Staying Close to the Lord
As we reflect on the birth of our nation and the tremendous privilege we have to live in America, we must remember that life is far different in other parts of the world. Obviously there are many physical needs, from a lack of drinking water, to food, to adequate shelter. But there are also much greater spiritual needs. In our nation we simply do not need to consider such things as food and clothing--the vastness of our resources are mind boggling! But this abundance comes at a cost, and I believe it often separates us from our walk with the Lord.

At the Men's Prayer Breakfast this morning, our speaker shared a lesson about how to know when you are drifting away from the Lord. It was a powerful reminder to me that there are some areas where I need to improve to guard against drifting. Here are the points that were shared that were adapted from Dr. Charles Stanley.

How to know when you are drifting:
1. Your interest in the Word decreases.
2. You start drifting in your prayer life.
3. You no longer gather with other believers to worship God.
4. You aren't giving faithfully.
5. You never talk to others about Jesus.
6. You no longer feel close to God.

How to prevent drifting:
1. Anchor yourself to the Word of God through reading and meditating on it.
2. Be obedient to the Bible.
3. Submit to Him when He shows you an area that needs correction.
4. Stay on guard (2 Peter 3:17-18).

Yes, even missionaries struggle with maintaining regular time with the Lord in prayer and devotions. It is so easy to go from day to day, especially on the weekend when we are traveling and have spent very little time with the Lord. Over time that affects our relationship with the Lord and will ultimately diminish our ministry. The same may be true in your lives and in your ministries. Stay close to the Lord!

May-pril?
April just seemed to fly by, and we are well into May already! God has continued to provide for us in amazing ways. Several meetings in April were with churches that are interested in helping us. Two more churches have begun support. Another family from our church has stated they want to help. This has brought our support level to just over 50%. We are continuing to pray towards Launch Seminar in September and finishing deputation yet this year.

We have also begun to prepare our home to sell. We want to be ready to go when the remainder of our support comes in, and there are a number of small and somewhat large projects that need to be done. Please pray for wisdom as we invest the time and resources in updating our home. We have also been faced with some car repairs in the past month of over $850.

On our return from Illinois two weeks ago the serpentine belt on the van came off. Bells were going off, and we lost all cooling and power steering. I pulled off the side of I-65, but it was not a very safe place. God allowed us to get the car cooled down enough to get off the highway and to a CVS parking lot. I worked on it for a while until a man and his wife stopped and asked if we needed help. I said yes. It turns out they only lived a couple minutes from the store and invited me to bring the car to their place where they had some tools. The husband later told me that they were born again Christians. It was a blessing to see how the Lord provided help right when we needed it!

Catching Up...
I guess I am still getting used to this blog thing. I know you're supposed to update it more than every other month! So I wanted to take a moment to share what has been happening in the Kimmel household.

Winter Weather
Has this been one of the strangest winters for you? We are certainly thinking that. We had a wet January, a cold February, and a snowy March. Last weekend's storm brought over 10 inches to our area, breaking a 40-year old record. Columbus saw over 20 inches in spots.

After last weekend's storm spring appears to have finally arrived in Cincinnati. The unexpected snow virtually crippled the area on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, road crews were catching up, and the weather turned much more mild. But many churches, including ours, had to cancel services because of the level 3 snow emergency. Unfortunately the weather also kept us from our meeting in Wabash, IN. In contrast the past few days have been in the 50s, and nearly all the snow is gone.

The Root of Wisdom
Ruth is due to have her wisdom teeth out on Monday (3/17). The dentist found a cavity in one tooth during her last check-up. She is not looking forward to it. Please pray for her. It's funny how everyone seems to have a story about their wisdom teeth! One pastor today said that he actually never had any wisdom teeth! Another told me that wisdom comes from the Lord not wisdom teeth. I like that.

IKEA has Landed
Yesterday marked the first day that the newest IKEA opened. West Chester has been anticipating its arrival for well over a year, and the excitement has been palpable. The first woman through the doors waited for over 48 hours outside to hold her place in line. Now that's dedication! If you are wondering what IKEA is, here is an IKEA primer put together by our local paper. Those of you who are IKEA veterans (no I'm not one of them) and want to plan a trip, let us know. We live about 5 minutes from the store.

A Word on Unity in the Church
In our most recent prayer letter I mentioned how I have encountered a number of churches without pastors right now. I have since spoken to several others that are going through hard times--not simply in the area of finances, which is what we always think of first--but in terms of relationships. Churches are self-destructing from within because of pride, selfishness, and sinful behavior! This should not be happening, but it is. The church in America is so blessed, and yet sadly we seem to always find things to divide and argue about. Let's make sure we are working together to build up the body of Christ in our local churches not tear them down.

A Wonderful Start to a New Year!
Today we returned home following a busy week. We spent the weekend in Kenton, OH with the Mansfield family. We saw just how quickly our girls make new friends. Within minutes of arriving, our girls and the Mansfield's three girls were off playing together in the upstairs attic-bedroom. In fact the girls liked the room so much they wanted to sleep there too. I'm not sure how much sleeping went on, but they had a good time.

On Sunday we spent the morning at First Baptist Church, and shared our ministry during the Sunday School hour. I also had the privilege of preaching in the morning service while Ruth taught the children. That evening we visited Berea Baptist Church and once again had the opportunity to share our ministry. Pastor Kiper had several students in attendance who had stayed for the weekend for a youth rally. Pray for Pastor Kiper as he has a unique ministry to several men who are either in prison or have been released from prison. This has also given him a ministry to their children. He has also befriended and led several "ex-Amish" to Christ who live in the area.

On Monday we made our way from Kenton to Cedarville, OH. We were invited to participate in Cedarville University's annual missions conference, which began on the first day of classes of winter semester. Over 93 missionaries and mission representatives were present. Several students stopped by our display and asked questions about Romania. Some were for interviews for their classes. Others were sincerely interested in missions.

Another tremendous blessing from the week was meeting a family who is ministering in Israel. They have two daughters close in age to our girls, and the four of them quickly became inseparable. We had a wonderful time getting to know them and learning more about their ministry.

At the end of the service last night approximately 100 from the student body went forward to make decisions. One was a young man named Doug who had stopped by our table earlier in the week. I had the privilege of praying with him. It was such a blessing to be able to minister to a student in the same way I was ministered to during a missions conference at Cedarville over 16 years ago.

As we were packing up our display, I checked email one last time. In there was an email from Shoaff Park Baptist in Fort Wayne that said they were planning to support us. God is so good!

Christmas Greetings
We have been spending the past week with our families, which has reminded me of how much we have to be thankful for this holiday season--our girls; good health; safety as we have traveled; a warm bed at night; our country; our church family; growing up in a Christian home; and so many more things. What do you have to be thankful for?


Since our last post, we our travel schedule has kept us busy. On November 18 we had meetings in northeast OH at Southwest Baptist Church in Brunswick and First Baptist Church in New London. The following week we traveled to northwest IN to spend Thanksgiving with Ruth's family. My parents joined us for a coupled days as well. On November 25 we spent the day at Shoaff Park Baptist in Ft. Wayne, IN. The following Sunday we were at Pleasant Hill Baptist in Milford, OH.

On December 8 we attended the Christmas cantata at our church. The next day we had two meetings in Alexandria, KY at Grants Lick Baptist and First Baptist of Alexandria. We also had a chance to visit Grace Baptist Church in Minford, OH on December 12. We did not have any meetings planned for December 16, so we were able to attend our home church on a Sunday for the first time in several months. That night was also the children's Christmas program. Last Sunday we attended the Christmas cantata at my parent's church as it was cancelled the previous Sunday due to bad weather. Tomorrow morning we will be sharing our ministry at Calvary Baptist Church in Lake Station, IN. In the evening we plan to visit Lagrange Baptist Church in Lagrange, IN before returning to spend New Years with my family in Lima, OH.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are likewise enjoying time with your families. Take time to reflect on the importance of this season and the tremendous sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us.

Waiting
We are spending an extra day in Buckhannon, WV today. As we were leaving church yesterday afternoon, our van developed a loud tapping sound under the hood. I'm not sure why since we had only put around 4500 miles on it in the past three weeks. ;)

I’m pretty good at identifying noises, but I had not heard this one before. Our meeting for Sunday evening was about 90 miles away, in Clendenin, WV, and I was reluctant to put the car back on the road not knowing whether it would get us there. After numerous phone calls it became apparent that there were no shops open to inspect it on a Sunday. So I called the pastor at Calvary Baptist (where we had been that morning) and asked if he could recommend a place to go. I also inquired whether we would be able to borrow a car until so we could make it to our meeting. Pastor Tallman graciously allowed us to use his car for the evening. When we arrived in Clendenin it was apparent that God wanted us there. Pastor Kersey and his family had dinner ready for us, and we had time to fellowship before the evening service. We presented our ministry, and I shared a brief message on the Cost of Commitment. Afterward one of the teens came forward to commit to going to a Spanish speaking country as a missionary if God would allow.

So even though the extra day was unplanned, it gave us some time to slow down and relax. It also allowed me to get caught up on some paperwork that I had planned to do this week. God is so good to us!

Florida Excursion
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Florida this week. But God had some great things in store for us on the way. We left home on October 31. We had made arrangements to stay at Happy Acres Mission in Woodstock, GA, which is a faith ministry that provides temporary housing for missionaries. Tom and Jewel Young who started Happy Acres recently celebrated 25 years of full-time ministry. They invited us to attend their church that evening for their Trunk or Treat event (an alternative to Halloween). Celeste and Amber enjoyed going from car to car, watching the puppets and riding the hay wagon. We also got reacquainted with Jeff and Robin Malin, who have recently joined the ministry at Lebanon Baptist. We met the Malins when they participated in the missions conference at our sending church in 2004.

We spent the next four days at Calvary Baptist in Ocala, FL for their missions conference. On the first day of the conference Ruth and I had the opportunity to share our ministry with the elementary school students at Shores Christian Academy. They were very attentive and asked very good questions.

During our stay we were hosted by the Scotts. They came to the States many years ago from Jamaica. We had wonderful time getting to know them better, learning about the people, the food, and the culture. There are several other Jamaican families at Calvary Baptist. One man I met told me about a ministry called Voices of the Martyrs. When he saw we were going to Romania he was reminded of how the founder, Richard Wurmbrand, had been a pastor in Romania who was imprisoned and tortured for his faith. He also gave me a copy of the pastor’s autobiography, “Tortured for Christ.” After reading a few pages, it became clear that this book will provide valuable insight into the church as it existed in Romania during communism.

Once again we had a few days in Florida to spend with Ruth’s cousins who live in Largo and Orlando. We visited the Tampa Zoo and Clearwater Beach. Later that week we met up with Ruth’s other cousin who was able to get us into Epcot Center at a very good rate. The weather throughout our stay in FL was sunny but cool. But it was a welcome change from the temperatures we left in Ohio.

Our final meeting in Florida was at Heritage Baptist in Lakeland, FL. Heritage has recently completed a beautiful family life center with classrooms, a large gymnasium, kitchen, café, and church offices. Heritage is experiencing tremendous growth and is poised for further growth as a new community is about to be built adjacent to their property.