Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,                                                                                                 August 2019

Once again, I go to the calendar and realize with amazement that it has been several months since our last prayer letter.  How does time pass so quickly?  Too many things have happened this summer to recount them all, but here are some of the highlights.

As we mentioned in our last letter, Susan had been suffering for some time with very painful and debilitating back problems.  Many of you had been praying that we would be able to find a way to deal with this issue.  After some time, we were able to find a good orthopedic center in Anchorage and began making trips back and forth to go through test and evaluations.  Long story short, after back surgery in June, Susan is doing much, much better now!  A special thank you to all those that have been praying faithfully to this end.

We have seen enormous changes on the church property this summer.  In short, a trailer and several old outbuildings were demolished and removed.  This was followed by about 250 loads of dirt to bring half of the property up to grade and lay a new pad on which we will build a new church building sometime in the future.  This was a very expensive and a very exciting step for us.  It has made a huge difference in the appearance of the property and represents the first big step that we have taken toward our

dream of a new church building.  This step has made what was once a distant idea, seem much closer to being a reality.  This is however, just the first step in a long process.  The cost of construction off the road system is, to say the least, very expensive, and God is going to have to show Himself in a mighty way to bring all this to pass.  Continue to pray with us that the Lord will give us wisdom and direction through this process.

We had another great VBS this summer, which is always one our favorite events of the year.  With the brand new dirt pad to play on, the kids had plenty of room to run and

play games, and we took full advantage of it this year.  The church folks stepped up once again and worked very hard to make it all possible.  Many of them worked all day then came to the church in the evening, giving of their time and labor to work with the kids.  Thanks to their efforts, we saw nine kids saved this year!

There has been a big change for our family this summer.  Savannah, our oldest, graduated from high school this year and has started college at Crown Bible College in Powell, TN.  We were all able to make the trip down to visit with family and to get her settled in at school a couple of weeks ago.  Savannah has been a big part of not just our family, but the ministry as well, and we already feel her absence.

Another landmark event for us this summer was our first ordination service.  Job Hale is

a young man in our church that has been involved in village ministry for several years and believes that the Lord has called him into a church planting ministry in western Alaska.  Job has made our church his sending church, and it was our great pleasure to ordain Job last month and formally send him out from the church as a missionary.  It was a great day for our church and represents some of the exciting things that have been happening not just in Bethel, but in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta.

Your Missionaries To Alaska,
The Claypools