Slade Family
Prayer LetterDecember 15th 2009Dear Friends and family Greetings from the Slade household in Bolton, Ontario, Canada to yours. It's been a busy and eventful year with us both in our family and ministry. As we ended last year Gwen was just coming out of surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid. We are happy to report that all exams done in the last 3 months show that the cancer is gone. Because of the nature of the thyroid she has to be monitored annually but we are trusting the Lord for complete healing. Daniel our 24 yr. old son graduated from Tyndale University here in Toronto and is now active on the leadership team in a new church plant in Sarnia , Ontario . Hannah , now 22, spent the first 6 months of 2009 in Australia getting a tan and looking for a job. She was more successful in the former so had to come back in July a bit disappointed. I think she's glad now however and she has found a "special friend" who works at our church here in Toronto . We'll see how this goes!!!! This year she also completed her diploma from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition so is constantly giving her enlightening comments on our meals at supper time (which we actually appreciate). Rees (21) is in second year of an International Business Degree Program at Humber College in Toronto . He works as security at our church and is also in process of registering his own home renovation business. He is planning on going to Zimbabwe for 2 weeks in January with Darren Clark to work on home water filtration systems for areas lacking clean water and leading soccer camps for youth with the goal of evangelism. Shekanah (18) is finishing up high school courses and is looking forward to the next season in her life. She is growing in proficiency in piano and flute and is looking to be a teacher in her future. Oksana (15) is constantly reminding us that next year she can get her learners drivers permit. (Lord, have mercy). She is full of fun and optimism and is teaching jr. high at kids. She also plays keyboard in the worship band. Our hearts are continually burdened for Ukraine and the people of Eastern Europe . As Gwen and I were in England 24 hours before we were supposed to go to Ukraine in November we found out that the pastors/leaders conference which we were supposed to be leading was cancelled because of the H1N1 flu. The government had shut down schools for 3 weeks, banned large public gatherings and had urged limited travel within the country. The Swine flu has hit Ukraine especially hard. It appears now that the government was simply not ready for the epidemic. Already 500 people have died and they are estimating that 1 million have been infected in one way or the other. Gwen and I went anyway and had 3 days of planning and strategy meetings with our Ukrainian leadership team of 5 couples and spoke at the 3rd anniversary of one of our smaller churches in a small town outside of Kiev . The joy and hunger for the things of God was evident in the hall as about 70 people packed in together. I just prayed for blessing and protection from any germs as we all were stuck in like sardines. Thank the Lord that was 2 weeks ago and Gwen and I feel fine so nothing "got on us". We're thankful for the protection of the Lord during that trip. Please pray for the political stablity of the country. There will be new presidential elections in January with the 2 frontrunners a Russian leaning candidate and one Western leaning candidate. These are difficult times of course for many believers there as the recession has affected the job climate severely. In many of our smallere towns where our churches are the wages have gone back to $100 to $150 a month. Any kind of job is highly valued and almost fought for. So please pray that our people in our churches would have good job opportunities in a difficult economy. One of the projects we finished this year is our 15 lesson teaching series of 30 minutes each from TACF on the School of the Champions. We have put this onto DVD format, interpreted it into Russian and are using it as a tool to get into especially harder to reach smaller towns. It is great for home groups and training up leaders. Some of the topics include: The Word of God The Power of the Cross Repentance and a clean conscience God's View of Sex The Importance of Forgiveness. There have been many personal challenges for us spiritually in our ministry this year. There have been both breakthroughs and more intense degrees of spiritual warfare when we've felt darkness like we've never felt before. But we're still standing and looking to advance. Thanks for your prayers and support to keep us going. To Blessings, Dan & Gwen Slade & family 905-533-0132 Dan's cell 416 688 2130 Please send gifts to : US Support
Please make checks out to "The Tabernacle" and add a note "For the Slades in Ukraine". Canadian Support
Please make checks out to "Freedom Centre" and add a note "For the Slades in Ukraine ". European support
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