CHRISTMAS LETTER 1996 GREAT JOY!



Silent Night, Holy Night ... a church in winter

Dearest Friends and Loved Ones:

We enter this festive Christmas Season with exceeding GREAT JOY!  This has been and extraordinary year in so many ways, our cup overfloweth!

Here’s the news of the events in our lives for 1996:


Mark and Michelle are awaiting their second child in February.  Our granddaughter, Mandy is excited and looks forward to a new brother or sister.  Mark enjoys hunting when he has time off and has taken up his grandfather’s hobby of fly fishing and LOVES it!  He’s getting a surprise this Christmas, he’s inheriting his Grandpa’s vest, pouch, flies and paraphernalia which we believe will be nostalgic for him!


Keri, Marty, Jeshua and Zachary are in their gorgeous new home that Marty has built after the fire which burned their home to the ground, destroying everything.  They have already sold it, and are looking to build another one!  Their faith in God through the ordeal sustained them. Keri has a large freshwater fish tank and she is so excited about it. We have great discussions about fish, as we also have a fish tank. 


Chip, Suzanne, Colin and Brandon are in Florida and doing well.  Colin plays soccer and Brandon keeps Suzanne busy! Suzanne and Donna enjoy praying together and discussing JESUS!! Chip has started his own business after leaving the Television station last year where he was directing and producing television commercials and shows.  Things are progressing fantastically after a slow start and they just had a landmark month!


Todd is in his last year of  the Univ. S. Fla., in Tampa, graduating (early!) in May.  His finals are today, and he is looking forward to a much deserved vacation. He was planning to go into dentistry, but at present is looking into other areas also.  He is dating a woman named Christie who is working towards her RN and has a little girl named Paige.  He loves scuba diving with his friends and Chip. He has been an immeasurable help and support with Donna’s mother. His marvelous dog, Citron is just a little over a year now, bringing back memories of Todd and Donna picking him out together last Christmas!

Donna’s sister and brother in law, Gwen and Tom are now retired and have bought a home five minutes from Chip and Suzanne. All the cousins are very close.  Tommy is engaged and lives in Fort Lauderdale, and Courtland was just married in July which means the cousins will be seeing each other even more frequently than they do at present, and Donna and I will be able to see Tom and Gwen more often! 


Donna’s Dad is now in a nursing home in the last stages of  Parkinson’s and Mother Boyce has been nothing short of miraculous in the way she has persevered through this time period.  She came to visit in July for Donna’s 50^th birthday, after five years of not being able to travel with Dad.  The whole church fell in love with her and consider her part of the congregation.  Her visit was the highlight of Donna’s year!  My mother will be 91in January and is in a nursing home nearby. 


She comes to church on Sunday’s and we eat together afterwards. She has a day out on Saturday where she gets her hair done and nails and then out to dinner.  We try to have a movie night once a week at our home for her with some Movie Classics and popcorn.  We have fun doing that with her and she really enjoys it.  We top the evening off with ice cream which she loves before taking her back to her place. After a lifetime of going to the Methodist Church, she now desires to commit to Heart to Heart!  She is doing amazingly well for her age, but we see her slipping.. she’s now in a wheelchair.  My siser, Carmen, and my neice Donna came to visti Mother this year and we had a very short, but marvelous time together while they were here.   
                                          
As for the church, we have had the most prosperous year since our beginning four years ago.  This has been a year of fruit in abundance!  Lives have been dramatically changed and transformed, salvations, marriages saved, deliverance, openness, prophecy flowing like milk and honey, miracles, healings of body, soul and spirit!  God’s river of love has certainly touched each one of our lives intensely.  We have found a building and are in the process of negotiating, which is exciting and also sobering.  We have over tripled in size in the last few months and are expanded to our limit here, and have no choice but to move to a larger facility.  I LOVE THE WAY GOD MAKES THINGS SO SIMPLE.. YOU OUTGROW A PLACE AND HE HAS ANOTHER PREPARED!

Donna is enjoying her 50^th year of JUBILEE, and was blessed beyond words at the surprise party the church threw for her!  She is still in the process of writing several books, finding very little time to do the work on it she desires.  The extra load of responsibilities with all the new people in the church has been difficult for her and we are praying for a church secretary to help. She is certainly the wing beneath my wings. 

As for me, seeing the fruit of our labor begin to come to pass has brought much joy.  God has given us a very specific vision and direction. We have begun a series of  Foundational teaching and training classes which we believe are needed for the next step God has for the church.  One of the highlights of this year for me was going to Promise Keeper’s with Chip and Todd.  It was a great time of what Chip and Todd have dubbed “Male Bonding”!  After the event, Chip took me scuba diving in West Palm Beach. Seeing God’s creation under the sea is indescribably beautiful.

Donna and I still continue to be involved with prison ministry, although our schedule and other responsibilities have taken a lot more time and we have had to pull back in that area.  Donna was Clergy on a Teen ministry weekend in the Spring   It looks as though Christian Drama is in the embryonic stages in our church, and music ministry is taking a new turn, as we have just purchased a new Keyboard and Drum set.  Our Ministers of Music have a gifting of leading the Saints of God into EXPERIENCING thanksgiving, praise, and worship, not just participating in worship.  New areas of  personal prophecy and prophetic corporate worship have come forth, which is very exciting for us all! We are training up three very faithful people for Eldership, and our hearts are so knitted and bonded together in one purpose! Counseling still consumes large amounts of our time, two gifted women are starting to help in that area.

Kay Lahey, our mentor and friend has moved down from New York and has an apartment only three miles from our home.  Her wisdom and love has been and continues to be a blessing in so many ways. She is in leadership, and is heading up the area of prayer in the church … intercessory prayer, prayer partners, and is working on getting together pre-service prayer warriors, etc….

We pray that this Christmas will bring much joy and peace to your hearts…. May the light of JESUS shine brightly in your hearts for the world to see.  May you prosper in every way this coming New Year, and may you see the fulfillment of promises God has given to you.  We believe 1997 will be a year of miracles and blessings, let us prepare our hearts in repentance, fasting and prayer as 1996 comes to an end, leaving any old baggage at the cross of Jesus. May we allow Him to change us and do the work in our hearts so we may be used as His vessels to serve Him in this important hour. We desire to enter this New Year throwing out the ballast, so we may sail into 1997 free to do the will of the God.  The harvest is at hand beloved…. Let us go forth into the fields with the winds of our sails directed by the Holy Spirit, and bring in the sheaves to lay at Father’s feet….. GET READY, GET READY, GET READY… God is getting ready to MOVE… Signs, Wonders and MIRACLES are on the HORIZON!!

Merry Christmas & love from Dixie!

                                                                                          
Pastors Bart and Donna Trexler