Dear Pastor, Church Family, and Praying Friends,
Furlough Highlights…
It is hard to believe our furlough is over, it went so fast. We are back in Australia, back in our own home. We lived out of suitcases for 10 months. We were full on from almost the moment we touched down in Indiana. By God’s grace and the prayers of the saints we were able to be in 65 churches of which all but 4 were supporting churches. We traveled over 30,000 miles with no accidents, not even a flat tire. We survived the polar vortex with temps of – 12 degrees and then back to Australia 2 weeks later with temps of 106 degrees. I think I like the heat better than the cold.
How is your support doing? This is a question I heard many times. We are thankful that we did not have much decline. We did have a few churches increase their support but some also decreased their support. We will see how it all works out.
Shipping of John and Romans…
Finally, on the way!!! The “Polar Vortex” caused our shipping to be sent out weeks later than we had hoped. We will get the shipping in April. A Special thanks to all who gave to ship out the John and Romans. The first part cost $2,800.00. Getting it through customs will cost about the same. We figured 6,000.00 total to get them to us in Australia.
Ministry Update
We are planning for our 5th anniversary here at Westside on March 16th and looking for a great turn out. We are so thankful all is well at Westside and I was able to walk back into my role as pastor with no issues. We have had many visitors over the past 10 months and 2 new families attending so things went up not down.
Australia Highlights…
We are in a terrible drought and need of rain. The conditions are as bad if not worse than the conditions of Black Saturday when Australia caught fire several years ago, killing 114 people. Please pray for physical rain as well as spiritual “Showers of Blessings”
Family Highlights…
Toward the end of our furlough we started getting sick. Noah was omitted into the emergency room. He was so sick we could have lost him in another week. He is doing much better and has recovered. We all are still recovering from our weary travels. Thank you for all the prayers, finances, and friendship of all the churches. A special thank you to our sending Church, Bethel Baptist of Philadelphia, for all their help. To those who housed us, Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia and also a special thanks to the Independent Baptist Church in Montezuma, Indiana for all their help. Also those who had us stay with them and those who got us a hotel to stay in, Thank you. My one regret is that I did not have more time to spend with family and friends.
Christopher Eckels & Family
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