We wanted to write you before the 1st snow, but that didn't get done!  How about before it flies for the 3rd time?!  It was a beautiful and mild fall season here in Western New York, but we have had to face the fact that we currently live in snow country.  So, we didn't beat the snow, but we are glad to finally sit down and relate to you a little bit about our lives and what's happened over the last few months.

The girls are doing very well.  As you can imagine with a new baby, there were plenty of nights that we didn't get the sleeping hours we needed.  But thankfully now, Alena is pretty much sleeping through the night.  She is an alert baby determined to keep up on what is going on around her!  It is pretty amazing.  Marissa is doing very well in kindergarten and loves her dance class which meets two times per week.  She has been an excellent traveler and adjusts well to a different church setting every weekend.  That has been a great blessing from the Lord!

The last few months have been a refreshing time in so many ways.  After a very busy summer of travel, it was great to slow down the pace a bit and savor special moments with family and friends.  Marissa has enjoyed so many new things....like jumping in leaf piles and going to Pumpkinville with her cousins.  We all had a blast trying to find our way through a corn maze.

A few weeks after Alena was born we picked up our speaking schedule again.  We spoke somewhere each weekend of October and November including participating in a couple of mission conferences.  The past two months has been a wonderful time of connecting with lots of Free Methodist churches throughout the western New York region.  We feel privileged to return again and again to the same supporting churches, building up relationships with so many wonderful people who support and care for us in a variety of ways.  We are particularly thankful for the opportunity to address the college students at Roberts Wesleyan College and talk with a few of them about a life of missionary service.

One of our missionary colleagues, Gregg Ennis, made a trip to Haiti at the end of September.  It was a very busy time for him.  Overall he found that those we know and work with were doing OK.  That was good news!  Since that time, we have kept in contact by phone and email with a number of Haitian friends.  Before we left Haiti on our scheduled home assignment, we had plans to return to Haiti at the end of this month.  That plan has changed, however.  We now expect to return around March 1st.  The disturbances and crime in Port-au-Prince have diminished somewhat recently, but kidnappings are still an issue.   Elections (postponed a number of times) are currently set to occur on January 8.  The elections are for a president and 129 legislative seats.  A runoff election is set for February 15.

Now that we know our home assignment is extended an extra two months, we have begun setting up some speaking engagements with some churches that we've missed.

Special prayer requests:
1) those in Haiti during this unsettled time
2) opportunities to share about Jesus during this time of celebrating his birth
3) setting up speaking opportunities with churches we didn't get a chance to share in yet
4) continued refreshing and growth in our spiritual lives

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and joyous New Year!  May you be blessed as you embrace the hope found in Jesus Christ.

J.R., Becky, Marissa and Alena Crouse