities (race cars), what they wanted to be when they grew up (race car drivers), and favorite colors (black and red, because these were the colors of their favorite race cars of course). But the two families also had the opportunity to talk about the gospel and God’s Word with Kostia and Maxim. Seeds were planted.

On the following Wednesday, January 4th, I drove with the group from Hattiesburg over to my old stomping grounds in New Orleans. The day began at the Aquarium of the Americas. This time I grouped up with two older boys, Ruslan and Andrey, 13 and 16. It was fun to watch the kids racing around wanting their pictures taken with everything they saw. Andrey also helped me learn a few new words as I had never once during our four years in Russia ever had to use the word “sea otter” in a sentence.

We briefly walked down to the French Quarter where the kids were introduced to beignets (French Donuts) from Cafe du Mond. I think they went over pretty well as Ruslan downed at least 9 of them. Later at lunch he seemed to strangely have no appetite and opted only for grapes. I couldn’t imagine why.

Later that afternoon we visited New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where they met with one of the classes. There were at least 50 or 60 ministry students in the class, and the group practiced some games and non-verbal communications skills with the kids. It went over very well. Later, over pizza I got to be the translator again for one of the seminary students and Maxim as they talked and he shared the gospel with Maxim. Again, seeds were planted, and by God’s grace I was thankful to be able to have opportunities to personally reinforce in conversations what the kids had heard from others about Jesus Christ. The whole scenario reminded me how important non-verbal communication is to opening doors for the gospel. Through it one can show love and friendship and even earn trust, trust that becomes crucial when one wants to share the Good News.

At the end of the day it was hard to leave. It’s extremely easy to become attached to kids. When they’re young there’s a simpleness, and naiveté that is, in many ways, refreshing. They’re open, friendly and very trusting. But as a believer I know that unless their hearts are opened to the gospel and ultimately changed that their trials and temptations will only grow with age. So in parting my heart cried out a simple prayer, “God save them.”

It is good to know that Promise 139 is continuing to minister to this particular orphanage, and that this will not be the last time these kids will hear the gospel. Many seeds were planted, seeds that I hope will be watered through further ministry. I hope by God’s grace to be involved again at some point in the near future.

So for a few days I was encouraged and refreshed to, in a small way, be part of this ministry. We couldn’t go to Russia, so the Lord brought Russia to Mississippi it seems.

Not too long after we woke up we heard Isaiah stirring.  We lifted him out of his crib and let him crawl into our front room where we had a few presents sitting out for him, and later we exchanged a few more gifts between us.  It was a regular work day in Russia.  New Years is by far the most celebrated holiday in the country, and Christmas follows the Eastern calendar, and is observed on January 7th.

For some, this little story may seem sad, or even a little depressing.  Being 5000 miles away from extended family, somewhat “isolated” in a foreign country for Christmas is probably not everyone’s idea of fun.  But for us, it will go down as one of our most memorable and beloved Christmases together.  It was our little family, in our little apartment, with our simple gifts and little tree, cozy and warm.  We had each other, and, most of all, we believed we were right where God wanted us to be.

I know it’s been over a month since our last update. Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be putting together a letter in the next week explaining what is going on. There will be some big changes coming, but let me emphasize WE ARE NOT LEAVING INTERACT AND NOT STOPPING RUSSIAN MINISTRY. The main highlights are….

1. We are not changing what we’re doing, but there will be some changes in how we do it.

2. We are still with InterAct Ministries and will continue to serve with them.

3. We are not stopping our involvement in Russian ministry.

4. I am continuing to work every day even though we are in Mississippi. A huge portion of what I do for the Russia field can be coordinated remotely. This includes the day-to-day administrative responsibilities for the field as well as coordinating and planning ministry projects, recruitment and development of field ministries. So for a while I’m a “desk-jocky” but am continuing to perform crucial work for the Russia ministry.

So please watch your inboxes for the update soon to come in the next week. Please read it carefully. It will explain in detail what’s happening.

In the meantime, please continue to pray for Russia and for our family.

Thanks,
Thomas

I jumped in our elevator and went up to the third floor. I immediately smelled and could see the smoke, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from exactly. In our little corridor there are four apartments, 181, 182, 183, and ours 184. The people in 182 were already standing in the hall and asked again if our apartment was on fire. I told them I would check. Running inside I was relieved to see that everything was in order. This left two possibilities. I immediately became suspicious of apartment 181. An elderly lady lives there and constantly is cooking something. My first thought was that she had perhaps left something on the stove. I pounded on her door, but no one answered. After some investigation we determined that the smell was actually strongest by 183, the apartment right next to ours. We pounded on the door. No answer. I ran back down to the entrance of our building where two ladies who buzz people in and out of our building, (called a concierzhka) were frantically asking me questions about the situation and trying to figure out what to do.

Now I quickly learned some things in this situation. First, when the building is made entirely of concrete and there are no gas lines, the situation doesn’t necessarily warrant calling the fire department. I can somewhat see the logic in this. Outside of the contents of an apartment, there isn’t much that can burn. The walls, floors, ceilings are all concrete, sometimes covered in plaster, or perhaps some wood panels on the floor but ultimately concrete. This means that when the neighbor’s apartment is on fire our biggest danger is smoke, not necessarily having the contents of our apartment burn up. I was reminded of this when I quickly suggested to the concierzhki that we call the fire department. “Oh, it’s not going to burn the building down or anything”. How comforting. Still, I would have thought that fire is fire, and when it’s occurring somewhere that it shouldn’t and is uncontrolled, that one needs to contact the people who can bring it back under control.

I also learned that breaking and entering is basically not acceptable under any circumstances. This is, of course, a universal rule, but there are exceptions at times. But apparently the whole principle of breaking into your neighbors house if it’s on fire to put out said fire is not universal. When my other neighbor and I determined that the smoke was indeed coming from 183 I suggested getting my tools to pry off the lock and get it and put it out. Believe me, if it were my house I’d be thrilled if one of my neighbors did this. But she quickly threw cold water on this idea with a “Are you crazy? You will most certainly go to prison.” Not hot on the idea of being in a Russian prison, and not extremely confident in my own government’s abilities to negotiate my release, I quickly nixed the idea.

Back downstairs with the concierzhki I discussed with them what to do. They apparently thought I had all the answers for some reason, because they began asking me my suggestions. I couldn’t help but see the humor in the situation. Here I was the foreigner, fresh off the plane just yesterday, merely renting the apartment and I’m being asked what to do. Having no real clue as to what else could possibly be done, I simply said “Well, I’m not really sure what else to do. Usually in America if our neighbor’s house is on fire, we call the fire department.” Still not convinced this was necessary, they began discussing the option of sealing up the apartment door from the outside so the smoke wouldn’t bother anyone else. I listened philosophically to their suggestion.

All of this was happening so fast I had overlooked the idea of calling our landlady and seeing if she knew how to contact the neighbors. She also suggested sealing up the apartment, but also wanted to talk to one of the concierzhki. I handed the phone over to one of the ladies and ran back upstairs. Isaiah was past due for one of his catheterizations, and I needed to get one out of his room. When I got back downstairs she told me that my landlady suggested calling the building superintendent to get his advice. We waited outside on the street and by this time could see some smoke coming from the third floor balcony of our neighbor’s apartment. Our friends in 182, didn’t seem particularly worried, and went back up to their apartment, opened the window and smoked a cigarette. We chatted for a moment, me on the street, him looking out of the window escaping the smoke while inhaling his own.

The superintendent suggested something completely novel and extraordinary: “Call the fire department”. It took all of my restraint not to be an “I told you so.” I told the concierzhki that we were going to run out to a cafe and get some supper. I left my number for her to call me when the situation was back to normal. As we walked away I heard one of the ladies asking the other “So what’s the number for the fire department”? About a block away from our building I heard the fire truck and saw it pull in by our building. About 30 minutes later as we ate our meal I got a call, “All clear” the little voice said. We finished our supper and headed home.

Our apartment is fine. There’s a lingering dull smoke smell in the corridor outside of our apartment, and I still don’t know exactly what happened, but apparently the situation has been resolved. We’re fine, and all of our stuff is fine, so we’ll sleep well tonight. Good to be back in Russia.

Over the past year one of my jobs has been to figure out where our team in Russia was going in terms of ministry strategy and vision.  I wish I could say things were as simple as “just go and do it.”  But as you know, coordinating ministries in a foreign country involves a lot of factors.  But things are now finally beginning to settle into order.  Leadership transitions have taken place, a new ministry strategy has been put into place by our team, numerous technical difficulties have been ironed out, and we are starting to build some recruitment momentum.

In the midst of all of this, I was struck reading 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 this morning.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Sometimes administration, making phone calls, sending emails, writing reports, attending planning meetings, etc. can make one forget about this simple fact:  The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.  No strange words to the faithful, yet easy to take for granted sometimes in the midst of seemingly mundane tasks.  This is what we want for Russia.  This is the aim, goal and desire of every email we send, letter we write or phone call we make, that the venue for gospel ministry would be established, so that God would be glorified through the preaching of the word and the salvation of sinners.  That’s it.  That’s our hope.

We’ve come to a point now where we believe the labors of this past year have paid off.  The framework for missions to continue in Russia is now more established, and we are looking forward to focusing more on direct ministry activities.   I hope through this update you’ll be able to better understand where we hope to go and how you can pray for us.

YES, WE’RE GOING BACK
Our lengthy stay in the U.S. was the result of a lot of different factors, most of which were out of our control.  The visa option that we had last year was not available to us again this year, thus we could not go back.  Providentially this worked out as Isaiah has been able to receive some extremely valuable treatment, and much of the work that I needed to do in the areas of administration and recruitment were actually best done here based out of the United States.  But, we’re starting to get a little “homesick.”

The plan is for us to return as a family this summer.  A three-month visa is relatively easy to get.  During this time we’ll be engaged in a whirlwind of activities including leading a summer team for six-weeks, participating in a conference, preaching, helping with a summer camp and just trying to catch up with all of our ministry partners.  Another major task will be hopefully finding another way to get back into the country on a more permanent visa.  I already have several positive leads right now, but none of them are definite.  This is a matter of prayer.  Even if all goes well and we are able to get new long-term visas, we will still have to return to the U.S. in the fall to get those processed before returning to Russia.

For the next couple of years, our hope is to be in Russia most of the year (8-9 months) and return to the U.S. once a year for Isaiah’s treatments (3-4 months).  During our time in the States my focus will be on recruitment and fundraising, and will also allow me to attend necessary planning meetings at the InterAct home office in Oregon.MICRO-ENTERPRISE IN TUVA
Traveling 5000 miles to Tuva now, there are some exciting updates in the work there.  As you’ve read in previous letters, one aspect of ministry that InterAct is involved with in Tuva is helping churches become financially self-sustaining by developing micro-businesses among believers.  Currently there are about 8 businesses in various stages of development.  But here is one very practical and encouraging example of how this is impacting the local church there.

In the town of Ak-Dovurak in Western Tuva, there’s a church plant pastored by Ayas Oorjak.  Ak-Dovurak is an extremely poor area region and jobs are scarce.  Most of the Christians in the church make just enough to survive. Even when people give offerings to the church, there is often too little to do anything with.  Several years ago one of InterAct’s missionaries began working with Ayas to develop an idea he had to make cement blocks.  The blocks are made using the local resources available, and are sold commercially to build various structures.  After about two years of development the business is beginning to turn a profit, such that Ayas has been able to not only feed his family, but also make some much-needed repairs on the church building.  In addition, the church has also been able to set aside money to purchase Bibles as well as buy the fuel to make an evangelism trip to distribute them!   Such ventures in the past would have required outside financing to accomplish, but are now being carried out with funds from the block business!

BIBLES FOR TUVA
Through the generous donations of many people, over $100k was raised for the first phase of Bibles for Tuva.  InterAct hopes to purchase approximately 5000 Bibles that will be made available to Christians in Tuva to distribute to their neighbors and unreached areas of the republic.  The hope is that in the next few years another printing will be made and we can again further this project along.  But for right now, this number of Bibles will be sufficient to keep the Tuvan churches busy.
The official dates of the Bible’s release is set for August 6th and 7th.  Please pray that the final editing and printing of the Bible as well as the shipping all goes smoothly.  We basically have no control over these aspects.

TOGETHER FOR THE GOSPEL, ST. PETERSBURG
I’ve recently heard that the pastor’s fellowship Together for the Gospel in St. Petersburg, is losing a little bit of steam, but am encouraged to hear that there’s still a lot of interest.  Just to remind you, this is a gathering of about 10 pastors from various Baptist, Presbyterian and Reformed Churches around the city that have come together for ministry and fellowship.  It is modeled after the fellowship by the same name here in the United States that well-known pastors such as John MacArthur, Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan and John Piper have participated in.

I will be traveling by myself back to St. Petersburg March 18th – April 1st and am planning to meet with these men.  Please pray that their efforts to work together would not wane.  There is so much potential for encouraging gospel ministry when they cooperate.

OUR CALENDAR
So that you can be in prayer for us, here’s what we’ll be up to for the next few months.
2/3-2/5 – InterAct Board Meeting, Portland, Oregon2/6 – First Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church, Portland, Oregon2/9 – Meeting with Pastor Alexi Kolometsev, Vancouver, Washington2/10 – Ecola Bible College3/3 – 3/14 – Family trip to Pacific NW, recruitment and visit supporters3/18 – 4/1 – Thomas in Russia

SUPPORT
We praise God that he has given us a faithful group of supporters, lifting us up in prayer and enabling us to serve through financial gifts.  We are always looking for new partners in ministry.  Our current support level is stable but still in need of increase.  We praise God as you are able to help, and we always appreciate any leads for potential new supporters.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” – Ephesians 3:20,21

Pressing on,The Slawsons
Donations can be sent to:
InterAct Ministries31000 SE Kelso Rd.Boring, OR 97009Please note “The Slawsons” in the memo line.

You can also give online by clicking here.

I ask your forgiveness for such a long absence in communication.  By now some of you might be thinking we’ve dropped off the face of the earth.  Quite the contrary, part of the problem has been that we’ve been so occupied that we are consistently forgetting to send out updates.  Please forgive this, and know that I will endeavor to do better.

There’s way too much to tell in detail, so what I’d like to do is give a brief rundown of what took place month-by-month.  I know some of this has already been covered in previous letters but I’d simply like to do a recap.

July

To pick up where the last letter left off, July gave us a very short break.  I returned from traveling out to Yakutia to meet with ministry partners there and begin plans for new ministry projects with the native Sakha church.  These projects include…

-Printing press for printing Christian literature

-The building of a church in the city of Yakutsk

-The start of small business ventures among Christians to help finance the work of gospel ministry

Cristy’s mom left, and in addition to local ministry opportunities I began planning for the arrival of our guests from the United States and a trip out to Tuva.

I was given the opportunity to speak to a group of local pastors in St. Petersburg concerning forming a fellowship called “Together for the Gospel” based upon the same idea between several pastors here in the United States (t4g.org).  The idea was received well, and plans were made to meet in August to discuss forming the group.

August

InterAct recruits, John and Katie Ferch arrived from the US at the beginning of the month along with their ten-month-old son Elijah for three weeks in Russia.  They were coming on their first vision trip to the country which would include about a week in St. Petersburg and and two weeks in Tuva.

The “Together for the Gospel” group met on August 6th with about 10 pastors forming the first meeting.  The meeting went extremely well and plans were made to meet monthly from here on out.  This is an extremely significant step toward unity and cooperation between a number of pastors from Presbyterian, Reformed and Baptist denominations.  Most churches from these denominations are very very small in Russia, mostly averaging between 15-30 people.  They are excited about working together.

On August 13th I left with the Ferches for about two weeks in Tuva.  The trip was challenging in many ways as travel out to Tuva from St. Petersburg is always physically demanding.  The trip was extremely good though.  During the trip I had the opportunity to meet with many of the indigenous church leaders out in Tuva and continue help strengthen our ministry partnership.  Specifically on the agenda was…

-The placement of new missionaries from InterAct

-Potential strategies for evangelizing in Russia

-Small business ventures for the support of gospel ministry

-Long-term team building and partnership with native pastors

I also had the opportunity to meet and talk with Vitaly Voinev, director of the Tuvan Bible Project, as he was in Tuva at that time.  He is currently back in the US in Dallas, Texas and I hope we have the opportunity to connect with him here soon.

After returning from Tuva we immediately began getting our things in order to return to the States.

September – November

On September 1st we returned to the United States and first spent a week in North Carolina with Cristy’s family to adjust.  I had the opportunity to speak and preach at Beacon Baptist church, Cristy’s old home church.  Upon returning to Clinton, Mississippi we immediately begin the long stretch of Isaiah’s doctor’s appointments.

The past three months have been filled with very little down time.  Here’s just a quick rundown of some of what we’ve been up to.

• Cristy stays busy with Isaiah and Nadia.  We’ve had two situations with Isaiah.  The first was a broken femur bone that thankfully didn’t require surgery, and the second was a scare with a fever seizure.  Both had us in the emergency room, but thankfully none of the situations proved serious.  Each week there is physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.  All of this and just being a mother too.
• Thomas has been on a number of trips.
  • September – Trip back up to North Carolina to meet with InterAct’s Field Leadership Team
  • October – Recruited at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago
  • October – The Russia field conference, also in Chicago
  • November – Portland, Oregon for Executive Leadership Team Meetings
  • November – Birmingham, Alabama, met with InterAct Recruiters Jim and Becky Hamilton
• Thomas also has a number of other daily activities
  • Many many emails
  • Staying in contact with the current Russia team
  • Administrative and paperwork
  • Setting the field budget
  • Recruiting
  • Connecting with potential recruits
  • Planning the summer 2011 internship program
  • Calling and emailing Russian, Tuvan and Yakut ministry partners
  • Some fundraising

In all, we’ve found that we stay pretty well occupied.

Long Term Plans

When we left Russia in September, we had originally intended to return in January.  Unfortunately those plans have not worked out and we have been forced to make some changes for the following reasons.

• Visa option no longer available
• Isaiah’s health needs
• Some good reasons to stay Stateside right now and focus on recruitment and development

With the above reasons here are our plans for 2011.

• January – May, be in the States.  We plan to travel quite a bit during this time to focus on recruitment and development and connect with ministry partners on various ministry projects.  We will also be getting a minor surgery (possibly surgeries) done for Isaiah that will require some healing time and observation afterward.
• June – August, we plan to return to Russia.  A three-month visa is relatively easy to obtain.  During this time our plan is to lead the summer internship program for new potential recruits.  We will also reconnect with our ministry partners in St. Petersburg.  Another goal during this time will be to hopefully secure a more permanent visa option.
• September – December – We will be back in the States for most of this time.  Our hope is that if we have a more permanent visa option that we can return to the States and process the new visas.  Assuming all goes well, we hope sometime around November/December 2011 to return to Russia for about another 9-10 month stretch if the Lord wills.

Needs

We need your prayers.  Though we are “home” you would be surprised how hard it is to get down time.  With technology, even though we are here I’m still very much connected to the work in Russia on a day-to-day basis.  Pray we’d be able to stay organized and to also have some time to really rest.  You can also pray for…

• Wisdom as parents
• The Tuvan Bible Project
• The pastors who continue to meet in St. Petersburg with “Together for the Gospel”
• That God would raise up more missionaries for Russia

Support

The Lord has been gracious to us these past few months to keep our support rate up, but as always we continue to be in need of more supporters if you are able.  God has brought us new supporters and we have lost some too.  As we begin to look toward returning at the end of 2011 to St. Petersburg more permanently, one of the things that we are absolutely going to have to buy is going to be a vehicle in Russia.  One of our goals is to start raising support for this now.

Thanks

Thank you all for you support through prayers and financial gifts.  Please forgive the length of this letter, but I hope it was able to bring you up to speed on what is going on in our lives.

May God bless you all.

Pressing on,

The Slawsons

Please forgive the delay in this update. Much has been going on!

I’m sitting here in Moscow right now. Later this evening I’ll be catching a flight out to Abakan, about 6 1/2 hours by car north of Tuva. I’m meeting a friend from the States, Justin, here in Moscow and we’re traveling out there together. We’ll arrive in Abakan early tomorrow morning, but are going to rest for the day and then catch a taxi down to Tuva early Saturday morning. This trip is part of my regular duties now as Field Director, and will give the chance to meet not only with our other InterAct Missionary there on the ground, but also with our ministry partners there in Tuva. Much will be discussed on a number of levels, so please keep this whole time in your prayers including traveling mercies.

As many of you know I recently was part of a group of people that conducted evangelism programs in a region about 3 hours from St. Petersburg known as “Tikhvin.” I must say that the whole trip was a great success. Working together with believers from various churches both in St. Petersburg and the Tikhvin region, we divided up into 7 teams and presented “Easter Programs” in 7 different villages. Our team was in a tiny little village called “Sarka.” As you may or may not know, Easter is one of the few times of year in Russia where the name of Christ is spoken openly. This presented an opportunity to talk freely about Christ at a time when people are more open to hearing about him.

Several of the villages had already been visited a number of times over the past few years. In one village, called “Kaivoks” after 4 years of evangelization, the first church service was held in the village! It is hoped that services can be held their once a month for a while and then increased with frequency.

The village we went to, Sarka, is in a little bit different category. This was only the second time a team has visited. The last time was right after Christmas in January of this year. Because of the large number of small children in attendance our team presented a short play and then I presented a short gospel message for about 15 minutes. The play was done quite well. It told the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden (don’t worry, the actors were wearing clothes!), and the vast majority of the dialogue was taken directly from Scripture. I was pleased at how Genesis 3:15 was highlighted as the first promise of the Messiah we see in Scripture. After the program we passed out small gifts along with literature including Bibles and John Blanchard’s “Ultimate Questions” in Russian. While there have not yet been any people to openly profess Christ in Sarka, we believe the Lord used to this time to continue to open doors. They were very happy that we came and invited us back. It is our hope to see a children’s sports camp take place this summer perhaps. I hope to have pictures ready by the next monthly newsletter we put out.

In family news, Cristy’s arm is a little tender but has pretty much healed. Little Nadia is growing just fine, and all appears to be well. Isaiah is getting more and more excited about being a big brother.

Again, thank you for your love and support. By God’s grace our support has gone up! Praise God for all of you who stepped in to help. But we are still seeking further support as God so lays it upon your heart.

We praise and thank God for you and for your service. May God bless you all.

Pressing on,
Thomas Slawson (for the family)