Dear Friends and Family,

A belated Happy New Year to you. Many have written to us by slow post or email and it has taken a while for us to respond. We could not access our Cambodian server while I was in Japan. You have probably heard by now that we are happy parents. Caleb Yuta arrived on January Fourteenth. Mom and Baby are doing well. They will come to Cambodia as soon as Caleb receives a US passport. We are waiting for a paper from the US. Please pray the process goes quickly so we can be reunited. We spent most of last year apart. It was a difficult time but not without good fruit. Yuko shared that the Lord spoke a lot to her about Himself and me during our solitary vigil. It was a time of deepening for us. Of course, the best thing is our little blessing. You probably know of Caleb, the faithful intelligence gatherer of the Old Testament. Yuta has as its first syllable the same ideograph as Yuko has in her name. It means "God Helps." The second ideograph, "Ta," means "all, every." So you can say "God blesses all (people)" or "God blesses everything," or "God blesses totally." Sounds good to me.

For years I have dreamed about being able to go to a family restaurant as a family. I married Yuko a few weeks before my fifty-second birthday. At last the Wilkins family ate at a family restaurant. We dined in Fukuoka, Japan at a famous restaurant chain. Have you ever heard of Royaru Hosto--Royal Host?

We thank you for your prayers and well wishes. Yuko's email today let me know that they are doing fine. Please pray for their health as they travel to Tokyo for Caleb's circumcision. It is winter in Japan now and Caleb is still an infant. We also request your prayers for the procurement of Caleb's passport.

We are very happy to be a family, and delighted that we are called to work in Cambodia. We so appreciate our friends and family for the many ways you support us. In one remake of The Christmas Carol, a scene has Scrooge sitting at his desk giggling. He says: "I don't deserve to be so happy...I just can't help myself." I'd like
to add my ditto to Ebenezer's statement. I think Dicken's made an appropriate choice of Scrooge's given name, "Hitherto the Lord has helped us." Make that a double ditto.

Love, Chris , Yuko, and Caleb Yuta